The San Francisco call., 1901-12-23
OLD MONITORS
OUTLINE THEIR
USEFULNESS

/ Three old mOnitOrS-CaJsAll' MahOpac
| and Manhattan-are to be SOD Ihey were
/ built in 1s6S-64 and have long PuthVed their
/ usefulness. as their general construction,
/ engines. guns and armOr are obsolete. The
/ CatskiU and Manhattan participated in
/ several commandments and engagements,
/ and carry the scars from confederate
Brook and Armstrong prOJeetiles in
/ which, however, the MOntauk another
| monitor. has the distinction OF having
! been hit forty-six times. The Catskin had
| its captain, G. w. Rodgers, and assistant
/ paymaster, Woodbury., killed in the Sec
/ Ond attack on Fort Fisher, August II,
/ 1861 The MahOpac was completed too
/ late to render any service. Since the close
3 Of the Civil War all the monitors have
! been almost constantly tied up at the ma
! Wy yards, a source of expense in the mat
| ter of repairs and care-taking, but no Sc
\ riOus attempt was made to preserve their
\ usefulness until the recent war with
\ Spain New boilers were put in the Ma
| hopac and Manhattan, the cost OF which,
\ with OverhaUling of the old trip-hammer
/ engines, aggregated over $210 900. 1t wasI
/ a sheer waste of money, as the speed of
/ these vessels does not exceed six knots,
/ and their guns and armOr are forty years
/ behind the times. They will now be sold
/ for the value of the material less the cost
\ of breaking up, on which the Navy De-
| partment may realize One-tenth OF the
money expended since 1898 unless the boil
| ers are taken out and utilized in other
] vessels or shops in navy yards.
| improvements have been made in the
French submarine boat EspadOn, Of the
/ NarvaI type, by which she can be i'm
mersed and raised with Dispatch Recent
/ trials have taken place at which the boat
reached a depth of tWenty-six feet in less
/ than eight minutes and came to the sur
face in eight seconds.
/ The Lansquenet, a seagOing torpedo
/ boat in the French navy, is to be sold for
/ the price Of old metal, after brief exist
/ ence of eight years. She was built in
/ 1893 is Of I}S tons displacement and at
| tanned a speed of 26 knots with 900 horse
/ power. The boat has been laid up for a
[ long time owing to inherent defects in
machinery, and there are a number of
/ others in the same fix.
|
/ One hundred and thirteen torpedo-boat
| destroyers have been built and completed
/ for the British navy since 1893. They were .
built by fourteen firms. of which Laird ;
I Brothers constructed 49, Thornycroft and
/ Palmer each 16, Thomson r. Hawthorn
i and Fairfield 9 each, Barrow 8, Doxford 6,
Yarrow g. Earle 4. Elswick and White
/ each, Hanna 2 and Thames Iron Works L
Two Of the above boats built by Elswick,
namely, the Viper and Cobra, have been
lost. The most successful builders appear
/ to have been Laird, ThornycrOft, YarrOw
/ and Palmer. which have built a number
of destroyers for foreign navies with uni
| fornly good results.
/ The Bachante, a 12,000-tOn armored
I cruiser, built at Glasgow for the British
/ navy, is at this time making her steam
trials, which consist Of the following Sc
ries: Eight hours preliminary trial;
thirty hours coal consumption trial under
one-ffth power: thirty hours coal con-
sumption under four-fifths power, and
closing with eight hours under full power
The guaranteed speed is twenty-One knots
with LOCO horsepower for eight hours
The keel Of the Bachante was laid Febru-
ary Is, 1899 and she is intended to be COM
pleted next spring, making the period OF
construction about three years.
Torpedo boat No. 1OS built by ThOrny-
croft for the British navy. had her steam
trials November % and averaged 25446
knots during three hours with 27S3 horse
power. The boat is of $50 tons displace-
ment, contract speed 25 knots, and will
cost complete with armament SIP 900.
Somewhat similar boats in the United
States navy are the Rowan Of 1S2 tons and
HO74 knots speed. built at Seattle two
years ago at a completed cost of 1885,
SIS 03, and the Nicholson and O'Brien Of
ia tons and 26 knots. The two latter were
built by Lewis Nixon at E1izabethport. N
j., at a contract price Of $165,OO each, and
were recently accepted by the Navy De-
partment
The recent discovery Of frauds at Sc
bastOpOl were made in a curious way. A
contractor had agreed to furnish coal to
the Black Sea fleet at 81 25 per ton, and in
the hope that the price would fall he al
lowed several months to pass without de-
~nrfU 1rf Of
continued to rise and he applied to Rear
Admiral TheOdOsieff of the station for
cancellation of contract and return of his
deposit, which were refused. Finding
himself in a tight place, he determined to
betray the officials who with him had de-
frauded the Government in previous con-
tracts In a letter to Theodosieff he ex-
planned prior methods and named. among
others Staff Captain CfaviIof and the
secretary Of the Naval Supplies Depart
ment at BatOUn, whom he had bribed. He
then fled the country. The accused Off
GERS were tried, convicted and sentenced
to Punishment, imprisonment and forfeit
ure of all property and personal and civil
rights
The first contract for war vessels given
to private builders in Japan was signed
last month, when the Kawasak1 Companv
at Kobe agreed to build two frst-class
tOrpedO-DOatS IOr the japanese navy. The
price is about $29O,O0O equal to that paid
for similar boats in England and Ger
many, but with this advantage-thsLt the
money is circulated where it is raised.
home industry is developed and a costly
and hazardous voyage of 1900 miles is
made unnecessary for delivery Of the YES
sells.
For the first time in the naval history
of Italy has that country turned out all
the machinery necessary for a war vessel
of Italian material and manufacture. The
credit for this achievement is due to An
saldo, Genoa, where the Turkish armOred
ship Messoudich has been reiuvenated. re-
ceiving new machinery, boilers and arma-
ment.