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MARINE ~ 1902.] REVIEW. . . SKETCH OF MR. ROBERT MORAN. -Robert Moran of the Moran Bros.' Co., ship builders at Seattle, has been called the "Andrew 'Carnegie of the Pacific northwest." He is a young man, only forty-five, strong, sturdy, determined, with an ambition that knows no such word as fail, and he is probably good for twenty-five more years of active, driving work. He is a man who recognizes an op- portunity and knows how to grasp it. He went to Seattle twenty-six years ago without a dollar and without education. He conceived the idea of a great ship building and manufacturing plant, foreseeing that Puget Sound was destined to some day become a commercial and financial center. He is now beginning to realize the result of plans laid twenty-six years in advance of the time they could possibly be brought about. He has hewn to the line steadfastly and at the present time is building for the United States government the $8,800,000 battleship Nebraska on the waterway and at the exact spot laid out in his plans for a ship yard made seventeen years ago. An interesting event in the history of this plant will be cele- brated July 4, when the keel of the Nebraska will be laid, the guest of honor for the occasion being the governor of Nebraska, accompanied by his entire staff. Robert Moran's career reads like a character from. Dumas. He was born in New York state Jan. 26, 1857, and when a small boy his parents moved to Montclair, N. J. At thirteen years of age he went to work for himself in a machine shop. At seventeen he went as far west as Cincinnati, doing a man's work in a rolling mill. In 1875 he went to San Francisco, but saw no opportunity for advancement there and so went on to Seattle. He landed there with just ten cents in his pocket. The town was then a village of 3,000 people and was very quiet. He secured a job in the restau- rant of a negro named Bill Gross. Gross--well named, for he weighed nearly 400 lbs.--was well-to-do and quite a character. He was attracted to Moran and one day secured a job for him as cook in a logging camp'on the shores of Lake Washington. Moran had never cooked in his life but he tackled the job with that apparent outward nonchalance which has characterized his actions ever since. He lasted three days. He was willing to do the work, but the loggers refused to eat his food. He re- turned to Seattle and immediately secured a position as night watchman on the little steamer Zephyr, and soon after became her fireman. He later served as fireman on the little steamer Nellie Libby and other similar boats. He was consumed with an ambition to establish himself in busi- ness and at that time had clearly defined in his mind a plan to build up a ship building and manufacturing plant. With this in view he began a sys- tematic study of mathematics, mechanical engineering and draughting. A good-portion of his small wages was paid to Capt. Bulline, who was in the employ of the United States government, for lessons. In 1878 he went to Alaska as fireman on the Stikine river steamer Cassair. The engineer proved incompetent, and Moran was made chief engineer. He went back in the fall of 1880 and started his first shop, occupying an old corner in H. L. Yesler's saw mill about 10x30 ft. and just high enough to admit of his standing upright. He had only a hat full of tools, but he started in confi- dently. He kept writing to his six brothers encouraging them to come out --and he brought them out one at a time as the shop grew and their services were needed. He soon built a larger shop and in 1885 he was the owner of a modern shop, established on broad lines and doing a good business. In 1888 Moran took the first step toward his long cherished ambition when he organized the Seattle Dry Dock & Ship Building Co. and commenced the erection of a plant that included a marine railway. He also built a larger and better machine shop, including a new foundry. Then he was elected mayor of Seattle, a place of over 18,000 people. It was against his protests, but he was serving as mayor on June 6, 1889, when the city was entirely wiped out by fire. His quickness of intuition and the wisdom of his ready decisions were apparent on that occasion. Moran saw that his plant was doomed. Before the fire reached his building he was dictating telegrams, ordering lists of machinery, tools and supplies for the equipping of a larger plant, for he foresaw that the demand for structural iron in the rebuilding of the city would be great. He lost his plant, but within twelve months he had not only entirely recuperated but had made greater profits than during the previous five years of his business. Moran's history is the history of his plant, and it is a reproduction of opportunities seen and seized. In 1890 he built his first steamer. Then he designed and built in 1892 for the government the big pumps and engines for the navy yard at Bremerton at a cost of $150,000. Then he built the torpedo boat Rowan at a profit to himself--and the boat exceeded her speed allowance by more than a knot. The other ships built for the gov- ernment were the revenue cutter Golden Gate, now in commission on the Pacific coast, and the transport Seward. In December, 1900, he put in a bid for two of the largest battleships ever built by the government. He was given one ship provided he cut his bid. He notified the people of Seattle that he would be required to take the ship for $200,000 less than he had bid and said that, if the people would guarantee him $100,000, he would cut his bid $100,000. Within a week the citizens pledged the $100,- 000, and the result is Moran is now building the Nebraska. Moran Bros.' plant covers twenty-six acres and is a bee-hive of ac- tivity. Its appraised value is $1,800,000. Over a hundred vessels of vari- ous descriptions have been repaired there, or rebuilt, during the past four years; seventy-five of them representing a charge of $10,000 or over for each, the total cost being more than $2,000,000. The plant has fitted out twenty government transports, each representing an expenditure of from $15,000 to $40,000, while the general commercial work has been very heavy in volume. Three of the Moran brothers are dead and there are three still actively connected with the company, of which Robert Moran is president and general manager, the other two brothers being foreman and superin- tendent of different mechanical departments of the institution. The plant is owned solely by the brothers. Robert Moran is married and has four children. Mr. Moran's faith in the far northwest and Alaska is unbounded. "No part of the world has a greater future than the North Pacific coast," said he. "We have everything here and nothing can check our expansion. Alaska? It is the greatest country on earth and covers so vast an area that few people can grasp its immensity. Most people think it is a frozen, barren region, but it is a most beautiful country. The region around Dutch harbor and all along the southern coast is beautiful and productive. It is all tributary to Seattle and Puget Sound and will materially aid in the establishment at Seattle of a great commercial center." AROUND THE GREAT LAKES. : Capt. Baker of Duluth has purchased the schooner Nellie Reddington from her Cleveland owners for $12,000. _ Wm, M. Olcott, who built wooden vessels in Chicago in the fifties, died a few days ago at Norwich, Conn. _ A new steamship line, to be known as the Algoma Navigation Co., is being formed to operate a line between Owen Sound and the Sault. Lorain will present the government with a site for a life-saving sta- tien ane it is more than probable that a station will be established there shortly. Keller Transportation Co, is the name selected for the Hawgood ~ corporation that will operate'the steel steamer Harold B. Nye, launched at Lorain a few days ago. John G. Bullan and Capt. O'Hagen of Buffalo have purchased the steamer Nebraska from Samuel Neff & Sons of Milwaukee. The reported price was $18,000. The steamer will be rebuilt into a lumber carrier at Chicago. It has been agreed in conference of committees representing both houses of congress that the sundry civil bill shall contain the following items: Peshtigo reef light vessel, $15,000; Crisp point, $18,000; Point au Pelee lightship, $45,000, of which $4,000 is immediately available; Conneaut lighthouse on pier, $8,400; Ashtabula light and fog signal, $18,000. Capt. M. Fitzgerald, whose license was revoked by government in- spectors at Duluth as a result of his vessel, the George G. Hadley, sinking the whaleback steamer Thomas Wilson off Duluth harbor recently, will appeal to Supervising Inspector Sloane at St. Paul for reversal of the Duluth verdict. If the supervising inspector wpholds the Duluth decision appeal may be made to the secretary of the treasury. Papers in the appeal case are being prepared by Attorney Charles E. Kremer of Chicago. The metamorphoses through which lake vessels pass before they may be said to cease to exist.is very interesting. Such a thing as total destruc- tion is very rare. We would not be surprised if the hull of the old schooner Algonquin (sacred to Lake Superior history prior to the canal) should be resurrected from the bullrushes near West Superior and placed in commission in some form or other. Now the oldest tug in the Chicago river, built in 1858, is to be reconstructed for service in the passenger business between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, Mich. This tug is the - Michael Brand, which was built for the Brand Brewing Co. and carried its products from the brewery to the warehouses before any railroads existed on the north side of Chicago. The Brand was built for navigation in the north branch of the Chicago river before any dredges were used in that stream, and when the river at the brewery was but a small creek. She originally drew but little over 4 ft. of water. When railroads paral- leled the north branch the Brand's usefulness dwindled, and the brewing company sold the vessel for harbor towing. She was later denuded of her machinery, which was put in another tug, and her hull has for several years laid idle on the lake front. Work on the reconstruction has already been begun. Herman Schultz will be the owner and master of the new steamboat when ready for the straits. BRITISH AND GERMAN STEEL PRODUCTION. (Bulletin American Iron and Steel:Association.) Mr. J. S. Jeans, secretary of the British Iron Trade Association, reports the production of pig iron, Bessemer steel, and open-hearth steel in Great Britain in 1901 as follows: 'Pig iron, 7,761,830 gross tons, against 8,959,691 tons in 1900, a loss of 1,197,861 tons; Bessemer steel ingots, 1,606,253 tons, against 1,745,004 tons in 1900, a loss of 138,751 tons; open- hearth steel ingots, 3,297,791 tons, against 3,156,050 tons in 1900, a gain of 141,741 tons. Dr. H. Rentzsch, the statistician of the Association of German Iron and Steel Manufacturers, reports the production of pig iron in Germany and Luxemburg in 1901 as amounting to 7,860,893 metric tons, against 8,520,541 tons in 1900, a loss of 659,648 tons. He also reports the produc- tion of steel ingots and castings in Germany and Luxemburg in 1901 as amounting to 6,394,222 metric tons, against 6,645,869 tons in 1900, a loss of 251,647 tons. Adding the production of pig iron by Great Britain in 1901 to that of Germany and Luxemburg, and reducing metric tons to gross tons, gives us a total production of pig iron by both countries in 1901 of 15,498,493 gross tons, or 879,861 tons less than the production of 15,878,354 tons by the United States in the same year. Assuming that the production of crucible steel in Great Britain in 1901 amounted to 95,956 gross tons, that country's total production of steel in that year would be exactly 5,000,000 tons, her total production of Bessemer and open-hearth steel being 4,904,044 tons. Adding Great Britain's estimated total production of steel in 1901 to the total steel pro- duction of Germany and Luxemburg in that year, after reducing the lat- ter's production to gross tons, gives us for both countries a total produc- tion in 1901 of 11,293,170 gross tons, or 2,180,425 tons less than the pro- duction of 13,473,595 tons by the United States in the same year. From the mining statistics branch of the British home office we learn that the total production of coal in Great Britain in 1901 amounted to 219,- 046,945 gross tons, against 225,181,300 tons in 1900, a decrease of 6,134,355 tons. The production of iron ore in Great Britain in 1901 was 12,275,198 tons, against 14,028,208 tons in 1900, a decrease of 1,753,010 tons. Dr. Rentzsch reports the production of coal in Germany and Luxemburg in' 1901, including brown coal, as amounting to 152,628,931 metric tons, against 149,788,256 tons in 1900, and the production of iron ore as amount- ing to 16,570,258 tons, against 18,964,294 tons in 1900. Secretary W. L. Capps of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers invites correspondence concerning papers to be read at the tenth annual meeting in November next. He says: 'The council is authorized to offer a prize not exceeding $200 in value for the best paper upon some subject directly pertaining to naval architecture or marine engineering. Papers submitted in competition for the prize must be sent to the secretary before Oct. 1, and should be plainly addressed and marked in one corner 'for prize competition,' and underneath, the motto or other distinguishing title of the sender. In a sealed envelope similarly ad- dressed should be enclosed the name of the sender and his motto or dis- tinguishing title." -