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TAE MARINE REVIEW 25 Coal & Coke Co., will be held at Jersey, City oe ds on Saturday of this week and it is understood President Francis L. Robbins, president of both companies will retire from that position and will be succeeded by M. L. Taylor, of Erie, Pa. Mr. Robbins will, however, retain the chairmanship of the board of directors. Other changes, which have been intimated but not officially announced will be made, these concerning the position of second vice president and general sales manager. 'The Amethyst and Topaz, British torpedo-boat destroy- ers, were constructed after the same pattern, and . selected by the Admiralty for the purpose of making a series of ex- haustive tests; the former was equipped with turbines and the latter with reciprocating engines. The contract speed of the vessels was 2134 knots and the tests showed that at all speeds above 14%4: knots the turbine-equipped "Amethyst was more economical, namely, 15 per cent at 18 knots, 31. per cent at 20% knots and 36 per cent at 20 Irto knots. At full power in each vessel the Amethyst showed 42 per cent more than required by. contract on the coal allowed. The 'Amethyst also reached a speed of 23.5 knots during these tests and the Topaz only 22.1 knots. Secretary Metcalf of the department of commerce and labor has ordered a thorough and searching investigation of the weck of the Valencia, off Vancouver island, and of the conduct of the officers and the crew of that steam- ship, as well as that of the officers of the steamers Topeka and Queen, which went to the assistance of the wrecked vessel. The secretary's action is based on the 'information received by him' that the investigation should. be ordered at once. When the report is received, it will «:; be turned over to a special commission consisting of As- sistant Secretary Murray, Supervising Inspector General ~Uhler and Herbert Knox Smith, deputy commissioner of corporations. These were the officers who investigated the Slocum disaster. SHIP FOR 1907 DELIVERY. The ship builders of the' great. lakes are certainly en- joying an era of prosperity such as they have never known before. . As though it were not enough that orders should have been placed to fill the berths for the season of 1906, orders are now. being placed for vessels for 1907 delivery. The American Ship Building Co. received three such orders last week from the Weston Transit Co., of Tonawanda, of which Charles A. Weston ; is president, L. S.,De Grafwice president and W.. M. Mills, treasurer and general manager. These three steamers have the present distinction of being the largest ever ordered. They will be 605 ft. over all, 585 ft. keel, 60 ft. beam and 32 ft. deep. Their: beam will prevent them utilizing the Canadian canal at Sault Ste, Marie. They will have thirty-six hatches spaced 12-ft. centers. Their engines will be triple-expansion with cylinders 24, 39 and 6s in. diameters by 42 in. stroke, supplied with steam from two Scotch boilers 15 ft. 4% in. diameter and '11 ft. 6 in. long, allowed 200 lbs. pressure with Morrison sus- pension furnaces and Ellis & Eaves draft, They. will 'carry about 13,000 gross tons on 19 ft. draught and they are promised for delivery on April 1, 1907. The company ordering these steamers is closely associated with the Tonawanda Iron & Steel Co., of Tonawanda, N. Y. The American Ship Building Co. also closed contract with Chicago and Milwaukee parties represented by Capt. ° D. Sullivan, of Chicago, for a freighter for 1907 delivery to -be 440. ft. over. all, 420. it. keel, 52 ft. beam and 28 ft. deep.. She will. have triple-expansion engines, with cylinders 22, 35, and 58 in. diameters by 40 in. stroke, supplied with steam from two Scotch boilers, 13 ft. 9 in. diameter and 114 ft. long, fitted wth Ellis & Faves draft. She will carry 7,500 tons of ore. speed. FREIGHT SITUATION. It is announced that the United States Steel Corpora- tion has covered its ore requirements for 1906, though no additional chartering has taken place since the be- ginning of the year. The Steel Corporation will not an- nounce how much vessel tonnage it has chartered though it was understood at the beginning of the year that 9,000,- ooo tons were covered. In addition to its own fleet the Steel Corporation will furnish cargoes for the vessels of the Provident: Steamship Co. which comprises the steamers James H. Hoyt, D. G. Kern, J: HW. Reed and D. M. Clemson. These four steamers could carry in a season about 600,000 tons of ore. The Steel Corporation has four 600-footers now building, but' will not have the full use of them during the coming season, as they will not be ready so that 13,000,000 tons is an outside estimate of what it will be able to carry in its own vessels during the year, including the vessels of the Provident Steamship» Co. The likelihood is that the fleet cannot move 13,000- ooo tons. If the Steel Corporation is, therefore, to main- tain its proportion of the total movement during the season of 1906 it has chartered approximately 7,000,000 vessel tonnage. é Chartering of vessels to hold coal is quite brisk, but coal rates have, not yet been fixed. Shippers are en- deavoring to forestall the effects of the coal strike, should the miners declare it, by hurrying coal to the Lake Erie docks and putting it aboard. Interests which do not 'usually carry coal, such as the Steel Corporation and the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co. are doing some figuring with 'coal shippers for the first trip. ~The board of managers of the Lumber Carriers' Asso- ciation in session at Detroit this week, established rates on lumber on the basis of $2.50 per 1,000 ft. from the head of Lake Superior for the coming season. This is 25 cents above the freight rate of last year. The question of apportioning the tonnage among the carriers evidently _was not settled, but will be taken up later. The plan proposed is to place the matter in the hands of a charter- ing committee if 75 per cent of the tonnage enrolled in the association are in favor of it. 7 TURBINE BATTLESHIPS. , The invitation for bids for the construction of the two 'new battleships authorized at the last session of Congress will permit bidders to send in, as usual, their own de- signs, while asking for proposals on the departmental plans. In the class of bids based on the private designs there will be opportunity for offering to build one of the battleships with turbine machinery instead of reciprocat- ing engines. This decision has practically been reached by the board of construction as the result of a thorough investigation of the subject, and the observation of prac- tical tests, including those recently conducted at South Brooklyn and in course of tripson turbine trans-Atlantic liners. This is a notable departure from the usual de- signs for naval machinery, and marks a distinct step in: the advancement of the mechanism of naval vessels. It is possible that the speed of the different classes of ships will in time be materially increased by this new mech- anism, although the naval engineers are not claiming too much in any direction, and are not certain that the. tuc- bine system will furnish what is known. as economical The Detroit Trust Co. will shortly float an issue of $150,000 worth of bonds for the steamer Abraham Stearn building for the Commonwealth Steamship 'Co. of Cleve- land. 4