Mr. CONNESS. I desire simply to add a word to what the honorable Senator has said in regard to the steamer Comanche. It will be remembered, as stated by the chairman of the ComNavAffrs, that the Camanche was a monitor iron clad contracted for, for use in California. She was built at NewYork. In addition to what the Senator has said with regard to the losses of the contractors h reason of her sinking at the wharf at Sanfiancise o, the 1st loss which the contractors claim, and their claim is a perfect one, is, that after they had constructed the engines for the vessel complete, the need of the Government for engines was so great that they took them from the contractors, an. but them into another ship, and they were e engines of the ship that destroye the Atlanta. The contractors were thus prevented from building the ship when the legal tenders paid by the government were worth more in the market than they were subsequently, and the builders of the ship were driven into such weather when she reached the Pacific as led to the disaster there. I wish to make this statement in addition to what the honorable chairman has said in regard to this particular case. I cannot in justice to mys f close without affirming the correctness of the position taken by him. I call attention to the case of the Wateree, that is named among the ships for which a claim is made. B listening to the reading of the report I fin, I think, some 35,000 dollars proposed to be aid by the committees report in that case. I thin the award was $20,000 or $25,000, but the committee have finally allowed $35,000. I know something about that shi. She is one of what are known as the “double enders, ” an iron hull double ender ship. She was the 1st ship sent out to the Pacific coast as a part of the Pacific squadron when the blockade made less demand upon us than it had previously. That ship, an entirely new one, was 8 months in finding her way to SanFrancise o. Indeed there were doubts entertained as to whether she would ever arrive there. She went out, I think, under the command of Commander Murray, of the U.S. Navy. When she was sent from here, and long before she was dispatched by the Navy Dept, there were apprehensions of depredations by piratical ships of the confederates on the Pacific coast. The under writers, and others interested in commerce there, were very anxious to get an addition to the naval force on that station, but the Wateree was so long in reaching there that it did nothing to allay the fears thatwere entertained and when she got there she was utterly and entirely useless. She had to be taken to the Mare Island navy yard, at very large I cannot new name the tig public expenditureire paired and put in O Now, as to the difficulty in the case going directly to the contract ors, feeling a great interest in the case, I made several visits to the Navy Dept in regard to the longlrip of this shi, and felt inclined to blame the commander who took her out, but I found his reputation was A No. 1 as a naval officer.