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

1898.] | MARINE REVIEW. _ i NAVAL WATER BOATS. ORAFT FOR THIS SERVICE PURCHASED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT DURING THE WAR -- OTHERS NOW BUILDING: There can not well be any overestimate of the advantage of the recent war in securing to the navy a fairly adequate fleet of auxiliary vessels. Included in the auxiliary fleet are not only the tugs, dispatch boats and converted yachts but the even more valuable repair and distilling ships transports and water boats. That a recognition of the advantage of the latter has been reached could not be more conclusively proven than by the award by Commodore Bradford, chief of the naval bureau of equipment, to Lewis Nixon, the Elizabethport (N. J.) ship builder of a contract for three specially constructed vessels for this service, as noted in the Review last week. The use to which these boats are put is, of course, the conveyance of fresh water to fleets either cruising or on station. All our naval vessels have condensing apparatus capable of supplying all the fresh water needed for ordinary service. It was demonstrated during the war, however, and particularly in the case of vessels on blockading service, that this is an expensive way of securing large supplies of fresh water, by reason of the heavy demands made on the engineering force and the coal supply. A realization of this fact was reached long ago by the British admiralty, and indeed it is now announced that water boats are to be provided, even for dock yard service at Portsmouth and other ports. Vessels used by the navy as water boats during the war were secured from the Standard Oil Co. The steamer Maverick and barge No. 77 were chartered and barges No. 75 and No. 55 were purchased outright. The barges 55 and 77 were built for harbor work, while the 75, of which a picture is herewith presented is a regular coasting barge. The latter was built by the American Steel Barge Co., West Superior, Wis., in 1895, and is 170 feet over all, 33 feet beam and 17 feet deep. She has four tanks with a capacity of 400,000 gallons, and pumps capable of discharging 75,000 gallons per hour. This vessel is provided with a boiler in the forward hold to supply steam to the pumps and windlass, and for hoisting sails, and there are three steel masts, the foremast being used for a smokestack. Tihe Maverick is a steel tank steamer built by the Columbian Iron Works, Baltimore, in 1890, and is 250 feet in length, 36 feet beam and 23 feet depth. Engines are of 1,100 indicated horse power and capable of driving the vessel at a speed of 12 knots. There are six tanks in this vessel of an aggregate capacity of 500,000 gallons, and her pumps have STANDARD OIL BARGE NO. 75, NOW A GOVERNMENT WATER BOAT. an hourly capacity 'of 100,000 gallons. 'Steel tank barge No. 55 was also built by the American Steel Barge Co., West Superior, in 1891. She is 122 feet in length, 30 feet beam and 10 feet depth, and her three tanks have a - capacity of 165,000 gallons. There is a small boiler for the pumps on this vessel, which are capable of discharging 50,000 gallons per 'hour. Barge No. 77 was built by Lewis Nixon at the Crescent ship yard, Elizabeth, N. J., in 1895, and is 144 feet over all, 23 feet beam and 11 feet depth. /Her five tanks have a combined capacity of 185,000 gallons and her pumps can discharge 50,000 gallons per hour. The three vessels ordered by the government are to be built at the Crescent yard. Two of them will be 144 feet long and 2214 feet beam, and will have a draught of 8 feet and a capa- city of 175,000 gallons each, while the third will be 68 feet long, 16 feet beam and 8 feet depth and will carry 30,000 gallons. _. George L. Watson, the yacht designer, has prepared plans for the largest schooner yacht in the world, to be built by D. & W. Henderson on the Clyde for James Coates of Fergusville. Her tonnage will exceed 500. According to reports, Mr. Watson 'has been commissioned by A. G. Drexel of Philadelphia to design and have built on the Clyde a steam yacht of 2,000 tons, to replace the Margarita, sold to the king of Belgium. He is to design a 2,000-ton twin-screw yacht for an Italian gentleman, and has already placed the order for her with Scott & 'Co. of Greenock, and finally he has placed intsructions with the Ailsa Ship Building Co. for a steam yacht of 500 tons. It is stated that the United States navy during the past fiscal year con- sumed 452.551 tons of coal, costing $2,122,005, as compared with 138.318 tons, costing $655,922, during the previous fiscal year. This would indi- cate that the amount of coal used during the war aggregated somewhere in the neighborhood of 300,000 tons. The average cost of coal per ton for the year was $4.67. SPEEDY OLD GLORY. NEW STEAMER OF THE NEW LONDON AND SAG HARBOR STEAMBOAT 00O.--HER BRUSH WITH THE CONVERTED YACHT AILEEN. Some interest has recently been attracted in eastern shipping circles by a little brush of speed between the steamer Old Glory, completed a short time ago by the Robert Palmer & Son Co., of Noank, Conn., for the New London & Sag Harbor Steamboat Co., and the converted yacht Aileen of the United States auxiliary fleet, then acting as a patrol boat at Camp Wikoff. The Aileen, according to her navigator, was making just 1634 knots per hour and the Old Glory held her for ten miles in Block Island sound. ; The Old Glory is 140 feet over all, 27 feet beam and 10 feet depth; has a 3-foot guard and is modeled on easy lines. The keel, stem and stern post are of white oak; the frame of oak, chestnut and thackmetac; the keel- STEAMER OLD GLORY, BUILT BY ROBERT PALMER & SON CO. sons, ceiling and planking of yellow pine; the deck of 3 by 3-inch white pine and the plansheer, guard and lining of white oak, all of long lengths and thoroughly fastened. On the main deck is a freight room (42 by 31 feet in size), engine boiler and toilet rooms. The after cabin is 23 feet long, and with the office and cafe is finished in sycamore. The ladies' cabin is finished in sycamore upholstered in silk tapestry. On the first joiner deck, reached by an oak stairway from the after cabin, is the main saloon 64 by 25 feet and finished in cherry. From this several staterooms open. Outside this saloon and extending around the steamer is a prome- nade, terminating in open spaces and having a length of 12 feet forward and 20 feet aft, and extending the full width of the deck. The upper deck is 102 feet long and unobstructed save for the space occupied by the pilot house, captain's room and life boats. Power is furnished by two triple expansion engines with cylinders 10, 15% and 26 inches in diameter by 15 inches stroke, to which steam is supplied from two Almy water tube boilers built for 200 pounds working pressure and each having 44 square feet of grate surface. The Old Glory on her trial trip. made 16 statute miles per hour over a measured course. New wheels of an increased diameter have been placed in the boat and another trial will, be made within a few days. At a dock trial the steamer made 180 revolutions per minute and her build- ers believe that 'her speed will be increased a mile per hour by the im- provement. A TRIM NAPHTHA LAUNCH. Charles P. Willard & Co. of Chicago have just completed a very handsome twin-screw, light-draught pleasure yacht or launch for Edward H. R. Green, president of the Texas Midland railroad and son of Mrs. Hetty Green. The vessel is 50 feet over all, 11 feet? extreme beam outside of planking, and 2 feet draught, loaded. The frame and lower planking are of selected white oak and the remainder of the planking is cypress in long lengths. The interior of the cabin is finished is quartered oak and cy- press, and the boat is heavily sheathed with copper. All trimmings, in- cluding railings, chocks and cleats are of polished brass. Motive power is furnished by two of Willard & Co.'s ten 'horse power simplex naphtha engines, placed in the after cockpit, which also contains two gasoline en- gines for driving a dynamo which supplies current to eighty incandescent lamps and a 'search light. A duplex system of rudders is provided for steering the craft, and in addition to the ordinary wheel in the fore cabin, there is a smaller guiding wheel in the rear cock-pit near the engine, so that the engineer alone can, in an emergency, run the vessel. The wheels are connected by one rope. The little vessel, which will 'be known as the Mabel, had a trial on Lake Michigan a few days since and easily attained 12 knots. An important experiment has been made at Glasgow in the design of a cargo steamship, with a view to avoiding harbor dues. A Scotch firm has just had a 508-ton steamship built, and, while on the load line she can carry 650 tons, her net register tonnage, on which dues are calculated, is at only 79, or for every 100 tons of carrying capacity possessed by the ves- sel, there are apparently only 12 tons assessable for dues. In thus obtain- ing an exceptionally small register tonnage, a considerable saving in or- dinary dues is effected. The owners declare that the requirements of a section of their trade compel them to have boats of large capacity with the smallest possible assessable tonnage.