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20 MARINE REVIEW. THE IMMENSE DRY DOCK AT NEWPORT NEWS. One of America's greatest dry docks, just completed at the works of the Newport News Ship Building & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va., is pictured in the engravings that appear in this issue. Both engravings indicate the great size of the dock. An idea of the length of the structure will be obtained from one of the pictures, showing that three steam ves- sels of fair dimensions do not begin to fill it. The new dock is known at the Newport News works as dock No. 2. It is a timber dock with masonry entrance. Dimensions are as follows: xtreite (eneta 2 ees sss ee ee sues ee Eos 860% ft. eneth on bOttom.:....,.0 Be eg ee ne 804 ft. Width Or COD. ee 6 5 cw os oes agit Sis oes wre bo Ode ie BT Pe a ge res ens eke re ba ie ein bi le Depth of water over sill at mean high water............ BO. it The masonry entrance of the dock is constructed on a concrete foun- dation, which, in turn, rests on a pile and timber substructure. The pump- ing plant for the dock consists of two main centrifugal pumps of about 85,000 gallons capacity per minute each, and one drainage centrifugal pump of about 12,000 gallons capacity per minute. These pumps are driven by electric motors, the pump and motor shafts being vertical. The large motors are each of 1,000 H.P. at 500 volts. The small motor for the drainage pump is 350 H.P. at 250 volts. The electric current driving these motors is carried by underground cables from the main power house about 700 ft. distant. Arrangements are now being made to pump out the old dry dock [June 20, LARGEST VESSELS IN THE WORLD. FIGURES SUBMITTED FOR THE GREAT NORTHERN LINERS SHOW THEM TO BE A TRIFLE IN EXCESS OF THE CELTIC'S MEASUREMENTS-- EXTENDED DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW VESSELS. It is a matter of nip and tuck between the Celtic of the White Star Line, built by Harland & Wolff of Belfast, and the two vessels now build- ing for the oriental service of the Great Northern Railway at New Lon- don, Conn., as to which will be the bigger. There is little difference be- tween them, but the figures submitted show that the Great Northern liners are a trifle the bigger. In the case of the Celtic the meastrements are certain; with the New London boats the measurements are probably subject to slight revision, but whether they will alter the present condition is questionable. The Celtic is of the following dimensions: 700 ft. long, 75 ft. beam and 49 ft. deep; 20,880 gross tons and 13,650 net tons register; load displacement on 36 ft. 6 in. draught, 37,700 tons. The Great North- ern liners are of the following dimensions: 630 ft. long, 73 ft. beam and 56 ft. deep; about 21,000 gross tons register; normal displacement as given out by the builders, 33,000 tons, and load displacement 38,000 tons. Ac- cording to these figures the load displacement of the Great Northern vessels is 300 tons in excess of the Celtic. A description of the Great Northern ships is again printed in the columns on account of general interest in them, now that they are well under way, and for the reason also that the description at hand is more THREE VESSELS IN IMMENSE TIMBER DRY DOCK OF (No. 1) with the pumping plant just described. Dimensions of the old dock are as follows: Mogmeme lenoth: ic. orcs ee BON oe ee ee es 6388 ft. 7 in. Length' on bottom....:. ar cen ie nk eee io te Oi. = NVSGENCONMOD a ee eas 130) tt. 0 in. WWidt Om DOtlOm 2 cs) ee oe ae 49 ft. 4 in. Draught of water over sill at mean high water...... 24 ft. 6 in. '! The immense steel caisson used as a gate to the large dock has al- ready been described and illustrated in these columns. The board of construction of the navy department has recently been working out the details for the two battleships and two armored cruisers, plans for which are to be submitted to congress in December. Up to the present time the board has devoted itself to the consideration of the two battleships and has decided that they shall be of 15,000 tons dis- placement, with a speed of 19 knots. The advisability of having the bat- tleships of greater displacement than 15,000 tons was carefully considered by the board, but the weight of evidence was dvainst building vessels of larger displacement than this. It was also deemed advisable to limit the speed to 19 knots, as to require greater speed would be to reduce the coal capacity and consequently the steaming radius. The Cornwall iron ore mines have become the property of the Penn- sylvania Steel Co. The Cornwall mines consist of practically three hills of ore, ranging from 700 to 900 ft. high, known as Big Hill, Middle Hill and Grassy Hill. Since the discovery of the mines in 1740 upwards of 13,000,000 tons of ore have been won. The deposit runs about 48 per cent. in iron and is sufficiently low in phosphorus for Bessemer purposes. Mr. Nicholas J. Quirk, marine artist of Chicago, has an excellent picture of the new battleship Maine in a New England number of the Youth's Companion and a picture of the Illinois in a.recent issue of the Inter Ocean of Chicago... A reproduction of a drawing of the yacht Inde- pendence, made by Mr. Quirk, appears in this issue of the Review. ee NEWPORT NEWS SHIP BULDING & DRY DOCK CO. Copyright, 1901, by Samuel E. Rusk, Newport News, Va. complete than anything as yet published. These steamships are being built primarily for cargo carriers. They are not as long as many of the fast Atlantic liners, but are much wider and deeper. They are four-masted steamships of the type called 'intermediate,' which has of late years be- come so popular on the Atlantic; that is to say, they are designed neither for rapid passenger service exclusively, nor for cargo carrying only, but for combined cargo and passenger traffic on the most approved, eco- nomical principles. One essential of this class of vessels is that there shall be sufficient speed to suit passengers, and at the same time a speed sufficiently low to warrant carrying a large bulk and weight of cargo economically. They have each five continuous decks extending the whole length of the ship, with three additional partial decks amidships. . They are built to Lloyd's highest classifications, and have been especially strengthened to meet the requirements of long sustained Pacific voyages. Internally they are divided into fifty water tight compartments, in such a way that the vessels will float with several of the largest compartments flooded. The enormous bunkers are arranged above the boilers, so that all the coal will gravitate to the fire rooms, and thus eliminate a great deal of hand trim- ming. To secure immersion of the screws when the vessels are running light, and to make the vessels comfortable. in a sea way, deep ballast tanks are placed forward and aft in the space between decks. These tanks, along with the usual provision in the cellular double bottom, afford storage for about 6,000 tons of water ballast. The whole of the interior of the ship below the upper deck--except what is occupied by the machinery and bunkers--is arranged so that it can be set apart for cargo, and insulated chambers are provided for the conveyance of refrigerated goods. The holds are arranged so that any kind of cargo can be carried. Large ma- chines, railroad. iron, all kinds of building materials, produce from the farms, and all the different manufacturing products of the country. Fruit, chilled and frozen meats, live cattle, etc., have all been arranged for in the design of these ships. For the working of the huge cargo eighteen large hatches are fitted with powerful winches and derricks, the majority. of the latter being at=, tached to each, of the four massive masts, . Cargo conveyors, electrically