| Show COALING STATION IN SAMOAN ISLANDS contract to be let calls call for a substantial pier and wharf new york an aug 22 A special to the I 1 be tribune from washington says the navy department expects to award the contract tor for the establish ment ot of a first clas 1 coaling elation station in the samoan islands in the course of a week or ten days and the we work will bo be energetically prosecuted to completion in order that the elation station may be utilized by american warships wara hipa early next year several companies compan iea have entered the competition and no doubt is expressed that good terms will be obtained in any event well within a quarter of a million dollars dollare available for or the purpose congress pao has been too apathetic to make further appropriation the navy department part ment has however discovered an unused appropriation of 0 2 made in general terms for a coaling station in the pacific with the intention that it should be spent at pearl harbor and this will now be taken as an emergency measure for pago pago congress appropriated in 1892 to take advantage of the samoan conce concession esloa and all surveys were made for the wharf and the defense of the eite elte at that time ilme but more than ba t f of the money wai was expended for coal and the lowest bid for the structural eruc tural work and pier approximating it was impossible to let the contract since that time a narrow gauge railway with double rack track will run from all parts of the pier to the upper part of thecial the coal sheds and the contract calls for twenty four self dumping damping cars care and the cables and machinery to operate them the contract also provides for the erection of a substantial dwelling and a large storehouse the entire establishment to be complete comple tel within twelve months under a penalty of a day naval officers declare that pago pago harbor is the only landlocked land locked port of refuse refuge in the samoan group and Is the best harbor among amon the islands of the pacific ocean the property owned by the tho united states is at swimming point the most sh sheltered part of the harbor t as well as its most acce seable and easily defended pint the land laud immediately back of the coal sheds rises to a level of feet and here it is proposed to mount several heavy guna guns the and the contract will provide for a pier bead feet and 48 feet wide in 40 feet of water with a ghazi feel feet long lon connecting it with the shore the structure wail be entirely of steel and of a most substantial character its will be solid rolled or forged steel eight inches in diameter and provided with screw points three feet fil in diat ato to bece a ilir ine cadd san d and coral b ed X 0 ot f the harbor which is feet deep a few hundred feet away from the head ashore there will be two coal sheds constructed wholly of steel upon heavy beavy conchete conci ete floors floor feet long and feet wide |
