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"TAE Marine. REVIEW é 21 protection has not been extended? For it has to fight against the higher cost which protection involves and 'at the same time win a profit upon a heavier invest- ment and against a competition which has lesser costs to meet. Ruin inevitably follows. That is the state of shipping in the United States today. It isn't fair, it isn't a square deal. For a fraction of the money that goes to the railways annually, shipping could be made a profitable industry. For a tithe of what is spent to foreign steamship lines the United States could have a magnificent fleet of its own. Why not try it? Why not pass the bill at the next session of congress which was introduced at the last session as a result of the investigations of the Merchant Marine Commission. That bill takes no money out of the treasury. It simply distributes tonnage dues among American ships that conform to certain conditions. It is a reasonable and sensible measure and should be passed. TWO TURBINE STEAMERS The announcement that the Metropolitan line of New: York, now a branch of the Eastern Steamship Co., had awarded a contract for two mammoth turbine steamers for its service between Boston and New York has occasioned considerable interest in steamship and transportation circles throughout the East. Heretofore the line has confined its business to the freight traffic exclusively, but it now intends to make a bid for the passenger business as well. The contract is one of the largest in the shipping line ever entered into in this country, and involves an expenditure of over $2,000,000. General Manager Calvin Austin said that the steamers would be completed and ready for service in about a year. The contract for the hulls has been awarded to. the. Roach's Shipyard; Chester, Pa;; and. Wiltiam ~F. Fletcher & Co., of Hoboken, has the contract for the ma- chinery, while the joiner work will be done by Charles N. Englis, of New York. Mr. Austin said that the steamers would be 4oo ft. long, 51 ft. beam, with a flaring guard 6 ft. wide, making the breadth over all 63 ft. The depth of hold will be 23 ft. The introduction of turbines into the new boats is the most important feature. They will be equipped with the Parsons type of turbines, and the construction of the engines will be directly under the super- vision of the inventor. Each will be driven by three turbine engines of 11,000 H.'P. each. Each vessel will have three propellers making 500 revolutions a minute, driving the ves- sels through water at the rate of 24 miles an hour. This will enable the steamers to make the run between Boston and New York in fifteen hours, leaving here at 5 p. m. and . arriving in New York at 8 the following morning. In the construction of the two steamers no expense will be spared and they will be equipped with all the most ap- proved devices for the rapid handling of freight and for the comfort of the passengers. On the main deck there will be freight capacity for about 1,000 tons. On this deck will also - be located the spacious dining-room, occupying the entire breadth of the ship and having a seating capacity of 250 persons. It will be finished in white mahogany, with large plate-glass windows on both sides, giving an unobstructed view of the ocean to the diners. The purser's office, wash- room, barber shop and checkroom will also be located on the main deck, and there will be an elaborate hallway finished in red mahogany with rubber tiling floor. Leading from the main deck to the main saloon will be a wide stairway, with artistic archings. and decorations. 'The saloon will be a beautiful apartment, large and: airy, with staterooms on both sides and -conyenient. exits and entrances. . A gallery above the saloon gives a spacious promenade upon which other' staterooms open. About. midships _ is located the stairway leading from' the gallery. to 'the smoking: room, projecting through' the .dome. This room will be appropriately furnished with leather furni- ture, and will have heavy glass windows, making it an ideal observation room. Each steamer will have 300 staterooms, furnished in the most approved style. Twenty-five of these rooms will be exceptionally large, and will have brass bed- steads, with baths attached. The steamers will have accom- ~ modations for 1,000 passengers each. The hulls will be of steel, structurally built to withstand the roughest kind of weather, and will be provided with numerous bulkheads and. every known improvement to safeguard -the lives of the pas- sengers. HENRY A. LAUGHLIN ON THE WAYS The new steamer Henry A. Laughlin, building at the ship yard of James Rees & Sons Co., Pittsburg, for The. Jones & Laughlin Steel Co., is rapidly nearing completion and will be launched into the Allegheny river in about two weeks. The new boat, which will be the first in the river coal trade THE HENRY A. LAUGHLIN ON THE WAYS. to have steel cabin frames, will be used between the coal mines of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Co., on pool 4, Monon- gahela river and the mills of the company at Pittsburg, measures 135 ft. on deck, 24 ft. beam and 4% ft. deep, and will be equipped with tandem compound condensing engines with low pressure cylinders 24 in. and high pressure cylin- ders 12 in. and will develop 240 H. P. Three two-flue boilers 38 in. diameter and 28 ft. long will furnish the steam. The new boat, which in: the accompanying illustration is shown on the ways at. the ship yard, will go into commission in October. The Henry A. Laughlin is the fifth boat oper- ated in its own coal trade by the Jones & Laughlin Steel Co. The other boats are Vesta and.Vulcan, compound engines, and Titan and Sailor, high pressure engines. The gasoline launch Union made her trial trip on San Francisco bay on Aug. 13, beating one of the North Shore ferry steamers by a large margin in a run of about three miles. She made a- speed of 217-10miles per hour. Her rudder gave way but a temporary one was contrived out of a pole and the top of a wooden box, enabling her to reach the wharf of the San Francisco Yacht Club, at Sausalito.