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Unfortunately, ex- at the contention aders when the was accepted-- | not decrease-- it is calculated Pr he output per n employed is --- about 70 per cent of what it was in 1913, although the earnings have been greatly increased. .In these circumstances a crisis in these two industries has arisen, the outcome of which may be a general stoppage. On the one hand, ship- builders are confronted with a fall- ing market, arising from the uneco- nomic prices at which tonnage is being produced; and, on the other, with a demand by the workers for | 44-hour week. ~ advanced by the™ present 48- hour wee "4 THE MARINE REVIEW more money, which will still further tend to shut off orders, botl British and foreign. The outlook of the industry, in view of increasing for- eign competition, particularly on the part of the Americans and Japanese, - is such that the employers have had practically no alternative but to re- turn a direct negative to the workers. Ordon Now: Veusels Sociedad Anonima Importadora y Ex- portadora de la Patagonia, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Punta Arenas, Chile, and Braun & Blanchard, Punta Arenas, have placed orders for two steamships to be built by the Ailsa Shipbuilding Co., Troon, Scotland. The vessels will trade August, 1929 between Punta Arenas and east ang west 'ports of South America. One ves- sell will be of 4300 tons deadweight, 13 knots speed, with accommodations fo; 150 first class and 300 third class passen- gers. The contract price is £278,000 ($1,352,887 normal exchange) delivery. being promised in December, 1920. The Braun & Blanchard boat will have a deadweight capacity of 3000 tons and a speed of 12% knots with accommoda- tions for 100 first class and 300 third class passengers. The. cost is £217,000 ($1,056,031 normal exchange) to be de- livered in May, 1921. The two South American companies are closely allied and already have five passenger and cargo steamers handling trade along the. southern coasts of South America. 'Convert Big Liner to Oil Burner HE Atlantic liner AQUITANIA-- 1 has just completed a_ period of complete overhauling at Walker yard of Messrs. Arm- strong, Whitworth & Co. on _ the Tyne. She reached Liverpool at the end of June to prepare for her initial voyage to New York on July 17. The principal work was in converting her to an oil burner but extensive recondition- ing was necessary to fit her for commer- cial purposes after her war service 4s an armed merchant cruiser, hospital ship and transport. The London Times of June 16 contained the following descrip- tion of the changes made on this great liner: - "As regards the use of oil fuel, the work has been of much greater magni- - tude than appears on a casual inspection. The visitor may see that there are four boiler rooms containing 21 double-ended boilers each with eight furnaces--or 168 'in all--and that each of the furnace doors has been furnished with a some- 'what insignificant brass burner through which oil is forced by mechanical pres- ' sure in such a way that when ignited it forms a cone of incandescent spray. Further, in front of each row of boilers he will see a couple of pumps, either of which is capable, with a. fairly leisurely movement, of supplying this mechanical pressure. But not until after careful inspection will he realize that these simple burners have required an enormous amount of work, including the the installation of miles of pipes to feed > them with oil from the settling tanks, which in turn are supplied from the stor- age bunkers. In these, coal was formerly carried but to fit them up for their new use their bulkheads have been stiffened to prevent deformation by the weight of the oil, and their plate joints have been specially treated to render them oil- tight. In ships which carry cargo, the oil, may be stored in the double bottom and the coal bunkers and in cargo, but the AQUITANIA is fot a cargo carrier, and this arrangement did not present any advantages in her case. However, since the side bunkers do not provide suffi- cient capacity to carry the 7000 tons of oil that have to be shipped at New York six double bottom tanks have been used for the purpose. The inter-connections between these various tanks and the connections that lead from them to the pumps and the burners have necessitated the laying of some 16 miles of pipes for which it was often a difficult business to find room. Every precaution has been taken to make these various: connections tight and prevent leakage, but the prob- ability of leakage, and therefore, of fire, has not been overlooked. A system of extinguishing oil fires has, therefore, been installed in the boiler rooms, and in addition a number of hand extinguisl:- ers are provided. Advantages of Oil Firing "With coal-fired boilers, there is al- Ways a considerable loss of steam every watch through burning down and cleaning of fires. In the AQUITANIA, assuming that 28 fires are cleaned every watch, almost 8000 horsepower is lost every four hours. With oil firing, there is no such loss, as the oil can be sup- plied continuously to the burners and the heating maintained, so that constant steam pressure can be kept up. This will have the effect of improving the speed of the vessel and the regularity of her service. Also, owing to the temperature of the boilers being main- tained constant, the bill for boiler repairs will be reduced. There will be no ashes to be removed and consequently no dust and inconvenience to passengers from that source. Another advantage not to be overlooked is the absence .of noise and dirt when bunkering. The stokers will work under incomparably better con- ditions in the stokehold. They will also gain in that special attention has been given to their accommodation. The rooms allocated to them form a new standard of comfort, cabins containing two, three, or four berths each having been provided for each boiler-room com- plement. "In the reconditioning work an average of 160 joiners, 80 painters and 30 polishers have been continuously em- ployed. The whole ship has been cleaned and repainted, many new carpets have been supplied and the original furniture, which has been stored in the Cunard company's warehouses since August, 1914, is being replaced. Among the structural alterations on deck D, a bank and in- quiry office or information bureau have been established opposite the great res- taurant and a sun bath has been added to the gymnasium and swimming bath. The staterooms on the boat deck have been made with single berth rooms, and the whole of the accommodation. on deck B amidships has been rebuilt, the rooms being reduced in number and in- creased in size with the addition of private dining rooms in many cases." The torpedo boat destroyer SATTERLEE successfully completed her standardiza- tion 'trials off the coast of Rockland, Me., when she made a mile at the rate of 38.257 knots. On the five top speeds, the SaTrerLEE averaged 37.272 knots and the maximum revolutions were 486.04 a minute, giving a horsepower of 31,223. The SATTERLEE was built by the New- port News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Newport News, Va. 4 3