Date of Statement of deposits on account of sales of Government property, Navy Department, etc.—Continued. Rents and privileges at Wal.. labout. H. E. Drury, passed assistant paymaster. Ordnance material, act March 3. 1875. ་ ....do The First National Bank, F. H. Clark, passed assistant Material furnished M. E. Hall. ....do paymaster. Material furnished Old Colony Steam-boat Company. Condemned stores.. Aug. 2 8 8 ...do .do .do Condemned small stores. ..do do Condemned stores. do .do do. Statement of deposits on account of sales of Government property, Navy Department, etc.—Continued. United States Treasury. ....do. 11 ...do 11 New York 15 United States Treasury.. 19 ...do 26 Philadelphia. 28 Portsmouth, N. H. J. C. Sullivan, passed assist- J. P. Loomis, paymaster. R. P. Lisle, paymaster H. R. Smith, passed assistant paymaster. J. R. Stanton, passed assistant T.J. Hobbs, disbursing clerk. H. B. Lowry, quartermaster, The First National Bank of G. A. Lyon, paymaster..... ...do The First National Bank of L. G. Hobbs, paymaster The First National Bank of G. A. Lyon, paymaster.. Portsmouth, N. H. chief 277.67 277.67 Bureau of Construction and Bureau of Ordnance. U. S. S. Antietam, act March 3, 1883. 6, 573.00 6, 573. 00 Boilers and iron armor 3, 966. 64 3,966. 64 messes. Clothing and small stores furnished revenue steamer. Fuel furnished officers One brown mare.................. 25 United States Treasury. J. B. Redfield, paymaster Gain on exchange and sale of condemned mattresses. Bureau of Steam-Engineering, Bureau of Construction and of Provisions and Clothing. No. 14.-SALE OF CONDEMNED VESSELS. SALE OF CONDEMNED VESSELS. William C. Whitney, Secretary of the Navy, in account current with the United States for proceeds of sales of condemned vessels, under public advertisements of April 25 and August 15, 1887, and May 14 and Auguet 6, 1888, inviting written proposals, and in pursuance of the acts of August 5, 1882, 22 Stats., p. 296, and March 3, 1883, 22 Stats., p. 599. 11. To Demokrat, Philadelphia Nov. 17. To Record, Philadelphia 13. Covered into United States Treasury per certificate of deposit No. 43879 as miscel Balance due the United States on deposit with the Treasurer United States...... Certified to be correct. 17, 384. 87 18.60 13.00 20.80 16, 000, 00 910.47 NOVEMBER 19, 1888. JNO. W. HOGG, 539 No. 15.-GENERAL BERDAN'S TORPEDO SYSTEM. (Supplement to Admiral Porter's Annual Report.) OFFICE OF THE ADMIRAL, Washington, D. C., November 7, 1888. SIR: As you are aware, I have always taken an interest in every weapon that promised to add strength to the feeble force of our Navy, and in my late annual report I laid great stress on the torpedo invented by General Berdan, formerly of the U. S. Army. I had some doubts of General Berdan's plan of placing the swinging bars carrying the torpedo in the bow of his vessel, but even with that drawback the invention was the best in existence, and was a comparatively certain method of destroying an enemy's ship by a new arrangement of the torpedo bars. General Berdan's improved invention is graphically described in the pamphlet accompanying the drawings, and the calculations are so minute and careful that there can be no doubt of the success of this formidable weapon when used as a means of defending our coasts and harbors. There may exist in General Berdan's machine some mechanical difficulties, but these can be easily rectified. I feel sure that General Berdan has solved the problem of destroying ships with torpedoes, by being able to strike an enemy's vessel, under all circumstances, with a heavy mine of gun-cotton directly under the bottom, rendering her hors du combat if not sinking her. With General Berdan's former device I think he could have inflicted serious injury on any class of vessels, but with his present invention he could do much better, in fact he might say like Archimedes, "Eureka! Eureka!' When we consider the vast amount of time and money that has been spent throughout the world in the endeavor to perfect the torpedo, we can not but be impressed with the simplicity of design and certainty of working in the invention of General Berdan. Restricted as our Navy is in the means of defense, we should lose no time in discussing a machine which promises so many advantages. Here is a plan of a vessel that can explode with certainty 100 pounds of gun-cotton beneath the bottom of an iron-clad, equal to 300 pounds of the strongest gunpowder. This gun-cotton, exploded at a depth of 25 feet, will raise a column of water 6 feet in diameter and weighing upwards of 45,000 pounds. This, by mathematical computation, would give 112,525,000 foot-tons, a force sufficient to destroy the strongest built ship in existence. One of the best features of the invention is that the torpedo-vessel and apparatus would be hermetically sealed against an enemy's shot-an indispensable requirement in a perfect torpedo-vessel. The present plans |