The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-06
TEAGUE VISITS
 PANAMA NAVY
Free and Easy Way| of the Fight erC of the ISthmian
 Republic.
Republic.

then, when We want to go ashore in the afternoon, tell Us to be back before sun down because he doesn't want to stay cooped up on a ship all his life, and means to take little shore leave himself after
 sundown.'
 The spirit of the whole Panamaian navy appears in these incidents and conversa- tions. The officers are on too intimate terms of friendship to permit them,
 through any of the grades. to enforce rigid regula tions, or to exact those oI- ficial courtesies common on the warships of other nations. The navy itself Is quite
 wondrous affair, and thoroughly in
 keeping with the free and easy manner
 characteristic of the commissioned and
 enlisted personnel.
 This navy consists of three ships-the
 Tres Noviembre Ohagship), Medelin and
 Chuquito. The last is called a torpedo
 boat. In any other harbor of the world
 she would rank as a tug, medium.sized and generously supplied with deckhous s and awnings. She can do something like
 F knots an hour and holds the speed
 record of the Panamaian navy. Of ar mour she has none, and her torpedo equip
 ment Is still dream of the future; nor
 has she gun platforms for armament of
 the other classes.
 The Chuquito and the Medelin. The Chuquito is commanded by Colonel | Arosemena-all the titles in this navy are borrowed from the military branch-and
 when used at all it is for little excursions up and down the coast in the vicinity of
 Panama. She passed the flagship shortly after went aboard that vessel the other
 day ladened to the gunwales with a gay crowd of eXcursionists bound for Taboga Island. Her passing was without incl | dent, except that she scurried by at top | speed. the presence of the admiral aboard the flagship being no reason why she should dip her colors to otherwise note l his existence.
 The Medelin is a former fruiter. She
 was found somewhere up the west coast of General America and purchased for a
 small sum from one of those diminutive re publics, in whose navy she Ras clas ed
 as the crack ship. She was brought down
 to Panama in tow. her machinery being disabled by an accident. To this day the damage has not been repaired, and the Medelin swings the length of anchor
 chains with each tide. Farther than that
 she may never go Her black hull floats
 high out of the water. disclosing to view
 one blade of her propeller and a goodiy
 part of the rudder. In the technique of
 this very remarkable navy the Medeln ranks as a troop ship or transport. Just
 now she Is very busily engaged in per-
 forming the arduous duties of a quaran-
 tine boat in a port where quarantine reg
 ulattons are not enforced.
 The Tres Noviembre.
 Of the flagship Tres Noviembre there IS something better to be said. Just how ] this ship came into possession of COlom- 1 bia nobody now in authority in the navy
 seems to know. She was purchased sev-
 eral years ago from one of the Central American republics and has been in ac- | tive service ever since. Panama got her | by paying bonus of $25, 900 (silver) to Gen. Ruban Varon.. her last commander
 under the Colombian regime. and other | substantial bonuses to her other officers. Incidentally. it may be remarked that | Gen. Ruban Varon is no longer in active | naval service. He did the work the seces- sionists paid him to do. and did 1t faith 1 fully-ali except that of preventing the es
 cape of the gunboat Bogota--but this bo-
 nused commander is not entirely trusted
 by those now in control. He Is, therefore,
 spending his tune ashore. having been promoted CD to the post of first adjutant
 to the Minister of War and Marine, po- Sition in which he hasTan opportunity to