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14 | 3 Tae Marine Review LIVERPOOL SHIPPING LETTER. Liverpool, March 5.--The Liverpool Underwriters' Associa- tion have issued a classified return. of casualties to vessels of 500 tons gross register and upward which have been posted in the Loss Book during the month ended Feb. 28 last. They number 430, as against 433 in the corresponding month' of last year, 508 in February, 1904, and 560 in February, 1903. The number and gross tonnage of vessels totally lost in February, 1905, were as follows: British, 4 sail of 7,500 tons, and 3 steam of 5,091 tons; foreign, 3 sail of 3,961, and 5 steam of 10,188 tons; total, 15 ships of 26,740 tons; as compared with 22 ships, and 44,918 tons in February, 1905; and 20 vessels of 29,517 tons in February, 1904. The total estimated loss occasioned by these casualties is $825,- 000 in steam tonnage, and in sail $500,000. The nature of casualty is given as follows: Weather damage, 81; founder- ings and abandonments, 1; strandings, 121; collisions, 134; fires and explosions, 19; missing, 3; damage to machinery, shafts and. propellers, 61; other. casualties, 10; total 430. The 15 vessels totally lost are recorded as being due to strandings, 8; collisions, 2; missing, 3; fires, I ane founder- ings, I. The British colonial office has just issued the report adopted unanimously by a conference of delegates repre- senting the governments of Portuguese East Africa, the Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal Colony, the Orange River Colony, and Rhodesia, appointed to meet in London to give effect to the recommendations of previous conferences which dealt with the question of ocean freights to South African ports. At their first meeting, the conference invited the combined steamship companies to send reports to the conference, and the invitation was accepted. Prolonged dis- cussion and negotiations followed, but they proved abortive, owing, as the report contends to the unreasonable attitude maintained by the shipping companies, this fact being re- corded in the following resolution, passed at the last meet- ing of the conference. "That the shipping freights con- ference is of the opinion that no good purpose is to be served by the prolongation of negotiations with the ship owners, since every effort on the part of the conference to arrive at an agreement upon a reasonable basis has been met by wholly inadequate concessions. It is, therefore, resolved that the negotiations be closed, and that the ship owners be ad- vised accordingly." In the concluding paragraph of the report, it is urged that prompt measures should be taken to remove or mitigate the present disability in trade pro- duced by the high rates of freight, maintained by what is virtually a monopoly in ocean transport between Great Bri- tain and her South African colonies. The industrial revival in Britain is further evidenced by the favorable reports issued by Messrs Vickers Sons & 'Maxim, the big iron and steel manufacturers, who can pro- duce everything from a ninepenny nail to an ironclad; and Messrs, William Doxford & Sons, ship builders, engineers, etc. Vickers, Maxim declare a dividend at the rate of Io per cent, making 15 per cent for the year, against 12% per cent for 1905, while the carry forward is raised $955,000 to $1,050,000. The company has orders on hand which will keep its works full for many months to come. William Doxford's profits show an extraordinary rise from £223,500 to £441,500, and the ordinary shareholders receive 20 per cent for the year, as against 12%4 per cent twelve months - ago, after placing £150,000 to reserve, and carrying forward £10,000. The net value of orders in course of execution on Dec. 31 last, was over £400,000. This company's output of shipping tonnage for 1905 was greater than that of any other firm in the united kingdom. Trade reports from the north of Britain continue to indicate widespread prosperity in the iron, steel and kindred industries. 4% size, high speed, and great coal endurance. Sir William H. White, K. C. B., late director of British naval construction, delivered the last of the series of five cantor lectures on modern warships:on Feb. 27, the lecturer - dealing principally. with the development of the cruiser. The Blake and the Blenheim, built in 1888 were, he said, the predecessors of a large number of protected cruisers of large The defense of the vitals in these vessels primarily consisted of a strong steel protective deck but it was reinforced by special ar- rangements of the coal bunkers. The bunkers near the sides were intended to be kept full as long as possible, and the vessels were endowed with stability that enabled them to retain coal in the upper bunkers as long as might be thought desirable. When melinite lyddite and other high explosives were introduced, it was considered advisable in some navies to protect the broadsides of cruisers with thin steel armor, in order that the explosion of shells carrying powerful bursting charges might be made to take place out- side the ship. The 'Depuy de Lome, built for the French navy about the time when the Blake and the Blenheim were built for the British navy, illustrated this system, the broad- side throughout the length being 'covered with thin steel armor. Experience showed, however, that with thin side armor such as was necessarily adopted in large cruisers because of limitations of weight, it was possible to do enor- mous damage by using cheap chilled cast iron projectiles. Consequently, the decision of the admiralty was against adoption of the French practice, and in favor of the con- tinuance of the protective deck system in association with armor ~protection for the armament in the shape of case- mates, shields, etc. In Italy, about this time, financial limi- tations practically compelled suspension of the construction of large and costly battleships; and it was decided to build vessels instead which though classed as cruisers and of mod- erate size and cost should be capable of fighting in the line of battle. In this way the Italians came to be pioneers in the construction of the modern type of armored cruiser. Not until 1896, however, when the Cressy class was pro- jected did Britain deem it wise to move in the same direction. Following Cressys came the four Drakes; and succeeding them, in order to checkmate the foreign move- ment which had for its object the destruction of Britain's commerce, the ships of the County class. The Duke of Edin- burgh class followed, and in their wake came the Mino- taurs to be followed in time by the Invincibles. There was a tendency, Sir William proceeded to say, in some navies to abolish the distinction between battleships and armored cruisers. In France, the idea was advocated by Admiral Fournier many years ago, and it had been revived recently by M. Bos, the reporter on the navy estimates for 1906. As yet, however, it had found no favor with the British admiralty, whose latest program included the Dreadnought type of battleship, and the Invincible class of cruiser, Of the eight scouts which have been lately built for the British navy, Sir William expressed the opinion that in relation to their size and cost they had very small offensive power. It was explained, of course, that they were to find safety in flight from more powerfully armored vessels. They were to be, so to speak, the eyes of the fleet. To do that sort of _ work it was obvious that their coal endurance waquld require to compare well with the coal endurance of the ships of the fleet. And it certainly did not. As a matter of fact, trials made by the vessels showed conclusively that their coal endurance at the cruising speeds was very much less than that of the battleships for which they were to scout, so that quite clearly their design did not fulfil the fundamental con- dition of effective scouting. In the United States, where three vessels intended for similar service were now under construction, very much larger coal supplies had been pro- vided. The vessels had been increased in length and dis- ey