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

18 tally he began drawing comparisons of standing at the lathe clad in a neat suit of overalls and a frantic chasing around among flying machin- ery in a grease-covered suit, with an occasional dive into the bilges or a spasmodic scrubbing-bee for variation. Yet, in 'spite of it all, he liked the work. There was the satisfaction of- viewing the finished product as rep- 'resented by the speed of the boat. And I am happy to say that in time he assimilated lésson number two; and no boat arrived in port with en- gine room cleaner and slicker than the Magnolia. It happened a few trips later that they had a couple of days at the dock. The work had been piling up and now was 'the catch up.. All day. they worked at the various jobs. Unlike in. the shop: evening brought no respite. Along toward morning it required consider- 'able of an effort on Finlay's part to keep awake. In a dexterous way he managed to convey the idea to the "chief" that a little sleep would be welcome. "Sleep!" that dignitary broke him off with. "Did you come aboard of this.boat to work or to sleep? Now remember, we work when there is work to do and sleep when there is none!" The oiler conjured up a sad com- parison between his snug bed at home and night work on a steamboat, but gradually the fact dawned on him that boats,must be kept going at all hazard, and this was lesson number three. He learned other lessons too nu- merous to mention. heat of summer and with it its at- tendant trouble in the stokehold. On this particular trip a couple of booze- fighters were shipped and 'ere the voyage was half completed distress signals in the shape of cramps were in evidence. : During the entire watch Currie had been busy repairing a broken windlass forward. Upon his arrival in the en- gine room he noticed the sooty marks of the stokehold on the oiler. His inquiry after the stoker brought the following answer: "Yes, he's knocked out altogether, so I. took her. The other fellow is gone, too, but I'll take her after din- paner," And he did take her after dinner. And he held her several watches after that without murmur or palaver. Cur- rie was almost dumbfounded. It ran against the grain to see a man work- ing like that, but previous experiences opportunity to. Then came the TRE Marine. REVIEW with getting men to man the stoke- hold in emergencies made him keep his peace. At the end of the 'voyage. he slapped the oiler' good-naturedly on the back, and said: "What made you do it, my lad?" "Well, you see," he, answered, "I came on this boat to work. With both of them gone, I figured it was up to me." 'Was that all?' said Currie, looking him steadily in the eye. * "No, sir, not exactly,". he admitted. "Of course, 1 was perfectly sure of the engine room, but I doubts about being able to handle them in the stokehold. Now I know. And, man, look at the experience I have had." é Currie never answered a word, but later in the day, as he walked into the shop and the foreman | greeted him with the customary: "Well, how's the oiler?' he answered him in tones which portrayed the depth of his convictions: "That boys alricht. You can bet your whiskers that he will be coming into port on them for a long time to come. Not as oiler though, but as chief engineer of them, and the best ot them: at that." eWell, didnt 1: tell. you: that' he was a first class workman?" the fore- man put in. "Yes, but Currie replied. "And also that he was a good, de- cent, clean-cut fellow," the foreman continued. "And it's not just that, either,' Cur- rie persisted. "Well, then, what in the world is ice! "Mark my words,' Currie answered, looking the foreman straight in the eye. "You could drop him from a balloon into a derelict and he would do something with her, start her for the harbor some way, even if he had to bale her out with his 'hat, steam her up with the bulwarks and drive her in with a deckwinch. You see, he has the qualification which goes to make up a marine engineer." it isnt exactly that,' "And that is?' came in' an awed whisper from the foreman. "Adaptability." The United States Transportation Co., generally known as the Neptune line, recently acquired control of the Joy Steamship Co. and has entered into the operation of its fleet. The latter company operated its steam- ships from New York to Boston and Providence. chad » my TURBINE V. RECIPROCATING ENGINES IN ATLANTIC LINERS. The German critic says that recip- rocating engines, when worked at lower powers, have a "comparatively exceedingly high" reduction in coal consumption, giving high radius of ac- tion, and that such is not the case with the turbine steamers. It is true that experience has shown that at low powers turbines are not quite so economical as reciprocating engines; but it must not be forgotten that in the Atlantic service the periods of reduced speed are rare, and are even then of short duration. The practice rather is to drive 'the ship at full power, under which condition there is no reason why the turbine should not be as economical as reciprocating en- gines, if not more so. We -cannot, however, understand why Dr. Wieg- and should continue: "When _ the speed of a turbine is reduced, the coal consumption remains. practically the same; its efficiency, however, sinks down to a minimum. Should a tur- bine steamer encounter head winds and heavy seas, it can easily happen that for a largely increased passage time she will not have sufficient coal on board, while the steamer driven by reciprocating engines can always help herself by an important reduction in her speed." This, if accepted, is cer- tain to create an absolutely wrong im- pression. Experiments show that for. a range of power from full down to quarter power, the volume of steam entering a turbine is nearly constant. Since, however, the torque varies more or less proportionately to the initial pressure, the weight of steam passed through the turbine diminishes | as the power is reduced, and in act- ual marine practice the total con- sumption at quarter power is. less than half that at full foad. So that Dr. Wiegand's statement is far from representing the actual facts of the case. Again, Dr. Wiegand surely un- derstands that the rate of coal con- sumption per unit of power per hour --which alone is affected by the com- parative efficiency of the turbine and reciprocating engines at low powers-- does not greatly affect the aggregate coal consumption per nautical mile run at low powers; consequently, the Lusitania at 20 knots may steam the same distance for an equal, or, at least, only a slightly greater, amount of coal than a ship with reciprocating engines proceeding at a corresponding reduction of her full speed. The de- duction made by Dr. Wiegand there- fore falls. He further contends that