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MUA R I N E; R E V © @ ya -- Dover is so much nearer to the German ports as to make the hour of departure either late in the evening or early in the morning, and to wait the arrival of a train leaving London at a suitable hour may involve delay in the passage. The ubiquitous Prince Line has decided to run a line of steamers to South African ports from British ports. The first steamer is the Tudor Prince, which is now loading at Birkenhead for Cape Town and Natal. At first the boats will go to New York to complete loading, but as soon as sufficient cargo offers they will go to South Africa direct. When Prince Line boats are not available the company will send cargo by other vessels to New York, where it will be transhipped to one of the Prince Line vessels. Recent heavy insurances on British warships under con- struction have caused considerable activity in the marine insur- ance market. Two insurances of £259,000 each have been placed on the government scouts, Pathfinder and Patrol. These vessels, which are being built at the works on the Mersey of Cammell, Laird & Co; Ltd, are insured udder government contract conditions, and under the, tariff, for one year, or until the scouts are delivered to the admiralty after completion. The present insurances come into force on the launching of the vessels, which is one of the chief risks cov- ered under the policies. After the launching, trial preliminary trips are at the risk of the underwriters, on the condition that an adequate complement of officers and men be supplied by the admiralty for manning and navigating the warships for purposes of trials prior to their being handed over. This condition is subject to the reservation that, should it be deemed expedient to allow either of the vessels to make trial trips between the Mersey and the Clyde without a navigating party on board, the builders are still covered under the con- tract for a consideration to be paid to the underwriters over and above the presént premium paid. Apart from the more important risks, that of fire is included, both on shipboard and in connection with such materials in the workshops as will ultimately form part of the vessels, the transporting of the same from dock to dock, and also the lifting and placing of the machinery on board the new scouts. The British steamer Cheltenham, captured by the Russians, had on board a valuable cargo of railway material from Japan for Korea and was insured against war risks for £40,000. She was several days overdue at Fusan, and was placed on the overdue market at 20 guineas per cent against total loss from any cause. Later, 25 guineas per cent was paid for war risk only, it being anticipated that the steamer might be cap- tured by the Vladivostok squadron. 'The Cheltenham is a turret-deck steamer of 3,741 gross tonnage, built at Sun- derland in 1901 by W..Doxford & Sons. Her owners, Messrs. Galbraith, Pembroke & Co., have received a cable- gram stating that the ship had been brought into Vladivostok to await trial at a prize court. Had the steamer been lost and posted as missing, leaving no clue as to the cause. of the disaster, underwriters on the marine policies which exclude war risks would have been liable, even though the accident might have happened through contact with a drifting mine. While war risk underwriters are considerably concerned with the new development, those interested in the ordinary insur-~ ances on the vessel which amount in the aggregate to £35,000, . are exempt from liability. A return has been issued in connection with the trials of the new large destroyers of 25%4-knot speed, which indicates under what severe pressure the speed is realized by these larger craft. They are on an average 230 tons heavier than the earlier vessels of 30-knot speed ranging up to 550 tons. Their construction was decided upon as a result of strictures made on the strength of the lighter boats by the naval court martial which sat in judgment on the loss of the Cobra. Events have proved that these criticisms by officers who were not versed in naval architecture, or in the problems of stresses of seagoing craft, were not justified, and the com- mittee of experts appointed to make thorough and scientific investigations of the subject came to the definite conclusion that there was no reason for the alarmist attitude taken. Larger boats have their compensations, but without increasing the gun-power they cost 25 per cent more, and reduce ma- terially the radius of action at any given speed. Events in the far East have shown that speed is everything in destroyer tactics so the reduction from 30 to 25% knots is a serious matter, especially as the lower speed is difficult of realization. In the old days a ship was not expected to require more than I in. or 1% in. of forced draft in the closed stokehold, although in some extreme cases this has been considerably exceeded. With these destroyers, however, the pressure was under 2 in. in only three cases out of seventeen trials com- pleted, while in the others it ranged up to 5.3 in., in two cases it was 4.4 in., and in the others it ranged between 2% and 3 in. The Yarrow destroyers have done best in this re- spect. Two of them are turbine-driven and one, the Velox, steamed 27.1 knots for 7.35 tons of coal per hour, the other, the Eden, 26.2 knots for 7.45 tons per hour. The best result with reciprocating engines was 26.2 knots with a coal con- sumption of about 5% tons per hour, this vessel having the remarkably low rate of 1.65 1b. per indicated horse power per hour. Another reciprocating engined vessel returned 1.56 lb. for 25.8 knots, which also gives a better result than the turbine vessels. A third, which steamed 26.1 knots only, consumed 1.91 lb. All these three vessels were Yarrow's. In the case of the other vessels the consumption ranged up to 2.79 lb., and the average result is not more than the 714 tons recorded for the turbine vessels. Where the consumption was over 2% |b. the vessel had to carry an increase in load at the rate of four tons for each tenth of a pound in excess of 2.5 tb. per I. H. P. per hour, while for less consumption a deduction was made for the saving on the same basis. WORK AT NEWPORT NEWS. Norfolk, Va., July 20.--An interesting report in connection with Hampton Roads ship building interests is that the Pet- ersburg Iron Works, which now operates a small plant at Petersburg, turning out dredges, barges and small craft for the government and private parties, will be removed to Nor- folk and located on the Berkley side of the Elizabeth river. It is stated that Norfolk parties have succeeded in raising sufficient capital to secure control of the plant and will lose no time in making the transfer. It is said that when the im- provements are made the value of the new plant will be about $1,000,000. The significance of the move is that the new works will doubtless be a factor in the building of smaller vessels and will be in position to secure considerable work of this kind that is now done at Baltimore. The navy department seems to be determined to lead the Newport News Ship Building & Dry Dock Co. in the race be- tween the battleships Louisiana and Connecticut. Several days ago interest in the ship building race between the govern- ment yard and the private yard was heightened by the an- nouncement that the -Connecticut, building at Brooklyn, and the Louisiana, building at Newport News, would be launched in September. Now comes the statement from official sources that the Connecticut will be launched at Brooklyn Sept. 29. The ship yard across Hampton Roads has made no announcement yet of the date for the launching of the sister ship of the Connecticut. The Louisiana leads the other vessel by 6 per cent. and considerable interest is manifested in the possibility of the private yard placing the date of its launching ahead of Sept. 29 in order to have its ship overboard first. A corps of engineers are now working upon Zion City, Ill., and a harbor will soon be constructed at that place.