The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-07-12
CANADA'S INFANT NAVY
CONSISTS or FOURTEEN VESSELS
MANNED BY 900 BLUEJAcKETs.

AhftatenimHly That hmuWglerH Take /
Good Care 10 Avoid Them-Aiso Looks /
After the Fishing Interests.
The fame Of the Northwestern |
Mounted Police Of Canada has attract |
cd considerable attention to q plctur-
esque arm of our northern neighbours |
war department, and since the South |
African war the Canadian regulars
and volunteers have been accepted by
the world as fighters and strategists
equal to any turned out of the MILL
tary schools OF Europe. But Of Cana
da's infant navy little has been heard;
due, probably, to the fact that the OPP
portunity for distinguishing Itself has
not yet occurred. Yet In q way the
bluejackets Of Canada are performing
work that trains them for duty on a
larger scale fully as arduous and diff
cult as that which falls to the lot Of
the Mounted Policemen.
The navy consists of no battleships
or armored cruisers, but of fourteen
vessels with a total number of blue
jackets and officers to man them Of
less than 400. Most of these war YES
sells would be classed with our mos
quito fleet which the war with Spain
created, and some would hardly be
worthy of such high classification
There are at least two schooner sail
crafts in the feet which have no ether
power of propulsion than that fur
nished by wind and sails. Yet the
Kingfsher and Osprey are fine models
Of their class, and armed with their
small calibre guns they cruise up and
down the coast so threateningly that
smugglers take good care to avoid
them. More than one heroic feat has
been performed by these two relics of
an age when warships were all sailing
craft.
The two fagships of the navy are
good sized gunbOats, named respective
ly the Acadia and La Canadienne
These ships are seaworthy boats, and
make good time when in pursuit of
the enemy. The Constance, the Cur
lew and the Petrol are also effective
little gunbOats, which chase up and
down the coast, keeping unlawful
crafts from plying their nefarious bust
ness with the colony.
A good deal of the work Of Canada's
navy is devoted to the prevention OF
piracy and smuggling. Smuggling is
more common along the Canadian bor-
der than elsewhere on this continent,
1 and there are plenty of queer looking
crafts engaged in smuggling goods
into Canada without taking the trou-
bic to pay duties. These smugglers
are shrewd and desperate men, and
they resort to tricks and evasions that
deceive the ordinary officers. Their
methods are all conducted in the dark,
and along lonely parts of the coast.
On dark nights they smuggle kegs of
liquor from the French island of ST.
Pierre to the Canadian coast, and one
good ship load landed will pay for all
the danger and anxiety run. Fortunes
have been made in a few years in this
way and the temptation is so great
that many engage in it, and great are
the resources Of the smugglers.
Against these desperate men, who do
not hesitate at murder if necessary for
the maturing Of their plans, the little
navy directs a good deal of it's atten-
tion. Some of the smugglerS carry
arms with them, and several times
they have boldly resisted arrest. But
not once in these encounters has the
navy been defeated. There is a good
deal of smuggling on the sea, as well
as on the land, between Canada and
the United States, and Canada's blue
jackets have their hands full both on
the sea and the lake coasts in keeping
down this unlawful trade.
Another important duty Of the navy
is to look after the fishing interests of
\ the country. Regulations have been
made by the Canadian Government to
preserve the great fishing interests
along her coast and to enforce these
laws both for native and American
fishermen the little navy its hands full
Foreign vessels persist in approaching
nearer than the regulation three-mile
limit, and the Canadian gunboats and
cruisers have to warn and signal to
them repeatedly. The same gunboats
have to look out for the buoys, bea-
cons, lightships and lighthouses along
the coast. This lighthouse work is
\ generally monotonous, but sometimes
it is full Of danger and picturesque
ness. The stanch little gunboats have
to weather the feroest weather and
seas imaginable, to reach some Of the
outer beacon lights. So rough barrier