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MARINE REVIEW. 7 7 A Big Passenger Ship. A vessel launched at Newport News, Va., on Thursday last will rank with the best passenger ships of this country. Her name is Grand Duchess and she was built by the Newport News Ship Building & Dry Dock Co. for the Plant Investment Co., which operates an extensive sys- tem of steamships lines, railways and hotels around the Florida coast and between Port Tampa and Cuba. The new ship will run between Port Tampa and the Bahamas. She is exceeded in size in this country only by the American liners St. Louis and St. Paul, and is remarkable also for the fact that she is fitted with quadruple expansion engines and water tube boilers of the Babcock & Wilcox type. This vessel will have accommodations for about 800 first-class and 400 second-class passengers. She is entirely of steel and is 404 feet over all, 380 feet between perpendiculars, 47 feet 9 inches beam and 37 feet 4 inches deep from top of deck to base line. Two steel masts are fore and aft rigged. Stern and rudder frame are of cast steel and the rudder stock is of the best fluid compressed steel, made by the Bethle- hem Iron Works. The equipment includes a Providence steam windlass and capstans and cargo hoisting engines made by Williamson Bros. of Philadelphia. The machinery will consist of two inverted direct acting quadruple expansion engines, driving twin screws, which are to be of the best organization. One important act was the appointment of an advisory board, which is to act with the president, and which is made up of Past- National-President Geo. P. Wilson of No. 13, Philadelphia, Wm. F. Yates of No. 33, New York, and Wm. Sheffer of No. 5, Baltimore. Hereafter all associations on the lakes will elect officers at the first regular meeting in January. This makes the time for elections a litte later than it has been in the past, in order that engineers who are late in laying up their vessels after the close of navigation may all have a voicein selecting officers. Representative Henry of No. 92, Saginaw, Mich., introduced at the convention a resolution providing that all applicants for engineers' licenses shall be signed by three engineers, who must be in actual prac- tice at the time of signing such application. The resolution was not made a part of the bill now before congress, but it will probably be con- sidered by executive officers of the organization. It has been proposed to amend the engineers' bill in some respects, and there was read at the convention a communication from Chief Engineer Doran of the Interna- tional Navigation Co. proposing certain amendments in the measure, but the engineers absolutely refused to amend it in any way. New Vessels in Coast Yards. J. H. Dialogue & Sons, Camden, N. J., have just launched a large tug for the United States government, which will be used in New York = STEAMER GRAND DUCHESS---NEW PASSENGER SHIP BUILT AT NEWPORT NEWS FOR THE PLANT SYSTEM. manganese bronze. It is expected that the engines will develop about 7,000 horse power. The number of water tube boilers is eight, built for a working pressure of 250 pounds. The ship will be fitted with a complete outfit of Blake pumps, including independent air pumps for the main condensers. The air pumps are of the Blake verticle twin type, the same as are used on the cruisers built by the Cramps. We are in- debted to the Marine Journal of New York for the engraving of the Grand Duchess, which appears on this page. Marine Engineers. It is probably not generally known that the first six local associations of the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association, which metin annual session in Washington last week, were organized about twenty-one years ago in Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore and St. Louis. Membership of the organization nowis about 3,000. There is said to be 17,000 marine engineers in the United States, including thosein the navy. It is understood that as a result of discussion of affairs of the association on the lakes, President Geo. Uhler will spend about three months of his time during the coming year on the lakes. Such parts of the proceedings of the Washington meeting as have been published show that most at- tention was given to the bill now before congress providing, mainly, that engineers shall all be officers of steam vessels and that they must in ali cases be American citizens. No change was made in officers of the harbor. 'The vessel is of steel, 105 feet over all, 20 feet beam and 10 feet depth, and will have an iron trunk cabin, containing large pilot house and rooms for captain and engineer forward of the engines, as well as a spacious saloon fitted in mahogany aft of the engines. The boat will have high speed compound engines, with all pumps independent, and water tube boilers of large grate surface furnishing steam at 150 pounds pressure. An electric light plant and a steam steerer are other modern features of equipment in the vessel. Neafie & Levy of Philadelphia have contracted to build for the Mexican government a steel light-house tender that is to be 130 feet long, 25 feet beam and 11 feet depth. The vessel will have triple ex- pansion engines. The steamer Charter Oak, which this company is building for the Hartford & New York Transportation Co., was launched Saturday. Another vessel building at this yard is the Deina de los Angeles, a steamer that is intended for Cuban trade. All these ships are being built under the rules of the United States Standard Register of Shipping, New York. At the annual meeting of the Maine Steamship Co., to be held at Portland on the 5th inst., a contract will be awarded to build, for the New York and Portland line, a new iron steamship of 3,500 gross tons, with a speed of 18 knots, and which is expected to make the trip between her terminal points in twenty-one hours, or five hours less than is required of the steamers now used by that line. The ship is to be completed for the season of 1897. a a