The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-20
More OFFICIAL Ignorance.

More official Ignorance.
The last number of the Army and
Navy Register contains the following:
''The machinery experts of the navy
department are busily engaged on specif-
cations for about 100000 worth OF ma
chinery. Part of this, 1926, 900 in extent, is
intended for the naval dock yard at pre-
merton. on Puget Sound. That plant is
entirely without tools or mechanical
equipment OF any sort, lacking even In
shelter for the workmen. Tools and ma
terial must be carried from Mare Island
navy yard to Puget sound whenever q
ship Is to be repaired. This win furnish
the subject Of an estimate to congress at
an early day. Another of the difficulties
OF carrying on work at Bremerton Is in
the short hourss Of the work day In
winter. 1t is so far north that the men
are not able to work much more than
hve hours of the twenty-four, and this
seriously delays the completion of any
naval Job"
The first part of this paragraph con-
tains Information very gratifying to the
residents on Puget sound, but that feel
ing is somewhat weakened by the clos-
ing sentence.
It should be remembered that the
Army and Navy Register is a quasi
official paper: that the information
which it gives to the public comes. as a
rule. at first hand from bureau officials
IN Washington. The complacent ignor-
ance displayed by this story would be
amusing were 1t not for the fact that It
has been duplicated In nearly every
official reference to the best dry dock
owned by the United States, and the
only one in which 1t is absolutely safe
today to dock and repair a first -class
battleship.
From the ailusion to the location of
the Bremerton dry dock in the far
North. stranger to the geography Of
Puget sound would imagine that this Is
q hyperborean region nearly within the
Arctic circle. As matter OF fact. the
latitude Of Seattle. almost identical
with that of Bremerton, Is AZ degrees
IS minutes A seconds, nearly two hum
dred miles further south than Lands
End. the southern extremity of Great
Britain. over five hundred miles further
south than the great shipyards of the
Clyde. far to the southwark Of Liver
pool Glasgow, Danzig. Kiel Hamburg
Berlin, Munich. The Hague. Brussels.
Paris. Boulogne. Havre, Cherbourg or
Brest. 1t is but $50 miles further north
than the famous winter resorts on the
Mediterranean in the neIghborhood Of
Nice, and hardly 100 miles to the north.
ward of Venice. The capitals of every
European country save Portugal, Spain.
Italy. Greece and Turkey are located in
higher ATTITUDES than Seattle. There is
not harbor on the Atlantic coast of
Europe in Great Britain, Norway, swe-
den, Russia, Denmark, Germany. Hol-
land or Belgium or for more than half
OF the Atlantic coast line of France
which does not lie in higher latitude
than Bremerton, and have shorter win
Ter days. The great ship building
plants of the world. outside of the
United states. are, as practically uni
form rule. located to the north of Bre-
merton. and in not one Of them on
either continent. are the climatic condi-
tions as favorable to outdoor work In
winter time as they are at the Puget
Sound naval station.
During the present winter there has
not been single day, 1.-THE country Dor
dering on Puget sound. in which out
door labor was suspended on account OF
the weather. Building operations to an
extent never before known at any sea-
son OF the year. save Immediately after
the great fire. have gone on uninterrupt-
eddy. and are still going on: the men
employed working many hours longer
than they could have done under the
law In government employ. Not the
first thin skin Of ice has coated the gut
tiers or ponds. Not fleck OF snow has
whitened the ground. Grass has grown
green on all the lawns. and roses have