Show 1 1 When the with i war Spain broke out J the Government bought tho cruisers I Albany and NcvlOrdanofrom fch I I l l gush shipyards we believe from the I I Brazilian Government The Albany was almost completed the New Or jl leans was little more than Just begun 1 I I and It took a year to complete It Most discouraging reports of these ships i come back from the Asiatic station RearAdmiral Homey tsays that tho 1 JI New Orleans has performed no duty ou the station except making repairs Her commander Bays it Is i only with r flll L the greatest vigilance that the ships stability Is retained and that the excessive ex-cessive temperature on board makes liable the explosion of tho cordite magazines mag-azines at any time Capt Ide says he fcols compelled to refer to theio Iwo reasons which make desirable that this vessel should servo In cooler climate cli-mate than that of Luzon and In this I respect the vessel differs from any I Americanbuilt war vessel Despite every expedient the temperature of tho I cordite magazines ranges from 95 to OS degrees Fahrenheit which accordIng J accord-Ing to the best obtainable Information Is very near the danger point for that explosive Then tho breathing air is bad While ordinary vessels tho number of feet of cubic air for each man ranges above 1000 In this ship because of her peculiar construction and the fact that all available space Is utilized Ihcrc are but about 200 cubic feet of air per man with a very defective de-fective circulation It is said too that I the ship Is toptocavy Altogether It I looks as J though the English contractor who built this ship undertook to Jl dp Uncle Sam and that the officers sent I over to superintend the ships construction construc-tion utterly neglected their duty The ship Is one of the penalties which the country pays for not being ready when trouble came |