Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-01
Army and Navy

although the voyage of the battle
ship fleet from the United States was
smooth" says a correspondent of the
New York Herald in a cable from
Punta Arenas, "the ships of the fleet
| frequently pitched sufficiently to ex-
pose their bottoms below the armor
belt. This has convinced prominent
officers with the fleet that the armor
| belts cannot safely be raised. They
do not deny that more arnor about the
water line would be safer, but the pro-
| lection against hostile fire under or
dinary conditions, they declare, re-
quires at least the present protection
below the deep load water line"
-xs-
Lieutenant Colonel Goethals, corps of
engineers u. S. A., in charge of the
| Panama canal construction, has author
| ized what is probably the largest pur-
chase of dynamite ever made in the
history of engineering. He has decided
to adopt the use of dynamite to assist
in the excavation at Culebra cut, and
within the next few weeks 4,732,00
pounds of the explosive will be bought
and shipped to the isthmus. The use
of dynamite has already begun, and
100000 pounds is required every week
for the work now under headway. Two
hundred and sixty-eight thousand
pounds will be bought in the open mar
ket for immediate needs.
s.
The recent order of the navy depart
ment by which the navy regulations
were amended so that commanders
should be detailed as executives of bat
tleships, seems to be a great step in
the direction of efficiency. Comman-
der Spencer S. Wood u. S. NJ. aid to
Admiral Dewey. was detailed. prospect
lively to command the Birmingham
ne 10 foe
upon her commissioning. Commander
Wood. however, arrived at the conclu-
sion that the command of this scout
cruiser would not fit him to command
a battleship as much as duty as exec
utive officer on board a battleship
would. He has, therefore, applied to
the department to be ordered as exec
utive of the Idaho about to go in COM
mission and the command of the Bir-
mingham will go to some one else. 1t
Is probable, however, that Commander
Wood win be detailed later to the COM
mand of one of the st. Louis class after
he has made part of cruise on board
the Idaho.
The house military committee has
practically completed the army appro-
priation bill. The total amount carried
by the bill is $S5,017,616, which is $780,
900 less than the estimates. The cloth
ing item dllOWS seven Iulll1OllS 10 De
allotted between the annual require
ments in clothing and equipment, and
the reserve stock, for which $2,500. 900
was asked. This will procure uniforms
and equipment for a reserve that will
fit out an army of $500,000 men.
s.
The commanding officer of the u. S.
S. Ohio reports that, while taking coal
from the chartered collier Fortuna at
Port of Spain, Trinidad, stick of
dynamite about five inches in length
was found in the Rev river coal sup
piled by the Berwin Coal company. 1t
was evidently stick used in mining
the coal which escaped observation. A
similar find. over a year ago. resulted
in an order to examine coal carefully
while it was being put aboard ship. de-
scribing the general appearance of
dynamite and stating the precautions
necessary to observe
Rear Admiral Evans in dispatch to
the navy department February 7, an
nounced that the Yankton had sailed
from Punta Arenas for Valparaiso.
The run to Callao was considered too
long for her. She will coal at Valpa-
raiso by the time the fleet gets there.
February was the last day that mail
for the battleship fleet could reach it