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MARINE REVIEW. [June 18, SHIP BUILDING ON THE CLYDE. THE INDUSTRY STILL SHOWS MORE ACTIVITY THAN WAS EXPECTED A SHORT TIME AGO--MODERATE PRICES BUT NOT THE LOWEST KNOWN. [Special correspondence to the Marine Review.] Glasgow, Scotland, June 2--The ship building industry has resumed rather a better appearance during the month which is just ending. If the 'promise of May" is fulfilled our ship builders will have by no means a bad year, though so far as I can learn the yards in the English building districts are not quite so well favored. A number of new and important contracts have been placed during the last few weeks, although not all have been reported, nor (for business reasons) are all even admitted by the recipients. For instance, the Fairfield Ship Building & Engineering Co. has booked a couple of large boats for the Pacific Steam Navigation | Co. Messrs. Murdock & Murray are to build a 2,000-ton cargo boat for the continent and an 800-ton boat for Ireland. Three good sized cargo boats are to be built by Messrs. Russell '& Co., Port Glasgow, for Liverpool owners. A new Cunarder is to be built at Clydebank by John Brown & Co., Ltd., who have also contracted for two large steamers for the Aus- tralian trade. (Mlessrs. D. & W. Henderson & Co., Glasgow, are said to have secured an order for two large steamers for the China Mutual Steam Navigation Co. Another Peninsular & Oriental liner is to be built by Messrs. Barclay, 'Curle & Co. Messrs. Charles Connell & Co., Whiteinch, are credited with having received an order for a new "Harrison" liner. Messrs. Hall, Russell '& Co., Aberaeen, are to build a 7,000-ton cargo boat for Aberdeen owners. Messrs. Gourlay Bros. & Co., Dundee, have contracted for a 1,000-ton steamer for the Australasian Steam Navigation Co., and sundry orders for small craft, dredgers, etc., have been booked by other builders. Altogether the new orders for the month cannot be less than 50,000 tons, and may be a good deal more, as the size of the vessel has not always been revealed, and probably a good many more orders have been received than those mentioned. The output of Scotch ship yards in May has been thirty-five vessels of 56,132 tons, still rather ahead of the bookings. Of the total, thirty-two vessels of 53,252 tons were launched on the Clyde, two of 2,700 tons on the- Forth, and one of 180 tons on the Dee (Aberdeen.) Nothing seems to have been put into the Tay during the month. This May total com- pares with 27,462 tons in April, 33,430 tons in March, 60,000 tons in Feb- ruary, and 13,020 tons in January. It is the largest May total for ten years, excepting only 1899, when the record was 58,920 tons. It 'brings up the total for the five months of 1901 now expired to 197,724 tons. Your readers may be interested to know how these figures compare with pre- vious years. The following is the record of the month of May and of the five months ending with 'May, since 1890: SCOTCH OUTPUT OF NEW SHIPS. May. Five months ending Year. Tons. with May. OO er ee ee es eS 56,182 199,724 WOO ee eS, 53,580 180,056 S00 ee ee ee eer 58,920 217,740 NSO ee 47,780 176,540 NS Oe ease as 36,955 127,490 SOG ee os es 32,830 172,940 NSO ee ee. 55,250 146,355 OA ee pa ae ie oe ee eae ss 44,800 142,775 SOS es a a es 30,116 104,780 BOD Fe ee eee: 26,966 172,460 ee ac ca 26,590 147,530 WSO ee 30,480 176,000 So that the present year has so far the best record of the twelve years except only 1899. The May output included the Haverford for American owners, already described. This item accounts for 11,500 tons of the total. The Peninsular & Oriental steamer, Somale, built by Messrs. Caird & Co., Greenock, accounts for 6,700 tons, and the P. & O. Syria, built by Messrs. Alexander Stephen & Sons, accounts for the other 5,000 tons. Among other notable items of the month may be named the Gordon Castle, a 4,750-ton screw of 2,500 I.H.P., built by Messrs. Charles Connell & Co., for the Union-Castle (South A'frican) line; the Perugia, a 4,500-ton boat, built by Messrs. D. & W. Henderson & Co. for the Mediterranean and New York service of the Anchor line; the Baltico, a 3,600-ton screw of 1,500 I.H.P., built by Messrs. Russell & Co., Port Glasgow, for Greek owners; the Eretria, a 3,500-ton boat of 1,500 I.H.P., built by Messrs. Kincaid & Co., Greenock, for 'Messrs, William Thompson & Co., St. John, New Brunswick; the Dorisbrook, a 2,500-ton boat by 'Messrs. A. Rodgers & Co., Port Glasgow, for Glasgow owners; the Moira, a 2,200-ton boat, built by Messrs. William Denny & Bros., Dumbarton, for the Aus- tralasian Steam Navigation Co.; the Tamaulipas, built by Messrs. A. McMillan & Co., Dumbarton, for the Compania Vapores Correros de Romano, Mexico. There were several other cargo boats of smaller size, as well as a twin screw with surface condensing engines of 300 TEER built by Messrs. David J. Dunlop & Co., Port Glasgow, for service on the river Niger, West Africa; a number of steam and sailing yachts; a couple of dredges for foreign countries, built by Messrs. Lobnitz & Co., Ren- frew; and some steam fishing boats (trawlers) and stern-wheel river boats. It will be seen that the output has been a very miscellaneous collection, fairly illustrating the varied character of the Clyde ship building trade. Amongst the items, the most notable is, of course, the turbine steamer King Edward, referred to in previous letter, which begins active work on the Clyde within the next two or three weeks, It is believed that a good many orders will have to be placed during the summer by the great steamship companies, who must keep up their lines, whatever may. be the cost, and however bad may be freight and trade prospects. But in the present state of the freight market and with evidences of a decline in the volume of commerce all over the world there is not much encouragement for the building of cargo "tramps » The large sales of second-hand boats of this class to foreigners have tended to bring down freights on British owners, because these vessels can be, and are, run much more cheaply under a foreign than under the British flag, and they cut into the ocean traffic in all directions. What they have thus sold, however, British owners can now replace at a hand- some profit, for steel ship plates are now obtainable at a good deal under £6 per ton. Of course plates are not everything, and wages and other material are still a good deal above the rates current a few years ago, but nevertheless steamers can now be built at a moderate price, although not at the lowest price known. DESCRIPTION OF THE STEAMER LYRA. Sparrow's Point, Md., June 12--The steamship Lyra, latest product of the marine department of the Maryland Steel Co., has just been de- livered to its owners, the Boston Tow Boat Co. This is the third cargo ship the Maryland Steel Co. has built for the Boston company within the past two years, the first two--sister ships--the Pleiades and Hyades, having attracted considerable attention as very successful examples of the ocean tramp. The Lyra is in many respects, especially in her engi- neering equipment, a duplicate of the Pleiades and Hyades, but whereas the latter were designed primarily as colliers, the former is built to meet the demands of the general trade. Principal dimensions and other par- ticulars are: Length between perpendiculars, 330 ft. 6 in.; length over all, 350 ft.; beam, molded, 47 ft.; depth, molded to shelter deck, 35 ft. 6 in.; net tonnage, 3,516; gross tonnage, 4,417; total cargo capacity, 315,372 cu. ft.; deadweight carrying capacity, including coal on 24 ft. 3 in. draught, 6,300 tons; coal bunker capacity, 633 tons; official number, 141716; official letters, K. Q. V. F. The framing of the Lyra is of channels and deep webs, cellular double bottom from the forward peak to the after peak tank with floors on every frame. The double bottom is 40 in. deep, and with the peak tanks the water ballast capacity is 1,152 tons. She has three complete steel decks, lower, main and shelter. Amidships on the latter is a commodious steel deck house for officers' quarters with a pilot and chart house above. The cargo space is divided into four holds. No. 2 and No. 3 holds, forward and aft of the machinery space, respectively, are each about 75 ft. long. In these two holds the usual construction with solid round stanchions is abandoned and columns built up of channels substituted. But three of these columns are required on either side of each hold, thus making the stowage of 'bulky cargo an easy task. The two pole masts are rigged with four derrick booms each. Two derrick poles with one boom each are in addition provided. : The Lyra is single screw. Her main engine is the usual type of triple expansion, vertical inverted, open-front marine engine. The cylin- ders are 21, 385 and 56 in. diameter by 42 in. stroke. The air pump is worked off the low pressure crosshead. Steam is generated by two Scotch, single-ended marine boilers of 14 ft. 6 in. diameter and 10 ft. 10% in. length, with three furnaces, each of 45 in. diameter. The total heating surface is 4,882 sq. ft., grate surface 146 sq. ft. and steam pres- sure 175 lbs. The draft is natural. The installation of electric lights is complete, even to the holds, so that darkness may not interfere with loading and discharging cargo. The dynamo and engine are by the Sturtevant company of Boston. On deck are five steam winches, a Hyde steam windlass and capstan, and a Wil- liamson steam steering engine. The contract for the Lyra was placed Aug. 18, 1900. The keel was laid Aug. 30, and the first frame erected Oct. 17. She was launched April 30 and received her boilers and engine on the same day. Steam was gotten up May 10 and all work was nearly completed by the 21st of the same month, when the general strike of machinists begun and work on the ship was somewhat delayed. The trial trip was made on June 6 and the same day the Lyra, after having landed her guests by a tug 'boat, sailed for Newport News to load with coal for Boston. An advertisement from the bureau of equipment, navy department, calls for bids for the construction of the projected coaling plant at the United States naval coal depot, Langley point, Manila bay, Philippine islands. Bids for the complete plant only will be considered. December 3 is the date fixed for opening the proposals. It is expected that in the meantime 'bidders will visit the station so as to present detailed plans and specifications. General specifications and other information may be had at once from the bureau of equipment. New train east via B. & O, R. R.--Leaves Cleveland 11:20 p, m. daily with through sleeper to Pittsburg and observation chair cars to Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, giving daylight ride through the mountain scenery. June 30.