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382 THE MARINE REVIEW within the next month, local warehouse space will be at a premium. eo Oe Vancouver, B. C., is enjoying a spell of prosperity, due largely to extensive shipbuilding. Yards at North Vancouver recently completed the steel steamer War Doe for the Cunard line and a sister vessel is soon to be_ launched. Five motor ships built on the British Columbia side have already sailed for foreign ports with lumber and a dozen more are now on the ways being rapidly completed. ake cote. Since a month ago, the fourth section of the floating drydock for the Todd shipyards at Tacoma has been completed and towed into position. This new Ta- coma plant is being built rapidly and actual ship construction is only a mat- ter of the next few weeks. Five hun- dred men are employed in _ speeding construction on the various units that will compose this yard. There will be 36 units in the system of aerials for the rapid transportation of materials about the yard. ie ate Launching of two wooden ‘ships in Seattle characterized the last month. The BarLEoux was sent into the water by the Washington Shipping Corp., Aug. 1. This vessel has since been turned over to the French government and has the distinction of being the first wooden vessel built on Puget sound for a for- eign power. The BarLeoux is 252 feet in length, with beam of 44 feet and depth of 21 feet. She will have semi- diesel engines of 240 horsepower. This launching is the fifth from this yard. The National Shipbuilding Co. launched its first vessel Aug. 27, when the wooden motor ship Apex left the wavs. This vessel is owned by L. H. Wakefield, a local salmon dealer, who will use the Apex in Alaskan trade. This ship will have a cargo capacity for 1100 tons and will be equipped with diesel engines of 350 horsepower. Dimensions are 155 x 36 x 23.6 feet. * * * Motor ship GUANACASTE, built on the Columbia river for M. T. Snyder, Mo- bile, Ala., has been completed and is now on Puget sound taking a cargo of lumber for Panama. * ok During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1917, Alaska’s commerce established a new high record of $115,000,000, a gain of $19,000,000 over the previous 12 months. Inasmuch as practically all of Alaska’s commerce is with Puget sound, these figures are of particular interest to Seattle and Tacoma. The total in- cludes gold valued at $16,000,000 in addi- tion to huge shipments of ore, concen- trates, salmon, furs. fish and _ fish products. Within the last two months considerable quantities of spruce lumber for airplane construction have been re- ceived from Alaskan mills. * * ke In addition to general construction work, the local plant of the Seattle Construction & Drv Dock Co. is excep- tionally busy, its drydocks having been operated at high speed for’ several weeks. At present the Norwegian steamer Kry WEstT is on this dock after having been ashore in the Aleutian islands on the return leg of her maiden voyage to the Orient. Al ig the October, 1917 oast By H. H. Dunn ENTATIVE plans have been agreed on for southern pine mills to cut timbers for approximately 200 ships for the nation’s wooden fleet, in addition to those for the 63 vessels already ordered, according to lumber- men returning to New Orleans from Washington, who say that the reorgan- ized shipping board is planning to push wooden shipbuilding as well as steel. a eae The Piaggio Shipbuilding Co. is about to launch its first vessel from its new yards at Pascagoula, Miss. She is to be a five-masted barkentine, 3600 tons, 301 feet long, 48-foot beam, 14 feet light draft and 24 feet loaded. She will carry two 200-horsepower deisel or semideisel engines for auxiliary power, and will be called Ciry oF PASCAGOULA. * * * ’ The Murnam Shipbuilding Co. has practically completed two large wooden cradles, at its yard at Mobile, Ala., to be used in building two wooden freight- ers for the shipping board, costing $450,000 each. The Murnam company announces that it has. contracts for four of these vessels. * * * Plans are well under way in New Orleans and Tuscaloosa, Ala. for a barge line to bring coal from the War- rior river mines, in Alabama, to New Orleans this winter. The water rate is half the rail rate, which is $1.50 a ton, so that a considerable reduction in the cost of the fuel to Louisiana consumers should result from this increased use of inland waterways. Tuscaloosa has voted bonds for erecting terminal fa- cilities on the Warrior river, down which the coal will be brought. It is planned to put 60 barges into the ser- vice, with about six towboats to handle them in fleets of 10 each. re Seta Walton B. Smith has been appointed assistant instructor in the New Orleans school of navigation, Tulane university, from which he recently graduated. * * * Deeds transferring shipyard site prop- erty in the Chickasabogue river section, valued at $209,000 from three different owners to the Tennessee Land Co. were recorded in Mobile Aug. 16. Total value of property bought for. this ship- yard is now $488,650, with other pur- chases still to be made. * * * Capt. A. A. Poland; U. S. A., repre- senting General Black, in inland water- ways development, put two first-class steam towboats belonging to the federal government, at the service of a New Orleans packet company late in August. They will be used in towing barges up and down the Mississippi river in an effort to relieve railroad freight conges- tion northward from New Orleans. peer ee | Four large tropical trading concerns, owning two steamers and two extensive banana plantations, have been merged into a million-dollar corporation, with offices at New Orleans. R. T. Burge, Los Angeles, Cal., is president of the new corporation, which was formed from the Gulf Coast Fruit & Steam- ship Co., Galveston, capitalized at $250- 000; the Associated Tropical Plantation Co., Kansas City, capitalized at $1,000,- 000; the Gulf Coast Plantation Co., capital stock, $500,000, and the Fort Morgan Steamship Co., Norway and Alabama, with a capital of $300,000. First sailing to Puerto Mexico, Vera Cruz and Tampico, took place Sept. 15. The company owns two large banana plantations near Vera Cruz, Mexico, and will put its two steamers at work car- rying merchandise to the three Mexican ports named, and bringing back car- goes of bananas. One of the steamers, Fort MorcGan, was under charter to the Zemurray Steamship Co., but was released Sept. 16. * * * Employes of the Bluefields Steamship Co., the Cuyamel Fruit Co., the Vac- caro Bros. Co., and the United Fruit Co. may leave the United States on their regular employment trips, on short notice, without the formality of obtaining passports, according to a ruling by the secretary of state, received by Dufour and Janvier, New Orleans attorneys for one of the steamship lines. Hereafter, certified employes of any of these companies may arrange with the clerk of the United States district court to leave the country on short notice, and passports will be issued for them only in cases of emer- gency. eo RO Barges are becoming more and more numerous in traffic on the Mississippi river. The latest to quit the railroads for this means of transportation is the Desha Lumber Co., of Lake Provi- dence, La., which is shipping lumber to Cairo, Ill, by means of two barges, each of which carries 800,000 feet. * * * . More than 4000 federal licenses to navigate have been issued to boat own- ers in the eighth naval district from New Orleans alone, since the law went into effect. : tee Biloxi Shipyard & Box Co. has turned to shipbuilding and. is operating a successful yard on the Back Bay at the Mississippi port. pee yer W. L. Kelly, president of the Kelly- Atkinson Co., Mobile, Ala., announces that his company has contracts for con- structing 18 composite steel and wood ships for the United States, shipping board, aggregate value of which is about $10,000,000. The company has bought the Heironymous docks at Mo- bile, and is erecting its yard. Six launching cradles are being built and the aunt e to oe open for work late in September. e pl i er Plant will employ ‘a The Coleman Engineering Co., New Orleans, has acquired an option on $500,000 worth of river front property at Mobile, for shipyard purposes.