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

18 MARINE REVIEW. [December 21, MARINE REVIEW Devoted to the Merchant Marine, the Navy, Ship Building, and Kindred Interests. Published every Thursday at No. 418-19 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, Ohio, by THe MARINE REVIEW PUBLISHING Co. Eastern Agents--The Samson Advertising Agency, 102 and 104 Fulton St., New York, N. Y. SUBSCRIPTION--$2.00 per year in advance; foreign, including postage, $3.50. Single copies 10 cents each. Convenien1 binders sent, post paid, $1.00. Advertising rates on application. Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. - In an address delivered at the annual dinner of the Rochester cham- ber of commerce, Rear Admiral William T. Sampson talked at length upon the subject of armor. He said that the fact that we do not at present get the best armor plate is due to congress. 'The question now is,' said the rear admiral, "shall we take the armor that congress has fixed the price of, or shall we have a higher priced armor? I know what your answer must be. You think we should pay more money and get a better article. Congress has Axed a certain price for armor. It seems to me that congress should withdraw from this position and leave the question open, so that instead of two great armor plate makers there will be many to compete. This will remove the possibility of a trust, such as existed before, when there were only two or three makers." One of the students at the Massachusetts institute of technology who was on the battleship Kentucky during her recent trial run, gives'a very interesting description of the scenes below deck. He says that ten bar- rels of lard oil were used for lubricating purposes alone and that to get at the small bearings there was utilized a syringe about six times-as large as a bicycle pump. The engineers, who were entrusted with the work of taking data, dressed in oil skins throughout. Every lump of coal used was also sorted by hand, washed and polished. During the test the - firemen and engineers drank iced imported ginger ale. Three barrels of this were furnished by the company, and inasmuch as the beverage cost 11 cents per bottle, it will be seen that the bill for this item alone amounted to a considerable sum. Inasmuch as American manufacturers of ship building machinery are making some extensive sales to Italian yards it may. be of interest to note that the plant established some two years ago by Hofer, Maneria & Co. at Spezzia has been transferred to a stock company known as the Cantieri Navali di Muggiano with a capital of $600,000. The firm has just turned out a steel vessel 340 feet in length, the horse power engines for which (1,500 horse power) were supplied from England. Some idea of the state of the company's business may be imagined from the fact that they now have on their books orders for sixteen vessels of from 4,000 to 7,500 tons deadweight. The company has six berths for building vessels up to 530 - feet in length. About 1,400 men are employed. a The French legislature is considering a measure to modify the ship- ping bounty law of 1893 by the creation of an outfit bounty as an alterna- tive to the navigational premium and the bringing of the bounty for steamers into line with that for sailing vessels. The increased bounty is to be allowed only on ships constructed of iron or steel. The conditions are that the ships shall be of French build and that when they are fifteen years of age they shall cease to draw the premium. The outfit bounty will be paid for twenty years from the launching of the steamer. The owner is at liberty to choose whichever bounty he anticipates will prove most beneficial to him. The bill, it is said, is certain to be passed. Capt. J. G. Warren, engineer of the ninth light-house district, has given notice that vacancies exist in the list of eligibles for the position of superintendent of the light-house service in that district. One posi- tion will require a machinist who understands the construction and repair of machinery and boilers. The other positions will require a general knowledge of building construction, qualities of material, and ability to handle working force. Persons wishing to apply for the position may obtain blank forms of application from Capt. J. G. Warren, whose office is at the custom house, Milwaukee, Wis. Officials of the Lake Carriers' Association do not seem very much concerned over the latest Detroit river bridge bill, introduced in con- gress a few days ago by Representative Corliss of Michigan. It is not probable that a special effort will be made to pass this bill or any other bridge measure in the present congress, but any move on the part of the railway companies interested in bridge legislation will, of course, be watched by Senator Hanna, Representative Burton and other members of congress who will be on the side of the vessel men. The United States revenue cutter Manning, which rendered excellent service during the Spanish-American war and which is now at the Erie basin, Brooklyn, N. Y., has been ordered to proceed to the Pacific via the Straits of Magellan. Upon arrival in the Pacific the Manning will re- place the revenue cutter Corwin, which will be put out of commission. The cutter Rush, now at San Francisco, will, it is expected, be sent to Heenotuly, and the Grant has been assigned to permanent duty on Puget ound, Edward Gillen of Racine, Wis., is the lowest bidder for the con- struction of 700 linear feet of crib breakwater at Sheboygan harbor, Wis., for which Capt. J. G. Warren, United States engineer, recently opened bids. Mr. Gillen's bid was $83,720 for white pine and $82,800 for Norway pine. The only other bidder, Christie, Lowe & Heyworth of Chicago, submitted a bid of $94,432.48, THE,TRAFFIC OF THE SUEZ. The assertion made by Senator Hanna in a speech delivered during the late political campaign in Ohio that only four vessels flying the American flag passed through the Suez canal in 1898, has been questioned several times of late by persons not conversant with the facts. The best evidence of the truth of the statement is a table just transmitted by the French vice-consul at Suez. The commerce of the canal during the year 1898 was as follows: Race: No. of Total. be vessels. gross tonnage. Birth aes lee i oer ele ee Ak BEAD D5 8,691,092 (Geir ar ee is a eee ey, BR Ree | sie 356 1,353,161 Rienicht: stlvatnecrer Gi Le oteatala' ois 2x: 221 891,641 Dit CHOa aie. (OT. Bane SAGE een eee 193 526,478 dNuiguno: Jaliineriehl 5555 0bs0ugeeceeg coors 164 85 300,251 Jia panes ia: 216.2 oP eae Oy. Sane Se 46 261,601 RGIS Giatigak a. pha guerre eebacutan ig nie oie. tank ie 48 243,381 SW aunis hi sais ca ie ear Pera omar ania eg ies ease 49 232,358 Tita alates PES Bey gee tetas Se eR) alte do 74 208,418 INORWe gain: & aes aia: tinea feu cm opespie. ogc AT 109,708 aides eae wena peat. aaberen os tuations 54 83,540 DamiShierce eck chee eure eas ca tyree ina 8 30,228 soi ony P Wlalileeep ere occas BL PVSeet re tes ener Angee 10 15,705 Gliinesee sro rene ute vee ees 4 6,180 PAC IC ATs eee at ee een her a: Se Ses ge oe 4 3,161 Greek wear reat. ee tee aera sna at ge 2 1,941 INO MIManMames.. coy esis co netak eran, eae. oes 1 1,703 Swedish « See Ros pee fark eet 2 1,020 . Porte uesetes. ii Baer EO Phil 2 rae 3 605 ARS ST EMG = Pe i, RO we haat ASA | 1 450 otal Say ape AS. ba ee Paar 3.003 12,962,622 It is thus seen that 65.5 per cent. of the total number of vessels, and "over 67 per cent. of the tonnage, was under the British flag, while the '*German flag covered a little over 10 per cent. of both ships and tonnage. French vessels represented over 6.5 per cent., and Dutch vessels over 5 per cent. of the total number of ships, and the former over 6 per cent., and the latter over 4 per cent of the tonnage. The remaining 13 per cent. of both the number of ships and the total tonnage was divided among sixteen different nationalities. ; TRADE POSSIBILITIES ON THE PACIFIC. John D. Spreckels of San Francisco, well-known ship owner, is an enthusiast on the subject of trade possibilities on the Pacific. In a recent "conversation he said: "On our Australian line we have refused 30,000 tons of outward bound freight this year for lack of room. The Cramps of Philadelphia are building three 6,000-ton vessels, the Sierra, Sonoma and Ventura, especially for this trade. Our new vessels will be supplied with refrigerators especially fitted for the meat trade. The need of more ships on the Pacific coast has reached an acute stage. As a result of the shortage of vessels, Tacoma elevators alone contain ten cargoes of wheat with only two vessels in sight to move it during the next two months. The lumber situation is even worse. The manager of one of the largest mills on Puget sound said a few days ago that he could book. orders for fifty million feet of fir if ships could be obtained to carry it. M. Lockroy, former minister of marine in France, has introduced a bill in the chamber of deputies authorizing an appropriation of $100,000,- 000 for the purpose of placing France on a secure footing against for- cign naval aggression. A liberal share of the new appropriation will go, according to the plan, for new coaling stations. _ The United States training vessel Chesapeake will have a 48-hour official trial at sea under canvas this week. The trial and inspection board of the navy will give the vessel a thorough test. _ Another handsome sale of Pocahontas coal is just reported The British steamer Avala sailed from Norfolk, Va., a few days ago with a . cargo of 5,000 tons of this coal for the use of the American fleet in the archipelago. _ Harry Rasmussen, proprietor of a boat building works at Essington, Pa., will enlarge the plant. He has on hand at present orders for three nes including one 60 feet in length for Cook Brothers of Phila- delphia. H. M. Bean, Camden, Me., a few days ago launched the wooden schooner Jennie French Potter. The vessel, which is owned by New i ane parties, is 279 feet over all, 240 feet keel, 44 feet beam and 21 feet depth. __James Corrigan of Cleveland has purchased from McArthur Bros. of Detroit the wooden schooner J. I. Case, a vessel of about 1450 tons coal capacity. The consideration was probably about $12,500. The Caledon Ship Building & Engineering Co., whose yards are on the Clyde, have secured from Canadians a contract for a steel steamer 225 feet in length for use on the great lakes. _ Arthur Sewall & Co, of Bath, Me., will build a large steel shipentine in the spring, provided the price of steel falls as predicted. The Nickel Plate road offers to students desiring to return home for the holidays the special rate of one and one-third fare for the round trip Tickets will be sold on the day school closes and the day immediately preceding, good returning to and including the date school reconvenes but not later than Jan, 16, 1900. (jan