The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

10 MARINE REVIEW. Lengthening a Hudson River Steamer. -. In'the last issue of the Review reference was made to methods adopted at. the John N. Robins ship yard, Erie 'Basin,' New York, in cutting the hull of the Hudson river steamer New York in two, hauling it apart and building a new section of 80 feet at the point of division. The accom- panying diagram, which was prepared by the Scientific American irom drawings furnished iby the ship builders, gives a clearer explanation of operations on the vessel than could be obtained from the dispatches. It may be well to first give a description of the New York. She was built in 1887 at the works of the Harlan & Hollingsworth Co., Wilmington, Del., and is of the following dimensions: Length on water line, 301 feet; length over all, 311 feet; breadth of beam, moulded, 40 feet; breadth of beam, over guards, 74 feet; depth, moulded, 12 feet 3 inches; draught, 6 feet; tonnage (net 1091.81), 1,552. In the construction of the hull of this vessel, which is of iron, everything was done to cut down the weights and secure the light draught which is necessary for running at high speed over the shoals of the Hudson river. The frames, which are spaced 2 feet apart, are 4 inches by 3 inches by 7-16 inch; the reverse bars are 2% inches by 214 inches by 5-16 inch; the stringers are 4 inches by 3 inches by 3% inch, and the floors 16 inches by 3 inch. The shell plating is 3 inch throughout, except the sheer strake and garboards, which are % inch and oO. ° We agkt 350 Tons °. ° 102-0~ dock buildings and secured to a 12 by 12 stick of timber placed on the outside of the building at the ground level. The falls of the, tackles were led to a pair of steam winches. In cutting apart the iron hull, all that was necessary was to cut off the rivet heads and knock out the rivets. This was done in every case at the original butts. The three decks, partitions, uards and sponsons, were then sawn through and everything was now Sade for the alt Ata given signal the forward half of the boat, weigh- ing 350 tons, began to move slowly and steadily forward, and in exactly 5 minutes and 30 seconds it was stopped precisely at the measured mark, 30 feet ahead on the ways. [When the two portions of the boat.were lined up with fine pianoforte wire, it was found that one side of the bow had to be raised Only 3-16 of an inch and the stem jacked over about an inch --a highly creditable result. During the building of the ways, the fifteen frames for the new section of the hull had been made in the shops to model. The work of carrying them into the dock and putting them in place was done by hand. It commenced on Saturday morning, and by noon of the same day the work was in frame. The framing and plating 's similar to that of the rest of the hull, with the exception of two additional sister keelsons of 36-inch plate, which are spaced about 16 feet apart. It is estimated that the additional buoyancy afforded by the new sec- tion of the hull will lighten the draft by 5% inches. This, on a model of such great beam and fine lines as the 'New York, will give her an easier Ftoe Elan showing Arrangement of Ways, Cradle & Cables in pulling apart Steamboat NewYork at Erie= BasinDry Docks Brooklyn Navl2 1897 _ John N.Robbins C2 N.Y NovlO%1897 7 Section TRrougk AB COLOR CCR TMA GSS SHUSTER NY i - FS bet hey ---------------------- SSAA METHOD OF SEPARATING THE TWO SECTIONS OF THE STEAMER NEW YORK. 1-16 inch respectiv&ly. The thull is divided into four watertight compart- ments by bulkheads, which extend to the main deck and are free irom doors or passageways, the compartments being entered by stairways from this deck. The boat is driven by a standard American beam engine of 3,850 horse power, with a cylinder 75 inches diameter by 12 feet stroke, provided with a 'Stevens cut-off. The 30-foot paddle wheels are of the feathering type. Steam is supplied by three return-flue boilers, 9% feet diameter and 383 feet long. It was decided to cut the hull at a point between the engines and boilers, and the first step, after the vessel was floated into the dry dock and placed upon the keel blocks and bilge blocks in the usual manner, was to build launching ways 'beneath the forward part of the hull and transfer to them the load that was carried by the blocks. The fixed ways, which were 10 inches deep by 14 inches wide, were laid' upon blocking on the floor of the dock and well shored. Guide pieces were spiked to the outside of these ways to keep the sliding ways in place. The latter were built of 6 by 14-inch timbers and were tied together with 12 by 12 transverse timbers at regular intervals. The space between the transverse timbers and the floor of the hull was filled in with blocks and wedges, and at the forward end shoring pieces were substituted to accommodate the decreasing width and the taper of the bow. The length of these ways was 102 feet, and they were placed 10 feet 9 inches apart in the clear. Ata distance of 3 feet 9 inches on the outside of the main ways, a pair of additional ways were built to take the weight of the boilers. The rubbing surfaces of the ways, which, of course, were planed and smoothed, were freely lubricated with a mixture of tallow and fish oil. When every- thing was completed, the wedges were gradually driven home until the weight had been 'lifted from the keel and bilge blocks and was carried en- tirely by the 'ways. The pulling apart of the hull was accomplished by means of four 13@-imch chains, a pair of 5-inch manila ropes working in fourfold blocks, and a couple of steam winches located at the head of the dock. A chain was led through the hawse hole on each side at the main deck and wound around four successive bitts, so as to secure a thorough distribution of the strain. Just in front of the stem they were lashed to- gether, and made fast to a pair of fivefold blocks. The inshore blocks were connected to 13-inch chains, which were led back through one of the waterline and will, if anything, increase her speed. However, as the lengthening was undertaken with a view to increasing the passenger ac- commodation, which at present is 2,500, it is probable that with a larger load the speed will remain at 23 knots with forced draft or 20 knots under ordinary working conditions. Big Dredge for Buffalo Breakwater Construction. The dredge Fin Mac Cool, now nearing completion at Buffalo, is one of the biggest machines of its kind ever built in this country. It was built under the direction of H. T. Dunbar, with a special view to economical work on the Buffalo breakwater contract held by Hughes Bros. & Bangs. The dredge is of the clam-shell type carrying a bucket of 10 cubic yards capacity, which is adapted to digging in 100 feet of water. The bucket weighs fifteen tons empty. The hull has a bow of the vessel kind and is 150 feet over all, 40 feet beam and 12% feet depth. There are two con- densing engines (Wheeler surface condenser) each 18% by 24 inches, sup- plied with steam from two Roberts water tube boilers of 150 horse power each. Cable is used. in the dredging machinery and also in the handling of scows, for which purpose there are three drums on each side on deck. Instead of the spud ordinarily used in dredges, kedge anchors of the Baldt type are used for mooring purposes. There are five of these kedges, and the cables attached to them are led down to the bottom of the dredge by posts forward and aft, so that tugs and scows can be moved around the sides of the craft without interference. This big machine is designed to hoist 200 tons 30 feet a minute. The main hoisting gears are 12 feet pitch and chain 12 inches fall. Drums are 5 feet diameter, compound geared, 3 to 1 anid 6 to 1, equaling 18 to 1. : Mr. E. S. Wheeler, who has for fifteen years had local charge of the important government works at Sault Ste. Marie. has been selected by the Nicaragua canal commission as an assistant engineer. He will join the commission in New York immediately and with other engineers selected for the work will sail for Nicaragua in a few days. The work will require six months to a year.