Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-19
Mosquito Fleet That is on Its Way to
Manila,
MADE UP OF FOUR SMALL BOATS
Will Cross the Atlantic and Through
the Suez Canal.
TO DO PATROL DU I Y
Written for The Evening Star.

h4ittSsi i'i ne tHllls HtaI
One of the most daring exploits in the
annals of steam navigation is now being
performed under the direction e tie Navy
Department. 1t is the voyasa Il the
called mosquito fleet from this country to
Manila. 1t has been announced heretofore
by the Navy Department that this voyage
was to be made and the safe arrival of the
tiny Gotilla at Bermuda and its departure
across the Atlantic was casually reported
in the naval movements last week. But
the chances are that those who saw the
line announcing that the Annapolis, the
Frolic, the Wampatuck and the Piscataqua
had continued their voyage to Manila did
not know whether the vessels in question
were battle ships or tugboats.
AS matter of fact two of them are tug
boats. but little larger than those COM
monty seen about the navy yard wbarves
here. while the other two members of the
squadron are not much larger, the FroliC
being a converted yacht intended originally
for pleasure cruising in home waters, and
the Annapolis little gunboat that could
almost be carried on board some of the
larger battle ships and cruisers of the
navy.
The object of sending these tiny vessels
so far from home is to reinforce the Ma
Mia squadron with some fast, light draft
boats. that can be used for patroling the
nterisland waters in the Philippines.
| There already are a number of small yes
sells of about the same class in the islands,
eighteen of them, an inheritance from the
Spanish regime, but they are not all in
commission for one reason or another, and
one of the best of them, it will be remem-
bered, the Inflated Urdanetta, was burned
to the waters edge by the insurgents when
Cadet Wood and all of her crew We're
either killed or captured.
For Patrol Duty.
Admiral Remey notified the department
! over a year ago that he would like to have
a fotilla of the highest draft gunboats and
big tugs sent him for the very same sort
of patrol duty that the present mosquito
fleet is going to perform. 1t was thought
at that time that the boats might be sent
him from the Pacific coast.
There were two projects at the time.
One was to send the little cockleShells
straight across from San Francisco by
way of Hawaii and Guam, under convoy
of n big battle ship or cruiser that could
carry coal enough for the whole fleet. But
the stretch of 900 miles from San Fran
cisco to Honolulu. and of $500 miles from
Honolulu to Guam, were thought too long
reaches to make even with stanch ocean
going tug. They were beyond the utmost
coal capacity of the little vessels even if
they carried an extra deck load of coal
in bags, as such boats sometimes do on
long cruise 1t would have been neces-
sary to coal the boats several times from
the bunkers of the cruiser in midocean.
and this, while possible, is not perform
ance to the liking of any seaman. Then
pan was mapped out TO send the little
boats around the upper edge of the Pacific,
Skirting Alaska, across to kamchatka by
way of the Aleutan Islands, and thence
down the length of Japan, whence short
cut could be made across to Manila. But
it was about this time that there happened
a series of severe typhoOnS that showed
what the Pacific could really do when it
got on a rampage. Several transports were
Il oil civ
for lost The Navy Department decided
that the Pacific was bad medicine for
small tugboats and took another think
on the subject of reinforcing the interis-
land patrol fleet.
By Way of Sucz.
During the early fall the urgent calls for
the small vessels We're renewed, and the
department finally decided to send them by
the Suez route. While this man be consid
cred much safer in every way than the
transpacifc trip, still it is an unheard-of
performance for a little fleet of this size.
The longest stretch of the whole distance
is across the Atlantic. Even this is con-
siderably reduced by taking advantage of
the Bermudas. lying about 600 miles south
east OF Norfolk, and then cutting straight
across to Madeira. off the African coast.
Even by this route there is a single jump of
2,412 miles from land to land. This is far
Their than the Wampatuck and the Piscata-
qua can run on a single filling of their
bGnkers, their radius of action being less
than 1000 miles under favorable circum-
stances. It probably will be necessary to
coal them in midoccan from the Annapo-
lis. The Navy Department has special de-
vice for use in emergencies of this sort. 1t
is an overhead rope railway, along which
bags Of coal can be run from one vessel TO
another 1t has been tried on the MaSSa-
chusetts and other vessels of the North At
lantic squadron and found to work admira-
bly so if occasion arise there will be no
4 in, fran STE
the bunkers of the Annapolis to those of the
Wampatuck and the Piscataqua to help
them out over this the longest leg of the
run.
With Many Stops.
From Madeira it IS but a short stretch
up to the entrance of the Mediterranean,
and thence with a single stop at Malta 1t
will be easy to make the run down the
length of the great inland sea to Port
Said at the mouth of the Suez canal Once
through the Red sea there comes another
long stretch of 3, 1870 miles from Alden to
Colombo, which the little boats can hardly
make without again coaling at sea. But
after rounding Ceylon the t1otilla will be
in the island region and here the runs be-
tween PORTS are comparatively short. One
reach of go miles will take them to
Penang on the Malay peninsula and 800
more around the point of the peninsula to
Singapore. Then there are number OF
places on the Chinese coast where stops
can be made If desired, but it is more
likely that the fiotilla will run direct from
Singapore to Manila. a distance of 1856
miles.
1t will be seen that this means a total
run according to the photographic office
charts, of 1886 miles. just about twice
far as though the vessels had gone the
Pacific route. But 1t gives them at least
ten coaling ports on the way against two
on the run from San Francisco to Manila.
Length Of the Voyage.
All the little feet are remarkably fast
vessels for their size. The slowest is the