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1899.] MARINE REVIEW. 80 volts, supply the current, about 700 incandescent lamps being used in lighting the ship. The Shikishima, being intended for a flag ship, will be manned by a crew of 741, which will include an admiral and thirty-eight officers, accom- modation for the latter being provided on the main deck, the admiral's quarters being right aft, his saloon, a capacious apartment, looking out on to the stern gallery or walk. Forward of this saloon are the ward and dining-rooms, and on either side of the ship forward of these are the offi- cers' cabins. In connection with these apartments it is to be noted that wherever possible, wooden fittings have been substituted by steel or other metal, the bulkheads dividing the cabins being of corrugated sheet steel and the paneling of steel plates japanned. The crew are berthed in the fore part of the ship, mess accommodation being provided for the whole ship's company at one sitting. Thirteen boats will be carried by the new battleship, which will include two torpedo vidette boats of British Admir- alty type, 56 feet long, fitted with Thames Ironworks water-tube boilers; Be inches; deck plank sheer stringers, 5-16 by 24 inches; transom 5-16 inch; floor frames, 6 inch Z bars; top frames, 3 by 5 by 3% inches; also steel cylinder frames and steel deck under boilers, coal bunkers and pumps The entire hull is double riveted, the cavils, bitts and knees being of iron and steel. The engine is of 24 inches diameter of cylinder by 8 feet 9 inches stroke and is equipped with poppett valves. Steam is supplied from four steel boilers, 48 inches in diameter by 28 feet in length, each containing six 10-inch flues. A "doctor" is fitted for supplying the boilers and there are also auxiliary pumps and injectors, an auxiliary boiler for electric light and heating purposes and a patent steam filter for filtering all the water used on board the vessel. The cabin is 200 feet in length, 15% feet wide and 12 feet high, and in everything from decoration to the arrangement of the staterooms 1s thoroughly modern. There is provided an auxiliary cabin for colored passengers. The vessel is lighted throughout by electricity and heated Mississippi River Steamer, Kate Adams, Built by Capt. Ed. Howard, Jeffersonville, Ind., for the Memphis & Arkansas City Packet Co. these boats will carry two fish torpedoes each in dropping gear, and a 2% pounder Hotchkiss gun in the bow. INNOVATION IN RIVER STEAMERS. THE KATE ADAMS, RECENTLY BUILT BY CAPT. ED. HOWARD, OF JEFFERSON- VILLE, IND.--FIRST STEEL HULL SIDE-WHEEL PACKET CONSTRUCTED ON WESTERN RIVERS. Probably the most notable vessel built during the past year in the ship yards of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers is the steamer Kate Adams, completed some weeks since by Capt. Ed Howard of Jeffersonville, Ind., for the Memphis & Arkansas City Packet Co. of Memphis, Tenn. It is more than probable that construction of the Adams will mark a new era in ship building on the rivers. She is the first steel hull sidewheel packet boat built for passenger and freight service on the rivers. As strength has been sacrificed in large wooden steamers of the river type to secure lightness of draught, particular attention has been directed to the results obtained from the adoption of steel for this hull. When this boat went into commission with complete outfit on board, her draught was only 3 feet 3 inches, whereas two boats having wooden hulls, built at the same yard, of the same general dimensions, and exactly the same engine and boiler power each showed under similar conditions a draught of 4 feet 4 inches. The Kate Adams is 240 feet long, 40 feet beam, 7 feet depth of hold and 5 feet sheer. She has three fore-and-aft and five athwartship watertight bulkheads. Hull plating on the bottom and sides is of 5-16 inch steel; knuckle plating, 3 inch, stern band, 2 by 9 inches; stern post, 24% by 7 / by steam. This steamer was built with particular regard to the require- ments for carrying the United States mail between Memphis, Tenn., and Arkansas City, Ark. The capacity of the boat is 600 tons. About 4,000 bales of cotton can be put aboard without inconvenience. She makes two trips per week, the average distance traveled each week being 1,000 miles, and on an average more than 180 landings are made each week. Specifications complete for this steamer were prepared by the James Rees & Sons Co. of Pittsburg, who furnished the machinery. She was built under the direct supervision of Capt. James H. Rees, president of the Memphis & Arkansas City Packet Co., at the Howard yard at Jefferson- ville, and cost about $90,000. Capt. J. F. Ellison of Cincinnati, superin- tendent of the Pittsburg & Cincinnati Packet Line, who is heavily inter- ested in the Memphis & Arkansas City company, purchased the outfit for the vessel, and it is due in a great measure to his good taste that the cabin of the Adams enjoys the distinction of being the finest ever seen on a river steamboat. One of the features of equipment most worthy of note is the electric plant installed by the Triumph Electric Co. of Cincinnati. Current is fur- nished from a powerful generator direct connected with a Sturtevant double cylinder engine--the first of these engines installed on a Western river steamer. Indeed the plant is the most modern of any known to the vessels engaged in inland navigation. It consists of 350 incandescent lamps, five 2,000 candle power arc lamps and a search light of 4,000 candle power. In every detail it is an exact duplicate of the plant on Howard Gould's new steam yacht Niagara. The Kate Adams is officered as fol- lows: M. R. Cheek, captain, Louis Botto, first engineer; John Botto, second engineer; first mate, Mr. Bender of Memphis; second mate, Z. T. Whipple of Louisville; Al Dickson, steward, and Alex Pritchard, clerk.