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278 the shipbuilding company would, if re- quested within six months after delivery of the ship, stiffen up the hull as might be necessary for this purpose. Before the delivery of the Creole in December, 1907, the ship builders installed a fourth set of screw propellers and made sev- eral trials of the vessel both light and loaded. The load-draught trial, run for a period of 24 hours in heavy weather, showed that the vessel was able to meet the contract conditions, the speed and coal consumption having been meas- ured and certified to by independent outside experts. On the measured mile at Provincetown the vessel showed 17.23 knots light as a mean of high runs and 16.57 loaded. A speed through the water of about 15% knots is suf- ficient to show 16 knots average round trip from New York to New Orleans. | After this time the vessel made 14 round trips to New Orleans, but failed on any trip to show the contract speed. The management of the Southern Pa- cific Co. always refusing to provide a fireroom force satisfactory to the shipbuilding company, or in numbers and efficiency adequate for the type of boilers, met with continual and increas- ing difficulties in the operation of the watertube boilers. These boilers on the builder's trials were shown to have ful- filled the efficiency guaranteed and were built by manufacturers whose experi- ence in land and marine boilers is un- excelled. Although difficulties were encountered in obtaining efficient screw propellers for the Creole the ship builders con- tinued to give this matter attention and had secured satisfactory screws. The turbines were shown on trial and in service to have obtained the designed efficiency and economy and to be suc- cessful in mechanical operation, not- withstanding the severe treatment which they received from _ excessive boiler priming brought about by inexperience and carelessness in the fireroom. Not- withstanding the fact that the ship building company installed assisted fire- room draft on the Creole and carefully overhauled all auxiliaries on the vessel subjected to unusual deterioration from the use of salt and muddy water in the boilers and excessive priming from careless water tending, the boiler dif- ficulties continued to increase until the vessel was laid up by the Southern Pacific Co. with the boilers in such condition that it was not safe to con- tinue operation without careful over- hauling. The Southern Pacific Co. has demand- ed of the ship building company that they should remove the Curtis turbines and Babcock & Wilcox watertube boil- ers from the Creole and install at their THe Marine REVIEW own expense reciprocating engines and Scotch boilers. The ship building com- pany, in declining to do this, maintains that the turbines, boilers and engine room auxiliaries are exactly as was contracted for and are capable under proper and _ intelligent operation, of fulfilling the contract conditions. Con- sidering the conditions of operation by the Southern Pacific Co., and. par- ticularly the scale of compensation of mechanical staff adopted by the com- pany, it is probable that the operation of watertube boilers is not suitable, al- though they were recommended by and acceptable to the company's manage- ment at the time the contract was made. If the ship builders had sacri- ficed the greater turbine efficiency, due to the higher pressure and drier steam of the watertube boilers, and installed Scotch boilers originally, they are confi- dent that the turbine equipment would have given satisfaction, and that the difficulties experienced are due to the conditions of operation of the water- tube boilers, the turbines having stood punishment which no reciprocating en- gine could have passed through. Fore River Suip Buitpine Co., H. Brown, Asst. Mgr. Quincy, Mass., July 19. RETIREMENT OF MR. H. J. CORNISH. After a long and honorable con- nection, extending over 46 years, with Lloyds of Shipping, Mr. Harry J. Cornish, chief ship surveyor Register to that society, is about to retire from his prolonged period Mr. Cornish has rendered much valuable service both to the 'society, .and through it, to the shipping community at large. He comes from a sea-faring stock, for his grandfather fought on Nelson's ship at the Battle of the Nile. Born at Da- venport in 1839, Mr. Cornish was pri- vately educated and afterwards gained valuable experience of a ship survey- important position. During , this -or's duties in Deptford Green Dock- yard, where he continued until 1863, when he was appointed a surveyor to Lloyds Register. For many years he was associated with the late Mr. Ber- nard Waymouth (at one time chief surveyor and afterwards secretary to Lloyds Register), and in 1867, when the society's rules for composite ships were formulated, the illustrations of the text drawn by Mr. Cornish were selected from those submitted by other surveyors as being of exceptional merit, and besides being accepted by the committee, were subsequently shown at the International Exhibitions of August, 1909 7 Paris and Moscow, where they were awarded bronze and gold medals, and are now in the South Kensington Museum. In 1870 Mr. Cornish was given the post of assistant chief "sure veyor, under the late Mr. Benjamin Martell, and after serving 30 years in that capacity, he was appointed chief ship surveyor on Mr. Martell's re- tirement in 1900. Mr. Cornish's earliest practical experiences embraced the completion and preparation for sea of 'the S. S. Great Eastern in 1858, whilst but a year or two ago he was in con- stant consultation with the owners and builders regarding the designs of those great Atlantic greyhounds, the Cunard Liners Lusitania and Mauretania, both of which are Register. Throughout the whole of his connection with the society Mr. Cor- nish has been intimately concerned in those developments in the rules which experience and the gradual evolution of the merchant vessel have shgwn to be necessary, and the close of his official career has been made conspicu- ous by the committee's adoption of the revised rules for steel ships which classed with Lloyds -- he and his colleagues at the Registry. have been long and carefully prepar- ing. Mr. S. J. P.. Thearle has been ap- pointed by the committee to be the new chief ship surveyor to the so- ciety, he having been, since 1900, the principal assistant to Mr. Cornish. Mr. Thearle's connection with the so- ciety also extends over a long period. He was appointed a surveyor in 1876 and the greater part of his official career has been passed on the Clyde, and subsequently he filled the appoint- ment of principal surveyor to the so- ciety at Newcastle-on-Tyne. In 1893 the committee selected him to accom- pany Mr. Cornish to the Great Lakes of North America, for the purpose of conducting investigations into the ship- building industry in that district, and reporting thereon for the committee's information. Mr. Thearle is the author of several well-known works dealing with the science of naval architecture, his book, in 2 volumes, entitled "Mod- ern Practice of Shipbuilding in Iron and Steel," which has run into many editions, being regarded as a text-book by the Board of Trade. He is a mem- ber of council of the Institute of Naval Architects and is fully qualified in every way to occupy the high and responsible position which Mr. Cornish is relinquishing. Light vessel No. 81 has 'been ordered to the Union Marine Works plant at New Orleans, La., for general repairs. a > .