Almost Ready for Sea.

Samoa Times and South Sea Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 20, 2 March 1889, Page 2

Almost Ready for Sea.

Tick to be Armed for Uattle in Twenty Days., {From tlte San Francisco Examiner, February, 1 ) Yesterday afternoon a now impetus was given to the work being done at the Union Iron Works dockyard on tho • cruiser Charleston by the receipt of a dispatch, from Secretary Whitney, ordering that she be made ready for sea within twenty days, if possible, nt no matter what extra cost. Iu consequence the 450 men already at work upon the great steel cruiser wore spurred on to still gronterdispatcli and the scene yesterday afternoon in tho dockyard was an inspiring one. All about tho great ship the busy artisans were clustered like bees, every man working as if I»e owned a town residence in Apia, and its only safety from Bismarck'* shells lay in' having the Charleston down there i i .time, to knock the Gorman craft now at the | islands into splinters, j .Tho general public has »i-rv,little I id<-u how.nearly Studied the-splendid warship really in, and it vvil) prphubly J be a matter of as much surpriso as I satisfaction to many to know fuat tho managers of the Union ,Iron Works have expressed thmn«»lvea as able to carry out Secretary Wiiitney'ainstruction*. As she now rid«s at anchor tho cruiser is already mo'.-t complete, her | engines and machinery being nil iu place, with the boil its in process of being eem-ntod. Tlte two masts are ready ,to bo .(.topped, and the huge ~ smoke-stack is already in place, while ] nn army of carpenters and painters are , busy fitting up the stuterooms and salions, and applying a coat of leadcolored paint to the hull. With the added necessity for speed now under- | stood to exist, it will bo but a matter , of days rathor than weeks before the , * hi P " HI; bo ready to go to Mure Island for her flrmamont. In conueitioi- with the question of , equipment it was htatod yesterday that , orders hnd been sfnt to the Southern Pacific to proparn rolling stook immediately with which to carry heavy ordnance. Manager Towne, while declining to confirm or deny the statement informed a reporter that bis road could deliver the Charleston's armament here in ten days after it should be shipped at the East. Anything up to an ei bty ton gun could be handled without difficulty. The Charleston>, armament will consist of two 8-iuch rifled guns; six 6-inch rifles, four Unsound rifles six Hotohkiss guns, four GatJ in «:?*>f.J9»,d'our tubes |or launching torpeioes. Taken as a whole, the armament is far more formidable than anything Jta#£fa the neighbourhood of Samoa, and will render the Charleston fit to cope with the entire fleet now there. "