The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-28
PRAISE FOR PILLSBURY.
HIGGINSON'S REPORT ON THE
 SEARCH PROBLEM.

Outside Scouts and the Arrival on the
 COast Undetected a Creditable PoT-
 formance Valuable Information
 Gathered as the Result of the Opera-
 tiOn.
 Washington, Aug. 27.-The navy de- partment made pubic to-day Rear Ad- miral Higginson's official report upon the search problem which was con- ducted by the blue fleet, under his own command, and the white squadron, un- der Commander Pillsbury, off the New England coast. The admirals report Is as follows:
 U. s. Flagship Kearsarge. MeTlemsha Eight, Mass, Aug. 25, 1902.
 sir: have the honor to report that at $40 a. m. of the 24th instant, off Magnolia, Mass, the blue fleet, under my command, captured the white fleet, under the command of Commander John E. Pillsbury, U. s. N, after four days of anxious watching. Commander Pillsbury's feet was deficient in speed. His evasion of the outside scouts and arrival on the coast undetected was, I think very creditable to him.
 ''The result of the operation, in re- gard to my own force, was to gather very valuable information for the intel ligence office concerning the capabilities of defence and means of communica- tion along the stretch of New England coast from Cape Cod to Portland. This information is valuable and should be preserved for future use. I directed the observers at the different stations to answer the questions on the enclosed list in regard to the point at which they were stationed.
 'The line of coast over which I had charge was divided into five districts, each in charge of an officer provided with scouting vessels and a number of observers at shore stations. These dis tricts all reported by telephone or tele- graph or by whatever means of com munication they could establish with the central district at Rockport, where Ensign Berry, U. s. N, was in charge of the central office and transmitted to me by means of steam launches, torpe- do boats, and signals from shore, what ever information was received.
 'The reports of the district com manders and observers will be for warded to the department for it's infor- nation.
 ''I can only say that the operations have been very beneficial in training the young men in scouting and as ob- servers. I have already written to the department about the valuable service rendered by the torpedo boat f1otilla un- der the command of Lieutenant Charid- Ter.
 q take this occasion, however, to urge upon the department the es- tablishment upon all vessels Of the navy a wireless telegraphy outfit. In my opinion it is of incalculable value and no expense should be spared to hasten its adoption,
 ''The squadron has been withdrawn to Menemsha Eight, preparatory to the combined army and navy maneuvres. Very respectfully. Francis J. Higginson,
 Rear admiral, commander-in-c -chief U. S. Naval force of North Atlantic station.
 'The secretary of the navy, Navy Department, Washington, D. C." The following is the special order re- ferred to in Admiral Higginson's re- port, which has been issued to- the ob- servers who were at various stations along the coast:
 "The commanding officer of the scouting districts and all observers will make reports on the search problem as far as their special duties extended. In making up their reports they will an- swer the following questions as far as they pertain to the duty they were en- ployed upon: '1-What means of communication did you use or establish? "2-What other means would you suggest (outside of wireless telegra- phy)? ,%
 '3-What difficulties did you encoun- ter in keeping up the communications or of reporting to stations? "4-Could you reach all places by tel ephone, and what centers did you have to go through?
 "5-What stations did you establish, and were they efficient? "6-What other stations would you establish now after the experiences of this problem?
 "7-What accommodations were found | for lodging and subsistence?
 "S-What should be the outfit of sta tions to suit the conditions you found?" -------------------