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TTAE MarRINE. REVIEW 53 » THE NORTHERN NAVIGATION and the water was all gathered on that side. Well, it didn't take me a couple of minutes to get the bilge pump under way and see that she was drawing clear. 1 Jaleo. started. the auxiliary pump, grovelling in the water for the proper valves. "After a while the water com- * menced to creep down to the level of the foot plates and was soon out of sight, though the bilges were still flooded. The ship commenced to straighten up a bit, too, as the water went over the side. I had found by this time that it was fresh water I was pumping, and got the foot'plates lifted to search for its source, It turned out that the filling pipe from the shore had rotted away at one place, leaving a hole you could easily stick your thumb into. This I clipped with a strip of muntz metal and rubber and the job was finished." "That was what you might call a narrow squeak,' said Carson, as the second officer re-lit his pipe. "That is not all,' continued the second, "as, just when the bilge pipes were shut down I had another scare. On going on deck to get a breath of cool air I looked out over the side toward the dock. I was just in time to see the 'super' emerge from the store and walk toward the ship. I CO.' NEW STEAMER HAMONIC AS SHE WILL APPEAR WHEN COMPLETED. Building by the Collingwood Ship Building Co., Collingwood, Ont. had still my shore-going pants and shirt on and they were in a sorry mess, so skipped to my room and was just in time to get into a dirty boiler suit. When I met the 'super' on deck he remarked that I looked as if I 'had been working." "What did you tell him?' Carson. "Oh, I merely told him," answered the second, "that I had been under the plates tracing a pipe." "Which was certainly true enough," said Carson, as he arose from his seat and prepared to leave the room. He could hear Johnson having a pre- liminary turn out of the organ. "Say, Carson," called' the second atfer the retreating figure of his sub- ordinate, "do you know where the in- dicators are kept?" "Certainly, sir," said Carson, 1n- wardly praying that no little job had been found to keep him from joining Johnson. Well, just take a couple of cards off that blessed box of heavenly music, will you?" THE asked "STAND-BY" MAN. A RECORD BRITISH DREAD- NOUGHT. The first keel plate was laid at Portsmouth on Jan. 19 of the battle- ship Neptune, which is to be a record She will have a dis- placement of 20,200 tons, and a length of 510.-ft.,: on: 20: ft. ;>more than the original Dreadnought. Her ten 12- inch guns, mounted in pairs in bar- bettes, will have a superior range. The vessel, which will cost $10,000,000, is to be completed in two years. As in all vessels of the Dread- nought class, turbine engines will be fitted with 25,000-horsepower in the case of the Neptune, giving her a speed slightly in excess of the other Dreadnoughts. An important im- provement in the new ship is the ar- rangement of the ten 12-inch guns, which will form her armament. The former Dreadnoughts have a _ stern fire of only six guns, but the after turrets of the Neptune will be so placed that the inner guns will fire over the top of the extreme after tur- ret, giving a stern fire of eight guns. With the commencement of the Nep- tune the British navy has built or building 11 ships embodying the all- big gun principle introduced in the Dreadnought, and ten of the immedi- ately preceding types, with a heavy mixed armament of 12-in. and 9.2-in. guns. Dreadnought.