The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-12-19
AOVICES BY
BONAP ARTE
Tells the Truth About
Present Frigate Con.
stitution,

| WASHINGTON, Dec 5-Charles J.
Bonaparte, secretary of the navy, in
his annual report to the President
made public today, says:
| I think the efficiency of the navy
would be promoted and it's great ex-
pansIon, both in size and in sphere of
action, rather inadequately recognized
| by the creation Of two vice admirals, of
whom the senior would under ordi-
nary circumstances, command the At
lantc fleet and the junior the fleet
maintained in Asiatic waters The
rank OF these officers would correspond
10 tnat of officers holding commands
| OF the same or less Importance in for
elgn navies, and is fully justified by
the magnitude of the interests to be in
trusted to their care. If this sugges-
ton be accepted, 1 would further rec
ommend that the number of rear-ad-
mlrals be reduced by two, so that the
additional expense (inconsiderable at
mosD would become altogether trifiing
In the estimates submitted by the
bureau of navigation there will be
found provision for an addition of 5000
men to the enlisted personnel of the
navy. This is Indispensable to provide
proper compliments for the ships
which will be in commission. so far as
can now be foreseen, during the fiscal
year 1867.
4 recommend that the congress
make any refusal on the part of the
proprietor of a theater or other place
OF amusement, an innkeeper, or a COM
mon carrier, to furnish accommodation
to an orderly and wel1-behaved person
in the naval service, able and willing
to pay for such accommodation, an Of
Tense against the United States, pun
ishable by fine and Imprisonment.
OLD FRIGATE CONSTITUTION
Erroneous or greatly exaggerated
reports as to the condition of the old
frigate Constitution now at the Boston
navy yard led recently to some popu-
lar agitation looking to the preserva-
ton of this ship asa national relic, and
also to much discussion as to the most
appropriate and becoming method of
perpetuating the memory of the naval
victories with which her name is assoc
ciated.
In dealing with this question it is
important to bear in mind that the yes
sci now at Charleston is not the vessel
with which Hull captured the Guer-
riere. Some portion of the materials
from that ship was undoubtedly used
in building the new one, to which her
name was subsequently given, but
probably only very small part of
these materials can be now identified
with any confidence, and, in any
event, it is quite certain that they con-
stituted only very small part of the
structure of the new ship. To exhibit
the Constitution, therefore, as the
genuine Old Ironsides, charging, as
has been proposed, a fee for permits
sion to inspect her, and using the
amount thus earned to bear the eX-
pense of her preservation, would not
only i'll accord with the dignity of the
government, but would amount to OBJ
tanning money under false pretenses.
THE further suggestion that she
should be rebuilt on her old lines with
new materials would involve a per-
fectly unjustifiable waste of public
since when completed, at cost
of certainly several hundred thousand
dollars, she would be absolutely use
less. Nevertheless, L think it would be
wise and becoming to commemorate in
some proper way the victories of the
old Constitution, and 1 suggest that
this be done in the same way in which
it was done when the frigate was re- T!
is to say, I suggest that so
much of the materials of the present
ship as can be shown to have belonged
to the original Constitution, and to be J
also Of some utility, or at least of no
detriment, on board a modern ship OF +
war, be transferred to a new vessel to .
be named the Constitution, and that
the remainder of the ship be broken
up.
IF, for purely sentimental reasons, |
it be thought that this supposed vet !
eran of our old wars is entitled to
warriors death she might be used as
a target for some of the ships in our
North Atlantic fleet and sunk by their
fire I think the new vessel ought to
be one outside of the regular estimate
for the increase of the navy, built, first
of all. to rerpetuate the memory of the (
but so constructed that
in all respects she will compare favor
ably with the finest vessels of her type
now afioat.
This type, it appears to me, ought !
to be that of an armored cruiser, since
the Constitution was not a ship of the |
line. but frfgate, and armored cruis- !
ers of the present day correspond in a |
general way to what frigates We're in |
her day. I suggest, therefore. that an !
cruiser on the general model /.
of the West Virginia and Colorado, but
larger and swifter. and with all the i'm
suggested by the latest
nhase of naval science, be authorized
fha CnnSTiT1I-
ton. and that she take the place OF
the present old frigate on our navy
register"