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1900] MARINE REVIEW. 13 FITTING OUT OF THE TRANSPORT SUMNER, The house spent one entire afternoon discussing the furnishing of the transport Sumner last week. It was represented that no ocean liner, no yacht of a millionaire was so lavishly fitted out and that enough money had been spent on her to equip a dozen ordinary boats. The luxurious and costly furnishings extended even to the simplest articles. A. device for boiling eggs cost $50 and the plate glass mirrors through which the officers surveyed themselves cost $1,500 each. The rugs were the most expensive that ever came out of Persia and the eye was greeted wherever it turned with magnificence most regal. Wherefore the representatives --particularly those from the agricultural districts--grew exceeding wrots., and demanded an investigation. It was even proposed and ELEVEN MILLIONS IN NEW SHIPS. _ The present program of the Hamburg-American line, as briefly out- lined in the Review last week, is an enormous one. At the close of last year the Hamburg company had seventy-six ocean-going steamers on its list. Of these twenty-three are large, practically new twin-screw passen- ger craft, a larger number than any other line possesses. The total ton- nage of the seventy-six ships is 418,812. "Our company now has," said General Agent Emil L. Boas, "'twenty- two new steamers on the stocks or contracted for. These ships will add 150,000 tons to the company's fleet and will bring the total number of steamers owned by this company nearly to the hundred mark. The ma- a bill introduced to transfer the transport service from the war to the navy department. Meanwhile the quartermaster general's office, which has the transport service in charge, was fuming and fretting at various inaccuracies in the account of the Sumner's tur- nishings and transmitted the following statement to the house: 1. The cost of the repairs to the transport Sumner at Erie basin, New York city, was not $8,000, but was $1,945. 2 a =~ ee 2. The tumblers and water bottles in the staterooms were included in a sum total bid for all crockery, but can be bought at retail for 39 cents and $1.25 respectively, the cost being much less of course purchased in the lot. 3. The linen on board is of good quality, but is not the best, the cost of the same being as follows: Table- cloths, 87%4 cents a yard; napkins, 22 cents each; sheets, 4714 cents each; pillows, 14 cents each, and pillow slips, 14% cents each. 4. (The glass covers for the front doors of the state- rooms cost 50 cents apiece, and is the ordinary frosted glass used in doors of stich character, 5. The tables in the dining room were made by the workmen at the Norfolk navy yard, and the exact cost is not known. 6. The chairs are the standard chairs used in all ocean-going steam- ers and cost $20 instead of $15. In this connection it would be advisable to call attention to the fact that all ships carrying passengers are fitted up with mahogany, simply because it stands the sea air better than any other woods; and while the original outlay is a little greater, it is the cheapest in the end, as it takes a great deal less labor to keep it polished and lasts much longer than other woods. 7. There are three mirrors in the sideboard, the total cost of the three being $12.50, instead of $1,500. The large mirror at the head of the stairway cost $35. 8. There is no silverware on board the ship. It is simply plated ware, and the total silver plate on board the ship costs $1,298.99, instead o! $8,000,,as stated, for the silverware on the sideboard alone. 9. The carpets are ordinary body Brussels carpets, and cost $1.10 per yard. The rugs are the ordinary Smyrna rugs, and average $10 each. 10. The entire-plumbing aboard the ship, including everything, bath rooms, bath tubs, shower baths, washstands, all piping, and all fixtures for officers, soldiers and crew, cost but $12,983.81. The average cost per bath room is $354.96. Shower baths cost $5 each. The washstands in the corner of the staterooms cost $18. Nickel-plated brass is found to be the cheapest thing to use in thi8 work, as it wears much better and costs less in labor to keep it in proper condition. The bath tubs cost, approxi- mately, $125 each, instead of $200. li. The automatic egg-boiler cost $60, and with the large amount of cooking which is necessary to be done for the different messes is an essential and is not an absolutely or relatively costly article. 12. The flooring of all bath rooms, shower baths, butcher shops, kitchens, and other places which are continually covered with water, are of tile or a composition of cement, and cost 60 cents per square foot. You can readily see that this is the only kind of material that should be used in such places, as wood would rot and iron would rust. 13. Bunks are substituted instead of hammocks as used in the navy, as they permit of carrying more men, and they take up less space and are more comfortable. These bunks cost $6.50 per bed; the cost of the navy hammock, with pads and one-half standee, which would be neces- sary, averages $6.63 per man. BIDS FOR A LIGHTSHIP. Bids were reopened by the light-house board March 30 for the con- struction of light-ship No. 74 for the Cape Elizabeth station. The orig- inal appropriation for this vessel was $75,000 and therefore the specifica- tions called for a wooden vessel. Later an additional appropriation was eranted as none of the first set of bids was within the original estimate. Following is the new set of bids: Spedden Ship Building Co., Balti- more, $82,900; Arthur D. Storey, Essex, Mass., $78,238; Bath Iron 'Works of Bath, Me., $78,450; Peterspurg Iron Works, Petersburg, Va., $77,837. This vessel has hitherto been described in the Review. She will be 118 feet between perpendiculars, 128 feet over all, 28 feet 6 inches beam on frames, and 14.7 feet depth of hold. The shiv will be sheathed with cop- per to 2 feet above the water line. The engines will be compound with cylinders of 15 and 30 inches diameter and 22 inches stroke, driving one propelles 7 feet 9 inches in diameter. Two boilers of the gunboat type will be constructed for a pressure of 110 pounds. Everything about the boat will be of American manufacture. THE LATE GEORGE H. BERTRAM, M.P. George H. Bertram, M. P., well-known merchant and head of the Bertram Engine Works Co., Toronto, who recently died in his fifty-third year, was one of the most energetic business men which Canada has pro- duced. Long before he was elected to parliament for the Dominion he was consulted by the government in revising the tariff on iron and steel. He had been a resident of Canada for thirty-five years. By his enter- prise the Doty Engine Works, taken over by the company he formed, was changed from a failure to a marked success. Out of it was developed the fine ship building industry that now flourishes in the yards of the Bertram company. OTe NEW UNITED STATES CRUISER ALBANY. The cruiser Albany, a description of which was published in the Review two weeks ago, is now at Newcastle-on-Tyne and will be placed in commission on May 1. She will then sail for New York under command of Capt. Joseph C. Craig. jority of the new ships are to be twin-screw vessels. Included in the fleet is the Deutschland for the express service and the Kaiutschau, the latter of 10,200 tons, for the mail service. All of the new ships are not, of course, intended for the trans-Atlantic trade, but a good portion are to run from the River Elbe to New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore." Included in the list of vessels is the new steamer Prinzessin Victoria Louise, which is of 4,000 tons. This vessel is to leave Hamburg Sept. 25 for a trip around the world, the first excursion of its kind ever taken by any company. 'With the exception of the Deutschland, Kaiutschau, Stiria, Sambia and Segovia, none of the twenty-two new steamers have been named, The aggregate cost of the twenty-two steamers will be $11,000,000. DESIGN FOR A NOVEL BOAT. Frequently the bureau of construction and repair is besieged by inventors who have new designs of boats which they desire to exploit. The latest is one which contemplates the construction of an electrical boat of 300 tons displacement and a speed of 44 knots. Nothing will be done with the proposition, which in language is as follows: "In order to make a demonstration of the efficiency of our system at a less expenditure of money than would be the case in constructing a large ship, the size of vessel we propose to build has been arrived at from the most exhaustive investigation. The dimensions of the vessel and its machinery will be as follows: Length, 220 feet; beam, 21 feet; depth, 12 feet; draught, 5 feet; displacement, 300 tons; horse power, 20,000; speed, 44 knots or 50 statute miles; bunker capacity sufficient to run 4,000 miles; additional load carried for each foot of draught in excess of 5 feet, 82 tons. Maximum load at 7 feet draught, 464 tons. The machinery will consist of the following: There will be twelve boilers, giving a total heating surface of 25,000 square feet and 600 square feet of grate surface. Total weight of boilers and water fittings, 7214 tons; four sets turbine en- gines, fittings, etc., 2634 tons; dynamos and motors and electrical equip- ment, 8234 tons: weight of hull and fittings, special nickel steel, 34% tons; load on trial, coal stores, furnishings, supplies and crew, 68 tons; shafts, propellers and fittings, 1534 tons; total weight, 300 tons. FISHERIES OF LAKE ERIE. Very few persons have any idea of the extent of the fish business of Lake Erie. A bulletin just issued by the United States commission of fish and fisheries shows that the total number of men employed in the business on this lake alone is 3,728, and that the total value of shore property and cash capital invested is $2,719,654. Figures dealing with the industry throughout the lake region would, of course, be many times greater than those just quoted. The yield on Lake Erie was 58,393,364 pounds, valued at $1,150,890. Following are the figures covering the dif- ferent kinds of fish and the values: Black bass 133,746 pounds, value £9,866; blue pike 4,544,786 pounds, value $139,301; carp 3,633,697 pounds, value $51,456; catfish 1,002,704 pounds, value $30,451; crappie 60,000 pounds, value $1,800; grass pike 19,426 pounds, value $1,227; herring 33,427,797 pounds, value $431,037; mooneye 43,836 pounds, value $867; perch 3,315,496 pounds, value $42,625; rock bass 5,296 pounds, value $91; sauger 3,026,565 pounds, value $75,313; sheepshead 1,147,122 pounds, value $7,651; sturgeon 789,402 pounds, value $53,392; sucker 1,568,734 pounds, value $18,077; sunfish 175,440 pounds, value $4,362; trout 32,024 pounds, value $1,736; wall-eyed pike 1,735.214 pounds, value $86,455; white bass 1,596,524 pounds, value $30,603; whitefish 2,066,314 pounds, value $152,009; other fish 1,048 pounds, value $75; frogs 982 pounds, value $172; turtles 67,211 pounds, value $2,324; totals 58,393,364, valued at $1,150,890. Mr. W. B. Cowles of Cleveland has been conferring with the navy department during the present week regarding the use of his "long arm" system of watertight doors and hatches. The system, described in the recent naval edition of the Review, is one whereby an officer on deck, or at some central station, is able to instantly close all the doors in water- tight compartments or bulkheads throughout the ship. The system was first practically tested on the protected cruiser Chicago. Since that time it has been placed on some twenty or thirty ships and it is said it will be employed on all of the new ships of the navy.