The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-04-21

fhad a momentary vision of his coal sup
plies fading from sight About 1900
tons of coal were bought recently from
the Inter-Island Company by 7. H.
Davies & Co. for the British ships. AS
1900 tons had been ordered from Mana
! limo to arrive in the Gerard G. Tobey,
both orders were deemed sufficient for
all demands. The Tobey, however, has
not been able to load in the coal owing
to the strike in Canada, and the U. s.
Navy Department was called upon to
fill out Captain Rodman has COM
municated with washington and doubt
less the request will be complied with
at once.
The cruiser will begin taking in coal
today and will be busy in this way for
about three days. The officers hope
that by Thursday this work will be
completed so that the usual Thursday
relief from hard work will be- ordered,
and give all an opportunity to enjoy
sports ashore. A cricket match is be-
ing arranged for Thursday. afternoon
on the Makiki grounds. As yet the
captain has no plans for a public in
'spection day. but Sunday wflr undoubt-
eddy be given over to the Honolulu pub
lie to go aboard.
The Amphitrite is a peculiar ship in
many respects. She is known by her
officers as commerce protector as
well as a commerce destroyer. She can
hit a 21-knot gait at which time all
four of her tunnels pour out black
smoke in dense cloud. Her armament |
does not include any guns above six
inch measurement, but she is not built |
to engage in mortal combat with cruis-
ers of her class which generally carry |
heavier metal Her duty is to strike at |
a nations commerce and to speed away /
from danger as quickly as possible. She
in naval construction and
certainly is fair average type of the
British war vessel, but has not the
spick and span appearance, nor the
trimness of some British warships.
There is an appearance about the Am
phitrite which suggests that She has /
been thrown together haphazardly.
She is a mass of protuberances, and
has so many lines. blocks, railing,
guards, booms and projecting upper
works that it puzzles one and the won
der is why there are SO many. But as
there are seven hundred jacSies aboard,
the devices can all be handled no doubt.
The cruisers after-mast is equipped
with a wireless telegraph pole, and in
fact all the late British waKshfps are
equipped with wireless apparatus So
TAR the vessel has not opened up the APP
paratus to work, but the officers are
certain that if they did the local sys-
tenn of wireless telegraph could easily
be interrupted. For perfect Interrupt
ion and reception of messages from the
local system to that on the warshio,
both systems would have to be attuned
to each other. However, the coherers
on the two systems are different, those
used on the island system being man
nfactured by Manager Cross. On the
bridge are semaphores and every kind
IF signal apparatus is used. The vessel
also carries torpedo MEETINGS.
The Amphitrite has a number Of field
guns on her upper decks, which are
used for landing parties. They are
pieces and the caissons are
strongly built.
Yesterday the jackiessholystoned the
decks preparatory to coaling. patched
up several places on the bow where the
copper sheeting had been ripped OFF by
the anchor, and applied coatings of
preventative paint TO a number of
places where It was badly needed. An
order was issued prohibiting any man
working in the sun from laying aside
MS hat or cap. The officers viii take no
on sun-stroke.