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sufficient size to accommodate them, the Mongolia is being repaired temporarily and will resume service until the Man- churia is released, which will be about seven months. The Mongolia's repairs will take four months' time. An investigation by the court of in- quiry into the sinking of the French submarine Algerien develops the con- clusion that, the submarine being moored fore and aft to the battleship Dupleix, the forward hawser made fast to the battleship's anchor chain, that the falling tide drew this hawser taut and the submarine was tilted until water rushed in through the half open _ hatch in the conning tower. The af- ter hawser snapped under the great weight, thus sinking the vessel. The steam lighter Eversley Childs, built by Rodermond Bros. Tompkins Cove, N. Y., .from designs of , Sadler, Perkins & Field, and recently placed in commission, has been pronounced a suc- cess. She is 86 ft. over all, 79 ft between perpendiculars, 27-ft. beam 'and 8-ft. 8-in. depth. The machinery comprises one vertical steeple compound engine, cylin- ders 12 in. and 25 in. by 18 in. stroke, of about 250 I. H. P., built by the F. A. Verdon Co., New Brighton, S. I.. The boiler is 6 ft. in diameter by 9. ft. in length, with a working pressure of 150 Ibs. The Nippon Yusen Kaisha has thir- teen new ships under 'construction, of which three are being built in England --one of 2,000 tons and two of 2,500 tons each--to be used on the Shanghai line. The Kawasaki Dockyard Co. Ltd., of Kobe, is building five vessels, four of 3,500 tons each' and one of 8,600 tons. The Mitsu Bishi Yards, Nagasaki, is also building five ships, four of 8,600 tons each and one of 6,500 tons. At the Kawasaki yard two of the ships are building for the European line and those of 3,500 tons are for the Yangtsze river line. The United Transportation & Lighter-. age Co. has recently placed in commis- sion at Philadelphia two unique gasoline-., propelled lighters. They are of steel and are of the following dimensions: I00 ft. between perpendiculars, 110 ft. over all, 23.5 ft. beam and 7.4 ft. depth' of hold. The motive power consists of two Globe gasoline engines of soc He Po. ¢ach, manufactured by the Pennsylvania Iron Works Co., Philadelphia, and which turn 'three-bladed bronze screws of 42 in. diameter and 54 in. pitch. The vessels were built at the yard of John H. Dia- logue & Son. ' The house committee on naval af- fairs recently voted upon the increase in the navy, and agreed to a recom- mendation of two big battleships, one of which, however, is the ship for which plans were submitted to con- "TRE Marine REVIEW gress at the opening of the session. The committee also voted to recom- mend that the amount for submarine torpedo boats, which was $1,000,000 in the bill last year, be increased $3,000,- ooo. The total appropriation is ap- proximately $95,000,000. The bill adds approximately 1,500 sailors and 800 marines to the service. Effective Jan. 1, the following changes are noted in the personnel of the com- bined Mallory, Clyde, Eastern, Peoples', Troy and Metropolitan lines: Charles C. Brown, appointed general passenger agent of the above lines; A. H. Hans- com, general passenger and ticket agent of the Eastern Steamship Co.. has: re- signed to devote his entire time to his duties as, assistant to the president; J. H. Allaire, general passenger agent of the Peoples' line, has resigned to accept other service with the company; R. L. Hornby, general passenger agent of the Troy line, has resigned to accept other service. It is understood that the marine poli- cies covering mefchandise on _ the wharves and in warehouses at Kingston did not carry the earthquake exemption clause as did the fire policies; thus sub- jecting the marine underwriters to heavy losses. The total loss by fire and earth- quake has been estimated as high as $32,000,000, and the aggregate of risks carriéd by fire insurance companies in Jamaica amounts to $7,500,000. It has been stated by the insurance correspond- ent of the London Times that London underwriters offered some time ago to insure Kingston property against all damage by earthquake, including fire; but the offer -was not accepted. A bill has been introduced in the senate providing for a thorough test of all life-boats now in use on United States vessels, including in its require- ments examination into weight, mate- rial of 'which boats are built, size, ca- pacity, facilities for safety in detach- ing, protection of passengers from weather, provisions 'against capsizing and, if self-righting, the causes same. 'The bill also provides for the notification of lifeboar builders to bring their boats to the Jamestown (Va.) Exposition at their own -'ex- pense, where the tests and examina- tions will take place. The Central. & American Telegraph Co. through its president, James A. Scrymser, has made application to the war department for permission to land a cable at San Juah, Porto Rico, and also .at Colon on the isthmus. The plan is to lay the cable and then con- nect the Atlantic and Pacific cables by a telegraph line from Colon to Pa- nama. The war department desires an all-American cable from the isthmus 'chuck, one emery tool grinder, for of the French navy. 'displacement 19 to Cuba, Porto Rico and the mainland as in case of war such a connection would be extremely valuable, and Sec- retary Taft has the proposition under consideration. It is reported that if the Japanese government's present plans mature her navy will in 1905 be double in efficiency what it was at the beginning of the con- flict with Russia. The Rock Island-Frisco lines are planning to build immense docks and terminals at Galveston involving an expenditure of $5,000,000. There will be three piers 2,000 ft. long and 300 ft. wide, affording berths for 30 vessels. Secretary of the Navy Metcalf, in speaking to the midshipmen of the sec- ond section of the class of 1907, grad- uated at Annapolis Feb. 11, said that a powerful and well equipped navy with plenty of battleships was the surest guar- antee of peace and that the big, heavily- armed vessels must be the mainstay of future naval engagements. The Niles-Bement-Pond Co. of 'New York, has been awarded the con- tract for two traveling cranes for the Portsmouth navy yard at $18,000. The following awards were _ recently made for supplies for the navy yards: The Wonham-Magor Engineering Works, New York, self-dumping steel cable cars, $7,625; M.: T.. Davidson, Brooklyn, N. Y., two vertical single- cylinder steam pumps, ° $196; . the Tabor Mfg. Co., Philadelphia Co., one Tabor Newbold high-speed saw, $110; Farnum Sand Blast Co., New York, one sand blast, $250; Garvin Machine Co., New York, screw cutting engine lathe, $1,025; the Smith-Courtney Co., Richmond, Va., one smproved planer one power saw and one drill grinder, $213.70. That the battleship and the armored cruiser must before long be merged into a single type, the battle cruiser, is the belief of the chief constructor concentration of great attack and de- fense with extreme speed will, he be- lieves, be found illustrated. say in- 1915, in a vessel of 25,000 tons mount-, ing a unit battery of high caliber guns and developing a speed of not less than twenty-two knots. The French constructor is also persuaded that any navy now bold enough to _ lay down battleships of 25,000 tons' will by one. stroke secure a tremendous advance over all its rivals, because a squadron of four such vessels will greatly outclass six battleships less" effective in the energies that can be > assembled. This resultant