The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-21
NEEDS OF THE NAVY
ADMIRAL BOWLES, OF BUREAU OF
CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR,
MAKES SUGGESTIONS
PRESENT SYSTEM IS FAULTY
Dry Docks at Havana and Manila
Urgently Recommended = Num-
ber of Naval Contractors
Should he Increased.


WASHINGTON, Oct 2O.-The annual
report of Admiral Bowles, chief of the
bureau of construction and repair, calls
attention to the slow progress i'll con-
struction of ships now building for the
navy made during the past year, owing
to strikes and delays in the deliveries of
materials and steel forgings. He points
out that under the present system for the
purchase of armor, the responsibility for
delays emanating from source rests with
the government and renders it liable to
suit for damages by the ship contractors
The construction bureau, he says, has
made considerable progress towards the
standardization of ship fittings, which he
says, will reduce the original cost of
ships of toe navy and decrease the ex-
penSeS of their maintenance. He touches
upon the tests of fre-proofed wood con-
Quoted by his bureau, and says that
while the products of the two processes
submitted both have desirable qualities,
yet neither of them commends itself to
adoption by the navy.
admiral Bowles strongly recommends
that the floating dry dock at Havana, re-
Gently purchased from the Spanish gov
ernment, be sent to the site of the new
naval station at Olongapo Philippine
islands, as soon as the repairs on it are
comsleted. It is essential, he says, for
the efficiency of the navy on the Asiatic
station, both from a strategical and eco
nomic stahdpoint, that the government
should be in possession of dry dock in
the Philippines at the earliest possible
moment. He says that the dock Just
purchased can be put in condition for the
use of vessels up to 10000 tons displace-
ment within the limit of the sum appro-
prated by congress for its requirement
Admiral Bowles earnestly recommends
an increase in the number of naval con-
structors, which is now limited by law to
forty. This number, he says, is entirely
inadequate to the present needs of the
service, and he urges that the limit of the
corps be increased by congress to sixty.
He says that the efficiency of the navy
yards plants throughout the country is
seriously limited by the number of dry
docks and modern buildings for the
equipment of the yards. The navy yards,
however, continue to present fruitful
! field for the application of modern engi-
neering to their mechanical equipment
as well as modern methods of organiza-
ton to the scheme of administration,
which, if properly applied, should result
in greater efficiency in the conduct of
work and greater economy in the general
expense which is now of their proportion
to the work done.
Admiral Bow1es says that the construc-
ton bureau has been tested to it's utmost
capacity by the work of designing new
vessels and supervising vessels now build
ing, and that these conditions have been
aggravated by lack of space in the
navy department building available for
iSthe technical and clerical staff of the
bureau. He records lack of draughts-
men requisite for The designs, and ex-
presses desire for the appointment of
more graduates of technical education.
He recommends class for carpenters as
an adjunct to the naval college. The num-
Der of carpenters now obtainable, Admir-
al Bowles says, is hardly sufficient for the
use of the ships, and the number on shore
duty is totally inadequate to needs He
expresses wish that as soon as circum-
stances will permit a school for the edu-
cation of carpenters mates be estab-
lished