OCR Text |
Show CAMPFIEE SKETCHES. SOME SHORT STORIES FOR THE VETERANS. Charleston, South Carolina, to Be the Seat of . Great Government Works Admiral Endicott Speaks or the Proposed Pro-posed Naval Station. GREAT NAVAL STATION. Admiial Endicott tells the Charleston Charles-ton News and Courier that a great naval station is to be built in Charleston. Charles-ton. Said he: "Such a naval station as we propose to construct at Charleston Charles-ton cannot be built and completed in a day, a month or a year," said the admiral. ad-miral. "We propose to build the largest larg-est and most complete drydock the United States navy has ever had, and It will, of bourse, take considerable time to get it in readiness for the re- I two men got Into a rather sharp argument. ar-gument. Evans did not agree with the captain, whose name he had not caught, and did not hesitate to speak his mind; and the German, on his part, was equally frank. Presently the German said that he would be glad to present Evans to his wife. After talking with the lady, whose name he did not catch, and finding her charming, Captain Evans noticed that several persons seemed to be waiting to speak to her. and took himself oft to the smoking apartment. As he entered, en-tered, Admiral Knorr, after greetin" him. said: "Evans, the Prince says that you are a good fellow, and he wants the Emperor Em-peror to know you." "My dear admiral," replied Evans, "I haven't seen the Prince and don'1 know him." "Well," said Knorr, "you ought to know him, you have been talking shop with him for half an hour, and I don't know what you have been saying to the princess during your conversation with her." Captain Evans had been talking with Prince Henry of Prussia and the Princess Irene without knowing who they were. "Two of the most delightful people I had ever met," he calls them, and he adds: "I certainly told them exactly what I thought about the different things we discussed." On the evening of June 26th, the emperor Prince Henry, and ten admirals ad-mirals accepted an invitation to dine on the New York,, and the following is a brief account of their greeting in Admiral Evans's own words: "When the emperor came on board I had the men and ofScers massed aft on the superstructure and in the gangways, gang-ways, and as soon as Admiral Kirk-land Kirk-land had welcomed him I made a short speech, reciting that we had the champion cham-pion twelve-oared cutter in the American Ameri-can navy, and asked on the part of the crew, the honor of naming her after his daughter, Victoria Louisa. "He was really touched by the compliment and, taking my hand, he granted the request most graciously. ception of the great warships which may be sent there." That Charleston would ultimately become a great naval rendezvous the admiral never doubted and, while he was unable to estimate the entire amount of money- that would probably be spent here before the navy yard and the torpedo station were completed, he was confident that it would be well up in the millions. In speaking of the recent charts made of the harbor and entrances through the jetty channel the admiral expressed ex-pressed himself with the showing made and said that it would be very necessary that this vork go on, and that a wide and deep channel be maintained. The engineers have clearly demonstrated that this can be done in a practicable and very possible possi-ble condition. The channel is constantly con-stantly being improved, and every bit of work done within the past year has been proved permanent and satisfactory. satisfac-tory. The dredge Charleston, which has done such good work within the past few years, will soon be ' reinforced rein-forced by the arrival of a new and more powerful dredge, and the two will work in conjunction for the betterment bet-terment of the channel. The test of time has been applied to the jetties As soon as I could I turned to the crew and called for three cheers for Victoria Vic-toria Louisa, and then three cheers and a tiger for the emperor. I don't thing he ever heard such cheers before. be-fore. It was a very pretty episode and gave our dinner a good start. "At one o'clock in the morning the emperor expressed a desire to visit and inspect the engnie room; and so we did. He looked into every hole and corner and even had us disconnect ona of the engines, marking time on us himself. Then we went through thg gun deck and out on the forecastle. themselves and they are proving their duraoility and steadfastness. No appreciable ap-preciable changes, have occurred in the long stone walls that force the waters through the jetty channel. Admiral Ad-miral Endicott talked pleasantly and interestingly of the future of Charleston, Charles-ton, and expressed the most sanguine hopes for its great prosperity and advancement- He not only talked of the navy yard and the things immediately connetl with, that (p-eat project, but also spoke of the army post on Sullivan's Sulli-van's island. "The fact that the garrison gar-rison on Sullivan's island is to be enlarged en-larged and the fortifications there increased," in-creased," he said, "shows that the army and navy are working together for the mutual protection of the interests in-terests of the government involved in the very valuable plant connected with the naval station. You can readily understand that it is necessary to fortify for-tify and protect a large naval establishment estab-lishment in Charleston harbor." At where he asked how long it would ttie to close all the water-tight doors. "I replied that in the daytime we could do it in thirty seconds, but at night it required about two minutes. To my surprise he asked if I would mind doing it for him. Of course I had to say yes; but when I tried to blow the siren, the signal to close the water-tight doors, there wasn't steam enough ,and the blessed thing wouldn't blow. The emperor thought he had me, and said: " 'Now, you see, captain, you can't close your bulkheads.' "But he did not know everything. I sr.id: 'You will see in a moment, sir,' and touched one of the general alarm bells, which call all hands to quarters, and in a few seconds the men were swarming up like rats. The emperor took the time himself, and in one minute and a half the ship was ready for action, with all the water-tight doors closed." Admiral Evans found the German emperor the most companionable and magnetic of men. "He knows more about more different differ-ent things than any other man I ever met. When I was at Kiel my band was playing music composed by him, and on my cabin table was a book of poems written by him. He was the tne conclusion of the interview the admiral is quoted as saying: "We are going to put up a station there which will not only be a very attractive feature fea-ture for Charleston, but it will also stimulate and benefit the commerce of that port, and at the same time be a great credit to the Nation." Certainly Charleston people can afford to believe be-lieve that the morning of a new day is beginning to show bright above the horizon. With the finest and best navy yard in the great establishment of the United States in view, the grandest and most beautiful harbor on the American continent, a large and handsome army post on Sullivan's island, is-land, the city and harbor guarded by the most up-to-date and perfect system of fortification and by the permanent station here of a large portion of the torpedo fleet, with the government at work In the most scientific way toward making the entrance to the harbor the head and front of the finest army in the world, and at the same time was giving his personal attention to what must some day be reckoned one of the leading navies. The Kiel Canal was of his creation, and his engineers told me that he was familiar with all its details, as well as with those of bridge building in a large sense. The farmers informed me that he could instruct them in their business, and I personally saw him maneuver a fleet at sea in a most creditable cred-itable manner. "After luncheon at the palace one day, during a very interesting conversation, conver-sation, he described to me our first battleship, the Indiana, which I afterwards after-wards commanded, and his knowledge of her construction and details of armor arm-or and guns was perfect. He seemed to have the same knowledge of all foreign ships. When I gave him a Smittfleld ham for dinner, he even knew where Smithfleld is!" This may seem versatility with a vengeance, but it must be remembered that the man who thus sums up the emperor has been forty years afloat, and has met in that time many men and some monarchs. His opinion, therefore, may be taken as authoritative. authorita-tive. Youth's Companion. deepest as well as the best, what Charlestonian need be ashamed to answer an-swer the question that will be put to him by the thousands of visitors who will come here next fall to visit the most picturesque and interesting exposition expo-sition ever held anywhere? Baltimore Herald. A KING AND A SAILOR. When the Kiel Canal was opened in 1895, Captain now Rear-Admiral Robley D. Evans commanded the armored ar-mored cruiser New York, and represented repre-sented the United States. During the ceremonies attendant upon the occasion, occa-sion, Captain Evans's experiences, which have recently been printed in "A Sailor's Log: Reminiscences of Forty Years of Naval Life," were peculiarly pe-culiarly interesting, meeting as he did. Emperor William, Prince Henry of Prussia, and a number of admirals of the German navy. On the Sunday after the arrival of the New York, Captain Evans attended attend-ed a reception on board of one of the German battle ships, where he soon became engaged in conversation with a captain, who spoke English perfectly. perfect-ly. It was soon evident that the German was brilliant in his profession, and the |