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324 in length over all, and 23-ft. beam, and will have three decks, lower, main and hurricane. It will be of steel construction throughout and will conform to the requirements of Lloyds class 100 A-1. There will be two hos- pitals, which are to be located in the steel deck house on the main deck on which also provision will be made for the doctor's staterooms and of- ficers' mess room. The captain's and first mate's quarters will be arranged in the texas abaft the wheel house on the hurricane deck and accommo- dation has been provided below the 'main deck for the other officers. The bouulet, which is 13 {t.. 6 in. diameter by 11 ft. will be of the Scotch marine tubular type with a building of this, "TAE Marine REVIEW working pressure of 130 Ib., and the engine will be compound surface con- densing with cylinders 18 in. and 36 in. diameter by 24-in. stroke, capable of developing 400 H. P. The company will no doubt make every effort to insure the successful their first vessel, and make it a credit alike to the owners and the builders. With this end in view they are gathering to- gether a competent staff of workmen, which will also have the further ad- vantage that there will be available a supply of help for any repair work that may be offering, and the chances of undue delay to the ship owners will accordingly be reduced to a min- imum. Speed and Economy ROF. L. Fontano-Russo, of the In- | stitute for Higher Commercial Stu- dies, at Rome, contributes to the Revue Economique Internationale an in- teresting paper on the "Progress of the Mercantile Marine.' Among the points which he discusses is the ever- increasing speed of ocean leviathans as'a result of the invention of the turbine, and the is jled to ask. the question whether the matter of veloc- ity has not, perhaps, gone 'beyond economic limits. "Steamers of the type of the Lusitania," the writer ob- serves, "must, in view of the enor- mous cost of running them, travel al- ways with a full complement of pas- sengers and cargo, and demand high rates. This Cunarder can carry 2,150 passengers, but will 2,150 travelers be found each sailing? Vessels of this size and power must be in constant use, as unemployment is more costly for them than a voyage with only half cargo. Moreover, they cannot, on account of their draught and length, use any port except the large ones The Norddeutscher Lloyd and the Hamburg-American lines, which have given many proofs of great fore- sight, have made such dispositions that their fleets can find employment in the most diverse directions and enter numerous ports. "The Hamburg-American line has never been enthusiastic over high speeds. It only possesses one steam- er, the Deutschland, whose speed ex- ceeds 20 knots. The dividends which it has distributed have always been h'gher thanthose of the Norddeutscher Lloyd, which had and has, however, a faster but not more modern fleet. Between 1900 and 1907, the former ° company distributed on the average 7.8 per cent, whereas the latter, al- though subsidized by the government, paid. Sscarcely:.5:4 per. cent. If this comparison is extended to another company, namely the Cunard, which has always been an advocate of high speeds, it becomes still more favorable ~ to the Hamburg-American line. "It would seem that the conclusion is that financial success falls to the lot of those companies which advo- cate moderate speeds while keeping their material up to date, rather than to those which, while possessing mod- ern un.ts, endow them with exagger- ated speeds. It would appear that the economic speed--that is to say, the one which is capable of insuring the best financial results--is not the max- imum which has actually 'been at- tained. Certainly the latter will be sunpassed in the future, thanks to the progress of naval technique; but it is necessary that this progress should transform into economic speed that which, at the present day, can only be called extravagant." Commenting on the above the Shipping Gazette (London), says: An Economist's Views. Prof. Fontano-Russo's idea of eco- nomic speed, as expressed in the arti- cle on "The Progress of the Mercan- tile Marine,' is rather a surprise to me. The Italian economist does not insist that in the Mauretania's 26 knots we have reached the limit of speed on the Atlant'c. On the con- trary, the expresses the belief that "the progress of naval 'technique" Will .catry us. much further. "But," he says, "it is necessary that this progress should transform into eco- nomic speed that which at the pres- ent day can only be called extrava- gant." The average shipbuilder who _declines. August, 1910 reads that will very likely smile, be- cause the whole end of his business is to produce vessels that will pay for their speed. But upon what eyi- dence does Prof. Fontano-Russo con- clude that the Lusitania and the Mauretania are extravagant boats? He suggests, for one thing, that unless they sail with full complements. of passengers they lose money. How does he know that? As a matter of fact the vessels were designed with a margin that enables them to make money on much 'ess than their com- plements. But, apart from that they must, if it comes to losing, lose less than slower boats, because speed is a proved attraction to voyageurs. An- other thing the professor says is that they "must be in constant use, as un- emp!oyment is more costly for them than a voyage with only half a car- go." The rejoinder to that is that if they lose more when they are idle they make more when they are work- ing. The professor is not seeing the problem whole. A Wrong Standard. Moreover he asserts that "they can- not on account of their draught and length, use any port except the large ones." The answer to that is that they were designed for the New York service, and in respect of their unsuit- ability for other work are no worse off than the German liners for which Pro. Fontano-Russo seems to have a great affection. Where the professor errs is in assuming that the economy of. speed is correctly expressed by dividends. It is obvious, of course, that defects of the administrative ma- chine are the real causes of dividend The controllers of a com- pany may order the wrong kind of 'boat, may go in for more speed craft than the economy of their business can stand, or may ask a ship builder to embody a design that is rank bad to lbegin with. But, left 'alone, ship builders almost invariably produce vessels that pay for their speeéd. Amongst themselves they may differ as to the solution of a particular prob- lem. The Cunarder with piston en- gines which Wallsend designed and the Cunarder wth turbines which it built are cases in point. Dr. Caird's» criticism of the Lusitania and_ the Mauretania ig another. But they are all alternative solutions of the same problem, and the only advantage claimed for any of them is that its de- gree of economy is higher. The fact is that there is nothing wrong with the economy of the Lusitania and the Mauretania, and if our friends across the North Sea had the money they would outbuild them tomorrow. dai