New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-01-23
By CUSHING STETS0N.

DN " Dllis'p - ~ 49,
The Secretary Of the Navy yesterday
roundly denounced the House Commit
tee on Naval Affairs for having failed
TO provide a gunbost in the current
estimates. He explained that he was
forced 70 send the cruiser Washington
with nearly one hundred men aboard
TO the turbulent Republic Of Hayt,
where a fresh revolution is again in
full sway. He pointed out that a gun
boat was all that was required for this
duty.
There is but a single gunboat on the
Atlantic Coast fit for sea duty. Inc
Sacramento, recently commissioned
but already with hole punched IN ner
stern from a collision with trulter'
is on duty ct the Canal Zone. OUTSIDE
the Sacramento there IS no gunooat
which is not in q navy yard, ana none
other can be sent TO relieve her.
few months ago crept up the North
River a battered, rusty hulk OF a snip,
which vet bore the colors or the united
States al her stern. She was the lsla
de Luzon, captured from Spain, ana
since then doing gunboat duty for the
United States. She had been con
demned as unsafe. She had been tied
nm 10 the dock doing duty ss the prac-
lice shin for the naval militia. Now
in a sudden call for boats OF her class
N do notice duty OFF Haytl, Santo Do
minoo and Central America, she had
made the long voyage down the Mlssis-
sinpi River and up the coast 20 Ne"
York.
on the way her engines had col
lansed. one went out OF commission
aItoge,her By compounding the parts
If both. one engine could De MADE 70
york and the Isla de Luzon could make
six knots. Both cylinders afterward
collansed. and when the ship limped
6naljv into port "A wooden mess table,
Of which the crew had eaten their
meals. was doing service as cylinder
cover The wardroom was IN such
fi,bv condition that the officers stayed
clear Of il altogether. And she was IN
tested with bedbugs. Yet she flew the
American colors at the stern.
Ancient Gunboats a Menace.
To-day at the navy yard in Brooklyn
The eunboats Marietta and hachlas are
living side by side. Their white paint
a. the seams is corroded with rust, and
their sides are streaked. The Marietta
has lust returned from Santo Domingo,
where she had lain for four months
looking out for American interests
and safeguarding the lives OF foreign
crs. She also was condemned. She also,
A. Hoboken, y. J., was practice snip
for the naval militia. Neither her OF
fcers nor crew expected the ship could
aoat till IL reached New York. All her
machinery - ready 10 fall apart, her
mines are corroded aud ~ bursting
condition, one section OF pipe a ysrd
long shows twenty-three patches. Her
hull j. IN no better shape. The sister
ship Of the Marietta is the wheeling
another OF the total OF five gunboats
on this coast. She was built a. the
sane time as me Marietta twenty
wears agO-and IS in no better shape.
Ever since the close OF the Ciyi
War the only duty the navy has been
called upon 70 perform in this hemi-
sphere has been, with the exception
~ the few months Of the Spanish war
the duty properly done by guho9a~
Such duty has been 20 preserve oroel,
"a Ear as ffls was FpspAH+Nf "''' -
the neighboring republics, and wneh
European interests became involved, 20
enforce the authority or the CnIteo
states. one would have supposed, ana
the American people had the right 70
expect that a class OF vessel upon
when rested 30 enormous q response
biIity. would have been kept up. 70
the mark. One gunboat at partieu-
lar time and place. such as has ID fact
occurred over and over again, might
he worth whole fotilla OF sub
marines. The mere presence OF our
onlv seaworthy gunboaH the Saers-
,neyto. in the Canal Zone guarantees
The neutrality Of the Panama Canal
Ten New Craft Needed.
Ten gunboats for patrol and survey
duty in Cuban, San DOMINICAN, Central
and South American waters ~ a con
seryative estimate OF the number the
United States should possess. And yet
Congress has taken this time, wnen the
entire feet IS out Of commission, 70
-'-fle from fhe cs'ir0ates for the com