Its organization is far advanced and it has already
absorbed the Guardia Republicana. In it will be merged the frontier
guard of about 70 men depending on the general receiver's office, and
probably also the small municipal police squads that compel the
observance of municipal ordinances.
The Dominican navy is now composed of a single gunboat, the
"Independencia." At the end of Heureaux's rule the country boasted
three. The best of these was the "Restauracion," which went on the
rocks at the entrance to Macoris harbor in one of the first conflicts
between the Jimenistas and Horacistas. The story goes that the steamer
was about to attack Macoris, that the pilot, in sympathy with the
opposition, grounded her with a view to having her captured, but that
a sudden storm drove her to complete destruction. Another gunboat was
the "Presidente," which had figured in history, for it was nothing
less than the yacht "Deerhound," on which the Confederate Admiral
Semmes took refuge after the sinking of the "Alabama" by the
"Kearsarge." In 1906 it was sent to Newport News for overhauling as
old age had made it unseaworthy, but since the repairs would have cost
more than the vessel was worth, it was sold for old iron.
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