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18 MARINE REVIEW. A STEAMBOAT ABOVE THE CLOUDS. The English correspondent of the Scientific American writes that the Andes of Peru 2re remarkable on account of engineering eyecare especially on the section of railway stretching from the port of Mollendo on the Pacific coast to Lampa, and Puno on the banks of Lake Titicaca, the highest known sheet of water in the world. It is 13,000 ft. above sea level. This inland lake measures 120 miles in length and varies from 25 to 40 miles in width. For many years communication was desired be- tween the terminus of the railroad at Puno and the terminus of the rail- road at Chiliaya in Bolivia on the opposite shore of the lake some 100 miles away. The traffic between the two termini was maintained by means of the primitive native balsas, constructed out of the totora grass which thrives on the muddy banks of the lake. But the exigencies of the increased traffic necessitated a more expeditious and economical means of communication, and so the Peruvian corporation which controls the rail- road resolved to establish a steamship upon the lake to ply between the orts. F The contract for the steamer was placed with Messrs. Denny Bros., the celebrated ship builders of Dumbarton on the Clyde. The vessel is a twin-screw, shallow-draught steamer, 170 ft. in length, beam 26 ft., and 550 tons gross, with accommodation for forty-five first-class and thirty second-class passengers. Owing to the lake shelving gradually from the shore, it was rendered expedient to have the craft of very shallow draught in order to approach the landing stage. The vessel, named the Coya, was temporarily erected upon the Clyde, but not launched. _ She was then dis- membered and shipped at Glasgow to Mollendo. To facilitate transport, the parts of the vessel were made as small as possible. The boilers, how- ever, owing to the great care that has to be exercised in riveting the plates together by hydraulic pressure, so that there can be no possibility of their exploding, were shipped intact, and that constituted the heaviest and most bulky portions of the cargo, since they weighed fifteen tons each. The Coya was despatched to Puno under the superintendence of Mr. John Wilson, a young engineer who had served his apprenticeship with the builders of the steamer. Considerable difficulty was experienced in dis- embarking the material of the Coya at the port of Mollendo. This port is the terror of all Pacific navigators, since it is exposed to the full fury of the Pacific ocean. The surf is so heavy that it is only in the calmest weather that safe landing can be effected. After waiting a few days, the weather moderated sufficiently to permit the plates to be landed, by means ~ of lighters. Apprehensive of the safety of the boilers, which from their unwieldiness and weight were more liable to accident, the engineer pro- ceeded to Islay, a port ten miles north of Mollendo, where there is a mag- nificent anchorage. They were here transferred to lighters, and towed back to Mollendo. As an extra precaution, the engineer caused the boilers to be plugged, so that in the event of an accident to the lighters, the boilers would float and thus be recovered. The loss of a boiler would have been calamitous, involving several months' delay before it could have been replaced. The cargo was placed on a train of twenty-two freight cars. The boilers were carefully lashed down to obviate oscillation and collision with low bridges. When Puno was reached, a primitive ship building yard was improvised upon the potato patch of a Quichua Indian. Difficulties now confronted the engineer on every side. For some occult reason the railroad authorities at Arequipa had made no preparations for his arrival beyond giving him a pile of disused railway sleepers. Notwithstanding the fact that they had been fully instructed to provide necessary tools, Wilson was not even provided with a hammer. But he remained un- daunted by this turn of affairs, and since sending to England for tools would have involved several weeks' delay, he set to work to fashion a few tools from scrap iron that he discovered. The railway sleepers he cut up and used as keel dogs. The railroad authorities supplied some riveters from the locomotive shops at Arequipa. The natives who assisted in the work, although sloth- ful, possessed a certain amount of intelligence. Flush riveting was un- known to.them, however, and some time elapsed before they became sufficiently expert to render much valuable assistance. Trouble was experienced with the "ne'er-do-wells' of the country, called Gringoes, who hastened to the-scene from all parts of the country, not to work, but to see how much material they could appropriate for their own special use. Some idea of the arduous nature of the engineer's task may be gathered from the fact that in the forty laborers he employed, sixteen different nationalities from all parts of the world were represented. In selecting the ship yard care had to be taken to select a suitable spot for launching. Under ordinary conditions the launching ways are | laid at low tide, so that at high water the lower ends are sufficiently sub- merged. In this case, however, he had no assistance from tides. Fortu- nately, at the time of the year he arrived the lake was low, so that when the rainy season raged the water would rise a few feet. But even this would not have supplied a sufficient depth of water at the end of the ways, and they were further submerged by means of heavy weights attached to them. The stocks for the vessel consisted of the timber utilized by the railroad for the erection of their bridges, and they were placed as near the water's edge as possible. The construction of the vessel's hull progressed very rapidly after the laborers had been initiated into the work of flush riveting. The boilers were really the only difficult portion of the Coya to handle. As a rule the machinery is not installed in a vessel until after launching, but this course in this instance was absolutely impracticable, owing to the absence of any kind of lifting appliances. The engineer was unable to obtain a crane, and also could not improvise a derrick, owing to absence of tall trees in that high altitude to furnish sufficiently long lengths of timber. He finally surmounted the difficulty by purchasing the spars from an old sailing vessel in Mollendo port, which the master of the craft only parted with at a high figure, since he had gained news of the engineer's difficulty. The boilers were each about 16 ft. in length by about 8 ft. in diameter, and were moved forty yards from the freight cars to the vessel's side by sheer physical labor. The hauling of the boilers into the vessel by the primitive crane was an exacting operation. The condenser weighed five tons.. The cylinders and the various parts of the machinery were not installed until after the launch. Some idea' of the rapidity with which the steamer was built may be gained from the fact that within six months of the arrival at Puno the Coya was ready for launching. The launch was an anxious operation to the engineer, because even in the best equipped ship yards a certain [July 24 -- - $$. amount of uncertainty attends this operation. The engineer more than anticipated failure upon the first attempt, notwithstanding the infinite care he had exercised to avoid any hitch. The launching ceremony was the occasion of great festivities in the city of Puno. About 5,000 Indians also witnessed the function. The christening, was performed by the Bishop of Puno. After the short religious service holy water was sprinkled over the bows and a bottle of champagne broken in the conventional style. Imme- diately this was completed, the engineer pulled the trigger maintaining the cradle in position, and instantly the Coya glided with increasing momentum into the water. No launch in the most modern ship yard could have been attended with greater success than the launch of the Coya. With the launch of the vessel the most arduous part of the undertak- ing was completed. The Coya was towed to and berthed alongside the mole at Puno, where the rest of her machinery and cabin fittings were installed. The sight of a steamship floating upon this lake occasioned considerable astonishment among the unsophisticated Indians, many of whom had never seen the sea, and consequently had never seen a steam- ship. The trial trip ef the steamer was the occasion of a general holiday in the city. The contract speed of the vessel was to be 10 knots per hour, and she was to cover the journey between Puno and Chiliaya in ten hours, The vessel was captained by a Peruvian, who had to be initiated into the work of the telegraph apparatus connecting the bridge with the engine room, while Mr. Wilson accompanied the vessel as engineer. One diffi- culty that was experienced was in connection with the stoking of the furnaces. Owing to the rarefaction of the atmosphere at this high alti- tude there was a decreased supply of oxygen, which necessitated stoking the furnaces in small quantities, or else the fires were smothered. This required continual labor, which was exceedingly fatiguing. Forced draft was of course applied, but this did not alleviate the difficulty to any ap- preciable extent. The steamer was also supplied with the apparatus necessary for petroleum fuel. The engineer described the experience of traveling at such an altitude as peculiar. The air was extremely clear, with the clouds rolling thousands of feet below, while the throbs of the piston rods of the engines rang out clearly and distinctly upon the rarefied air. The engineer suffered many privations as the result of working at such a high altitude. The blood would rush to his head and his eyes pro- trude from their sockets with painful results. He was also seized with one of the epidemical diseases indigenous to that region, and was troubled at times with soroche, the prevalent complaint. By conceiving a severe attack of mal-de-mer combined with a splitting headache, a quasi- asphyxiation, and land sickness, a tolerable idea may be obtained of the painfulness of this malady. By the terms of the contract the Coya was to be constructed and delivered over to the railroad authorities within twelve months from the signing of the document. The contract was ful- filled within the specified time by two days. The construction.of a vessel of the dimensions of the Coya in such an isolated spot as the shores of Lake Titicaca is an engineering triumph. When one recollects the in- superable obstacles the engineer had to surmount, the absence of any of those appliances with which the modern ship yards are provided to facili- tate work, the employment of unskilled labor, then some idea of the mag- nitude of the task may be gained. GERMAN VIEW OF THE SHIPPING COMBINE. The Berlin correspondent of the London Economist writes as fol- lows of the later developments of the shipping trust: 'While the agree- ment is regarded as highly favorable to the German lines, the prospects of the syndicate itself are not considered as bright. It is believed in German shipping circles that the syndicate is too heavily capitalized and that it will consequently be unable to earn enough money to pay divi- dends upon its enormous capital after making the necessary | write-offs for vessels. In this connection a very pessimistic estimate of the prob- able financial results of the syndicate has appeared in the Frankfurter Zeitung, and has attracted much attention here. It is understood that this estimate emanates from a financier very near one of the German lines. He compares the probable earning capacity of the trust with the actual results obtained by the two German lines for several years past, as follows: The trust, having a capital of about £35,000,000, must earn £3,500,000 a year in order to pay a dividend of 5 per cent., and write off 5 per cent., which latter is regarded as the lowest possible allowance for depreciation of steamers. But in order to obtain so favorable a result, the trust, having a tonnage of about 700,000 tons, will have to earn, roughly, £5 per ton yearly. On the other hand, the two German lines, having for several years past an average of about 900,000 tons together, have only been able to earn about £2 10s. per ton. They have undoubtedly been under excellent management, and the state of the ocean freight market was unusually favorable till the latter half of last year; and it is regarded as quite impossible that the trust, with its 700,000 tons, should earn twice as much as the German lines with their 900,000 tons." HYDRAULIC DREDGE J. ISRAEL TARTE. The new hydraulic dredge, J. Israel Tarte, built by the Polson Iron Works, Toronto, Can., from designs by A. W. Robinson of Montreal, has been most successful in its initial employment. The hull is of steel, 160 ft. long, 42 ft. wide and 12 ft. 6 in. deep, and the indicated horse power of engines is 1,500. The depth to which it can dredge is 50 ft. The dredge is intended to work in blue clay and to have a lateral feed of 450 ft., the movement being controlled entirely by wire rope anchorages. Material is discharged to a distance of 2,000 ft. by a floating pipe-line of steel, 36 in. in diameter.. The material is excavated by Robinson's patent rotary cut- ter, which excavates the material and feeds it into the mouth of the suc- tion pipe, the main centrifugal pump being used entirely for the transpor- tation of the dredge's material. This dredge is now at work deepening the ship channel between Montreal and Quebec in the St. Lawrence river. The channel through the clay deposit of Lake St. Peter is 18 miles long and the present depth is 25 ft. at low water, 300 ft. wide. When the pres- ent work is finished the channel will be 80 ft. at low water, 450 ft. wide. The original depth of water in the lake was 11 ft. at low water. © This dredge has, been built for and is operated by the department of public works of Canada under the direction of the Hon. J. Israel Tarte.