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154 office. Safety appliances are provided on an ample scale, for, in addition to life-belts for each passenger, and eight life. boats, the Zeeland com- pany, foreseeing the difficulty of get- ting a life-boat into the water in case the ship had taken a considerable list either way, have devised and have fit- ted an arrangement of rails and trol- lies by means of which the life boats on either side can be taken, to the da- vits on the other side, and thence launched into the water. The twin-screws are each driven by a set of four-crank triple-expansion engines, balanced on the Garrow, Schlick and Tweedy system, each set of engines has one high pressure cyl- ander-28 in. in diameter; one interme- THE MarINE. REVIEW each shaft between the aft flange of the stern tube and the forward face of the propeller boss. In this case the usual gun-metal liners on the pro- peller shaft, which run in lignum vitae bearings, are omitted, and the shaft, unlined, runs in stern-tube bearings lined with white metal, and the stern- tube is kept full of oil by means of a small pump fitted in thetunnel. There are four double-ended cylindrical boilers designed for a working pres- sure of 190 lb. per sq. in. Each is 14 ft. 6 in. mean diameter, and 20 ft. long with six corrugated furnaces. As it was of the utmost importance to minimize weight, the boilers haye been constructed of special high-tensile steel, while all the machinery has been ENGINES OF THE ORANJE NASSAU, diate cylinder, 4314 in. in diameter; and two low pressure cylinders each 49 in. in diameter, all arranged for a stroke of 2 ft. 9 in. All the cylinders are fitted with separate cast iron liners. The propellers are built up, the three blades on each are of man- ganese bronze, and the 'bosses of cast steel. On each set of engines there is a steam-driven reversing engine, with gear of the all-round type, and a separate steam-driven turning en- gine. : On certain parts of the service route the water is shallow and the bottom sandy, and to prevent this sand, when stirred up by the pro- pellers, finding its way into and dam- aging the stern tube bearings, a Ce- dervall's: patent gland is fitted on designed of as light a nature as pos- sible, consistént with efficiency and strength. : On the measured mile on the Clyde, the "Oranje Nassau," as in the case of all the three steamers, attained a mean speed of over 22%4 knots, while on the service runs in the North Sea, 22 knots,--or one sea mile per hour in excess of that contracted for,--was easily maintained for a period of six hours. ' A newly revised edition, in colors, of the chart of Lake Erie on the Mercator projection, prepared by the Hydrographic Office, Bureau of Equip- ment, U. S. Navy, has been printed by and is for sale at the United States Lake Survey Office, Detroit, Mich. _majority' of April, 1919 WAGES OF PLATERS IN THR SHIP BUILDING INDUSTRY. The report of Ernest F, G. Hatch, British commissioner appointed to jp. quire into the application of the "par. ticular" section -of the factory and workshop act, recently filed a report covering the platers employed in the ship building industry. His remarks are appended: The system on which almost all the skilled workmen in ship building yards are paid is by the piece, and for some kinds of piece work, which are com- paratively uniform in character, e. g., riveting and caulking, price lists show- ing the nature of the work and the rates payable have been arranged be- tween the employers and the workmen. In such instances, therefore, no griey- 'ance arises, but for the "platers" no such price lists have been agreed upon, | The work they have to do is to piece together the steel plates of which the sides and decks of ships are composed, and they complain that, at the com- mencement of a job, they never know the rate at which they are to be paid, and frequently, since in most firms it is not the practice to give details in the paynotes, are unable, even when _ they receive their pay, wages have been calculated. It is a common practice to fix the -- price to be paid as the work proceeds; for this purpose a rough system of bargaining is adopted between the workmen and the empfoyer, and con sequently it often occurs that the price is not settled for a week or more; sometimes, even, it is not agreed until the work is completed, and in the mean- time "subs" are paid to the workmen on- account, Such-a system is certainly unsatis- factory, but Allan Smith, on behalf of the employers, explained that the con- ditions under which the various jobs of platers' work are done vary s0 much that it is impossible to arrange any standard list of prices, or in all cases to- fix the price of a prticular job before the work is begun. He maintained, in the first place, that ow- ing to ignorance of the circumstarices which may have to be taken into ac- count, it is often out of the question to attempt to fix the price before the job is begun; and in the second, that the bargaining between employer and workmen usually takes some time, and the work cannot be delayed until the bargain is completed. The representatives of the workmen, on the other hand, held that in the instances no such diffi- culties would arise; but tt was ad- mitted that they occasionally might do to tell how their.