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A Great Ship Building and Dry Dock Plant. By an expenditure equal to about one-third the original in- vestment represented in the plant of the Detroit Din Dock Com- pany, Detroit, Mich., 'tthe capacity of the different works has been doubled, and the plant as a whole is now among the finest in the entire country. Improvements made recently by this company are mainly in the Dry Dock Engine Works, connected with the dry docks and wooden ship building plant at the foot of Orleans street, Detroit, but in describing these new shops and their machin- ery equipment it will not be out of place to note that the company now has under contract five big steamers and a small tug to be built for the opening of navigation next season at a total cost of $1,365,000. Of the five big steamers, four are steel and are being built at the metal building works, in Wyandotte, a few miles be- low Detroit, from which works they are towed up the river at a trifling expense to the yards containing dry docks and engine works, as shown in the engravings on the two following pages. The capacity of the big dry docks and the metal and wooden ship yards of this company for the construction and repair of all kinds of vessels is fully understood by vessel owners, but improvements in the works for the construction of marine engines and boilers are of recent date and of great importance. The new engine works have a frontage on three streets and are so constructed that great advantages in light and air are secured from an immense skylight and large windows extending the full height of the building. 'The construction is of steel and brick with fire-proof floors and roof. 'The entire building is 200 feet long, 66 feet wide and 50 feet in height. 'The main shop for the erection of engines and for heavy machinery runs the full length and height of the building and is 37 feet 3 inches in width. From this main floor space there is a lean-to 26 feet 6 inches in width, which also runs the full length of the building, and which is divided into three floors, the first, or ground floor, being used for power purposes and for heavy machinery, the second for light machinery and for bench work and the third for the storage of patterns. An elevator affords ready access to all of these floors, or galleries, and there is an abundance of light and air from the fact that there are no partitions between them and the main shop space, while the facilities for the transmission of power and the handling of material by a large electric crane in the main shop are most complete. One end of the main structure is reserved for the erection of machinery, and the space devoted to this purpose admits of four of the largest triple expansion engines being put up at one time. At the other end of this main portion of the building the large tools are so arranged that work from them can be readily trans- ferred with the least possible difficulty by means of a 20 ton Shaw electric crane, which runs the whole length of the building, and which can be applied to heavy work in the galleries as well as in the main shop. 'This crane has 37 feet span and the space from the floor to the crane hook is 36 feet. A scale attached to the crane will weigh any amount from a few ounces to twenty tons, so that in accepting forgings and other articles of outside manu- facture the company has its own weights. Among the big tools in the main shop are the following: a planer capable of planing 72 inches square in the clear; a 48 inch double heac planer ; 120 inch lathe, 24 feet between centers ; wall planer, capacity 14 X 20 feet ; a 96 inch lathe; 30 inch stroke slotting machine; 18 inch stroke slotting machine ; 36 inch lathe; 48 inch lathe; 60 inch boring mill ; two radial drills and a vertical suspension drill. On the first gallery there are three small planers and seven small lathes of various sizes, two shapers, three vertical drills and a bench 75 feet long for vice work. On this floor is located also the electric generator for the operation of cranes and the electric light plant. The upper-gallery, on third floor of the side struct- ure, now devoted to the storage of patterns, etc., can be readily equipped with machinery when additional work requires it, and a MARINE REVIEW. 13 new building can be put up on the spacious premises of the com- pany for storage purposes. That portion of the old engine works not taken up by the new building has been utilized for the manu- facture of patterns, for store rooms and for offices for the foremen of the different departments of the engine and boiler works. Beam engines for the two big side wheel steel steamers being built by this company for the Detroit and Cleveland Steam Navi- gation Company will be constructed by the W. & A. Fletcher Company of New York, who make a specialty of such work, but notwithstanding this the Detroit works now have contracts for six engines aggregating about 9,200 horse power. 'These are two of the compound type for the Mackinaw car ferry, the cylinders of the engine intended for service in the forward part of the boat being 28 and 54 inches by goinch stroke and the aft engine 30 and 56 inches by 48 inch stroke; two triple expansion engines, duplicates, with cylinders 22, 35 and 56 inches by 44 inch stroke, one of which is for the Eddy Bros. steamer, now about ready for launching, and the other for a duplicate vessel, for which a contract has just been closed with Capt. E. M. Peck and others ; one triple expansion engine for the New York Central steamer, with cylin- ders 27, 37 and 62 inches by 48 inch stroke, and one small tug engine 16 by 18 inches. All of this machinery is to be in readi- ness for the opening of navigation next season, and there is no doubt that this work and even more that may yet be taken under contract can be cared for in the new establishment. Without the improvements here referred to, there has been built in the Dry Dock Engine Works within a period of about a year ending with last month, engines having a combined horse power of a little more than 10,000. 'These were five sets of triple expansion type, all duplicates, of about 1,500 horse power each ; one compound for the steamer W. B. Morley ; a three cylinder non- condensing engine for the Detroit river ferry steamer Promise, and a triple expansion engine, with cylinders 16, 24 and 38 inches by 24 inch stroke for the passenger steamer Wyandotte. Improvements in the boiler building works connected with this plant, which will receive attention in a later issue, are of equal importance. The new boiler works is 180 feet long, 70 feet wide and 50 feet in height. This works is also equipped with a 20-ton electric crane, riveting tower 50 feet in height, a 25-ton radial hydraulic crane and a 1oo-ton hydraulic riveting machine, all of which will be described with more detail in reference to the boiler building plant. One of the greatest features of these works for economy and rapid handling of material of all kinds is the close connections established between the dry docks and ship yards and the engine and boiler shops. Railway tracks run into the yards and build- ings, connecting the different departments with the river front and docks, from which vessels recently launched or needing repairs can be reached with the least possible trouble or expense. An immense shear-legs for putting boilers or machinery aboard boats and for repair work of all kinds is located on the dry dock premises adjoining the engine and boiler works, and just now there is under construction in one portion of the river front prop- erty the second big car ferry steamer and ice crusher for service in the Straits of Mackinac. 'This boat, which will cost $300,000 and have engines of 4,000 horse power, is in itself a subject of great interest. No less than 2,000,000 feet of timber will enter into her construction. She is probably the most wonderful ferry steamer building any place in the world, as to power and stabili- ty. She will go into service this winter and will make regular trips through ice from two to three feet thick. She is the largest wooden craft on the lakes. ! These spacious buildings, with their massive structural iron frames, were put up by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company of East Berlin, Conn., and nearly all of the heavy tools which they con- tain were furnished by Bement, Miles & Co., of Philadelphia, Pa.