A NAVY FOR SALE.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 395, 3 December 1912, Page 2

A NAVY FOR SALE.

-* Mr R. J. Watts, sometime of Brooklyn, New York, and latterly Admiral in command of the navy of the Republic of Hayti, is dissatisfied with his honorable and dignified office, and is willing to exchange it for a steady job on a coasting steamer. Mr Watts recently poured his woes into the confiding ear of an American reporter, and his pathetic and simple story is worth recounting. A year ago Mr Watts, being dissatisfied with his prospects in the United States, enlisted in the Haytian navy. Promotion came to him quickly, and after six months he found himself in command of the entire fleet, consisting of one small gunboat, with the rank of Admiral. Mr Watts at once found cause for complaint. The na-vy leaked abominably, and her enI gines were not all that they should have j been. He pestered the Haytian authorities for repairs, and was finally . authorised to take the vessel to the United States navy yard at League Island and get an estimate of the cost of putting the navy in proper service trim. Private shipbuilding firms declared that the job could not be done under £6,000, which sum the Haj'tian Government flatly declined to pay. The United States Government were then appealed to, and finally, after much correspondence, agreed to make the ship seaworthy for £3,600. Admiral Watts sent the contract home to Hayti for signature, but it was never returned. Idleness did not improve the vessel, the crew deserted, and the unfortunate Admiral, who was without funds or friends, had to resort to shad fishing to get enough to eat. After a few weeks of this precarious existence he received a command to sell the navy as a junk. All this the Admiral told as lie walked the dirty deck of his warship. "And say," he added, "if you hear of anyone who wants to exchange anything useful for an Admiral's full dress uniform, let me know, will you?" When the last mail left the United States the Haytian navy was still unsold and its Admiral was still catching shad.