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1901.] MARINE REVIEW. 19 ANNUAL REPORT OF REAR ADMIRAL R. B. BRADFORD. For the first time since he has been chief of the bureau of equipment Rear Admiral R. B. Bradford fails to discuss in his annual report to the secretary of the navy the strategical advantage to the United States of securing naval coaling stations at a number of places throughout the world. Admiral Bradiord gives a hint, however, that something is going on ty carry out his well-known policy, for he said in the brief paragraph devoted to the subject: "As the department is aware, efforts are being made to establish naval coal depots at important localities which it is deemed unwise to discuss in a report of a public character." That those localities are in foreign countries is well indicated by the fact that Admiral Bradford does not hesitate to tell of the efforts made toward establishing coaling stations within the limits of this country and its possessions beyond the seas. Work is well under way on the naval stations at Honolulu and Tu- tuila, Samoa. At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, work has not been begun, owing to difficulties in the way of acquiring a suitable site. The harbor of San Luis d'Apra, Guam, is being improved and the equipment bureau is ready to proceed with the construction there of "an adequate coal depot, based upon a comprehensive scheme, suitable for a harbor for mercantile and naval purposes, well located for protection against destructive storms and fortified against possible enemies." _. A number of naval coaling stations have been and are to be estab- lished in the Philippines. The most important of these is at Olongapo, on Subig bay, where the Spaniards had done considerable fortification work. It was here that Admiral Dewey expected to meet the Spanish NICHOLSON SHIP LOG CO. ¢ ee hd COSTLY NAVAL BASE IN THE PHILIPPINES. Rear Admiral Henry C. Taylor, the coming chief of the navigation bureau, in a report submitted to the navy department upon the establish- ing of an immense naval station in the Philippines, estimates that the pro- ject will cost the government $20,000,000. Consideration of the plans for the largest naval station in all Asiatic waters has been given by a special board at New York of which Admiral Taylor is president. The board urgently points out the necessity of a station in the new possessions equaling in all facilities for work on war vessels the great navy yards at New York and Norfolk, with dry docks. Machine shops and a plant not only possible of affording all varieties of overhauling to ships, but equal to the construction of naval vessels, if the material can be readily supplied. In the estirnate of $30,000,000 is included the amount that would be re- quired to defend the new station against sea attack. This amount would approximate $12,000,000, the board reports, and perhaps a higher figure. The establishment of the station proper is placed at $19,359,500, exclusive of a coaling station, hospital, magazine and other dependencies of a well- established station. These features the board states will cost at least $10,000,000, and perhaps $20,000,000, if the plant is to be especially elab- orate. One of the important provisions contained in the report is the estab- lishment of a native village at the new station for the workmen who will be employed at the yard. This village, the board proposes, shall be under control of the naval authorities, as otherwise the board believes it would be dangerous to leave the inhabitants to themselves with their natural dis- regard of hygiene. The Olongape station will be unique in many respects. Its isolation requires special provision for storage of material for the skilled workmen who must be brought from the United States. Take it all and Sd PAA = ADK NICHOLSON SHIP LOG. Fig. 3. squadron which he destroyed in Manila bay. A coaling station has been established at Sangley Point, near Cavite, and a coal storage plant, with a capacity of 45,000 tons, is to be built there. Efforts have been made, so far without success, to obtain a suitable site for a coal depot at Cebu, and coal depots have been established at Port Isabella, on Basilan island, and Polloc, on the island of Mindanao. A new United States coal depot is being built at Yokohama, Japan. Work has been completed on the coal depot at Pichelinque bay, Mexico. Referring to the fact that all that has been done at San Juan, Porto Rico, was the establishment of a pier for use in landing coal and other stores, Admiral Bradford says: "It is much to be regretted that little progress has been made in securing sites for other coal depots in the West Indies. It is particularly essential that some of the deep water ports of 'Cuba should be made available for this purpose. The entire waters surrounding Cuba are most important in a strategic sense, and supplies of coal should be near at hand." Arrangements have been made, and in some cases work has begun, for the establishment of coal depots at Frenchman's bay, Me., considered an excellent strategical site; Portsmouth, N. H.; Boston, Narragansett bay, R. I., another place selected on account of its strategical advantages; New London, Conn.; the New York navy yard, League island, Pa.; Washington, D. C.; Norfolk, Va.; Port Royal, S. C.; Key West and Dry Tortugas, Fla., both regarded as important strategically; Pensacola, Fla.; Algiers, La.; Dutch Harbor, Alaska; Sitka, Alaska; Bremerton, Wash.; Mare island, Cal.; Mission Rock, San Francisco bay, and San Diego, Cal. From the above showing it will be seen that the past year, the period covered by the report, has been one of activity on Admiral Bradford's part, and that he has been alive to the knowledge that the United States, as a world power, must be prepared for any emergency requiring the active employment of the fleet. The Western Gas Engine Co., Mishawaka, Ind., has issued a very pretty poster regarding gas launches. The poster represents two young women speeding up a river in a launch entitled Sylva--most appropriately named, as the scene is quite Sylvan. The poster is a most harmonious es aed of color and cannot fail to attract attention wherever it is shown. all, the Olongape dock yard and war base will be the most costly of all the naval institutions. The board notes that, although self-dependence is a necessity for a naval station in the Philippines, the archipelago itself pro- duces little with which to supply the essential needs of such a station. Six million dollars will be asked of Congress this session with which to begin work on the station. Several years will be required to complete it. ANNUAL REPORT LIGHTHOUSE BOARD. The annual report of the lighthouse board has just been issued. Au- thority to construct five new lightships and several lighthouse tenders is asked. The report says that while the board does not propose either to gather or disseminate marine news, it is desirous, in the interests of com- merce and navigation, as well as of economy to be put into early and quick communication with its outlying lightships and lighthouses and it is for this purpose alone that it asks an appropriation to enable it to install a wireless system of telegraphy between such points in the lighthouse establishment as shall seem to be most necessary. At the end of the fiscal year there were under the control of the lighthouse board the following aids to navigation: Lighthouses and beacon lights, 1,306; light vessels in position, forty- five; light vessels for relief, eight; electric lighted buoys in position, eleven; gas lighted buoys in position, ninety-one; fog signals operated by steam, caloric or oil engines, 179; fog signals operated by clockwork, 222; post lights, 1,827; day or unlighted beacons, 752; whistling buoys in position, seventy-seven; bell buoys in position, 122; other buoys in posi- tion, including pile buoys and stakes in fifth district and buoys in Alaskan waters, 4,780. In the construction, care and maintenance of these aids to navigation there were employed: Steam tenders, thirty-four; steam launches, eleven; sailing tenders, two; lightkeepers, 1,420; other employes, including crews of light-ships and tenders, 1,428; laborers in charge of post lights, 1,574. The board asks for an appropriation of $90,000 to recon- struct a buoyage system and man the lighthouses of Porto Rico, and $25,- 000 for the maintenance of the Hawaiian system. The board also asks for other appropriations, as follows: Supplies for lighthouses, $502,886; im- provements at lighthouses, $750,000; salaries of lightkeepers, fuel, rent, etc., $883,000; expenses of light vessels, $525,000; expenses of fog signals, $190,000; lighting of rivers, $330,000.