The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

32 The Marine REVIEW FROM LAKES TO GULF. The movement for deep water from Chicago to New Orleans was formally launched at a dinner party at the Raleigh hotel, in Washington last week, with Representative Lorimer, of the Illinois delegation as host. The guests were limited to members of the house from the city of Chicago, members from Illinois on the rivers and harbors committee and those representatives who were on the Mississippi river inspection party last fall. The guests were: Representa- tives Madden, Mann, Snapp, Wharton, MacGavin, Wilson, Knoppf, Smith, Foss, Rainey and Graff, all of Illinois, and Mr. Humphreys, of Mississippi. Temporary organization was effected by making Mr. Lori- mer chairman and Mr. Rainey secretary. It was decided to hold a convention in St. Louis Nov. 15 and 16, and the of- ficial designation of the movement will be "The Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterway Convention." : Delegates to the convention will be selected by the local organizations at the different points visited by the Mississippi river inspecting party of last fall. It was the sense of the Inecting to make the project of. national interest, and a future congress will be asked to make an appropriation for the carrying out of plans to be formulated and agreed upon at the St. Louis convention. The scheme is to put Chicago and the other commercial centers of the great lakes in more direct waterway commu- nication with the Orient via the Mississippi river, the gulf and the proposed Panama canal. It has been ascertained by a preliminary survey that an appropriation of $31,000,000 will be necessary for a deep-water channel from Chicago to St. Louis, and the plan now is to get the country and the government interested in the execution of the project to that extent as a sort of prelude to the realization of the en- terprise. The Chicago drainage canal is already 21 ft, but it is necessary to make the Illinois river and the Mississippi 14 feet deep. The next session of the forty-ninth congress will be asked to make an appropriation for the inauguration of certain preliminary work on the Chicago drainage canal. Members of the Illinois delegation are enthusiastic over the proposition and hope to enlist the active co-operation of every section of the country interested in. the greater de- velopment of America's waterways. YARROW-NAPIER MOTOR BOAT. The Yarrow-Napier, the combined product of the Napier and Yarrow interests abroad, which is expected to supersede the successful Napier IJ, the winner of the international cup last year, as the premier motor boat of England, has been put overboard. She will be the main dependence of the English yachtsmen in the international race against E. J. Schroeder's Dixie, which has challenged, and is going abroad to race for the trophy. The Yarrow-Napier is of lighter construction than Napier II, the Saunders system being em- ployed throughout in her construction, The engines, installed by Yarrow, are similar to those in Napier II, and are mounted on a single bearer running from end to end of the boat. The two exhaust sides are together in the middle of the boat, and the exhaust gases pass into a common receiver, into which the circulating water passes, The exhaust can then pass down through the bottom of the boat under water, or, by opening' baffle-plates, -- This makes the boat resemble a steam- _ go out of the funnel. boat, owing to the steam emitted from the exhaust, but she is practically silent. The steerman's seat is on a petrol tank situated on the after deck. The motive power consists of two fotir-cylinder marine motors, driven on to separate pro- pellers, and developing about 75 horsepower each. These engines have different directions of rotation, and only one is fitted with a reverse gear, the other having an ordinary Napier clutch. In starting up only one engine is started, -and when the boat is under way the clutch of the other "engine is let in and the action of the water on the propeller is sufficient to turn the second engine around, so that she will start when the switch is put in. The engine body, including the upper half of the crank case, is cast in one piece, and cast iron liners are fitted to form the cylinder walls. Water-cooled heads are fitted to each pair of cylinders carrying the valves, inlet ones being worked by tappet rods off the cam shafts. These engines are specially designed for fast running, and weight has been cut down to a minimum, although, owing to the care that has been taken in balancing all the parts and selecting the quality of material, they are amply strong enough for the work: The lubrication, wh.ch plays such an important part in these high-powered engines, has been care- fully studied, and the lubrication of all parts is adequately provided for. All controlling apparatus is situated in the after end of the engines and within easy reach of the en- gineer, who is guided in his various adjustments by the relative speed of the engines, which are shown by separate tachometers fitted to them. NEW LINE OF RUSSIAN STEAMSHIPS. ' The first regular line of freighters ever established between the ports of San Francisco and Vladivostok, is soon to go ~ "June 1. into effect. A Russian line of steamships is to be operated between San Francisco and the Siberian coast, and "the first vessel is expected to reach the port named on or about Lieut. V. Pavlov, formerly of the Russian navy, has just arrived from the orient on the Japanese steamship Nippon Maru and he brings the news of the establishment -- of the new Russian line. Lieut. Pavlov is now on his way to St. Petersburg to complete the organization of the com- pany that is to operate the steamers. The vessels will ply between the ports of Vladivostok and San Francisco, and at first will engage exclusively in the freight trade. Later, passengers will be carried by the steamers.' The new company which Lieut. Pavlov represents, at present owns two steamers, one of 7,000 tons capacity, the other of 5,000 tons burden. -Both of these steamers are now plying between Vladivostok and Odessa. It is the purpose of the new company to build ten steamers to engage in trade between Vladivostok and San Francisco and also to run to Australia. SAILING SHIPS BEWEEN NEW YORK AND SOUTH AFRICA. The Cape Times says that a line of ships has been started to ply between New York and South African ports in com- petition with the lines represented in the shipping conférence. Hitherto, the Colonial Oil Co., which imports about 5,000 tons a month, has had all its work done by the shipping con- ference (British), but freights were raised, and, accordingly, by arrangement with the Standard Oil Co. it now has inaugu- rated a service of sailing ships to transport oil at the old rates, and to take general cargo at a rate $2.50 cheaper than the present conference rates. If the conference should suc- ceed in preventing the ships getting general cargo, the ser- vice will go on even if the price of oil in South Africa has to be raised. Capt. Lee Kimball, of Scranton, Miss., has secured a con- tract to build an ocean-going steamer for the use of the Der pilots of Sabm, Tex. The new steamer is to be 95 ft. long, 18 ft. keam and will cost about $20,000. A bill to appropriate $100,000 for the establishment of a lighthouse on Rock of Ages, Lake Superior, has been ap- proved in committee at Washington,