The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1905-05-23
ICANADA'S INFANT NAVY
coMslsTs OF FoURTEEEN VESSELS
MANNED BY 400 BLUEJAcKETs.

Good Care to Avoid Them-AIso Looks
After the Fishing Interests.
The fame of the Northwestern
Mounted Police of Canada has attract
ed considerable attention to pictur-
esque arm Of our northern neighbor's
war department, and since the South
African war the Canadian regulars
and volunteers have been accepted by
the world as fighters and strateglsts
equal to any turned out Of the milf
tary schools of Europe. But Of Cana
da's infant navy little has been heard;
due, probably, to the fact that the op-
portunity for distinguishing itself has
not yet occurred. Yet in a way the
bluejackets Of Canada are performing
work that trains them for duty on a
larger scale fully as arduous and diff
cult as that which falls to the lot of
the Mounted Policemen.
The navy consists of no battleships
or armored cruisers, but Of fourteen
vessels with a total number of blue
jackets and officers to man them of
less than 400 Most of these war YES
sells would be classed with our mos
quito fleet which the war with Spain
created, and some would hardly be
worthy of such high classification.
There are at least two schooner sail
crafts in the feet which have no other
power Of propulsion than that fur
nished by wind and sails. Yet the
Kingfisher and Osprey are fine models
Of their class, and armed with their
small calibre guns they cruise up and
down the coast so threateningly that
smugglers take good care to avoid
them. More than one heroic feat has
been performed by these two relics of
an age when warships were all sailing
craft.
The two fagships Of the navy are
good-sized gunboats, named respective
ly the Acadia and La Canadienne.
These ships are seaworthy boats, and
make good time when in pursuit of
the enemy. The Constance, the Cur
lew and the Petrol are also effective
little gunboats, which chase up and
down the coast, keeping unlawful
crafts from plying their nefarious busi-
ness with the colony.
A good deal of the work of Canada's
navy is devoted to the prevention of
piracy and smuggling. Smuggling is
more common along the Canadian bor-
der than elsewhere on this continent,
and there are plenty of queer looking
crafts engaged in smuggling goods
into Canada without taking the trou-
BILE to pay duties. These smugglers
are shrewd and desperate men, and
they resort to tricks and eyasions that
deceive the ordinary officers. Their
methods are all conducted in the dark,
and along lonely parts of the coast.
On dark nights they smuggle kegs of
liquor from the French island of st.
Pierre to the Canadian coast. and one
good ship load landed will pay for all
the danger and anxiety run. Fortunes
have been made in few years in this
way, and the temptation is so great
that many engage in it, and great are
the resources of the smugglers.
Against these desperate men, who do
not hesitate at murder if necessary for
the maturing of their plans. the little
navy directs good deal of It's atten-
tion. Some of the smugglers carry
arms with them, and several times
they have boldly resisted arrest. But
not once in these encounters has the
navy been defeated. There is a gccd
deal Of smuggling on the sea, as well
as on the land, between Canada and
the United States, and Canada's blue
jackets have their hands full both on
the sea and the lake coasts in keeping
down this unlawful trade.
Another important duty of the navy
is to look after 1ne fishing interests of
the country. Regulations have been
made by the Canadian Government to
preserve the great fishing interests
along her coast and to enforce these
laws both for native and American
fishermen the little navy its hands full.
Foreign vessels persist in approaching
nearer than the regulation three-mile
limit, and the Canadian gunboats and
cruisers have to warn and signal to
them repeatedly. The same gunboats
have to look out for the buoys, bea-
cons, lightships and lighthouses along
the coast. This lighthouse work is
generally monotonous, but sometimes
it is full of danger and picturesque
ness. The staneh little gunboats have
to weather the fiercest weather and
seas imaginable, to reach some of the
outer beacon lights. So rough, barren
and deserted are the immense stretches
of coast along the Canadian sea-border
that the Dominion Government has es-
tablished at various points places of
refuge for shipwrecked mariners. If
ship should go ashore anywhere
along the coast there would lie a ref
uge station somewhere in the vicinity.
The gunboats visit these stations regu-
larly to provide more provisions, and
to take away any mariners that may
have been wrecked. Hundreds of ship
wrecked are rescued in this way every
year either from starvation or drown
ing.
The bluejackets of this fleet are as