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What the British Are Doing Short Surveys of Important Activities in Maritime Centers of Island Empire ICKERS LTD. of Barrow-in-Fur- ness have received orders for three submarines to be built for the Admiralty. The craft will cost £500,- 000 each. The company is a pioneer in submarine construction, the first submersible boat having been built thirty years ago. During the war the company made the record of de- livering three vessels on one day. The work will take about two years to complete but absolute secrecy is observed in regard to details. Dur- ing the year Vickers Ltd. have launched a passenger ‘and a cargo steamer, a cruiser of 10,090 tons and two submarines, representing 19,836 gross tonnage. In addition a floating dock and a dock gate caisson, each of 500 tons displacement have been completed. * * * HE event of the month has been the purchase of the White Star ’ line by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. The effect of this will be to bring the Royal Mail tonnage up to over 2,700,000, the largest of any company in the world. The White Star line has a tonnage of over 550,- 000 and includes the famous MAJES- TIC, OLYMPIC, and HOoMeERIc. The purchase is likely to have important consequences to Belfast as Lord Kyl- sant, the chairman of the new owners is also chairman of Harland & Wolff, and it is believed that continuity of work for Queen’s Island the head- quarters of Harlands, is assured. It is expected that the deal will cause some delay in proceeding with the 60,000-ton ship projected by the White Star company, as Lord Kylsant will have to go into the matter him- self. * * * HE SHAW, SAVILL AND AL- BION & CO., who some time ago cancelled an order for a 20,000-ton motor liner, which they had placed with Swan Hunter & Wigham Richard- son, Wallsend on Tyne, have now ordered two motor cargo vessels from that firm, the engines to be supplied by the Wallsend Slipway & Engineer- ing Co. * * * HE month has been on the whole an active one, with regard to the placing of shipbuilding orders. <A second order for nine new oil tankers has been placed in British yards by the Anglo Persian Oil Co. Ltd. Seven of them are large vessels with dead- weight of over 10,000 tons. The other two are 6400 tons each. The total of 18 ships ordered this year adds 170,000 tons to the company’s fleet making it over 700,000 tons and the tankers will number in all eighty. Of the new ships three are to be built by Palmer Shipbuilding & Iron Co., one by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, two by the Caledon Ship- building & Engineering Co. Ltd., one by Greenock Dockyard Co. Ltd. and the two smaller ships by Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth & Co. Ltd. All the large vessels are to be diesel driven. * EY * HE BURNTISLAND SHIP- BUILDING CO., Fyfeshire, have received orders to build) a _ cargo steamer of 7500 tons for Cardiff own- ers, one of 9000 tons for London own- ers, and of 1000 tons for Glasgow owners. The machinery for the larger contracts will be supplied by David Rowan & Co., Glasgow and for the 1000-ton steamer by William Beard- more & Co., Coatbridge. * * * HE GREENOCK DOCKYARD CO. LTD. have received from the British Tanker Co. Ltd., London, an order for a motor-propelled oil tank vessel 440 feet in length and of 10,000 tons measurement. Internal combustion engines of the Burmeister and Wain type will be supplied by John G. Kincaid & Co. Ltd., Greenock. UNNI IUCN AKE freighters carrying iron ore and limestone for the blast fur- naces at Gary, Ind., established a new high record in tonnage shipped this year despite 17 fewer sailing days in 1926 than last season. The tonnage of both ore and stone was 6,044,000 tons, an increase over the previous peak established last year of approxi- mately 50,000 tons. The season ac- tually closed Nov. 27. * * * EREMONIES marked the begin- ning of excavations for’ the straightening of the Chicago river on Dec. 17 when Mayor William E. Dever, of Chicago, turned the first What's Doing Around The Lakes ll NAA earth several hundred feet south and west of the west branch of the chan- nel. Engineers immediately began the sinking of test bores. A further official celebration was held an hour later at a luncheon of the Chicago Association of commerce. Agitation for the river straightening was started a decade ago. Three years will -be required for the project, it is estimat- ed, and the cost will be $9,000,000. The channel will be 200 feet wide and about 800 feet west of the present one, thus providing space for vast railroad terminal facilities and pro- viding for relief of traffic congestion in the Chicago loop district by the 72 Er opening of new through streets. * * * HE Lake Calumet industrial har- ‘bor project, dropped a year ago after the state of Illinois refused to issue a permit for the work, again is under discussion by city officials of Chicago. Under the old harbor de- velopment ordinance, the Nickel Plate railroad was to have constructed a channel two and a half miles long between the Calumet river and Lake - Calumet at a minimum cost of $600,- 000 in exchange for submerged land to be filled in by constructing the channel. One of. the objections em- phasized by the Illinois superintend-