The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-11-25
On BOARD
THE LENA
A Fine Passenger YES
sci and Fully
Armed.

"Trim as cruiser does not ex-
press it when applied to the Russian
auxiliary Lena now in port. She is bet
ter described as floating palace of the
passenger type. Lying at Navy Dock
No. /, taking on coal and more or less
covered with dust from the Cardiff
coal, she is nevertheless well protected
from dirt wherever it is possible to
stretch tarpaulin or shut door.
A reporter of the Advertiser was
wandering around the wharf when he
met DR.. Vladimir Zabotkin, the ship s
surgeon, and inquired if he could see
the captain. He was referred to the
onet fixed was standing at the
gangway, but another officer ap-
peared and promptly sent for the Off
Ger Of the deck, Lieutenant Averkieff.
The Lieutenant invited the Advertiser
man onto the main deck and in reply to
question as to whether the captain
could be seen, replied that Captain Gin
ther was taking bath, but his brother
in-law, Joseph Lugebil, was at leisure.
Mr.. Lugebil looks the American that he
is. Seen on shore, one would scarce
distinguish him from any other Amer1-
can, notwithstanding his pure Russian
origin.
Both the officer of the day and Mr..
Lugebil at once started in to make the
newspaper man feel at home and with
apologies as to the dirty appearance of
the vessel on account of coaling, took
him over every part of the ship that
was either not too dirty or inaccessible
on account of tarpaulin projections
from the CRIME.
1t seems that the vessel was built in
England by r. & w. Hawthorne, Leslie
& Co., Limited. shipbuilders and engi-
neers, at Newcastle on Tyne, in 1895,
and put into the passenger service be-
tween Odessa and Vladivostok, making
the trip in about forty days each way,
running occasionally to Japan also.
Her name as passenger steamer was
subsidized volunteer fleet.
In October. 1908, she was purchased
by the Russian government for approx
matelv 3,000,O 900 rubles, or, roughly
speaking, $I,500.000 She was taken
to Vladivostok and it was intended to
refit her for naval service, but the war
came on too soon and she went, prac-
ticallv. as she had been in the mer-
IL.
vice. where she was used to carry sup
plies to torpedo boats and cruisers.
She carries about six thousand tons of
freight beside her coal, when she is full
laden. Mr.. Lugebil remarked that she
was one of the finest steamers he had
ever travelled on when she was loaded,
but that standing as high as she does
out of the water she is rather danger
GUS
Among the changes which it was in
tended to make in her before war
broke out was alterations in her boil
ers. Lieutenant Averkief explained
that her boilers could not explode. but
that her boiler tubes are old and weak
and easily burst. She was built for a
12-knot boat and that was sufficient for
passenger business. but as an auxiliary
cruiser she was expected to make six
teen to seventeen knots. This was too
much of strain on her boiler tubes
and it will be remembered that when
she arrived in San Francisco her boil
ers were reported out of condition then.
On her passenger run, the Lena was
not out more than nine days at a time
between any ports and there was op-
portunity to clean her boilers for the
next section of the run. This was one
of the reasons why the vessel preferred
to come to Honolulu instead of pro-
ceeding TO Vladivostok.
The officer of the deck showed the
ships guns, of which she has twenty
three eight A millemetres, twelve 75
and three 12O millemetres.
The Lena has four steel iifeboats that
are made of a single piece and fitted
with air compartments so that they
can hardly be overloaded. Each of these
boats is said to have cost $4,000 to $4,000
The smoking rom was opened and dis
closed a spacious apartment whose
walls are of marble with marble mo-
sale floor and heavy leather unholstery. |
There are also several small lifeboats. |
which look very low, but which, by |
means of their canvas covers, can be |
made to keep out the water fully |
twice the height of the boat. The can |
vas comes up and is fitted to stanchions |
making sort of an umbrella. The |
Lena's engines are double, as are her |
screws Each of her holds is fitted So |
that by bulkheads the water which |
might enter one part would not pene- |
trate to another. She can carry about |
two hundred first-class passengers, her |
saloon accommodating over 100 persons F.!
at once.
Lieutenant Averkieff frequently apol- |
ogized for the appearance of the snip |
and said that as soon as she was !
+b,,o,,ol, cco7foo ard cleaned NJ sha .