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compound system, and eventually to the present-day boilers with their very high pressures up to 220 lbs. Alto- gether, it took nearly a hundred years to develop the steamer, both hull and engines, This was because of the backwardness of the industries upon which engineers depended. The naval architect and marine engine builder were dependent upon others, and so were hampered. The steel necessary for the building of the Mauretania could not be produced when the Lu- cania was. built, and in many other directions, it would have been impos- sible to produce a Mauretania only a very few years ago. Thus blame could not be attached to ship builders for the slow progress -made in the past. It was very different now, as the rapid development of the turbine showed, for in 13 or 14 years the new system had advanced from the little Turbinia to the huge Mauretania. Today turbines for marine propulsion, constructed and on order, represent 870,000 H. P. This has been possible because of the advanced position of the allied trades. Mr. De Rusett gave many details of the great ship building at Messrs. Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, and said that the work in connection with such an undertaking could scarce- ly be appreciated. There had been a staff of something like 4o draughtsmen engaged fon over two years on the plans of the ship, but this did not by any means represent what had been done in making drawings and _ cal- culations. Over 1,800 principal draw- ings had been produced, from which others had to be made. Referring to the immense boiler power, the speaker said that for every ton of coal con-. sumed in the 25 boilers, eight tons of air was needed, and the furnaces would require about 1,000 tons a day | to maintain the steam necessary for the turbines, through which 9,000 tons would pass, and act upon the 3,000,000 blades every 24 hours of steaming. THE LEADING SHIP BUILDING DISTRICTS. (From the Glasgow Herald.) The six British districts and foreign countries which figure first as produc- ers of tonnage are the same as those of last year, and the only alteration in their order is that Germany with its increased output steps over the Wear from fifth to fourth place. Two years ago Germany was third, but last year it fell to fifth, The Clyde, it will be seen, easily maintains its su- premacy, with a tonnage and horse- TAE MarRINE. REVIEW power greater than those of any for- eign country: Nessels.. Tons; 1 Hr. the Ciyde | 3. 372 598,841 606,600 United States .. 207 464,671 260,761 «PReOTene (660 159 411,569 375,705 Germany 4.25: 361 360,980 326,998 'he Wear. 2: QS 334,572 222011 Tees and Hartle- DOs. ade oe 88 202,344 144,750 RECORD WORK BY ENGLISH BUILDERS. The majority of the honors in the way of large individual tonnages go this year to the northeast coast of England. The American Ship Build- ing Co., with their six yards (that at Buffalo reports having launched no vessels) have 198,535 tons to their credit; but while they cannot be de- nied their position at the top of the list, the work of Messrs. Swan, Hun- ter & Wigham Richardson is of a far more notable character. It is easily the most important and the most val- uable that has ever been carried out in one year 'by one firm, and if we re- gard the American company as a "combine'"--which it may in a sense be called, seeing the yards are scattered over 'a wide extent of country,--it is also the largest. Last year the Ameri- can company, with work from each of their seven yards, had twenty-seven vessels of 136,795 tons, and Messrs. Doxford, of Sunderland, were second with twenty vessels of 86,632 _ tons, Messrs. Harland & Wolff third with 'nine vessels of 85,287 tons, Messrs. Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson fourth with twenty-one vessels of 74,- 424 tons, Messrs. Russell & Co. fifth with eighteen vessels of 71,540 tons, and Messrs. Wim. Gray & Co. sixth with nineteen vessels of 63,226 tons. In number of vessels Messrs. Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson and Messrs. Doxford tie for what is prac- tically first place, with 25 vessels each, lead in the matter of tonnage by 18,178 tons. The following are the six lead- ing firms for the year, the measure- ment, of course, being board of trade tons gross: Ves- sels Tons The American Ship Build- , ite Co. (© yards)... 34 198,535 Swan, Hunter and Wig- | ham Richardson ..2.2:. 25. 117,043 Wm. Doxford & Sons.... 25 99,765 Harland << Wolff:....<... Ir. oe,236 Win. Gray & Go... 24. FA,033 Workman, Clark & Co... 13 65,148 The Clyde, which has turned out a very much larger quantity of work than in any previous year, and much more _ than any other district, has, curiously enough, no individual tonnage which qualifies for a place among the first half dozen firms. There are, however, firms on the Clyde the value of whose work is far more than measurement 19 by tonnage indicates, and who dis- tribute much more money in wages than firms whose output is larger. The high place taken by Messrs. Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson is shown in the following table, which gives the leading firms since 1890: 1906 American Ship Building (6 yards)... a 198,535 Co. Swan, Hunter & Wigham ; Richardson :..55 ee 117,043 1905 American Ship Building Co: 2 yards) 136,793 W: 1 Doxfotd & Song... 86,632 1904 Russel: @ Co. ie, 73,689 1903. American Ship Building Go, : (7 wards) 4 Ge. 166,288 Harland: & "Wolff .... 4... 110,463 1902. American Ship Building Cos @ yards) 4. 132,197 Fratland & Walt 79,407 19601. Harland:& Wollt 9...... 82,262 1900 Wm. Gray & Cov... 2 FA TOI 1899 Harland & Wolff .......... 82634 1868 -Wm.éGtay & Go, 3 A BD 323): 1807 «Harland. & Wo]. 2. 82,240 1896 Harland & Wolff 2.2.20, 31.416 1895. Wm, Gray & Co 4... 2 Geode 894°: Harland & Wom 7... 65,448 1803 Harland & Woh - 2 65,660 i802. Harland & Wolf .....-]. 68,612 891. Harland & Wolfk s...-77.- 64,962 1990" Russell & Co... 70,370 SHIP BUILDING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, From the returns completed by Lloyds register of shipping, it appears that, excluding warships, there were 481 vessels of 1,166,989 tons gross under construction in the: United Kingdom at the close of the quarter ended Dec. 31, 1906. The vessels now under construction are 98,000 tons less than those which were in hand at the end of the last quarter, which itself showed a striking decrease (144,000 tons) as compared with the previous quarter. There is thus a diminution of 242,000 tons during the last six months. A somewhat similar falling off was observable in 1902, when be- tween March and September there was a decrease of 240,000 tons, with this exception, however, there has been no such reduction since 1884, when the tonnage under construction fell from 789,957 tons to 480,579 tons within a period of six months. The Consolidated Steamship Lines (the Eastern Steamship Co., Metropo- litan Steamship Co., Clyde Steamship 'Co., Mallory Line, Peoples' Line and Citizens' Line), announce the removal of offices of the passenger traffic mana- ger and general passenger agent from Pier 32, North River, to 290 Broadway, New York. The freighter Louisiana will go into dry dock for caulking and the freighter John W. Moboré will have new hatch cov- ers installed on her this. winter. -