Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-02

and the superiority of the product of course marked
This combined with the entire absence of dirt coal and
all attendant troubles of coal makes the electric nsala
ton very attractive.
Among the navies of Europe, torpedo tenders, or
depot ships as they are called the Continent, have
been in commission for years The English have eight
Some-the Hecla, the Tyne, and the Vulcan-are yes
sells of the Dixie type Othersthe Sapphire the Blake
the Blenheim, the St. George and the Leander-are
older cruisers converted The Blake will be remembered
the flagship of the English squadron that visited the
United States during the Columbian Exposition of 1893
and anchored at the head of the long line of foreign
ships in Hudson River.
The French tender is the Foudre a vessel built on
regular man of lines, commissioned in 1895, and
rated faster and more heavily armed ship than the
Dixie, although of the same displacement The allot
ment of space to eng and battery the Dixie seems
happier adjustment than that of the French ship.
If high speed could be obtained without sacrificing
something else it might be of advantage; but study
of conditions likely to obtain in time of points
the conclusion that higher speed than the cruising
speed of the batleship heet-about fifteen knots-is
necessary it does not within the probabilities
of war that destroyer fleet will get beyond supporting
distance either of its protected base of the bateShp
fleet. The proper place for the tender will be either at
the base with the fleet auxiaries and operating
in actual company with the destroyers OF the battery
also it may be said that qualities in themselves nrn
scay desirable considered of less value tender
than other qualities; storeroom space for example,
which they would included have necessarily excluded
1t seems the Sounder policy to equip tender not
much to hight herself away, to satisfy the
needs of the deStroyer that in the hour of need they can
strike SO quickly and so hard that 1t Will be all but
the fireworks before the orchestra has finished the over
ture. This is the policy of Japan which has equipped
for tender the ToyohaShi, vessel similar the Dixie
THE tender idea IN our own navy after having been
discussed for many years, first found expression in
the Yankee, commissioned in 1908. The development of
that vessel had advanced extent when she laid
her on Hen and Chickens Reef, and occasoned
officer facetously inclined enter in his private log
"Here endeth the Parent Ship" But it was not So
Fo1 time the activities of her officers and were
centered upon wreckng operations rather than torpedo
policy and the days full of incident and action
At stage of the salvage operations there were on
board the Yankee,-lifted high and dry on a rocky
reef-besides her officers and of two hundred
men, the chief constructor of the navy an assistant
constructor from the New York yard, one hundred
landsmen from Newport assisting in the discharge of
stores thirty gunners from the torpedo station
sixty Of the Merritt Chapman Wrecking Company
with their Bosses forty of the T. A. Scott Wrecking
Company with their bosses, ten of the Boston Tow
boat Company with their bosses, twenty from the
New York Navy Yard with their Bosses the of five
submarines with their vessels anchored near five sur
face torpedoboas, two GOLFERS and feet of tugs and
all merrly onward, while the thick fog fingered
overhead. After the Yankee sank in December, her
officers and transferred to the Dixie, sister
Ship where the work. unfortunately interrupted was
resumed.
The many special features that have been described
Continued page 10