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26 MARINE REVIEW. [June 12 ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST. Moran Bros. Co., Seattle, Wash., have notified the navy department that the keel of the big battleship Nebraska will be laid on July 4. The company adds that it has been delayed somewhat of late by a strike at its yards. Admiral von Tirpitz of the German navy, one of the officers who ac- companied Prince Henry on his tour through the United States, has sent with his compliments and best wishes to Secretary Moody two. hand- somely bound volumes on ship building in Germany and foreign countries. They were conveyed to the secretary through the German naval attache to the embassy at Washington, H. Rebeur von Paschwitz. Satisfactory tests were made last week of the first large lot of thin- face-hardened armor-plate ever made for the navy. The samples submit- ted represented the first group of armor for the new armored cruisers of the Pennsylvania class, and the trial was had at the Indian Head proving- ground, under the direction of the naval ordnance board. Two shots from a 4-in. gun effected a penetration of but 1% in., and the target was not badly bent. Rear-Admiral Bowles, chief constructor of the navy, made an experi- mental trip a few days ago on the submarine torpedo boat the Adder. A run of a mile and a half, submerged, was made on the Potomac, opposite Mount Vernon. At its conclusion, Admiral Bowles stated that the boat was well handled and steered well, but the trip, though satisfactory, had not changed his views on the effectiveness of the craft. He is already on record before the house committee on naval affairs as strongly opposed to this type of marine defence. Engineer of London says: "A list of foreign ships for the coronation review is as follows: Argentina, Presidente Sarmiento (built at Birken- head); Denmark, Herluf Trolle; France, Montcalm; Germany, Kaiser Friedrich III.; Italy, Carlo Alberto; Japan, Asama and Takasago (built at Elswick); Norway, Norge (built at Elswick); Russia, Pobieda; Spain, Emperador Carlos V.; Sweden, Oden; United States, Illinois. The United States will have the best ship in this batch, while the Asama and Pobieda probably tie for second place, with the Kaiser Friedrich as a close third. An exhibition of the Holland submarine torpedo boat Adder, the first of this type of vessel to be built for the United States government, was given last Saturday afternoon on the Potomac near Washington. The trial was under the auspices of the Holland company and the Adder was commanded by Capt. Cable. The exhibition consisted of a submerged run of ten minutes, at the end of which time the green, cigar-shaped craft poked her nose out of the water for a moment and dived again, making a prolonged run beneath the surface. At the end of the submerged run the Adder executed a series of porpoise dives, demonstrating her maneu- vering abilities. A dispatch from New London says that the Eastern Ship Building Co. has established a system of apprenticeship which will become opera- tive immediately. Under it every apprentice will be indentured for three years, the period being divided into terms of six months each. The com- pensation will be sufficient to make him self-supporting, and at the end of three years of faithful service he will receive his certificate of apprentice- ship, and henceforth be rated as a journeyman mechanic. Each ap- prentice will be assigned to the department for which he appears to have especial talents, and he will be given preference over improvers and helpers. He is guaranteed every opportunity, consistent with good dis- cipline, to get full time and pay each week. A very fast yacht, built to the order of Col. McCalmont of London from designs prepared by Messrs. Cox & King, was launched last week from the yard of Yarrow & Co., Poplar. This yacht is of very special design, being built on the lines customary with vessels of the torpedo- boat class and provided with turbine engines constructed by Messrs. Par- sons, fitted with three shafts and three propellers on each shaft. As re- gards the hull and boilers the yacht is identically like a first-class torpedo boat, the boilers being of the Yarrow type; therefore the trials will be watched with interest, as forming a fair comparison with those of similar vessels provided with boilers of this class but fitted with reciprocating engines, the machinery being the only portion of the vessel in which it differs from a Yarrow first-class torpedo boat. The chamber of commerce of New York has adopted resolutions ask- ing for federal investigation and legislation to regulate the towing in- dustry with a view of preventing accidents resulting from the towing of several deep-laden barges on one line in the coastwise traffic. The resolu- tions recite a number of recent accidents involving loss of life and declare that it is the opinion of the chamber that the entire matter of ocean tow- age is of such importance as to call for the consideration of congress with the view of taking such action and enacting such laws as will limit the number of barges in one tow. The resolutions also speak of the necessity of ordering such a shortening of tow lines and spaces between the barges when they approach the coast or enter harbors or rivers or other inland waters and sounds as will minimize the risk attendant on such towing. The requiem of the old receiving ship Vermont was sounded in a telegram sent by Commandant Barker of the Brooklyn navy yard to the secretary, in which-he said that the old receiving ship had been towed out to sea, presumably with the intention of turning her over to her purchaser, L. E. Hunt of Melrose, Mass. The latter has taken her up the coast, and without loss of time or sentiment is tearing her to pieces for the old junk there may be in her frame. As a matter of fact, the old hulk permits of no sentiment. In the language of the track, she was '"'a bad actor" from the time she left the stocks. If inanimate objects can be credited with a purpose, it would almost seem that during her only experience at sea dur- ing the civil war she did her best to drown every man on board and was only prevented by unusual seamanship on the part of her commander. Since that time she has done nothing more worthy than to accumulate disease germs, finally becoming such a menace that a year ago she was condemned and, after considerable haggling, sold. SMOOTH-ON IRON CEMENTS SMOOTH-ON shrink holes and other common blemishes is a revelation. SMOOTH-ON is not a mere filling. It is a dry, metallic composition, which, upon being mixed with water, becomes a hard metallic iron that is insoluble in water, petroleum or other oils, that will stand an intense heat; and the expansion being the same as iron, is why it is sometimes called Magic iron. When applied to a blemish in a casting by a skilled mechanic, the blemish is removed. Hundreds of breaks or fractures in Hy- draulic machinery, leaks in connections in steam or water work have been perma- USED BY STEAMSHIP will make a leaky casting steam tight, and engineers, steamboat engineers, ship build- the way it cures such defects as blow holes, ers and by the U.S. Navy in place of white and red lead and iron borings. SMOOTH-ON IRON CEMENTS Unequaled for Boiler Patch- ing and Stopping Leaks of Steam, Water or Oil. 8.8. 'Santuit;' Norfolk, Va., Jan. 16, 1901. H. B. Saunders, Esq., New York, N. Y. 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