Vol. VI

No. 1

On December 17, having reached the age of 62, Rear Admiral Richard Wainwright, U.S.N., was placed on

the retired list. Rear Admiral

He was born in the District of Columbia, Wainwright's

and graduated from the Naval Academy in Retirement

the class of '68. With his retirement, there passes from the active list an officer who, throughout his career, has shown a spirit that should be an inspiration to future generations of naval officers.

His fame will go down into history principally for his conspicuous conduct in the battle of Santiago, while in command of the converted yacht Gloucester. In the geneneral engagement he boldly pushed forward with all the speed of his little craft, at once attacking at close range both of the Spanish torpedo boat destroyers, Pluton and Furor, and, although these destroyers received some fire from other ships also, his intrepid conduct conduced mostly to their destruction. For his gallantry, Congress advanced him ten numbers in his grade.

BEFORE adjournment for the holidays, the Senate passed a measure, Bill No. 3850, repealing the clause in last

year's Naval Appropriation Bill which gave The Rank of

to officers who, at the time of the passage Bureau

of that appropriation bill were, or who Chiefs

should afterward become, chiefs of Bureaus, - no matter what their rank might be,- the rank, title, and emolument of Rear Admiral so long as they remained on the active list.

In the measure repealing this clause of last year's Appropriation Bill, the Senate provides that officers appointed Chiefs of Bureaus in the Navy Department will, if of lower grade, be entitled to the rank, title, and emolument of Rear Admiral, or to the corresponding title in their respective corps, only while serving on such posts.

The Bill is now before the House Naval Committee, and should be, and probably will be, passed. While it is obvious that any officer occupying the position of a Chief of Bureau should have the rank and pay of Rear Admiral, the reasons alleged in favor of the present law have no logical basis in fact.

A REPORT on the bill to amalgamate the Pay and Constructors Corps with the Line of the Navy, has been

submitted by Assistant Secretary of the Amalga

Navy Winthrop, the president of the Amalmation

gamation Board. Bill

The report will show that if the bill is enacted, the increase in expense will be confined to the difference in pay of about six officers, who would be immediately promoted to higher rank, automatically, by the proposed legislation.

The subcommittee of the Board – Capt. Roy C. Smith, Pay Director Livingston Hunt, and Naval Constructor John D. Beuret — has completed the work of drafting the measure.

The bill will probably provide that only the younger constructors and pay officers shall be required to fit themselves for the line.

The proposed plan to amalgamate the Revenue Cutter Service under the Navy Department, as a separate and Revenue

distinct branch of the Navy, like the Marine Cutter Ser. Corps, is not likely to materialize. vice Amal

The Navy Department favors the plan, gamation

as the revenue cutters could, under the proposed conditions, do their work better as adjuncts to the Navy in time of war than they can under present conditions; and because the revenue cutters can better participate in maneuvers in time of peace under navy control, than as at present organized.

The Treasury Department, however, does not favor the plan, believing that matters relating to the customs and revenue patrols can best be handled by the cutters while under the direct charge of the Department of the Government charged with the responsibility of this work.

Ir will be seen by the resume of the recent work of the New York Naval Militia, published in this issue, that

this organization is not performing its duties New York

merely perfunctorily. Naval

The report of the work in connection Militia

with the mobilization will be compiled by the Adjutant-General of New York and will be submitted to the Naval War College for criticism.

It is believed that Congress may take some action at this session to relieve the pay corps of the Navy, the

personnel of which should be increased. Need of

The amount of money, stores and proviIncreasing

sions to be handled are increasing every Pay Corps

year, with the regular growth of the Navy. The Secretary has asked that the following be enacted into law':

of

AMONG other subjects of interest in the December number of the United States Naval Institute, two articles

appear upon the "Suction of Ship," — the Suction

generally accepted phrase covering the

broad range of hydraulic interaction beShips

tween passing vessels. As the recent Hawke-Olympic collision has been the subject of much discussion the world over, and every conceivable possibility has been advanced to account for it, the results of investigations demonstrate undoubtedly that the collision was due to “suction."

The deductions arrived at in the theoretical discussion of Mr. S. A. Reeve, M. E., are singularly verified by the actual facts of the occurrence, as described by Lieut. W. C. Nixon, U.S.N., who was a passenger in the Olympic at the time of the collision.

"That the grades of the active list of the pay corps of the Navy are hereby increased by ten additional paymasters -- in all, 86 paymasters and by 20 additional passed assistant and assistant paymasters -- in all, 116 passed assistant and assistant paymasters: Provided, the total increase shall not exceed 20 during the first fiscal year.”

The paymaster general's statement, transmitted to Congress by Mr. Meyer, is in part, as follows:

"This special appeal is made in the interest of the Government; for with the present force

it is simply impossible to have the duties of the pay corps performed as they should be.

“The corps has not been increased since 1903, when the appropriations were $81,876,791.43; while the appropriations are now over one hundred and thirty-one millions, an increase of about sixty per cent, with a corresponding growth in the activities of the naval establishment."

.

While the torpedo boat destroyer Warrington, in command of Lieut. W. M. Hunt, U.S.N., was proceeding to

New York from Charleston, S. C., she was The

struck by an unindentified schooner twenty Warrington miles south of Hatteras, on December 28. Accident

Twenty-five feet of her stern was torn away and two of her crew were injured. The Warrington left Charleston with other vessels of the 8th and 9th Divisions of the Atlantic Torpedo Fleet on December 27. The ramming occurred at half-past one in the morning, during a 15-mile gale. Had it not been for the strength and good working condition of the bulkheads, the vessel would have sunk immediately.

The revenue cutter Onondaga and scout cruiser Salem were despatched to the Il’arrington's assistance, the Onondaga towing her to the Norfolk yard, where she was immediately docked.

After towing the Warrington to Norfolk the Onondaga proceeded to sea to search for the vessel that rammed the torpedo boat. A three-wasted schooner was reported sunk 1.4 miles off llatteras the day following the accident, only her topmasts showing, and it is thought this vessel may be the one which struck the I’arrington, and may have been so disabled herself that she afterwards went down.

It is unlikely that Congress will permit the proposed abandonment of certain yards suggested by the Secretary

of the Navy. For political reasons, RepreAbandon

sentatives and Senators are desirous of ment of

maintaining these establishments, inasmuchi Navy Yards

as they provide employment for many workmen whose votes count in elections.

Parcels of the ground upon which the Boston Yard is situated passed from the original private owners to the Government, with clauses in the titles which require the land to be used for public purposes. The Department is studying this question of titles, although, if the government should eventually decide to abandon the yard, condemnation proceedings could be instituted and any land disposed of.

With reference to the New York Yard, which Mayor Gaynor desires to see abandoned so that the space may be used by the city for docks, and about which he recently consulted with l'resident Taft, it happens that the chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the House is opposed to the plan.