The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-08-16
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: Army and
! Navy News
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, navy NEWS s
e*.s.S.s.s ~. s.s,x.s.s.@
Should Fort Rugar ever be besieged,
the garrison hemmed in 2ni food sup
plies run short, there IS opportunity
80 long as the water supply IS 80 shut
OF, 10 raise many necessities o. life
within the great crater IF Diamond
Head on the northerly slope Of which
the splendid Battery Harlow, com
prising. eight mortars. is located. With
III the crater is more than a hundred
acres Of land, where the soil IS far
richer than that Of the surrounding
country. For centuries the silt has
worked down to the bottom of the
crater. the floor Of which is about on
q level with the outside level land.
This rich soil, If cleared, would be
suitable for sugar cane, fruit trees,
pineapples, vegetables, etc. All that is
necessary is an ample supply OF water.
For wears Hawaiian lived within
the crater, in little shack which was
built Of small boards and oil cans, la
boriously carried from the outer world
over the lip of the crater and i"wn
into the bottom. A pond Ct water,
formed by raipfalls, supplied him with
the means to raise vegetables ard la
nanas.
During the construction Of B1ttery
Harlow, the army engineers bored
tunnel through the crater from Il point
near Harlow, on a slightly uP-grade,
which now opens out into the crater.
This is to be utilized for carrying the
electric telegraph lines, over which are
TO flash the orders which will direct the
firing of the mortars, the officer direct
ing the fire being stationed on the
apex of the crater lip, facing the sea.
Through this tunnel, water is to be
carried in pipes. Should necessity arise,
that hundred acres of rich soil in the
crater could be utilized for raising
much garden truck.
Sixteen Pacific Cruisers.
WASHINGTON, D. c., Aug. Real
ling that the two ocean fleets of six
teen battleships IS a thing of the dis
tant future, the Navy Department has
before it a tentative plan of sixteen
frst-class armored cruisers for the pro-
lection of the Pacific Coast.
The plan is the outgrowth of de-
sire of the Secretarv of the Navy to
whip the frst-class cruisers into fleet
formation along the lines adopted for
the battleship fleet. Concentration of
this cruiser force in the Pacific is con
sidered possible of accomplishment by
4 ,,ri1 of
Rear Admiral Sebree, commander-in-
chief of the Pacific feet, is ready to
start for the Philippines about Septem
Der ). This fleet is expected to arrive
back on the Pacific Coast late in March
or early in April. This will bring in
line eight big first-class armored cruis-
ers, namely, the Tennessee, Washing
ton, California South Dakota, West
Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and
Colorado.
In the meantime the armored cruisers
North Carolina. Montana and New
York, which are now due at Province
town, Mass, from Mediterranean wa
tiers, will have had ample time to under
go any repairs they may have needed
and be well under way for the Pacific.
This brings the number up to eleven,
with the problem of finding five more
available ships. 1t is explained that
four of these vessels probably will be
the Brooklyn. st. Louis, Charleston and
Milwaukee, The commander-in-chief of
the feet can select the most available
| of the remaining armored cruisers to
complete his full feet.
The fleet thus organized would not be
homogeneous. it is admitted. but would
| l,o
was the Atlantic battleship fleet when
it was first organized under Rear Ad
miral Evans. With the feet of sixteen
cruisers formed on the Pacific, war
games. maneuvers, strategy and tactical,
problems could be worked out under a
progressive and competent commander
in-chief, preferably one who had served
on the battleship fleet and had gained
all the information obtainahle from the
hard drill which this feet has been
put through.
This, at least is the plan looking to
the bringing of the armored cruisers to
the same high point Of efficiency as the
battleships
Of the sixteen cruisers. the North
Carolina. Montana. Tennessee and
Washington all have 10inch guns. while
Illp OtItIS dIt equip WIN oI4hNAi
rifles. except the Cher'eston, Milwaukee
and St. Louis, which have 6-inch guns.
'Dishonorably Discharged
Probably no condemnation strikes
deeper in military and naval circles
than the endorsement Dishonorably
Discharged" across the face of an en-
listed man s papers. Six members of
the Marine Corps at Camp Very. hav-