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5 > May, 1919 THE MARINE REVIEW 245 easily be made deep enough. It is Baltic ports, German yards plan to Amidships are cabins _ for the. SaR- therefore desirable to find another make every effort to overtake foreign tain, officers and a few passengers: more suitable. In the Antilles the competing yards in the building of The engineroom officers, the crew. and port of Fort de Frarice lies on the route to Panama, and improvements are now in hand. On the west coast of Africa. the ports: of: Dakar, irore- ville and Port-Gentil can already re- ceive very large vessels.--(Comptes Rendus.) * * * A German writer in Hansa discusses the question of the value or otherwise of ferroconcrete ships. This~ subject does not seem to have been dealt with in. Germany to 'the extent it has in other countries. > This is = partly ex: plained by the fact that Germany had already experimented some time since with the new type of vessel, but ow- ing to shortage of labor and material not much progress has been made dur- ing the war. Further, the tonnage was not so urgently felt in Germany. Up to now shipping circles in that country have shown a certain reserve in regard to concrete ships. The new type of vessel is heavier than a steel-built ship of equal carry- Ing capacity, so that even if the con- crete ship is easier and cheaper to build the charges for maintenance and propulsion are higher than is usual. It is thus concluded that, cheapness of building, etc., considered, the work- ine costs: with concrete 'siips' are higher, and not lower, than with steel vessels. Conditions are a little differ- ent in regard to motor-propelled ships, where the total weight of the ship may be less 'than. in the case of -4 steel vessel, owing to the comparatively low weight of the engines, etc., and of the fuel carried. At present the concrete chip must be considered purely as a war product which can only attain to the stage' of real usefulness after further develop- ment, struction on a large scale to ocean going vessels. For medium-sized coast- ing vessels and for short voyages in protected waters the _ ferroconcrete ship should prove useful. In Ger- many's case, these ships could with great advantage be used for her Baltic trade and for navigating fjords. The encouraging results obtained in other countries are evidently stimulating German enterprise. In Berlin and Stettin concrete shipyards are in course of construction; a new com- pany with a capital of 1,000,000 marks has been floated in Hamburg to work the Riidiger system. A diesel engined cargo-vessel has already been put in hand for the Baltic trade. There is just now a great shortage of tonnage in the Baltic trade, and, in view of trade prospects in Finland and at the . need for 'dimensions Some doubt is expressed as to the extension of ferroconcrete con-_ large concrete cargo boats. This com- petition may bé expected 'to be severe in the Scandinavian countries, in which several yards are already working or in course of construction. Es * * Possibilities for concrete shipbuild- ing in India have been under discus- sion recently. In order to build steel ship hulls, the steel plates must be imported as the plate mills in that country, now under construction, will not be completed for some time. On the other hand, steel rods needed for reinforced concrete construction are made in India while all the shipyard machinery such as crushers, mixers, screens and hoists can be obtained there. The variety of trades. involved in building reinforced concrete' ships is less than in steel ships and a com- paratively small 'amount of skilled labor, which is scarce in India, will suffice. Climatic conditions are such that work could be- carried on throughout the whole year. It is sug- gested that the first ships constructed in India be used for home coastal trade. * oe * The fleet of oiltank ships flying the houseflag of the Eagle Oil Transport Co. of London, has been increased from time to time by ships built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Ltd., either at their Wallsend shipyard, Wall- send-on-Tyne or at their Neptune works, Walker. The San FLorENTINO was re- cently launched at Wallsend for the same owner. - Their vessel is one of the largest oiltank ships in the world. Her main are: 546 feet overall length, 68 feet 7 inches beam, with a molded depth of 42% feet. Her deadweight capacity is 18,000 tons. She is built on the Isherwood system of longitudinal framing. The hull is divided into 13 oiltight compartments, which are subdivided by a central longitudinal oiltight bulkhead. The range of these oil holds is further divided transversely by three coffer- dams and two pump rooms, all of. which extend from side to side of the ship. There are four duplex pumps capable of discharging 300 tons of oil an hour. These are. connected to a complete system of pipes to discharge the ship by, grouping together a given number of oil holds in various com- binations. Four different grades of oil can be either loaded or discharged" at the same time without mixing. An idea of the completeness of the oil piping may be gathered from the fact that about 4% miles of pipes have been fitted in the San _ FLORENTINO. firemen are accommodated, ina: deck- house in the after part of the ship. The propelling engines and boilers are in, the after end of the ship and were built by the Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Co., Ltd. The engines consist of a set of compound geared turbines of the Brown-Curtis type, working a single propeller and de- signed to drive the ship,, fully laden, at 11. knots' an hous, 2 * * * The increased need, due to political changes, , for an - extension of the in- land waterways of Germany gives ad- ditional interest to the scheme for con- necting the Rhine with the Pes by a ship canal. 2 The Regensburg Ghaealet of commerce some time ago petitioned the govern-. ing authorities so far to modify the scheme as to make the proposed canal rua not from Nurnberg by way of Steppenberg, as provided for by the plan, but by way of Amberg, to con- nect with the Danube at Regensburg, where capacious wharves already exist. The route by Amberg would be 87 kilometers shorter and, notwithstanding a greater length of tunneling, consid- erably cheaper in construction than the Steppenberg route. As the result of surveys made to ascertain the con- ditions to be encountered along the deviation course, the choice appears to have fallen on an intermediate route which necessitates a tunnel only 8 kilometers long. If the changed political situation which the conditions of peace have brought about do not raise obstacles to this scheme, the work of carrying it out is likely to be pushed on_ vigorously -in the near future. * ** * The east Swiss section of the Asso- ciation Suisse pour la Navigation du Rhone au Rhin has published its first annual report for 1917. The activities of the association have led to its ob- | taining considerable recognition both at home and abroad. The great sup- port that the association has also re- ceived, financially and otherwise, from official bodies, industrial firms, shows the interest that is being evinced in the scheme of providing a navigable connection from Marseilles and the Rhéne to Lake Geneva, and thence to the Aare in the region of the Rhine, Limmat and Reuss. This east Swiss branch has already done a considerable amount of propaganda work in the cantons which it serves, in the way of lectures, scientific studies, and essays in the Swiss press. CLCa oe