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

r003.] MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. 19 any special discussion as to the marine department of the board may now be deferred. DOMINION LINE STEAMER COLUMBUS. A few days ago the steel twin-screw steamer Columbus, latest addition to the Dominion Line, was launched by Hailand & Wolff, Belfast, from their South Yard. 'This steamer is of somewhat similar design to the New England and Common- wealth, but of larger dimensions, having a gross tonnage of about 15,500 and being in many respects a facsimile of the latest and finest vessels built at Belfast for the Atlantic trade. 'The Columbus will carry a large number of first and second-class passengers, for whom the accommodation will be handsome and commodious. She will also have suitable accommodation for a large number of third-class passengers. 'The vessel will be fitted with the latest improvements, and in addition to having everv facility for the rapid loading and discharging of a large general cargo, she will be fitted for the conveyance of dead meat. She will also be a suitable vessel for the transport service, if re- quired. The machinery consists of two sets of quadruple-ex- pansion engines on the balanced principle. TWENTY-THREE. KNOT NAVAL SHIPS. In the matter of naval developments and experiments it is interesting to note that the first of the 23-knot ships of the French navy has never yet gone at her full speed, although pro- tracted trials have been made. The cruiser Jeanne d'Arc was launched in 1899 and is of the armored type, with a displace- ment of 11,329 tons, which compares with the 9,800 tons of the British County class. The French ship has engines of 28,000 I. H. P. and the British vessels of 22,000 I. H. P., but the former has only realized 21.75 knots, which is 134 sea miles under the designed speed. Two of the British cruisers have been out on full power runs, and their speed has been 22% to 2234 knots With new propellers there is every prospect of the full 23 knots being realized. At nine-tenths of her power the Jeanne d'Are got slightly over 19 knots, but with very fine weather the British ships realized 2134 knots with only 75 per cent. of the total power--more than the French ship did at full power. A French commission is now considering what further step should be taken with. this ship, which has small-tube boilers. MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS. Belfast is to have a great graving dock that will cost £299,000. Relations of the Atlantic shipping combine to the firm of Har- land & Wolff, ship builders, have hurried preparations for the new dock. On the completion of ship builders' leases, which are now being made, work on the dock will proceed. The new dock will be 750 ft. long, 96 ft. wide at the entrance and too ft. wide at the bottom. The depth will be 32 ft. from the blocks to ordinary high-water level, and some 4 ft. 6 in. will be allowed for the blocks. There will be a fitting-out jetty 6oo ft. long. The Hermes, second-class cruiser of 5,600 tons and 10,000 I. H. P., upon which repairs were recently completed at Harland & Whlff's, and which has Babcock & Wilcox boilers in place of Belleville boiler originally fitted, will shortly be handed over to the water-tube boiler committee, to be put through a long series of trials at progressive speeds, each of 60 hours' duration. I hear from a German correspondent that a new association is to be formed at Hamburg for the increase.of the shipping trade. On the committee are Herr Ballin of the Hamburg- American Line, Herr Woermann of the Woermann Line, Herr Wolff. and others. 'The emperor has been enrolled as an ordi- nary member. 'The objects of the association are to create good sailors by getting young lads and training them on board a number of ships which it is intended to set aside for that pur- pose, to grant rewards for deeds of bravery, and to promote yachting. SHIP BUILDING AT NEWPORT NEWS. Newport News, Va., Mar. 18--The Newport News Ship Building & Dry Dock Co. will submit bids for the construction of the new battleships just authorized by congress and will enter the competition for the contracts with other ship yards with a view of getting two if not three of the ships to build. The ship yard is now buildine the 16,o00-ton battleship Louisiana, after which three of the five new battleships will be patterned. Great progress has been made on the Louisiana in February. In the first two weeks of this month the progress is even greater than in February and a marked gain over the navy yard job is looked for in the department report of April 1. Every effort will be made to finish this vessel within the contract time. Saturday, April 18, is the date fixed for the launching of the armored cruiser West Virginia. Miss Katherine Y. White, daughter of Governor White of West Virginia, has announced her acceptance of the honor of sponsor for the ship, conferred by the legislature of the state. The armored cruiser Maryland will go overboard a few weeks later, but the date has not been given out. The steamer Harry Luckenbach, which was con- verted at the yard from a cargo ship to a petroleum carrier, left here on Saturday for Sabine Pass, T'ex., where she will load her first cargo of oil. She has been chartered to a large firm of oil shippers, it is understood. The Luckenbach also burns oil as fuel, special burners having been installed for the purpose. The Sarah V. Luckenbach, which was converted into an oil carrier some weeks ago, is now in service. The naval board of inspection and survey, headed by Capt. C. J. Train, made the trip from Annapolis to Old Point on the new monitor Arkansas for the purpose of conducting the final acceptance trial of the ship. They found everything in good condition and the Arkansas to be a first-class vessel of her design. On the strength of the report of the board the navy nade will formally accept the Arkansas, which was. built ere. ; President Guilleadeu of the Old Dominion Steamship Co. was a visitor at the ship yard this week with a party of friends. He inspected the Old Dominion liner Monroe, which will be given her builder's trial on the 20th and will probably go into service the first week in April. There is no danger of a strike of machinists at the yard. An authoritative statement is to the effect that the machinists may ask for more wages and a shorter work day but that they will not consider going out on strike and causing a repetition of the disastrous conditions that prevailed during the last. strike here. The protected cruiser San Francisco, Capt. Asa Walker, ar- rived in port Saturday from the navy yard, where she has been for some weeks undergoing repairs to her engine and boiler foundations. After coaling she will go to Old Point to await orders. 'The gunboat Marietta, which guarded American inter- ests in Venezuelan waters during the recent trouble there, is expected in Hampton Roads in the next week or two. The torpedo boat destroyer Barry, on her official speed trial, devel- oped a speed of 21 knots under natural conditions. The 'Topeka has gone to' Boston. The Lancaster is at Yorktown. 'The Puritan is here with the San Francisco. WORK AND WORRIES OF A SHIP YARD. Mr. John Ward, one of the partners of Messrs. William Denny & Bros., Dumbarton, Scotland, recently delivered an in- teresting lecture to the Glasgow University Engineering Society on "The Work and Worries of a Ship Yard."= Mr. Ward has had forty years' experience as a ship builder, twenty-six of which have been in charge of the Leven ship yard, Dumbarton. He has supervised the construction of 500 vessels, many of which. are among the finest and fastest afloat. 'The first essen- tial of a capable ship yard manager is a well-balanced mind, a mind free from dreaming and autocratic dogmatism, ready to drop prejudices, yet able to have a fair amount of scepticism for all new schemes which leave out of account the financial considerations involved in their adoption. 'To the generel man- ager responsible for the work of the ship yard the two most important points were accurate cost estimating and the produc- tion thereafter of the finished ship at the basis estimate, while the outstanding dates which appealed to all the heads of depart- ments were those of keel laid, completely framed, completely plated, launched, and tried and delivered, as these were the dates on which installments of the contract price were usually paid. In specialized work supervision was essentially necessary. Nothing went down quicker in the water than a light-draught steamer, and it was only by watching and weighing every item that the manager could hope to come right when the vessel was completed. wad timekeeping was a very real trouble in a ship vard and the pity was that the profession should be so ham- pered and hindered by it. It was a humiliating fact that the ship building output on all the ship building rivers had to be measured not so much by the equipment of the yards engaged in it as by the time tne unsteady men of the riveting depart- ment cared to work. He confessed to much sadness in know- ing that ship building, through the high wages earned when working, should be the means of producing dissipated habits in many of its workmen who so wasted their time, means, health and opportunities as to make their high wage the reverse of a blessing. : ENORMOUS EXPENDITURE FOR BRITISH NAVY. British navy estimates for 1903-4, as introduced in the house of commons a few days ago by the secretary of the admiralty, call for an expenditure of $179,184,205, a sum unparalleled in peace or war. The admiralty proposes to complete this year. six battleships, eleven armored cruisers and one second-class cruiser, two sloops of war, four torpedo boat destroyers, eight torpedo boats and three submarine boats. Parliament is also asked to sanction the commencement of three battleships of a very for- midable type, four first-class and three third-class cruisers, four very fast vessels to be used as scouts, fifteen torpedo boat de- stroyers and ten submarine boats. "wenty-one obsolete vessels have been withdrawn during the years 1902-3, the largest num- ber on record. On the first of the coming month there will be under construction the enormous total of seventy-one ships, namely, eleven battleships, nineteen armored cruisers, two sec- ond-class cruisers, four third-class cruisers, four scouts, two sloops, eighteen torpedo boat destroyers, eight torpedo boats and three submarine boats. The launching of the battleship Colorado, building at Cramps, has been postponed until April 25.