The San Francisco call. [volume], August 14, 1912, Page 15, Image 15

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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Dreadnoughts Will Lie in War Canoes'Wake in Pearl Harbor
Dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts
ar trie American navy, crossing
the Pacific ocean, will find a haven
and a cradle within the land locked
waters of Pearl harbor when the Amer
ican nation Is celebrating Uncle Sam's
birthday in 1914. One thousand feet of
drydock, prepared under the direction
and supervision of the United States
navy department will be ready on that
d»*e to receive the smallest or the
largest of the vesels of the American
navy. Upon the shores of Pearl har
bor, close to the greatest engineering
feat of the United States, save that
dividing water line across the isthmus
of Panama, a model naval station will
h* In readiness to serve the warships of
thf» navy, a station costing millions and
millions of dollars, that the fleets serv
ing under the stars and stripes may
have a base of operations in the mid-
Pacific.
The steady increase in the bulk of
warships had its effect upon the plans
for the development of the Pearl har
bor naval station. At first it was to be
600 feet long, then increased to 800
feet, and congress has again authorized
the extension to 1,000 feet, involving
an additional expenditure of nearly a
million dollars. Between three and
four millions were spent to make the
four and a half mile waterway from the
open sea to the harbor opposite the
■V dock straight and navigable to the
ia;-rest warship afloat. Three or four
millions will he spent upon the dry
dock, and other millions upon the great
steel buildings forming the industrial
plant, the store houses, administration
building, quarters for officers, hospital,
magazines, modern coaling plant, sea
walls, wharves, lighting, power and
sewer and water plants, road and rai,'
road Bystems.
calling, and only occasionally double
war canoes of fighting chiefs of ancient
Hawaii sped to the paddling of bronze
hued warriors, the vast fleets of .the
American navy may now steam in from
the open sea off the coast of Oahu, up
a wide, deep and almost straight chan- I
nel ty the inner lochs, which spread out
fleur de lis wise, where broad basins
have been dredged and enlarged, until I
whole squadrons of the greatest war- j
ships extant may float with hardly a
ripple of the inland waters to disturb j
the keel of the captain's gig.
NATURAL XAVAL BASE
For 70 years, ever since wooden j
walled warships of the old navy, with i
their great clouds of canvas, called at
Honolulu .on long, wearisome and
monotonous cruises around the world.
American naval officers have declared
that Pearl harbor was a natural naval I
base, and upon the shores of the lochs
could be established a coaling and re- j
pairing base which would be invaluable !
to any power fortunate enough to gain j
4 Stangenwald Building, HONOLULU, T. H. 4
1 Financial, Insurance and Commission Agents I
j? FOR ~=£= <|
J Oa/zu Railway and Land Co., Haleiwa Hotel, New York Underwriters Agency, §
f Hilo Railroad Co., Union Oil Co. of California, Providence-Washington Ins. Co., g
g Hawaiian Dredging Co., American Locomotive Co., Atlas Assurance Co. of London, $
1 San Francisco Bridge Co., Woodlawn Tract, West Coast Life Insurance Comp'y t
I Oahu Railway and j Hawaiian Dredging | Hilo Railroad I
I Land Company i Company 1 Company |
% 1 HONOLULU, T. M. | ' % Stangenwald Building I 1 | HILO, Hawaii 1 %
ft 1 HONOLULU I f f
\ Every visitor makes a mistake who X f Take the volcano trip over this most 1
% fails to take the Haleiwa trip by % % wonderful scenic railroad and see %
I Rail, which skirts the shores of the | RtlQ CtlgltlCCVS J the tangle of luxurious growth in a g
I world famous Pearl Harbor— passes I r»i?i?rirMXT*r- § a tropical forest—the tree fern forests 1
f through the greatest sugar planta- f HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS I Desiaes sugar, Loiree and Kubber ¥
I tions in the islands besides showing § RECLAMATION I P lantat,ons - |
I Sisal, Pineapple and Banana planta- 1 ! Ihc I
I tions. A perfect day's outing circling I pBARL %* R BDQIN ° &££L^ m I f
f< half the island on a railroad second f RECLAMATION .. . 18-lnch Hydraulic f : v : which surname* even the X
| t GOVERNOR .... 4-yard Dipper % Joy a ; lew wnicn surpasses even tne f
X&& to none. 1 OAVtOJ?/) .*.... 3-yd. Drag Scraper % Canadian Rockies. <oxs>|>
possession. Admirals, commodores,
captains and lieutenants without num
ber never deviated from this recom
mendation. In the days of sailing war
ships the actualities of dredging did
not enter into their calculations as In
these later days of deep draft, steel
inclosed fighting machines, and only
within the last 25 years did dredging
become a problem. Although Pearl
harbor was recognized as a natural
site for a naval base, yet the entrance
from the sea over the coral bar and
up the tortuous channel presented
grave difficulties to successful naviga
tion. They have all been solved, and
j the American navy department de
' clared that the bar, channel and east
loch are now navigable to the greatest
superdreadnoughts afloat.
On December 14, 1911, the United
States armored cruiser California, flag
ship of the Pacific fleet, with Rear Ad
miral Chauncey Thomas, commander in
chief, and Captain Harlow, In command,
upon the flying bridge, entered Pearl
harbor, the first large war vessel to
make the passage. The channel had
been completed by the contractor, and
Admiral Thomas, having expressed the
desire to be the first naval comman
der of a fleet to take a warship into
the harbor, carried out his plan with
out a hitch. The cruiser was skill
fully guided up the four and a half
mile channel and anchored in the har
bor opposite the drydock. The passage
was a historic event, the vessel being
followed by a fleet of small steamers.
Admiral Thomas made the event his
torical, for among the invited guests
who made the trip from Honolulu to
Pearl harbor upon the quarter deck of
the California were Queen Liliuokalani,
Governor Frear, Rear Admiral Cowles,
commandant of the naval station; Gen
eral Macomb, commanding the depart
ment of Hawaii, and Judge S. B. Dole,
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1912.
the first president of the republic of Ha.
wall. Far sighted officers were upon the
rolls of the American navy 70, 80 and
90 years ago, men with prophetic minds,
who closely observed geographical ad
vantages on their cruises and yet It
seems strange that there should have
been such unanimity of opinion with
regard to Pearl harbor, for all agreed
that the base, if ever developed and
establishedi should come into being
only under the American flag. When
the centennial of the American nation
was celebrated in 1878 the American
government entered into a reciprocity
treaty with the then kingdom of Ha
waii whereby the monarchy ceded to
America for use as a coaling base the
great Pearl harbor basins in exchange
for the privilege of shipping raw
sugars inte the United States free of
duty. But none of the naval officers of
half a century and more ago dreamed
that one day the Hawaiian islands
would become a full fledged territory
of the United States, or that Pearl har
bor would become not only an integral
part of the territory, but the most mag
nificent and mo6t modern military and
naval establishment under the flag.
"OLD GLOBY" AMJD THE SUN
Today the sunset guns of Pearl har
bor mark the closing of the day upon
the civilised world, just as the sunn»*
guns upon the island -of Guam give
the first militant greeting to Old Sol
in the civilized world, for the Hawaiian
group is nearest the three hundred and
sixtieth meridian on one side and
Guam on the other, thus giving addi
tional prestige to the flag of the Amer
ican republic.
Ten million** dollars is" the sum which
naval engineers estimated as the cost
of preparing Pearl harbor's waterways
and adjoining shores for the establish
ment of a naval base. Twelve years
ago an attempt was made to dredge
the bar, but the dredger was lost and
the contractors faced failure. The later
contract, with its appropriation of mil
lions, was successfully carried out. But
the drydock engineers have been facing
serious ' problems. When the 100 foot
basin was excavated the false crib
work, or caissons, Installed and the
water pumped therefrom, the bottom
of the basin began to rise and the
caisson was instantly filled again with
water. The naval engineers decided
that the bottom must be "pinned"' down
with piling. This was done, and the
concrete "poured" through pipes and
spread by divers. Again the water was
pumped, when the engineers discovered
that the concrete had rotted and the
bottom again had a tendency to rise.
Once more the engineers studied the
problem, and when on the verge of an
nouncing that some other method of
docking must be adopted the right mix
ture of cement and sand was found,
and after laboratory analysis was pro
nounced solid. Thework was-resumed,
the additional expense adjusted, and
under this plan the drydock will be
rushed to completion.
The millions and millions of people
living under the American flag may not
comprehend the value of the millions
of dollars being expended upon and
near the lochs, for the navy department
has been carrying on its work silently
but surely; working beneath the waters
to deepen where -necessary, to widen
and straighten the channel and reduce
the shallow bar, working with the me
chanical arms oi the dredging machines
which had dug out and crushed the
flintlike coral formations for three
years, night and day, until where only
the diminutive gunboat Petrel was able
to steam Into the harbor in January,
1908, the dreadnoughts may now go.
PEARL HARBOR OUR PROTECTION
Pearl harbor will be a magnificent
rendezvous in the mid-Pacific for the
American navy, and the wisdom of its
creation, in the light of events making
the Pacific ocean the one in which
world powers are competing for com
mercial and military mastery, becomes
clearer and clearer the more the situa
tion is studied. Hawaii is so situated
in the Pacific that it is the natural
center for converging steamship lines,
whether from the Panama ship canal,
or American, Australian or Asiatic
ports bordering upon the Pacific. By
the creation of a great naval force in
this ocean, the American mainland will
practically command the Pacific against
any Asiatic or other power. Pearl har
— .— ■ ' e»
bor will be a protection for billions In
national values. It will add to the
equipment of the United States for the
enterprises of peace as well as for the
necessities of war. The establishment of
a powerful fleet at the Hawaiian
islands makes an oversea attack on
any part of the American mainland too
dangerous to be attempted.
Pearl harbor occupies a site amid
beautiful surroundings. Rising from
its banks and extending far back into
the mountains are tens of thousands of
acres of sugar cane and pineapple
fields. The cane reaches up to the
slopes of the Koolau ridge, the sum
mits of which are almost Impassable to
man or beast, while on the other side
.of this backbone are sheer precipices,
physical features which have been
taken cognizance of by both the war
and navy departments, for few land
ings of armed parties ran' be success
fully made on the other side of the
island. From Diamond head, a pic
turesque headhyid, an extinct crater at
Waikiki, Honolulu, on whose* slopes a
powerful mortar battery, the most pow
erful under the flag, has been con
structed, is a chain of fortifications ex
tending to Pearl harbor. Fort de
Rusay lying on the crescent shore of
beautiful Waikiki beach, is to be
equipped with two 14 inch guns; at
the entrance to Honolulu harbor Is
JFort Armstrong; at Pearl harbor Is
Kamehameha with 12 inch guns and a
powerful mortar battery, manned by
the army as a defense to the naval
station. Oahu is fortified in a man
ner to make it one of the most im
pregnable garrisoned places In the
world.
GEO. G. GUILD,
President and Manager.
American-
Hawaiian
Paper and
Supply Co.
LIMITED
Paper Merchants
AND
Wholesale
Stationers
Fort and Queen Sts.
HONOLULU, T. H.
15