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1899.] ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST. A very handsome engraved calendar has just been issued by John S. Parsons, the well-known ship chandler and sail maker of Oswego, N. Y. The navy department has transferred to the war department the auxil- iary vessels Viking and Kanawah. The price of the former was -$30,000 pa ihe latter $50,000. These vessels will be used in the customs service in Cuba. The Penn Steel Casting Co. of Chester, Pa., has delivered to the Roach ship yard, Chester, Pa., during the past week four large propeller blades for one of the steamers for Hawaiian-American service now build- ing there. Mr. Charles J. Dougherty, electrical engineer at the works of the Wm. Cramp & Sons Co., will read a paper before the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia on the evening of Dec. 16 on the subject "The Electrical Process of Annealing Armor Plates in the Construction of War Ships." In the last weekly report of new vessels issued by the bureau:of navi- gation, treasury department, the steamer El Cid, recently completed by the Newport News Co., is listed at 4,608 gross and 2,921 net tons*burden. The steam yacht Dreamer, built at Elizabeth, N. J., is of 288 gross and 196 net tons. The cruiser Albany, which has been building at the Elswick yard of sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, has been completed and her machinery trials have been in progress on the Tyne this week. Lieut. Colwell, who represents the United States navy in England, has been present at the trials. The Ontario government has issued an order which it is claimed may result in the establishment in that province of extensive works for the production of nickel for use in the construction of war vessels for the British navy. It is designed to enable the British admiralty to secure an interest in the still unpatented nickel lands of the province. Many vessels engaged in the coal trade on the Atlantic coast are being seriously delayed by the shortage of the coal supply at Baltimore. The schooner Mary T. Quinby was delayed 42 days and the new steel sailing ship Edward Sewall. has been there a month and is likely to re- main another month before she gets her cargo of 5,000 tons of coal for San Francisco. The provision of the bill governing the construction of the new Pacific cable, which provides that all the work shall.be.done under the supervision of the navy department, leaves with that department the responsibility for the, placing of a great. many contracts, inasmuch as it is estimated that the cost of the proposed cable will be in the neighbor- hood of $10,000,000. The cruiser Brooklyn has arrived at Manila, winning easily the long distance race with the cruiser New Orleans, which is four or five days behind her. The newer cruiser does not show up so badly beside her big competitor, however, when it is remembered that the Brooklyn sailed from Fortress Monroe on Oct. 16, whereas the New Orleans did not get away from New York until Oct. 21. MARINE REVIEW. The Queen Anne's Ferry and Equipment Co. of Baltimore, Md., has | purchased from Capt. S. M. Denny of Philadelphia, the twin-screw steamer Endeavor. new steamer Queen Anne during the winter months. The Daimler Manufacturing Co. of New York city, has just com- The } pleted a rather novel launch for the East Coast Florida Hotel Co. boat has a remarkably light draught considering its size. When loaded it will draw but 80 inches of water. An electric light plant is operated by:a small separate motor. Maj. Z. T. Wood of the northwest mounted police, who kept a record of the number of boats, scows and rafts that passed down: the' Yukon river in Alaska during the past season, says that the aggregate was 880. Of this number 411 were scows, thirty-seven. canoes and fifteen rafts. The remainder were steamers. Thirteen steamers were plying during the season on the lakes between Bennett, White Horse and Atlin. What might have proved a very serious conflagration occurred at the Wyandotte yard of the Detroit Ship Building Co., a few days ago. The fire spread from the engine house of the saw mill to the mold loft, a build- ing 240 by 40 feet in size. The launch 'is 85 feet long by 16 feet -- beam, and will have twin-screws driven by two 25 horse power motors. Both buildings were destroyed, but various | 'patterns, including' a model of the new Carnegie steamer, were saved. -- The loss, which was quite heavy, was fully covered by insurance. The new White Squadron which Admiral Norman H. Farquhar will shortly command, will in all likelihood constitute the most powerful fleet of war vessels ever assembled in American waters. Among them will be the new battleships Kearsarge, Kentucky and Alabama; the battleships Massachusetts, Indiana and Texas; two monitors and probably several smaller vessels, including the converted yachts Scorpion and Vixen. Some very handsome models have recently been completed at the Boston navy yard, among them the bow section of a 12,000-ton battle- ship, a quarter section of the same ship, a quarter section of-a 1,200-ton composite gunboat and a 1,000-ton gunboat. .These models are the first of the kind to be constructed at the Boston navy yard. They will be shipped to the naval academy at Annapolis. to be used in the regular course of studies. The decree arranging for the international competition for the best life saving device in case of disaster at sea was signed a few days ago by M. Alfred Picard, commissioner general of the Paris exposition, and Ferdinand W. Peck, United States commissioner general. It is under- stood, of course, that this is the competition for the Anthony. Pollock 'prize to which extended reference has several times been made in the columns of the Review. Commenting on the program of new ships for the United States navy, the Engineer of London says: 'The Americans are evidently shaking off This steamer, which was. built.at Wilmington, is of steel, 150 feet in.length by 35 feet beam. and-has capacity for 700.passen- | gers and 150 tons of freight. She is being refitted and will replace the 'roads 'between the points mentioned. 17 the 'moderate dimension' craze to which a few years ago they were dis- posed to adhere. It is rumored that the 18,500-ton ships will be more or less after the style of the Russian Peresviet type, a very powerful sort of armored cruiser, equal to a first-class battleship in everything save the power to deal vital blows. At a recent meeting in Washington of the Michigan delegation to congress it was decided to make a concerted move toward securing an increase of pay for the surfmen at the life Saving stations on the great lakes and increasing the number of months they are to be on duty. In the bill which was introduced as a result of the meeting it is proposed to pay the men $70 per month for 10 months instead of $60 per month for eight months, which they now receive, By a deal closed a few days ago James J. Hill, president of the Great Northern -railroad, acquired a Majority interest in the stock of the St. Paul & Duluth railroad, an independent line connecting Duluth and Minneapolis and-St. Paul. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul road has had tratfic.arrangements with the Duluth road and it is predicted that this line will now build a road to Duluth. This will make a total of four The steamer El Cid, fourth of the Morgan liners constructed during | the past year at the yard of the Newport News Ship Building & Dry Dock Co., was given a trial the other day and proved fully as speedy as any of her sister vessels. Work on the new dry dock at the Newport News yard is progressing most auspiciously. The second of the cable- ways installed by the Lidgerwood Manufacturing Co. of New York city, for the removal of material, is almost ready for use. Comptroller Coler of the city of New York, in an address delivered in. the metropolis recently, declared, that the city ought to own the entire system of docks; that it ought to,match the docks of Liverpool; that it ought. to spend $200,000,000°in building docks, and that the revenue re- ceived from the docks would pay all the interest, provide a sinking fund and return a handsome sum in addition to the city treasury, and that this -$200,000,000 should not be included in the debt limitation. The war department last week cancelled the charters of the troop- ships Elder, City of Para, Belgian King, Tacoma, Zealandia, and Glen- agle. 'These vessels were used in the transportation of troops to the fhilippines and' have returned to San Francisco. Other ships which will be discharged as soon as they return from. Manila are the City of: Pekin, City of Pueblo, City of Rio, City of Sydney, Dalny Vostock, Duke. of life and Manauense. It is the intention of the government to reduce the transport fleet.as speedily. as possible to, those vessels owned outright by the war department. According to the report of her captain, the use of oil probably saved the Hamburg-American steamer. Canadia, which recently arrived at Ho- boken after occupying full twenty days in a very rough passage between Hamburg and Sandy Hook. Capt. Schmidt says that the head wind was such that a dozen times or more the vessel had to stop absolutely and head up to wind and wave. In such instances it was found necessary to use oil to prevent the sides of the steamer from being crushed in. At one time there were four oil bags hung over the Canadia's weather side. There was one at each bow and stern and two amidships. The oil which dripped from the bags served to smooth the sea for several hundred yards. Two transatlantic liners were launched in European yards last Sat- urday. At the Clydebank company's works the Saxonia, a new Cunard liner of immense size, designed for service between Liverpool and Boston, went into. the water, and,at Hamburg the new twin-screw steamer Pots- dam, built for the. Holland-America line, was successfully launched. The latter vessel is; the, third.of the fine new.steamers which the. Holland- America company. contracted for some time ago and is 565 feet in length by 62 feet. beam and 44 feet depth. She is fitted with bilge keels and her engines are designed to give her a speed of 15 knots. In addition to large cargo capacity, this vessel.has accommodations for 250 first and 150 second-cabin passengers. Considerable difficulty was experienced in raising the Aryat, the last of the Spanish gunboats to be recovered from the Pasig river in the Phil- ippines. 'The wrecking operations were in charge of Commander E. K. Moore of the gunboat Helena. When the Aryat was finally raised it was 'discovered that she was leaking badly, her decks being honeycombed by "holes made by torpedoes. Before this could be remedied the chains by which the Helena was raising her broke. -A. second attempt was suc- cessful and the reconstructed vessel is now ready to go into service. Another recent addition to the American navy is an insurgent steamer recently captured by the Oregon near Panay. This vessel will be fitted up as a ferry to run between Manila and Cavite and this will release the Leyte which will thus be enabled to return .to her former use as a gun- boat on the coast patrol. Recent tests of Holland submarine torpedo boats have brought about a really. surprising change of tone in regard to submarine navigation on the part of the British technical press. This is all the more noticeable in view of the extreme pessimistic attitude which these journals have heretofore assumed in all reference to this subject. The Marine Engineer of London, commenting on the trials of the Holland, says: 'It would t' us appear that the American engineers have succeeded, after great patience and perseverance, in perfecting a submarine torpedo boat which has so long been amongst the possibilities. It is of course reported that the French also have a submarine boat which is said to be a practical success and of which some are now being built. Sorry as we may all be to see marine warfare carried out by such stealthy and submerged weapons of offence and defence, we must not shut our eyes to'the fact that such submarine engines of destruction appear now within the bounds of practical politics and we must not be behind our friends and enemies in experimenting upon the possibilities. of even such noxious insects as submarine torpedo boats." In this connection it may be noted that Senator Stewart of Nevada, a few days ago, introduced in congress a bill authorizing the navy department to purchase the submarine torpedo boat Holland.