The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-04-04
THE CONNECTICUT.

No ship of the navy has been the
 subject of such ominous predictions and calumnious stories as the battle ship Connecticut. When she had her preliminary trials it was said In the
 daily prints that she had utterly fail-
 ed to come up to the standard, and later when, she had her shaking down
 cruise, in which nothing in the way of
 speed was expected from her, reports
 were sent boadcast that she had fail-
 cd to make anything like the speed
 which was expected of her. The fact
 that the cruise was not intended to develop her speed, that similar shak-
 Ing down trips on other ships never
 developed any extraordinary speed,
 that they are only for the purpose of
 getting the boilers and engines in good
 shape and smoothing down the bear
 ings, did not count with the para
 graphers. It is impossible to say
 whether or not the building of this
 particular ship in a government yard. | by government labor under the dlrec-
 tion of navy officers, had anything 10
 do with the circulation of all the wild
 stories. Nor is it possible to determne whether or not the private ship build ing concerns were interested in the dissemination of transformation which
 would tend to deter the future build ing of ships In government yards. Regardless of the motives, when the Connecticut had the misfortune to develop large number of case of typhoid fever on board and had to be sent North after her unfortunate
 pumping into rock in Target Bay near
 Culebra, there was more wagging of
 heads. It was asserted that this was only an excuse to conceal the extent
 of her injury, that she would have to
 be doeked and the navy would be de-
 prived of her services for a long time
 While she was undergoing repairs One
 story went so far as to tell the exact number of barrels of cement which had been used to enable her to proceed to New York, from Guantanamo. If was quite circumstantial. Neverthe- less she reached New York without misshap, sent her sick to the naval hospital and without docking was sent back to complete her target prac tice in Cuban waters. Now the story goes that other cases of typhoid were incubated ofter she left for the south ern waters
 Just why these attempts should be made to exploit the Connecticut as a 'f1oodoo" ship is not apparent. But they continue. One paper of repute printsa dispatch from Washington in which 1t is said that Captain William swift, her commander should never have been sent to sea because he was not physically fit and that when he so changed the course of the ship as to run into the reef in Target Bay 1t [. was merely the result of his disability \ The dispatch intimates that he may be ordered before a retiring board. The navy department has not denied these stories, possibly because 1t thinks they are too, aburd to be so honored.
 It is true that about year before Captain Swift was assigned to this command he was Ill with typhoid fe yer, but months before the Connecti- ut was placed in commission he had been discharged as cured. Within two 'r three days before he assumed com nand of the ship he was at the navy department and seemed to be in the 'est of health. If, as stated in the tory Captain Swift Tainted on the 'ridge after the grounding and was unconscious for some hours thereaf- CT, 1t will all doubtless appear in the ourt-martial, but the inference that he department allowed him to go to ca knowing that he was a sick man. r that after the accident 1t ordered he Connecticut to proceed up and own the coast when it was in an un- k afe and unseaworthy condition, are matters which no officer in the service I'll allow to pass unchallenged Mean 'hile the department will await the utcome of the court martial.-Army x nd Navy Journal. z