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AR, Tee ee CAR Be eT 370 similar tools and appliances seldom even needed, but nevertheless once in a while some operation requires, or can be done by, a certain tool, so each must have it. The idea of one bureau calling upon another to help 'out is discouraged as much as pos- sible. I saw in one shop a very hand- some tool which is not usually found outside of shops making a certain line of machinery not in a remote sense connected with naval work, and asked the foreman what he used it for and was told that it had never been used since it was installed and that there was a tradition about the yard that some official had been jestingly told that they ought to have one and it was bought. Th's may or may not be' the truth; it is immaterial, there are things more important, but all this foolish pride and ignorance the country pays for. That there is some sense of inef- ficiency is indicated by the occas'onal effort to justify expend'tures. Thus a reference to the new steel casting plant at the New York yard says "the price of castings made therewith have compared favorably with those purchased on contract'. Another statement which cannot possibly 'be unintentionally misleading, but is mis- leading nevertheless. We have no quarrel with the navy owning its own steel casting plant, although we ob- ject to the cost of it, but the forego- ing statement is deliberately made and is not even an approximation to the truth. In the first place, as already stated, the product does not carry any charge for, salaries or "civil establish- ment," or taxes, interest on investment, depreciation, 'power, insurance, etc., while the castings purchased outside carry, besides all these, freight, inspec- tion, replaces, and a profit to thé manufacturer. Moreover, it is an open secret that the inspection on the yard- made castings does not approach that imposed on the manufacturer and that castings are passed and used that would be promptly condemned if bought outs'de. I have seen some of them myself. The report is altogether too modest, there is no reason. why the outside castings should have any standing whatever in such a compari- son. ae The bookkeeping and purchasing end of the department is the bureau of supplies and accounts, the duties of which are purely clerical and of rou- tine, not executive or discretionary, but its' records. are instructive. A glance through its schedules will dis- close dozens and scores of items for which congress appropriated the money years ago and on which little or noth- THe MaRINE REVIEW ing has been done, yet this has no effect on the constant cry for more. This bureau acts as general storekeep- er of all supplies and materials, and carries separate stocks and accounts for each of the other bureaus. Occa- sionally. we will run across advertise- ments for some small items of suppl'es for some particular bureau while prob- ably within 50 yards another bureau has lying unused a supply of this very same material. Not long since I saw advertisements in a number of trade papers for a small quantity of common sheet rubber for one of the bureaus of Mare Island yard. The tbureau of steam engineering probably had in its store rooms in the same yard a half ton of the same thing. The advertise- ment probably cost some hhundreds of dollars; trade papers do not sell their space for low prices. I had the curi- osity to follow the matter up and found that the low bid was under $25 and the high not much above $30. The schedules are full. of others equally glaring. How such a system can maintain a foothold in a country that claims to be progressive is. "one of these things no fellow can find out." The Navy Does Not Get Returns. With all the advantages of highest priced equipment the navy does not be- -gin to get equal returns in labor or out- put for money expended with indus- trial concerns on similar work. This is partly due to incompetence and lack of knowledge in those charged with direction, which knowledge cannot, and never will, 'be gained where the incen- tive of compet-tion is absent. The dom- inating thought in every concern whose existence depends upon its ability to earn a profit is to reduce cost and save money, while on the other hand, 'in the navy, it seems to be to secure appropriations and spend them. There seems to be a lack of knowledge of expeditious, economical methods or of ambition to ut lize them. But that is only to be expected. The department never can get the services of the brightest and most ambitious mechan- ics 'because it has nothing to offer beyond a day's pay. There is no pro- motion for the man who has brains and will use them. A petty foreman's position, under some cub from the academy, is' the limit: The navy yard is the refuge of the incompetent and the home of the derelict. This does not mean that there ate not good workmen in our navy yards, there are a few, but they are content where they are; ambition is not there. An instance of this will serve to illustrate how little value time and thought have in. the naval service. October,. 1909 Repairing the Destroyer Hopkins. In December, 1906, the destroyer Hopkins came into Key West with both, propellers damaged, necessitat- ing their removal. She had tried an overland route with the usual results. Notwithstanding there are at Key West at least two marine railways that could thave taken her stern out without difficulty, a diver was set to work to get them off afloat. He used up two weeks on the job, only suc- ceeding after the hubs of 'both had been split by drilling with a ratchet. by hand under water. Now these pro- pellers are taper fitted and supposed to be easily removable but as they lay on the wharf the writer had the curiosity to measure tthe amount of taper and found about 'half an inch in a length of about 20 inches. No wonder 'they could not 'be withdrawn. Two months later, during the whole of which time the boat lay there with her crew aboard, her officers had re- ceived no information as to new pro- pellers. While lying in a slip with her stem projecting about 20 ft. be- yond the dock line, the Vesuvius, in attemptng to come alongside the dock, collided with: her and cut her to 'the center line. Mattresses and canvas jackets were got over and the under-water opening stopped and re- pairs were undertaken. As is well known these boats are of very light construction; at that point % or 3/16- inch plate or, as known in the trade th. or 714- 1b. plate. . The last the writer saw of the work a float was alongside while an officer and two or three foremen and a number of the crew watched two workmen with a 6-lb. sledge and a diamond point chisel attempting to cut adrift the damaged plate. Now an amateur would scarcely need to be told that on such a light matertal no progress. could be made in that fashion. A hand hammer and one man would make feet of headway where the sledge and two men made inches. But the ideal tool would have been a pneu- matic hammer, which would have used minutes where even the hand hammer would have used hours, and with these tools in the shops and the air compressor already aboard the boat, everything was at .,hand for ex- peditious work, but if anyone knew how to take advantage of them they kept quiet about it. The same medium, with a pneumatic drill would have done in two or three hours un- der water whiat the diver took many days to do by hand. And yet the apologist says criticism is unwarrant- ed. It may be unnecessary to refer to j a 4 i a a : : 2B a