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ea MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. i DELAWARE RIVER SHIP BUILDING. Philadelphia; July 8--John W. Grange and Andrew H. Mc- Neal, stockholders of the William Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Co., failed in their efforts to prevent the consummation of the plan to raise additional working capital for the company. The injunction asked for by Grange and McNeal, to restrain the Cramp Co. from increasing its capital from $5,000,000 to $6,250,000 and its mortgage indebtedness from $1,800,000 to $7,500,000, was refused. As a result the company's recapitalization plan will be carried out and great good is expected from it. It is thought that with the orders on hand and with adequate working capital this large ship building company will have a prosperous future. Work on the reconstruction of the steamship St. Louis, of the American Line, will be completed August 1 at the Cramp yard. She will then go to the large dry dock at Newport News. Work of repairing the boilers of the new battleship Maine, which will probably cost $10,000, is proceeding and preparations for the launching of several vessels on the ways are almost completed. Rainy weather has held back some of the out-door work of late. ; The new harbor tug for use in New York, ordered by the Philadelphia & Reading road from the Neafie & Levy company, has been named the Wyomessing. The sea-going tug ordered last week by the same company for use at the port of Philadelphia a named the Conestoga. Work at this yard is unusually brisk. 'Arrangements have been completed at the works of the New York Ship Building Co., Camden, to launch the fire boat being constructed for New York city on August 11. When launched the boat will be complete in every respect with the exception of fire hose, nozzles and cabin equipment. As yet she has not been named. A number of New Yorkers, including fire department officials, will come over for the launch. 'The steel for the keel of the armored cruiser Washington arrived at the Camden yard © last week and arrangements are now being perfected for the lay- ing of this, the first keel of an armored cruiser to be built in the state of New Jersey. An elaborate program is being arranged and distinguisned visitors will be present from all parts of the United States. Mr. J. Fielden of the Atlantic Transport Co. was at: the Camden works last week, arranging for the launching of the 625-ft. steamship Mongolian. It is said that a daughter of E. H. Harriman, the western railroad magnate, will perform the christening. August 1 is likely to be the date of the launching. The 625-ft. Manchuria for the Pacific Mail Line will be launched July 25 and the event is to be duly celebrated. An official trial trip was given the steamer Harriet last week. The Harriet was launched May 26 at the Pusey & Jones Co.'s yard, Wilmington. She is a steel hull, towing and passenger steamer and was constructed for the Christiana Navigation Co. of Wilmington. A brief description of the Christiana follows: Length on deck, 70 ft.; beam, molded, 18 ft.; depth, molded, 7 ft. 4 in.; three watertight bulkheads; main deck of Oregon pine; en- gine of the fore-and-aft compound surface-condensing type; Scotch. type boiler of 130 Ibs. pressure. The Christiana, at her trial trip, easily fulfilled all requirements. Capt. Blocksson will command her and she will ply in river and harbor trade. The passenger steamer 'Calvin B. Austin, built at Harlan & Hollingsworth's ship yards, Wilmington, was given her trial trip July 1, Capt. John Lockhart in charge. The contract speed of 18 miles an hour was exceeded, although the vessel was not pushed to her limit. After the trial she was turned over to her owners, the Eastern Steamship Co., and will run between Boston and St. John's. President David C. Reid of the Harlan & Hollingsworth Co., says that the appointment of a receiver for the United States Ship Building Co.; of which his company is a part, will have no effect upon the plant. "Our concern will keep right on building boats," he says. The company is doing a large business and em- ploys about 3,000 workmen. The passenger steamer C. W. Morse will be launched at the Harlan & Hollingsworth yards July 11. The Morse, which is being built for night service between New York and Albany, is the largest vessel ever constructed at these yards. She will be very fast. Montclair and Orange are the names given the two tugs now building at the Dialogue ship yards, Camden, for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad. The tugs will be launched soon. They will be used in New York harbor. The Maritime Exchange of Philadelphia has added a new and appreciated department, namely, the collection of data which will enable the shipping broker to see at a glance just what un- chartered vessels are in port at any time of the day. Heretofore it has been necessary for the brokers to make the rounds of all local shipping offices to ascertain the desired information. Searchlight experiments which the United States lighthouse service has been making on the lightships at Cape Hatteras have proven entirely successful and hereafter the searchlights will be a regular feature of the coastwise service. The searchlight warn- ing of the danger of Diamond Shoals has fully demonstrated the practicability of the light and it will be continued. In addition to the usual lights there will be a searchlight throwing a vertical beam of white licht towards the zenith. During the discussion of the navy estimates in the house -of commons last week Mr. Arnold Forster, secretary of the ad- miralty, announced that the admiralty did not intend to renew existing subsidies for merchant ships which may be used in time of war and that notice would be given on April 1 next that the contracts would terminate a year from that date. Many ships of the Morgan combine will be affected by this decision. PROGRESS OF WORK AT FORE RIVER. _. Quincy, Mass., July 8--The Fore River Ship & Engine Co. -- still keeps ahead on the construction of the battleships of the New Jersey class building in its yard--the New Jersey and the Rhode Island. On June 1 these vessels were estimated by the United States naval constructor in charge to be 37 per cent. com--- pleted, which was a gain of 5 per cent. over their condition the first of May and which put them 5 per cent. ahead of any of the other vessels of the same class building in other yards, the Vir- ginia being the nearest to them. Outwardly the Rhode Island is further advanced than the New Jersey, but the New Jersey's in- terior is the more complete and she is considered slightly in ad- vance of her sister ship, on the whole. Both hulls are framed to the height of the main deck beams and placed amidships, and the greater part of the protective deck armor is in place. The Rhode Island's propeller shaft struts have been attached and the New Jersey's are ready. More than 2,000 men are now employed in the yard and the work in the ship tool shop and the forge goes on night and day. +e Last Monday the two steel masts of the cruiser Des Moines were stepped by the gantry crane as the vessel lay alongside the Fore River fitting-out dock. The masts were made at the Charles- town navy yard and were sent to Fore River with the tops in place. The standing rigging will be put over the tops at once. The wooden top-masts, which are now alongside, on the pier, will be sent up later. The schooner-cut sails for the cruiser are now making at Charlestown and the rest of her canvas equip- ment is being prepared in the Rowe sail loft at Gloucester. On June 1 the Des Moines was 86 per cent. completed, standing third among the vessels of her class under construction. The engines will have their dock trial in a week or two and it is probable the cruiser will be ready to see deep water in a month. _ Material for the four car floats building for the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad at this yard is now all in hand and much of it is ready to be put in the hulls. The keels of two of them have already been laid, between the schooner William L. Douglas and the Fall River Line freight steamer, and as soon as the schooner's masts and bowsprit, which are being made ready on the beach, are out of the way the third barge will be started. The contract calls for completion of all four in six and eight months. ° : Keel plates of the passenger steamer for the Fall River Line have been laid on the blocks on the Fore River beach and the - materials are on hand for carrying the hull along without delay. The freighter for this same line is building very rapidly. Forty pairs of bottom frames have been erected and the bulkheads are being set up. Work on the six-masted steel schooner William' L. Douglas is being rushed in order to get the vessel off the ways early next month. The masts and bowsprit, also of steel, are ready to step now, but will not be put in until after the launching. As soon as the Douglas is out of the way the blocks for the 16,000-ton battleship Vermont will be set in her place. There have been a number of recent improvements in the mechanical departments of the Fore River ship yard. A new house for enameling pipe, etc., has been set up near the galvan- izing shed, another large saw mill is being built near the lumber storehouse and the new brass foundry has begun operations. A system of blowers just installed in the pattern and joiner shops will convey sawdust, shavings and other litter directly from the machines to a furnace in the power house, almost a third of a mile of pipes of various sizes being used in its construction. The spur track connecting the yard with the New Haven road accomplishes a considerable saving in getting freight to the plant and has developed sufficient traffic so that a freight shed is soon to be built at Braintree especially to accommodate the ship yard freight. Fore River's private rolling stock has been increased by another of the powerful little locomotives formerly used on the Manhattan elevated road in New York. THE EUDORA CASE DECIDED. New York, July 8--Through Messrs. Hunter, Abbott & Coyne, proctors in admiralty, No. 29 Broadway, I learn that the supreme court has rendered a decision in the Eudora case favora- ble to the plaintiff, which was the crew of the vessel. This case grew out of the practice of "crimping," so far as foreign, espe- cially British, vessels were concerned, the owners and masters of which held that the section of the United States seaman laws of 1808, relating to advances and allotments, did not apply to any but United States shipping. Hence it has been the practice of certain boarding bosses to carry on "crimping" by signing poor Jack with a British master for three months at one shilling a month, while the law allows the allotment of but one month's pay. In order to overcome this abuse the crew of the Eudora, backed by the Seaman's Union, brought the suit which has just been decided in their favor, and which will have a much wider application than as to this vessel and her crew, as there were several other similar cases awaiting the outcome. The decision holds that the law relating to advances and allotments applies equally to United States and foreign shipping, unless there be treaty conditions to the contrary. GW: R: . While lying at Norton's coal dock, Menominee, during heavy weather last week, the steamer Ogemaw was struck by lightning. The crew was asleep at the time and all were thrown from their bunks, though none were seriously hurt.