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March, 1912 turned to her owners in March. The freighter La Touche, of the same fleet, is also at these yards undergoing work costing about $40,000. Her well deck has been built up flush with the forecastle and the former bulwarks, thus largely increasing her capacity as a carrier. This steamer, which was built by the Moran Co in 1910, is en- gaged in the general trade between here and Alaska, copper ore and canned salmon being the principal cargo brought from the North. With the improvements completed the La Touche will be perfectly adapted for this trade. The same company last week was awarded a contract for about $8,000 repairs on,the United States army transport Dix. The local steamer Flyer was at this yard for new stern post and other structural repairs and steamer Santa Ana is undergoing re- pairs to keel and hull, following dam- age by grounding in Alaska. She will be on the dock for a week or ten days. Steamship Princess Adelaide, of the Canadian Pacific fleet, has been converted into an oil burner. The local company -is turning out large contracts for structural steel tanks and retorts of all kinds, furnishing steel for a new Seattle theater and tanks for a large creosoting plant. A good demand is reported for stamp mills, concentrators and the Weeks patented two line shovel, all of which are manufactured and handled by the local plant. "for docking, repairing and manufac- turing, President J. V. Paterson and his corps of assistants are anticipat- ing a busy future. Battleships Oklahoma and Nevada The navy department has prepared a sketch outlining the general ap- pearance of the battleships Oklahoma and Nevada, now building. The gen- UnItTEp STATES BATTLESHIPS With increased capacity | THE MARINE REVIEW eral dimensions and features of each vessel are as follows: I.ength on designer's water line, 575 ft.; breadth, extreme, at designer's water line, 95 ft. 254 in; mean trial displacement, 27,500. tons: - mean draught to bottom of keel at trial! displacement;" Gabout)': 28 #t) 6° ins total fuel oil storage, 2,000 tons; fuel oil carried on trial; 1,333 tons; feed water carried on trial, 165 tons; speed on trial, not less than 20% knots. Armament.--Main battery: Ten 14- in. 45-caliber breech-loading rifles: four submerged torpedo tubes. Sec- ondary battery: Twenty-one 5-in. rapid-fire guns, 5l-caliber; four three- pounder saluting guns; two. one- pounder semi-automatic guns for boats; two 3-in. field pieces, two ma- chine guns, 0.30 caliber. Contract. for the Nevada was en- tered into with the Fore River Ship Building Co, om Jan. 22, 1912, anc for the Oklahoma with the New York Ship Building Co. on the same day. Diesel Engines in Yachts The Diesel engine is as well suited to the high powered seagoing yacht as it is' to the coasting' steamer or ocean liner. The same advantages are gained in the one vessel as in the other. in the commercial vessel is put to the cabin accommodations of the yacht, while the increased stability gained by the low center of gravity of the oi! engine is better appreciated in 'the yacht as she is usually a vessel of finer lines and more in need of it. Although they have been built abroad a fair number of yachts up to 150 ft. in length are fitted with paraffine en- gines and also crude oil engines of the semi-Diesel type, there have been few yachts built with the Diesel engine proper. Louis Noble, of St. Petersburg, head of the great Russian engineering firm, ~ The extra space given to cargo 89 has, however, recently built a 20-knot - twin-screw yacht equipped with Diesel engines for his own use. The engines have six cylinders and are fitted with a two-stage air compressor developing jointly 700 h. p. The valve gear is overhead and completely boxed in. These are the first two-stroke reversi- ble engines that have been built in the Noble works. Concrete Motor Boat Reiniorced concrete motor boats are made by a firm in Holland. The framework is made up of a steel keel to which are attached steel rods run- ning in two directions; these rods are bent to the required shape and wired in position so that the metal framework is self supporting. On both sides of this framework an inner and outer covering of wire netting is se- cured with metal ties and then plas- tered on both sides. After the hull has thoroughly hardened for several weeks it is given five coats of water- proofing paint. All the fittings of the boat are put in place prior to the plastering, so that they are solidly em- bedded in the concrete. The international conference on maritime law will be held at Brussels next September. The conference will take up the study of codifying the laws of maritime law concerning the limitation of the liability of owners of seagoing vessels and those con- cerning liens and mortgages. The United States will participate. John K. Bulger, formerly local in- spector of boilers at San Francisco, has been made supervising inspector for the first district. His territory embraces Portland, Ore. Seattle to San Francisco and all internal trib- utary waterways as well as Honolulu, H. I. Geographically his district is the most extended of all. From a Department Sketch