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18 building line has been started by Hop- per & Foster at Tacoma, Wash. They are enjoying their share of the work that all builders of these craft are getting in that region. The battleship Kansas was recently placed in commission with appropriate ceremonies, which were witnessed only by the officers and crew of the ship and the officials of the navy yard at. Philadelphia. The steamship President, built by the New York Ship Building Co., Cam- den, N. J., for the Pacific Coast Steam- ship Co., has completed her voyage around the horn successfully. She left. Camden on March 22. The battleship Olympia which was Admiral Dewey's flagship, is being fitted at the Norfolk navy yard as a training school for the midshipmen at the Annapolis naval academy. The changes will cost $60,000. It is reported that the Great Eastern railway has placed an order with Messrs. John Brown & Co., Ltd., Clydesbank, Scotland, for a turbine steamer to re- place the Berlin which was recently lost at the Hook of Holland. The steamer Greyhound, of the Ta- --coma-Olympia Navigation Co.'s fleet, has been laid up in order that she may be fitted with oil-burning apparatus. probable that the steamer Multnomah will also be fitted with oil burners. The American-Hawaiian Steamship Co.'s new steamer Columbian was launched from the yard of the Union Iron Works April 10. She is a sister to the Mexican, described in the April Engineering number of the MARINE RE- VIEW. The ocean-going torpedo-boat destroy- er Afridi was launched at the Elswick yards last week. She is the first of a new type of 800-ton destroyers, is 255 ft. - long and, according to the contract, must develop a speed of thirty-three knots on oil fuel. The Ohio river packet about to undergo a merger, the com- bine including. the lines operating on the Ohio above Cincinnati and the boats engaged in freight traffic on the Kanawha, Muskingum. and Mononga- hela rivers. The Union Iron Works has wired the navy department to take over the un- finished armored cruisers California and South Dakota, owing to the strike which has made it impossible to complete the ships. The cruisers are, however, struct- -urally complete. | The first-class armored cruisen De- fence, built by the British admiralty at the Pembroke launched April 27. The vessel, which is of the Minotaur class, has a dis- It as. ; - will have twin service is' dock yard, was THe MARINE. REVIEW placement of 14,600 tons and is: ex: pected to steam 23 knots an hour. A new Italian battleship, the Roma, was launched recently from the yards at Spezia. She is of 12, °625 tons dis- placement and a speed of 22 knots. She is to carry two 12-in., twelve 8-in., and thirty other guns and four sub- merged torpedo-tubes. The United States Transportation Co. has recently inaugurated a new service between New York and Fall River, Mass., which is to be known as the Nep- tune line, with daily _ sailings. steamers Connecticut and Rhode Island are to run in this service. The Messrs. Swan, Hunter & Wig- ham Richardson, Wallsend, are reported to be about to build another fast pas- senger steamer for French Shipping Chargeurs Reunis. The vessel is to be on the same lines as the two now under construction for this company at the same yard. . The French navy is to be inzreased by the addition of six destroyers, the contracts for which have been let to private firms. They are to be larger than those previously constructed, hav- ing a displacement of 400 tons, against a previous 330 tons, and will cost about $400,000 -each. he Gay ouore -Luniber:-Co.,- of Brunswick, Me., has, sold the tug Pejep- scot, which has been in commission only about three weeks, to the Saca- dahoc Towage Co., which is said to be practically a subsidiary of the former company. The Pejepscot was built by the Portland Co., Portland, Me. The London & Northwestern rail- way has placed an order with Messrs. Vickers Sons & Maxim for a new pas- senger steamer for their Irish service between Holyhead and Dublin. The ves- sel will be about 300 ft. in length and screws equal to a speed of 20 knots an hour. The bar at the entrance to the port of Coatszacoalcos, the eastern termi- nus of the Tehuantepec railway, has been dredged to the depth of 24 it. and work will continue until a depth of 30 ft. has been gained. The American- Hawaiian line of steamers operates in connection with the railroad. The Mallory Steamship Co. kas in- augurated an increased service between New York and Galveston, Tex., there being now three sailings weekly in- stead of two as heretofore. This line operates between New York anu Brunswick, Ga., Key West, Fla., Mo- bile, Ala., and Galveston, Tex. Oil plants have already been installed at Lime point, Point Bonita, and San Luis Obispo. The stations at Point New . Year and Point Sur will soon be simi- larly equipped. It is quite probable that The most, if not all, the fog signals in the twelfth lighthouse district will be equipped with crude oil burners. The German Reichstag recently passed the first reading of a bill to authorize the expenditure of $3,750,001 as the first installment of the amount to be expended on the widening and deepening of the Kiel canal. It is pro- posed to expend altogether $55,750,000 . on the reconstruction of the canal, - The Canadian Pacific ra:lway has been reported to have under consideration the construction of another steamer similar in size and speed to the Pacific coast steamer Princess Royal now under con- struction at Vancouver, B. C. The con- struction of the latter has been greatly delayed by strikes and other local causes. The Osaka Shosen Kaisha, a Japanese steamship company, intends. to build two new steamers of about 10,000 tons each with a view to opening a regular service between America and Japan. The result of the workings of this company for the latter half-year of 1906 was un- satisfactory and no dividend will be paid for the period. Smith & Robinson, Philadelphia, na- val architects and engineers, have con- tracted with the Pennsylvania Rail- road to build two grain barges of 30,000 bu. capacity each. They will be 150 ft. Jong, 25 ft, beam and 13 ft. deep. The barges' will be built at the ship- yard of John H. Mathis & Co., Cooper's Point, Camden, N. J. The wreck of the large new pier of tie BRB. & ©. railroad at Baltimore caused an immense wave to sweep to the opposite side of the harbor, causing considerable damage, especial- ly among the smaller craft. The new pier would have accommodated seven steamships and was one of the finest on the Atlantic coast. The rebuilding of the structure is already under way. A number of obsolete British war vessels were recently sold at auction at Chatham dock yard including such vessels as the third-class armored bat- tleship Conqueror, first-class armored cruiser Undaunted, torpedo gunboat Alarm, torpedo boat destroyer Kate, and the yacht Wave. The conditions of the admiralty as regards the break- ing up of the. vessels were very ex- plicit. A number of Italian naval vessels are to be sold or broken up during the next five years, the list comprising 21 ships of various classes, including the Duilio (launched in 1877) and the An- drea Doria (launched in 1891), as well as 51 torpedo boats. With the pro- ceeds, which are estimated at over $1,000,000, the Italian government in- tends to make large purchases of coal for its navy.