The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-05-04
TORPEDO BOATS
ARE ON VIEW

The British fleet was the Sunday
drawing card along the front. of course.
and though the fleet was decreased by
the departure of one of the ships there
was something doing every minute with
those that remained-and the sailing of
one of the cruisers was of itself an
event with which to begin a day of
sight seeing. II had been announced
that the Amphion would sail for Esqui-
malt at nine o'clock yesterday morning.
Those who were on the front as early
as that saw that she had her blue pc
ter up, and promptly at nine a string of
parti-coIored flags went fiuttering to
the foremast head. were dipped and
futtered up again, and then the big
gray monster began to turn where she
lay in naval row, very slowly.
1t. was trick to move her. in the linn
tied space that lay between her anchor
age and the nearest wharves. but it was
done and cleverly done, by the officers
of the Amphion. They acted. or the
ship acted, as though she had a regular
Slowly she swung past the Amphitrite,
dipping her flag to that cruiser and to
the Iroquois as she passed them, and
receiving a salute in return, while par
ties of ladies and gentlemen on the
wharves all along the front waved good
bye to friends on the ship. She headed
down the channel, gathering speed as
she went, and was going at a pretty
good clip, clip that would sink the
islands in a very few hours, when she
turned outside the entrance to the har
Dor and made for Molokai channel
In the meantime, the Britishers who
were left still had something to show
and the front loungers turned their at
tention to these after the others had
been hidden goodbye. Honolulu re-
GREETED the going of the Amphion, but
the Amphitrite and the torpedo boat de-
stroyers were left, and those miniature
war ships. he destroyers, have held a
kind of fascination for all the people of
the city ever since they have been in
port, even to the exclusion of the larger
vessels. They are so little, and so little
is really known about them. Yesterday
they were hauled up, side by side, to
the stone wall just beyond the dock of
the Iroquois, and all who cared about it
were given an opportunity to go on
board and inspect them. And many
cared about it. In fact, the little craft
were thronged until dark, almost. and
the jackies aboard most politely showed
visitors about and explained all things
on board to the curious. The Virago
and the Sparrowhawk are not in fight
ing trim, now. Their great torpedo
tubes, one forward and one aft, have
been taken off the vessels and shipped
ahead of them to the China station, to
be mounted when the little vessels
reach there.
"They made FER top eavy in a sea-
woiy," one of the jackies explained,
yesterday, land she his crank enough.
And won't she just roll US about a bit
going over, now, my word!'
But the little boats are as full of ma
as two watches, and the men
are slowed about on them anywhere,
just so they do not get in the way of
the guns and the wheels. But hit OMIT
so bad" said the jacky. ''She eh'only
carries sixty men, all told
No official announcement has as yet
been made of the time of sailing of the
of the fleet. The Amphitrite,
however, is to take on a lot more coal
before the vessels leave here for Yoko-
hama.