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MARINE REVIEW Published every Thursday at 418-19 Perry- Payne Bldg., by the Marine Review Pub. Oo. Wht OS SHIP BUILDING--AMERICA'S GROWING INDUSTRY. The new torpedo boat Bailey was launched on Wednesday of this week at the ship yard of the Gas Engine & Power Co. at Morris Heights, New York city. She is the first United States war vessel to be launched on the Hudson. The boat was authorized at a contract price of $210,000 on March 8, 1897, with a required speed of 30 knots per hour. She is 205 feet long with a maximum beam of 19 feet and a displacement of 235 tons. Her armament will consist of two Whitehead 18-inch torpedo tubes and four semi-automatic quick-firing six-pounders. Miss Florence Beckman Bailey christened the boat, breaking a bottle of American champagne over the bow. Miss Bailey is the granddaughter of the late Rear Ad- miral Bailey. This boat is fitted with a complete outfit of bilge, fire, feed and sanitary pumps of the Blake simplex type. Samuel Ayres & Son of Upper Nyack, N. Y., report the great activity at their ship yard. They are at present filling an order for thirty electric launches, each 30 feet in length, for the Electric Launch Co. of Morris Heights, New York city. They are also building a vessel of 130 feet length for Charles R. Flint of New York city. This vessel, which was designed by C. D. Mosher, naval architect of New York, is of steel and aluminum frame and all the planking is to be of mahogany. She is fitted with engines of 4,000 horse power and it is claimed she will attain a speed of 4214 miles an hour. The boat is to be completed by June 1, 1900. The tug John Fleming, building for Brown & Fleming of 129 Broad street, New York city, was launched a few days ago from the ship yard of Peter L. Colon & Sons at Claremont, Jersey City, N. J. The Fleming is a very strong tug. She is 111 feet in length, 24 feet beam and 11 feet depth of hold. John W. Sullivan of South Street, New York city will supply the engine, the cylinders of which will measure 20 and 40 inches diameter and 28 inches stroke. Steam will be furnished by a Watkins & Dixon type of boiler furnished by Heipershausen Bros. Morison corru- gated furnaces will be used. It is rumored in New York city that a company is being formed in which Pennsylvania railroad interests are largely represented, and which will operate a line of express steamboats between New York and Boston. It is claimed that the capitalization of the organization will be fully $10,- 000,000, and that the company will enter the field in which the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad now enjoys a monopoly. It is the in- tention of the new company, according to rumor, to provide vessels ot high speed and to have them run through to Boston. The Fore River Engine Co., Weymouth, Mass., will enlarge its plant as rapidly as possible in consequence of having secured the contract for the construction of the United States cruiser Des Moines. At present 350 men are employed, but as soon as new shops and machines can be pro- vided the force will be increased by fully 300. Increasing business has compelled the beat building firm of Wyckoff Bros. & Taylor to remove their plant to the mouth of the Indian river, Clinton, Conn. One of the contracts on which the firm is now at work is for a 45-foot launch for W. A. Rumpf of Boston, Mass. 'Moran Bros. of Seattle, Wash., have secured from Capt. E. Ee Caine of the same city, a contract for a four-masted schooner. She will be 196 feet in length, 39 feet beam and 15 feet depth and will cost $50,000. The vessel will be employed in the lumber carrying trade. At the Roach yard, Chester, Pa., the joiner deck is now going on the Pennsylvania, which will-be the next vessel launched, and frames are ready to go up on the two large steamers building for the Hawaiian service. The yard of Enoch Moore & Sons Co., Wilmington, Del., is crowded ue work, Among the vessels building is a tank barge for the Standard il Co, A REMARK ABLE SEASON. Ii the vessel owners who are taking chances in trying to run some of their ships without insurance until well into the middle of the present month do not meet with serious trouble, the 1899 season of navigation will have proven one of the most remarkable in the history of lake navi- gation, not only in the matter of profitable freights for the vessels that Were not tied up by contracts, but also from the standpoint of freedom from accidents. Heavy losses were sustained on account of the block- ades in the Sault river. but the scason has been one almost entirely free of storms.' The oldest vessel men can not remember another year when October and November passed without a blow of some kind injurious to shipping. This year there have been practically no disasters due to oe oi weather, The insurance companies have made money, but they ee €en doing business for several years with very little if any profit. A ew owners will insure themselves ore cargoes that will be carried in eas wninsured vessels during the next ten days. They are, of course, ta sls Very great chances. A couple of steamers taking coal to the se ake Superior will not leave Lake Erie ports until Friday or Saturday Next. This is very late sailing. : ea Probably the ahiehese freight of the year was that paid a short ee ago to James Davidson of West Bay City, on a small block of ore tro the head of Lake Superior to Detroit--$2.50 a ton. ------ ee . . One of the fir easures introduced in the new congress was a joint resolution by pes ecentatiys T. E. Burton of Ohio for the eee of the treaty of 1817 with Great Britain so far as it relates to the building ®t war ships on the great lakes. CLEVELAND, O., DEC. 7, 1899. Subscription $2.00 a year. Foreign 3.50 a year. No. 238 MARINE EXHIBIT AT PARIS. The United States commissioner to the Paris Exposition and his assistants have manifested especial interest in the maritime and naval exhibit of the nation at the exposition, and iudging from present indica- tions it will be a most creditable one. A feature of the merchant marine exhibit will be the yachting section. Models of all the cup defenders and the other principal yachts owned in this country will be shown. Then there will be models of all the distinctive craft to be found in-American waters, including ferry boats, car floats, ice breaking steamers, whale- backs and cable ships. The largest single exhibit will be that of the American line, which will include models of their steamers. The marine engineering department will be placed in the civil engineering and trans- portation building. ; In the government display 'will be an extensive exhibit of engineering work on the Mississippi river and this will include an elaborate represen- tation of river steamers. Lumber rafts, tow boats, barges, spile drivers and other unique Mississippi river craft will be shown in detail by means of models, drawings,and photographs. Of the large model of the Chicago drainage canal, which is to be exhibited, the Review had something to say in previous issues. The model will depict the entire length of the canal, showing the methods of excavation, dredging, etc, as well as the bridges which span the canal. In view of the fact that there will be no army exhibit by our government, almost all the space will be devoted to the navy. A prominent feature will be a large collection of models show- ing all the more important war vessels in the American fleet. The weather bureau, which, by the way, has the reputation of being the best in the world, will make a very creditable exhibit, consisting primarily of all the instruments employed and illustrating the methods followed in observa- tery work. PLEASED WITH! AMERICAN METHODS. Another British visitor has just paid a tribute to American ship building methods. Some months ago the London Times sent G. R. Dunell, well known in engineering circles throughout England, to this country to study industrial development. On the eve of his return home he gave out an interview in which he referred most highly to the machinery equip- ment and administrative methods followed in America's manufacturing establishments. In the course of his remarks Mr. Dunell said: "Some- thing else of more vital, practical importance has now attained a stupen- dous development. That is the art of ship building. The Chicago and Cleveland yards offer an opportunity for acquiring a fund of knowledge in this respect. I think the practice of launching a ship sideways is more logical than the prevailing English system, and for these reasons: You haven't got the same length of launching ways as by our method oi launching lengthways. Then there is not the same stress put on the struc- ture by being water borne at the after part before the forward part has left the ways. You can have a permanent steel staying in place of ordinary scaffolding, which facilitates the handling of tools. I think the uses which pneumatic tools, especially riveters, are put to in the American yards are simply marvelous. The rapidity with which the construction of a ship is conducted is bewildering." Vessel men of New Orleans and vicinity are naturally enthusiastic over the transfer to that district of Light-House Inspector James R. Sel- fridge, while the maritime interests of Boston, where Commander Sel- fridge has been stationed, are correspondingly regretful because of the change. The transfer was not made at the request of Inspector Selfridge but the southern post was offered to him when members. of the light- house board learned that his wife's health necessitated a change of climate. Commander Selfridge inaugurated many improvements at Bos- ton, not the least of which was the practice of keeping tenders continu- ally under steam, so that when a buoy was reported adrift there was little delay in reaching it. The British admiralty has continued its chartering of vessels to con- vey troops to South Africa until the total is now 164, aggregating 779,000 tons burden. Of these 135 steamers, of 707,166 gross tons, are over 3,000 tons each and six of them are over 9,000 tons each. Germany is the only country that could under similar circumstances charter such a quantity of native-owned large-tonnage vessels and then only by absorbing three- fourths of its vessels of over 3,000 tons burden. There are 1,242 steamers of 3,000 tons on the British register, making an aggregate of 5,247,708 tons. Thus the total tonnage at present under charter amounts to only 13 per cent of the classes of vessels dealt with. In line with a recommendation contained in the report of the secre- tary of the navy, Representative Bingham has introduced a bill in the house authorizing the secretary of the navy to change the material to be used in the construction of the dry dock at League Island, Pa., from timber to stone and concrete. The cost of the new dry dock is fixed at 81,100,000. Vessel men will be disappointed to hear that President Frank J. Firth of the Lake Carriers' Association will be unable to attend the annual meeting in Detroit next month. It was expected that the meeting would prove highly interesting, on account of Mr. Firth's ability as a presiding officer. Mr. Firth will sail for England on the 13th inst., expecting to be absent all winter.