April 20, 1861 – Captain Doubleday’s Statement

Major Anderson landed at the Battery, and was received by an immense crowd. His carriage was surrounded by the people, who expressed in cheers and other demonstrations their congratulations. He was followed by an immense throng through Broadway to the Brevoort House, where he was joined by his wife.
The following is a digest of Capt. Doubleday’s statement :
The demand to surrender Fort Sumter was made on the 11th, and refused, not only by Major Anderson, but the unanimous voice of his command. On Friday morning, at 3 o’clock the rebels sent word that a fire would be opened in one hour, and at 4 o’clock the fire opened upon us in every direction, including the hidden battery. The fire was opened with a volley of seventeen mortars, firing ten inch shells, and shot from thirty three guns, mostly Columbiads. We took breakfast, however, very leisurely. The command was divided into three watches, each under the direction of two officers. After breakfast they immediately went to the guns, and opened fire on Fort Moultrie, Cummings’ Point and Sullivan’s Island. The iron battery on Cummings’ Point was of immense strength, and most of our guns glanced off. Major Anderson refused lo allow the men to work the guns on the parapet, on account of such a terrific fire directed there.
New Floating City
Imperator, Largest of Ocean Craft, Soon to Be Launched.
Ship Will Be 900 Feet Long Monster of the Seas, With 50,000 Ton Capacity, to Have Many Luxurious Features.

Berlin.—Records for size in the ocean steamship world are not held long nowadays. We find a new “Goliath of the Ocean” of German construction. The new ship now building for the Hamburg-American line is to be called Imperator, and will be launched on the Elbe, Mr. Kerns tells us, in a few months—”such a vessel,” he says, “as hitherto man’s eye has not beheld,” ‘ The Imperator will have a gross tonnage of 50,000, outdoing the Olympic and Titantic (45,324 and 45,000). The length of the Imperator over all will be about 900 feet. Says Mr. Kern, according to Land und Meer:
“It would be impossible for a man at the bow of the Imperator to recognize with the naked eye another standing in the stern. If we think of the Imperator set up on end beside the cathedral of Cologne, the heavens reaching lower would come only to the second funnel of the steamship. To get a still better idea of the size of the vessel, it may be compared with one of the largest warehouses in the world the new store of Tietz on the Alexanderplatz in Berlin, which, although forty houses were demolished to make room for it, could be placed entirely inside of the Imperator. The steamship, when complete and fully laden, will displace 50,000 tons. The following figures show how much larger she is than the vessels which once held the world’s record for size:
Our Duty
Our Liquorless Navy

There may be an honest difference of opinion regarding the utility and morality of the army canteen which is now no more, but the same arguments which were made against the abolition of the canteen cannot be made against the order of the secretary of the navy, abolishing wines and liquors from the officers’ mess, on shipboard or on naval reservations.
It was to be said in favor of the canteen that it stood in the way of the disgraceful dives which now hang like a dirty fringe just outside of and around our military reservations. To a large extent the canteen removed the enlisted man from the temptations which now allure him.