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Spee # ee ey MARINE REVIEW. | 9 Rockefeller Ships. DESCRIPTION OF VESSELS OF THIS FLEET BUILDING IN DIFFERENT YARDS, WITH MIDSHIP SECTIONAL DRAWINGS. As the twelve steel ships---seven steamers and five barges--now under construction for Mr. John D. Rockefeller are being built in six different yards around the lakes, it is the intention of the REviEw to publish mid- ship sectional drawings of all of them, thus showing in detail the methods of construction adopted by different builders. Full descriptions of the different vessels and machinery will be printed also, and with this information at hand, it may be possible in the future to make some interesting comparisons. It is hardly necessary to publish longitudinal sections or deck plans of the ships. These would show only the regular style of lake freight carrier with long open deck and houses at either end. The great wide cargo hatches, too, are characteristic of all lake vessels, although in these 400-foot ships the number of hatches is usually twelve» as against eight or nine in vessels built two or three years ago. The first of the ships to go into commission is the steamer Sir Henry Bessemer, which will be launched by the Globe Iron Works Co., Cleve- land, on Saturday, May 9. A midship section of this steamer will be found on the following page. This drawing as well as the description will also serve for the Sir Wm. Siemens, a ship that is a duplicate in every particular, and which is being built by the same company. The Sir Wm. Siemens is to be finished July 15. Dimensions of the Sir Henry Bessemer are as follows: Wen gil OVEr all jci05... tec oceecssceae eee en meats hae 432 ft. Length between perpendicullarsi:..2....-1-cees-..0<09- 412 ft. Moulded: beattt....ccsccicr sc, cine mite eee ae ee 48 ft. Moulded depths. ssiec eevee, erate tenet ornate 28 ft. From tip of keel to tip of sheer strake............... 28 ft. 634 in. Depthrof-water ballast tank +... a..06- ccs eee oe 5 ft. The steamer has main deck beams but no laid deck, except at the forward and after ends; also a forecastle deck forward, and one steel deck-house forward, as well as a steel pilot house. She has also a steel deck-house on the spar deck aft, with galley and dining rooms on main deck aft. Accommodations for such of the crew as are not housed in the after deck house are provided in the forecastle. Engines and boilers are placed aft, between decks, the boilers athwartships, with fire room between them. The boiler house is of steel, and the coal bunker, located between decks, next forward of the boilers, is also of steel, carried up to the height of the boiler and deck house aft. The double bottom, whichis 5 feet deep from collision to engine bulk-heads, is divided by center keelsons and solid floors into eight com- partments, for water ballast, and is built on the cellular system, solid longitudinals extending from the bottom plating to the tank top, contin- uous fore and aft. The vessel's hold is divided into four compartments by three screen bulkheads, extending tothe spar deck. The spar deck is of steel complete, without wood covering. except inside the houses and on the forecastle deck. The ship has two pole masts. All plating is of open-hearth mild steel, tested to the following speci- fications: Tensile strength not less than 54,000 not more than 62,000 pounds per squareinch. Limit of phosphorus not to exceed .08; elonga- tion to be not less than 24 per cent. in eight inches and radiation to be not less than 45 per cent. Reports of tests to be furnished with invoices and plates not to be run over or under theoretical weight more than 2% percent. All shapes that are furnace shaped also of open hearth steel. All other shapes of Bessemer steel or open hearth steel as desired by the builder. Rivets of the best open hearth steel, the limit of phosphorus to be .06, limit of sulphur .06 and tensile strength not less than 52,000 nor more than 60,000 pounds per square inch; or, at the option of the builders, first-class quality of iron rivet material, of not less than 50,000 tensile strength per squareinch. Materials to be tested at makers' works to these requirements by a disinterested party to represent both steel maker and ship builder, and to be appointed by the ship builder; pro- vided that in case of angles, channels, beams and Z bars, the certified re- ports of tests made at the laboratory of the Pencoyd Iron Works will be accepted by the owner. Engines are of the vertical triple expansion type, having cylinders 25, 41 and 66 inches diameter with a common stroke of 42 inches. Thick- ness of metal for the high pressure cylinder is 134 inches, intermediate pressure 114 inches and low pressure 15g inches. The cylinders are, of course, inverted, and are supported by cast iron columns of rectangular cross section at back and front of engine. The bed plate is of box form and of cast iron 21 feet 5inches long and 11 feetin width. The high Pressure cylinder is operated by a valve of the piston type,while the valves of the intermediate and low pressure cylinders are double ported slide valves. The valve gear is the usual link motion, with two eccentrics, ard reversing of the engine is accomplished by means of an independent steam reversing engine attached to the housings at the front. The Pistons are of the usual box form, each being fitted with spring rings, Piston rods are made of the best steel and are 534 inches diameter. The connecting and eccentric rods are of wrought iron. The condenser and air pump are placed at the back of the engine, the latter being worked from the crosshead of the intermediate cylinder. Boilers are of the Scotch type, four in number, each11 feet 3 inches mean diameter by about 11 feet 11% inches long. _Each boiler has three furnaces of 36 inches inside diameter, and the total heatin g surface is about 6,300 square feet. Boilers are allowed a working pressure of 175 pounds of steam per square inch. The propeller is of 14 feet diameter and 16 feet pitch. The ship has one steam capstan aft and two amidship, and a steam capstan windlass forward. A complete electric lighting outfit is furnished by the General Electric Co. Business Success of a Buffalo Stevedore, A good portrait of Wm. J. Connors of Buffalo is presented herewith. The REviEw has for several weeks past been trying to obtain the photo- graph from which this engraving was made, and the correspondent who sent it suggests that 'from the time it has taken to get the photograph out of Mr. Connors it is evident that he has no towering vanity inthe matter of public attention." And yet W. J. Connors, who was, not many years ago, employed on the Buffalo docks as a stevedore, has reason to take to himself a few vain offerings, on account of the success that at- W. J. CONNORS, BUFFALO, N. Y. tends.everything he undertakes, As acontractor employing stevedores in great numbers on the package-freight docks of Buffalo, he has prob- ably made more money, and has been more successful with his employers and with the men under his charge, than anyone who has ever been en- gaged in similar work in this country. His success asa freight handler in Buffalo attracted attention in other places, including Chicago, Mil- waukee and Gladstone, where he organized dock forces without any fric- tion among the men. In Chicago and Milwaukee especially he stepped in some time ago and quickly stopped fighting on the docks without force or legal assistance, and in sucha manner that the disturbances of previous years are not now heard of in these places. Mr. Connors' attention now is devoted largely to building up a big patronage and influence for the Buffalo Enquirer, an evening newspaper in which he became interested recently and of which heis now practically the sole proprietor. A new building has been secured for the Enquirer and a large amount of money expended for a-new press and other im- provements, with a view to making it an all-round newspaper of the first- class, devoting special attention tolake marine news. In addition to looking after these enterprises the stevedore of former days is a director in two Buffalo banks, has large real estate interests andis having built at the works of the Union Dry Dock Co., Buffalo, a steel steam yacht that is to cost about $60,000. Captain George A. Zinn, corps of engineers, U. S. A, gives notice that the light-ship at the south end of the unfinished breakwater, Mil- waukee bay, has been replaced at the expense of the engineer department.