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

at Mariners are furnished with postal cards 'on which to make these reports and upon these replies will largely depend ' the action of the board. Experiments are still being made with submarine bells 'on other light-vessels, with the view of ultimately adopting them as a regular _fog-signal if results prove them satisfac- tory. : FORE RIVER SHIP BUILDING Co. _ ime seport of the directors of the Fore River. Ship Building Co. is~at hand and in commenting upon the past year's work, President Bowles brings out some interesting facts, the construction of the steamship termi- nal of the Birmingham & Atlantic rail- road at Brunswick, Ga., being one of the projects now under way, which is mentioned in the report. The annual meeting, held at Boston on Feb, 12, resulted in the re-election -of the entire board of directors and officers, as follows: Directors, Gor- don Abbott, Francis T. Bowles, Wal- lace B. Donham, F. C. Dumaine, Wil- liam A. Gaston, Robert Winsor, Ar- thur Wainwright, William Endicott Jt, and W. ©. Fish: executive com- mittee, William Endicott Jr., Gordon Abpow, Fy ©. Dumaine, Francis T. ~ Bowles and Wallace B. Donham; offi- cers, Francis TI. Bowles, president; H. G. Smith, manager; J. A. Sedgwick, treasurer and Samuel T. MacQuarrie,' clerk. The report of the directors is as follows: . "The directors submit herewith com- parative balance sheet of the company as of December 31, 1906, and Decem- ber 31, 1905. These statements show for the year an increase in the cash on hand of $97,075.45; and an increase in the surplus of $32,453.31, after setting aside $200,0000 as a reserve for tur- bine development. There has also been a gratifying increase in the quick | assets. The gross cash receipts of the company for the year were $5,512,- 169.43: "Additions to the plant and machin- ery were made during the year to the amount , of about $65,000, including two small pieces of real estate adjoin- ing the plant and a marine railway capable of hauling out moderate size vessels for repairs. All items of repairs have been charged to expense, and $120,000 has been charged off for de- preciation. All the company's bills have been paid as soon as they. were due and approved, and the present ac- counts payable represent only current items not due. No money. has been borrowed during the year, and the company has no notes payable. The "THE Marine REVIEW accounts receivable are believed to be worth in every instance their full val- ue. At the present time your direc- tors consider the plant in general well equipped to carry on a ship building business on-a large scale, "The yard has been well filled with work during the entire year, and the amount of business now in process is satisfactory. Considerable delays have been experienced in construction, through the difficulty in purchasing good steel castings. The average num- ber of employes for the year was 3,900. The following vessels were under con- struction on December 31, 1906: Bat- tleship Vermont, now réady for deliv- ery; scout cruisers Birmingham and Salem; four submarine boats, of which two are practically ready for delivery; the 10,000-ton freight and passenger steamer Creole; two steel freight steamers Ocmulgee and Ossabaw, and three 11,000-ton steel colliers, Everett, Malden and Melrose. "The company has undertaken the development and construction of a thoroughly equipped steamship _ ter- minal on a large scale for the use of the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic Railroad Co, at Brunswick, and the work on this contract is well advanced and is progressing in a profitable. and satisfactory way. "During the 'year the battleships Rhode Island and New Jersey, the side wheel passenger steamer South Shore and two steel freight steamers Satilla and Ogeechee have been completed and delivered, in addition to a consid- erable amount of miscellaneous work. The machine shop has been operated at all times to the limit of its capac- ity. "The development work of the year on the Curtis marine turbine has been on the whole very encouraging tothe directors, and it is their belief that the exclusive option held by the company on marine rights of this turbine for this country will prove of great value in the future. The principal turbine contracts so far obtained by the com- pany are for the construction of the U. S. scout cruiser of 3,750 tons, the Southern 'Pacific S. S. Creole of 10,000 _ tons, and for the construction of tur- bine equipments for two large vessels. The Creole will be completed in the near future, and if the trial of this ves- sel fulfills the expectations of the man- agement there will undoubtedly be a demand for further vessels fitted with Curtis turbines, which should be of great benefit to the company. "On the whole, the results of the year are believed to be encouraging and the outlook for new work is sat- tember last. isfactory. A contract has just been entered into for the construction of a steel freight coasting steamer." WHITE'S REVIEW OF SHIPPING. John White, 23 Great St. Heler.'s, Lon- don, E. C., in his annual review of ship- ping, says: "The effect of tonnage has been in- creased, it is estimated, by about 1,000,- 000 tons of dead weight carrying capacity by the reduced freeboard that has been sanctioned. The production of our ship- yards of merchant steamers has been about 1,800,000 tons gross, which is the largest production of -any year, and ex- ceeds the large total of last year by about 200,000 tons. The tonnage added to the British Register, i. e, new steamers and steamers bought from foreigners, has been about 1,550,000 tons. One yard alone, Messrs. Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Limited, has produced 26 steamers of 126,921 tons. The steamers removed from the British Register, in- cluding those sold to foreigners, have been about 550,000 tons. The building of sailing ships is now so small that it can scarcely be called a factor in consider- ing effective tonnage afloat, but there have been removed from the British Register, including Colonial Register, about 200,000 tons of sailing ships. "The past year has witnessed the launch- ing of the largest and fastest steamers on record, and probably the limit in size, if not in power, that the necessities of commerce or prudent enterprise will dic- tate for many years to come. The gi- gantic Cunard Co.'s_ turbine steamer Lusitania was launched by Messrs. John Brown & Co. in June, and the sister steamer Mauretania by Messrs. Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson in Sep- They are each of about 33,000 tons gross register, 760 ft. b. p. by 88 ft. by 60 ft. 3 in. to upper deck; having six decks, displacement 45,000 tons, and power 72,000 i. h p. to drive them 25 knots per hour at sea. These vessels are a considerable increase on the previous largest steamers float, Brit- ish or foreign. On the same day as the launch of the Mauretania, there was launched by Messrs. Har- land & Wolff, for the White Star line, the steamship Adriatic, of about 25,000 tons gross register, 708 ft. by 75 ft. by 50 ft., with engines to steam about 18 knots. The increase in size of. vessels has extended to warships launched during the year, as seen in the turbine Dread- naught, 18,000 tons displacernent, 520 by 82 it, by 45 ft.: Lord Nelson. 16,500 tons displacement, 410 ft. by 79 ft. 6 in by 43 ft.; and Agamemnon, of about the same size. There were under construction at the end of September, according to the re- turns of Lloyd's Register of Shipping, of