Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1894 — Fate of the Old Navy. [ARTICLE]

Fate of the Old Navy.

The Navy Department is gradually doing away with the old men-of-war of historical and romantic memory, and a number of changes affecting them are to be made in the near future. The training ship Richmond at Newport is to be sent to Philadelphia to take the place of the St. Louis, which is in so decrepit a condition that she will probably be broken up and sold for the material in her. The Lancaster, now in China as the flagship of the Asiatic station, is under orders to sail for the United States when the cruiser Baltimore relieves her, and her active service as a war vessel will end on her arrival at Newport to take the place of the Richmond. The Lancaster will return from China via the Cape of Good Hope, and she is not expected home until March next. In the interim the old Constellation, now on special service, will remain at Newport in place of the liichmond. The Lanoaster will be fitted out as a gunneryinstruction ship. New gun-carriages and guns will be mounted on her and tested at sea in order to allow officers and men to become familiar with their workings. The Essex, the successor to the ship which made so gallant resistance to two British vessels, the Phoebe and the Cherub, in Valparaiso harbor in 1814, while commanded by Capt. David Porter, has been thoroughly repaired at the Norfolk navy yard and is now attached to the Naval Academy as part of the instruction fle.)t, and she is also used for seamanship and gunnery practice by the cadets. The Swatara and the Pensacola are now laid up in ordinary at the Mare Island navy yard, and it has been practical ly decided that they shall not be refitted, and sale and destruction will follow ultimately.