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14 ! MARINE REVIEW. [July 17 RETIRED LIST FOR REVENUE CUTTER SERVICE. An important act of the last congress, which is now being put into effect, has to do with the revenue cutter service. Hitherto this service has received but little recognition in comparison to the elaborate care which is taken of the navy. The new legislation gives the revenue officers positive rank in peace as well as in war and assimilable with the various grades of the navy. It increases the pay to that of the army, making no difference between sea and shore pay, and it establishes a retired list on three-quarters' pay for all who reach sixty-four years of age or who are incapacitated for active duty by disabilities incident to the service. Here- after in the cutter service the captains will rank with army majors and navy lieutenant commanders; the first-lieutenants with army captains and navy lieutenants; the second-lieutenants with army first-lieutenants and navy lieutenants, junior grade, and the third-lieutenants with army second- lieutenants and navy ensigns. The revenue cutter captains have received $2,500 afloat and $1,800 ashore, but hereafter they will have $3,500, and the compensations of the lower grades are proportionally increased. In time of war, when co-operating with the navy, the revenue cutters' off- cers will take rank immediately below naval officers of the statutory assimilable grade. A few years ago officers as old as ninety and several who had passed seventy were still on active duty, and last year there were captains afloat seventy years of age, although in the regular navy officers are forced into retirement at sixty-two. Under the new order a retired list of forty-six old officers, has already been established, including seven captains and four chief engineers who, although over sixty-four years old, PHILADELPHIA'S 30-FT. CHANNEL. iladelphi ly 16.--Now that a 30-ft. channel to the sea is assured, all aes per having brightest anticipations of a revival of trade which will place Philadelphia in the foremost rank of Atlantic ports. They recall old times when business of this port had not been encroached upon by Baltimore, Boston, Newport News and other smaller ports on the seaboard, which, aided by rapid strides in harbor improvements, have taken away part of the marine commerce of the Delaware river and bay. The plans submitted for the deepening of the channel have been approved and returned to Major Cosby, who is in charge of the Philadelphia office of the United States engineers. Under his direction surveying parties are now down the river making final soundings. On their return specifica- tions will be made out and following that the advertising for bids. Major Cosby said on Saturday, to the Marine Review representative, that the contracts would be let in blocks, presumably about 10 miles of river bot- tom to each contractor. This he said would expedite work, as each con- tractor would be instructed to put six to twelve dredges to a section. Actual work will begin about the middle of September. The $600,000 recently appropriated by congress will be spent first, but Major Cosby says he has been empowered to go ahead with assurance that at least $2,400,000 more would be forthcoming. : Land has been bought for the new range lights, which will be neces- sary as soon as some portions of the channel are straightened. The lights will be in position so that the channel may be used as fast as completed. When the work is fairly under way it is expected that ship owners and THE NEW EXCURSION STEAMER COLUMBIA, OF THE DETROIT, BELLE ISLE & WINDSOR FERRY CO. were still performing sea service. The new law makes no change in the personnel of the engineer corps of the service except to make the rank positive and emoluments the same as those of the line officers. As a notable result of the improved condition and prospects of the service, it is announced that forty-eight young men have already taken the examination before the civil service commission for the twenty vacancies at the bottom of the list. Those who pass the entrance requirements make a two years' practice cruise as cadets and are examined on professional subjects before receiving commissions as third lieutenants or second assistant engineers. The officers of the service are emphatic in their fond- ness for Admiral Melville, engineer-in-chief of the navy, who appeared before the committee of congress and fearlessly championed their cause for the last two years, arguing for the legislation as simple justice to those on whom rested such responsibilities. A few days ago the service made him a gift of a massive silver loving cup of five pints capacity, with this inscription on one of its panels: 'Presented to Rear Admiral George Wallace 'Melville, U. S. N., by the officers of the United States revenue cutter service, as a symbol of their friendship and a slight token of their admiration for one who fearlessly espoused their cause in time of need, and whose testimony in their behalf commanded the respectful attention of all." On the other panels are his monogram and the date of the new law, April 12, 1902. The cup is 8 in. high, and is elaborately decorated with conventional devices typical of the sea. Rear Admiral George Wallace Melville, who is leaving nothing undone to secure accurate information about fuel oil, with a view to its substitution for coal as the motive power for warships, has sent his board of experts, consisting of Chief Engineers Edwards, Baily and Parks, to the Delaware river to inspect the tank steamer Paraguay, which had arrived with a cargo of crude Texas oil. The Paraguay made the trip burning oil. She is the first of the vessels now experimenting with oil to be equipped with water-tube boilers similar to those adopted in the navy and the data of her run will be particularly instructive. The board will examine her log and ascertain as far as possible the economy with which she consumed fuel. . masters will forget the sensational stories of disaster which have been published from time to time and which have done much to injure the commerce of this port by making shipmasters afraid to come here for charters. Another improvement is promised soon for the Delaware breakwater. The secretary of war has approved the plan submitted by Lieut. Col. Ray- mond of the corps of engineers for the expenditure of $110,000 for the con- struction of additional ice piers for the protection of the harbor of refuge. The crew to man the new battleship Maine on her builders' trial this week were chosen Thursday and Friday of last week and immediately as- signed to their places. The engineers to run the ship on this important trip will be from the shops of the Cramps. Capt. Buckman, Cramps marine superintendent, will be in command and the vessel will be in charge of Pilot J. A. Clampitt, who has piloted nearly all the warships built by Cramps on their introduction to deep water. The official trial will not take place until the latter part of August or first of September. Officials of the navy department, the lighthouse board and other gov- ernment officers will make the annual cruise of inspection of the Dela- ware bay and river, the harbor of Philadelphia and the river reporting sta- tions on Friday and Saturday of this week. The cruise will take place on the revenue cutter Onondaga. a After undergoing a thorough overhauling and refitting the auxiliary cruisers Panther and Dixie sailed from the League Island navy yard on Wednesday, arriving in Brooklyn on Friday. The Panther immediately took on board the members of the New Jersey naval militia for a two months' cruise. This vessel, now a full fledged fighting ship, was, before her purchase by the government during the Spanish war, the freighter Venezuela. At Brooklyn the Dixie will go out of commission and be fitted up as a hospital ship at a cost of $75,000, to be attached to the fleet for winter maneuvers in the Carribean sea. The side-wheel steamer Uncatena is nearing completion at the Pusey & Jones yard in Wilmington and will soon sail for New Bedford. She will be used as a passenger and freight boat between New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The hull of the Uncatena is of steel and her deck of yellow pine. She is 187 ft. long and 31 ft. beam.