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20 MARINE REVIEW AND MA GLASGOW SHIPPING LETTER. Wage Question in Ship Yards Again Nearing a very Interesting Stage-- Another Experimental Tank--Report of the Anchor Line, etc., etc. © Glasgow, July 27---No new contracts for ships seem to have been booked this month and I doubt if much will be done 1n August either. With the first of August expire the terms for which the recent wage reductions were made with the ship yar men and the machinists. The Amalgamated Society of Engineers has already applied for a resumption of the adjourned confer- ° ence between the Scotch and North of England Associations of Employers and the trade union representatives which made the temporary compact three months ago. No doubt the Amal- gamated Society of Engineers men will claim the return of the reduction then made, on the ground of the demand for machinists in other branches of engineering, whilst the marine employers want, if possible, another reduction in order to cheapen ship production. There will likely be a long controversy but how it will end one cannot foresee at present. The ship yard workers have not yet made any move, doubtless because the officials, like the rank and file of the trade unions, are taking holiday just now, but they and the ship building employers will have to face each other very soon on the wages question. No one can dispute the declining work in the ship yards, and order books speak for themselves as to the future. Ship yard hands have not, at least with very few exceptions, the alternative employments that ma- chinists can sometimes seek (and at present find) when marine engineering is dull. The wage question is nearing a very interest- ing stage. Not all ship builders have had short commons during the past year, notwithstanding the complaints. Among those who have done well have been those well-known liner yacht builders, David & William Henderson & Co., Ltd., Glasgow. Their re- port states that the results of the year ended April 30 last have been satisfactory. The profit, after charging the cost of renewals and upkeep, amounts to £46,058, to which falls to be added a bal- ance brought forward from last account, £14,616, giving £60,674, which the directors propose to appropriate as follows: In pro- viding for depreciation at the rate of 2%4 per cent. on buildings and 5 per cent. on machinery, £5,611; in providing for the in- -terim dividend paid on preference shares, £7,500; in providing for a final dividend on the preference shares, £7,500; in paying a dividend of 10 per cent. per annum on the ordinary shares, £22,500; leaving to be carried forward to next year, £17,563. A new shipping combine is about to take place by the amal- gamation of the two extensive shipping concerns of Messrs. Bailey & Leetham and Thomas Wilson Sons & Co., owners of the Wilson Line. Henceforth these two extensive businesses will be worked as one. The normal value of Wilson & Co.'s busi- ness, which a few years ago was converted into a limited com- pany, is £2,000,000, but the shares were not placed upon the mar- ket. Their steamers number eighty-two and the gross tonnage is 170,000. Messrs. Bailey & Leetham own twenty-three steam- ers and their capital is £500,000. Both firms have offices in Lon- don and Newcastle. Both trade recularly between Liverpool and the Continent, whilst Wilson & Co. also run vessels between _London and New York. ANOTHER EXPERIMENTAL TANK. A good deal of consideration is being given in ship building circles just now to the subject of experimental tanks, in which the Clyde has led the way. The experimental tank is a most use- ful adjunct of all modern ship building establishments, and two of them are in operation in Clyde yards. One of these is the famous tank of Messrs. Wm. Denny & Bros. at Dumbarton, and another has just been constructed after a somewhat similar pat- tern at the yard of John Brown & Co., Ltd., Clydebank. The new tank is substantially built and carefully roofed in. There is a free run for model trials of 400 ft., the width of the tank be- ing 20 ft., and the depth of water 10 ft. The main frame spans the width of the tank and carries the truck to which the model is harnessed, together with operators and recording apparatus. The water was let into the basin some time ago and the company is now able to experiment with models in their own establish- ment. Your Admiral Melville is emphatic on the great import- ance of more money and attention being devoted to experimental work in connection with the navy. In America, as in Britain, such experimental work has been desultory, and many untried and doubtful devices and expedients have doubtless been adopted which would have been better avoided. One of the problems for solution has reference to the question of the efficiency of inturn- ing screws. These, it is contended, are detrimental to maneuver- ing. The reason for the adoption of the system is that with them the twin engines can be so placed in the ship that the start- ing platform for both is in the center, so that the chief engineer has full control over the valves, etc. But in twin-screw steamers for merchant service this result is achieved in combination with out-turning engines. There are problems associated with the strength of columns in the front of the engine, with valves, pro- pellers, the strength of shafts, the packing and material of bear- ings, the composition of white metals, the jacketing of cylinders, the influence of short strokes, etc., enough to keep a large experi- mental staff in operation. An increase of speed in some recent cruisers of 142 to 2 knots simply by change of propeller suggests that power is being wasted in warships, as well as in high-speed passenger boats, because of the want of more scientific methods. As Admiral Melville has pointed out, Germany's excellence is not the result of a progressive series of failures, but rather a high appreciation of the value of experimental work and investigation. t RINE RECORD. [Aug. 6, The report of the directors of the Anchor Line (Hendere, Bros.) ete year ended April 30, 1903, states that ine year the Massilia was delivered by the builders to the company and the Circassia has subsequently been delivered. Both ear have given the utmost satisfaction, and will prove valuable ~~ tions to the fleet. The Italia (building by David & William Hen. derson & Co., Ltd., for the Mediterranean and New York pasgen- ger service) 1s expected to be launched towards the end of the present year. The Hispania has been sold, having been taken i part payment for the Italia. Throughout the year, they say, the freight market generally has been in an exceptionally depresseq condition; and in the Atlantic trade especially rates have been little more than nominal, and only part cargoes have been in many cases obtainable. The passenger branch of the business has, how- ever. been well maintained, and the numbers carried in all the services has exceeded those of any year since the formation of the company. The profits for the year ended April 30, 1903, after charging all expenses, amounted to £89,946, to which has to be added a balance brought forward from April 30, 1902, £34,528. total £124,474, out of which there has been written off for depreci- ation £60,000, and there has been paid debenture interest, less in- come tax, £13,710 and dividend on preference shares, less income tax, £16,757, leaving a balance of £34,007. This the directors recommend should be applied as follows: 'lo payment of a divi- dend on the ordinary shares at the rate of 5 per cent., free of in- come tax, £12,500; leaving a balance to carry forward to next year of £21,506. EXTRAORDINARY SPEED OF THE DONEGAL. Some extraordinary speed results have been obtained by the first-class armored cruiser Donegal, built by the Fairfield Ship Building & Engineering Co., Ltd., for the British admiralty, on the trials stipulated in the contract. It has been hitherto the cus- ~ tom in carrying out the speed trials of warships that aferwards the guns and mountings were put on board at one of the govern- ment dock yards, but the admiralty now orders the vessels to be completed by the contractor. The Donegal is the first cruiser to go out from a contractor's works fully equipped with guns, tor- pedoes, etc. Lhe series of trials laid down by the admiralty for the Donegal included steam trials at various powers, gun and tor- pedo trials, circle turning, steering engine and anchor trials--all carried out with very satisfactory results. A trial which has given some difficulty in other vessels of the class was that of bringing the rudder back from the hard-over position to the mid- dle line when steaming at 17 knots astern. Other ships have to slow down the propelling engines by ten or twelve revolutions to accomplish this, but in the Donegal this severe test of the steer- ing machinery was carried out without difficulty at a speed cor- responding to 104 revolutions astern. During the voyage to Devonport the steam trial of 30 hours at one-fifth power was com- pleted. The average speed even at this low proportion of the power of the vessel was 14.75 knots. On arrival at Devon- port the ship was taken out to the Channel when the var- ious gunnery tests were made and the specified rounds were fired from all the guns, and everything was found satisfactory. Dur- ing the firing of the large 6-in. twin mountings the ship was per- fectly steady. The official tests of the torpedo gear were carried out with equal success. The ship was afterwards prepared for the return voyage to the Clyde, during which the 30-hours' trial at three-fourths power was carried out. The mean speed during this trial was 22.3 knots, which exceeds anything hitherto done on 4 similar trial of any cruiser. An early start was made on the full- power trial of 8 hours' duration, and the result of this trial 1s now recorded. On the measured mile at Skelmorlie, while running at the contract horse power--22,000--the mean speed of four runs was 23.73 knots, being the greatest speed yet attained by any ves- sel of the class; and, proceeding out to sea for the stipulated hours' trial, the indicated horse power developed was 22,154. The following is a statement of the results of the official steam trials of the Donegal: One-fifth power, 467 I. H. P., 88.8 revolutions, 14.75 speed; three-fourths power, 16,333 I. H. P., 136.4 revolu- tions, 22.30 speed; full-power, 22,154 1. H. P., 140.8 revolutions, 23.737 speed. PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP CO.'S REPORT. The annual report of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., of which E. H. Harriman is president, was made public last week. The re- port shows that after making the customary charges for deprecia- tion and for general and extraordinary repairs of steamefs, amounting to $314,823.20, the year's operations have resulted in 4 surplus of $8,280.33, against a deficit of $307,935.29 in the pre- ceding year. Compared with the operations of 1902 the receipts from steamers operated and chartered increased $794,500.16, and the receipts from other sources $3,660.23, a total increase of $798,-, 160.39. There was a shrinkage in the company's earnings in 1902; the report says, from an unusual combination of unfavorable cit- cumstances. The earthquake in Guatemala unsettled business 11 that republic for a considerable time, a quarantine existed at some of the Mexican ports, the low price of silver reduced the exports to all countries on a silver basis, and some business was diverte by the low rates made by the Suez canal lines. Since Sept. 3% 1902, the company has put into service the new steamships Korea and Siberia, at a total cost of $3,979,114.37. "The cash on hand im New York, San Francisco and London April 30 last amounted to $56,414.36.