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1903.) SCOTCH SHIPPING LETTER. Glasgow, Oct. 26.--There is a pause in the demand for new ships and very few. contracts have been booked this month so far, There is, however, a good deal of. repair: work going on at, many of the yards which, gives a fair amount of employment. Indeéd,* at some of our yards there is now nothing but repair work doing; although at others there is enough new work under construction to last over the. winter. Among orders being negotiated ate twa merchant steamers to be fitted with turbine engines, not by! 'the. Parsons Co., but by Richardsons, Westgarth:&'Co.,, td.,, Hartle- pool, who are putting up. new works'for the construction of*tur-* bine machinery. 'The turbine engine for the new. Allan liner is being made by the Parsons Co., and will be sent across to Belfast where the hull is being built. With a decline in pig iron warrants anda slackening in the prices of makers' iron one might have looked for better prospects of cheaper ship building material. But, as a matter of fact, mak- ers of steel ship plates are talking of combining to fix a minimum MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. 21 dead weight carrying capacity of about 5,500 tons. She is fitted with a deep. tank, electric light, fire extinguishing pipes, steam windlass and steering gear, and Lord Kelvin's compass, and is altogether a very superior type of cargo vessel. Machinery has been supplied by, Dunsmuir & Jackson, the engines are 2514% 42 and 68 in. by 45. in. stroke, with two large boilers. immediately after. the trial trip for Galveston. _ _,The status of the.naval engineer.on board ship has: been the subject of much. discussion and consideration, but it} would, ap- pear from an order issued to the British war ships in commission The vessel left . that 'no readjustment has been attained, for the former conditions relative to the distribution of power are continued. It was thought that the electric generating machinery in the engine room might be placed under the charge of the engineer along with all other machinery in the engine and boiler rooms, although the electric motors for gun and torpedo work might be left in charge of the officers using them. But the torpedo lieutenant is now to be respon- sible for everything electrical. The dynamo and its engine are ex- cluded from the engineer's care, yet should the torpedo or gunnery The Famous Lighthouse at Heligoland. Price. If they do they will open the door for American steel. Meanwhile the price of steel ship plates here is about £5 15s. per ton, less 5 per cent., and in the north of England £5 12s. 6d., less 2% per cent. The growing depression in the engineering industry has caused the machinists in the marine engine shops here, and in the north of England, to decide not to renew their demand just now for an advance in wages. One or two of our ship builders are hopeful of an order from the St. John (N. B.) board of works who have invited tenders for the construction of a steel two-propeller ferryboat, 140 ft. in length, for service in the harbor there. Particular interest is felt in Glasgow (the birthplace of the Allan Line) in the movement which js taking place in Halifax, N. S., for a direct mail service between that port and Great Britain. Bristol is the port named as the terminus on this side. : _ It is stated that the sailing ships of the Leyland Line run- ning under the French bounty system obtain a bounty of £5,000 each year on a voyage to San Francisco and back, entirely inde- Pendent of freights. This, if true, is a fact of peculiar interest In view of Mr. Leyland's endeavor to persuade British sailing ship Owners to lay up' all unchartered vessels until freights improve. The steamship Pontiac, built by Napier & Miller, Ltd., Yoker, for J. W. Carmichael & Co., Ltd., Nova Scotia, has run her trial trip, when a mean of 1134 knots. was obtained on the measured mile. She is 352 ft. by 48 ft. 3 in. by 25 ft., and is of Lloyd's shel- ter-deck class, with large cubic capacity for cotton gdods and a lieutenant use a steam, oil, or gas engine for his special operations the engine will be under the charge of the engineer. Hydraulic gear associated with guns and torpedoes will be under the gun- nery or torpedo officers. The engineer may be called in by the captain to report upon any mechanism on board, and is the me- chanical expert of the ship; but the torpedo lieutenant may also be asked to inspect and report upon any of the electrical fittings and machinery of the ship. Heavy repairs in all cases must be carried out by the engineer to the instructions of the torpedo or gunnery lieutenant where mechanical appliances are involved. The boiler committee of the admiralty has begun a long-dis- tance endurance test of the Babcock & Wilcox boilers in the sec- ond-class cruiser Hermes. After this test the Medusa and Medes, third-class cruisers, will be required to steam at their best sea speed as long as the coal in their bunkers will last, with a view of testing the endurance of the Yarrow and Durr water-tube boil- ers. The committee examined the engineers to ascertain how these vessels behaved during the maneuvers, and favorable reports were made in both cases, although more in favor of the Yarrow type. The committee is consulted generally by the admiralty on the boiler details of design in new ships, and there is general agreement between the engineering staff at the admiralty and the committee on. most points. The Belleville boiler in existing ships continues to do well. The committee will record for the use of the department the results of the trials still in progress and there- after may be retained as a consultative body. she