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September, 1909 "TRAE Marine Review FINISHED WELD, SHOWING MetTAL Lerr IN RISER.. She was 343 ft. in length, 43 ft. beam and 24.9 ft. deep. She registered 3,- 488 gross and 2,072 net tons. Her loaded draught was 22 ft. and her speed 13 knots. She thad accommoda- tions for 175 first class and 490 steer- age passengers. It has not yet been determined whether it will be practical to raise the vessel or not. The disaster emphasizes the neces- sity for a thorough survey of the in- Sound and the preparation of side passage between Puget and Alaska accurate charts showing all obstruc- tions to navigation dangerous to ves- sels drawing up to 25 ft. The chan- nel has not 'been surveyed for years, and it was only a few years ago that it was thought to be unsafe for ves- sels drawing more than 10 ft. New Japanese Steamer Tacoma Maru By H. Core Estep. HEN the Chicago, Milwau- kee & St. Paul Co. decided to extend its lines to the Pacific coast, negotiations were opened for the es- tablishment of a new tine of trans- Pacific steamships which would con- nect 'the Orient with tthe railway's Pacific coast terminals. The result was, the Osaka Shosen Kaisha, a Jap- anese corporation which in the scope of its plans, aims to soon rival the older Nippon Yusen Kaisha, operated in connection with the Great Northern railway. At present the Osaka Shosen Kaisha's American line comprises two Railway vessels, the Seattle Maru and the Tacoma Maru, operating regularly between Puget Sound and Oriental ports in connection with the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound railway. The service was inaugurated by the Tacoma Maru which sailed from Pu- get Sound on her first westbound voy- age on Aug. 21. The two steamers are practically sis- ter ships. Except for a few auxiliaries they were built completely in Japan. Most of the steel plate and structural shapes used in the construction of the vessel were rolled in Europe. Whhile the new liners are primarily cargo car- riers they also have limited passen: ger accommodations. The vessels were built by the Ka- wasaki Dock Yard, Kobe, Japan. The Tacoma Maru, which the writer had the privilege of inspecting, is 419 ft. in length, 49 ft. 6 in. beam and 29.95 ft. in depth. Her gross tonnage is 6,178. She is built strict'y accord- ing to Lloyds specifications and is a first class modern vessel in every re- spect. The Tacoma Maru has six cargo hatches and eight steam cargo 347 wirches, which were designed and built by the Kawasaki Dock Yard. She has accommodation for six first class passengers and 178 steerage pas- sengers. Her propelling machinery consists of twin screw, three-cylinder, triple-ex- pansion engines of 2400 indicated horsepower each. The high, inter- mediate and low pressure cylinders are 914, 3234 and 55 in. in diameter re- spectively, with a common stroke of 46 in. The high pressure cylinder is fitted with piston valves, while the intermediate and low pressure cylin- ders each have double-ported balanced side valves. The general design of the engines indicates English. rather than American influence. A noteworthy and commendable fea- ture of the vessel is her roomy engine room. It occupies the full width of the ship and a distance fore and aft of about 45 ft. The engines are thus made very accessible; each cylinder and valve chest is separated from its neighbor by a distance of about 2 ft., instead of all three cylinders and valve chests being placed as close together as possible. While this design takes up from 6 to 8 ft. more space fore- and-aft than is absolutely necessary and possibly adds a little to the con- densation losses, it certainly does make the engine much more accessible and the engine room less cramped than on the average vessel. At 75 revolutions per minute and 200 Ib. boiler pressure the speed of the ship is 12 knots an hour; her max- imum speed is 15 knots. There are three three-furnace sin- gle-ended boilers of the Scotch ma- rine type, each carrying 200 Ib. per sq. in. steam pressure. The boilers are 15. ft: 6 ins'am "diameter and 11 ft. 6 in. in length. The Howden forced draft system is used. The bunkers have a capacity of 3,200 long tons. Japanese coal, costing 5 yen ($2.60) a long. 'ton. .f.. 0. "b. "ship; is «used for. fuel. : The two propel'ers are each 15 ft. 6 in. in diameter, with a pitch varying from 17 ft. 3 in. minimum to 18 ft. maximum. There are four blades on each propeller and four spare blades are carried on_ board. The steering engine and a few minor auxiliaries were built by Caldwell & Co., Glasgow, Scotland. The normal time of the ship be- tween Yokohama and Tacoma, Wash., is 15 days and 2 hours. The Tacoma Maru carries a crew of 60 men and 23 officers. The vessel is in command of Capt H. Yamamoto, The and T. Show is chief engineer.