AMERICAN CRUISERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 271, 13 November 1909, Page 5

AMERICAN CRUISERS.

TO SEARCH PACIFIC FOR MISSING SHIPS. The cost of the new Na-vy is perhaps the crucial point of difference between Republican and Democrats—who are only 27 votes apart—a quantity liable to be changed at any time by 14 con-or per-"verts" (says a New York paper). But the Navy has possible uses other than either offensive or defensive; and two cruisers are now to be employed in Lunting up 130 Americans reported as missing, in the Pacific seas. The Arthur Sewall, Fort George, BangaJore, and Adolf Obrig have not been heard of since they left Eastern ports for San Francisco two years ago—and that they should have had no survivors is a sort of tacit accusation of the owners and insurance companies, which should be cleared up. It is one of the scandals of civilised government that the Pacific Ocean is still, in great part, an unsurveyed and unknown sea. Between 15 and 19 degrees of latitude, south, and 131 and 139 degrees of longitude, the ocean is practically uncharted. As is reported here, the British cruiser Adgerone is now searching for the Scotch ship Australian, which sailed from Mexico for Sydney more than a year ago, but the friends of the 130 persons on the other lost ships named are also ali interested in this quest, and two American warships will soon be detailed to take part in the work. Thousands of little specks of land—uninhabited and unchartered—dot this greatest of the oceans, and as a proportion of daily, everyday life, the production of a reliable, trustworthy map of this sea would be a greater benefit to commerce than the discovery, as alleged, of the North Pole.