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Port Authorities Meet at St. Louis The sixteenth annual convention of the American Association of Port Authorities will be heid at the Hotel Statler, clusive. The usual business of the conven- tion and reading of annual reports of the officers will take place. For the remainder the time will be largely taken up in the presentation of papers by a number of prominent port execu- tives. On Oct. 6, there will be a harbor inspection trip with luncheon on board the harbor steamer ERASTuS Wells as guests of Capt. J. Roy St. Louis, Oct. 4 to 7%, in-| Parker, harbor master of St. Louis. The annual banquet will be held at the Hotel Statler at 8:00 p. m,, Oct. 6. Among the prominent speak- ers will be Curtis D. Wilbur, secre- tary of the navy and J. Spencer Smith, president, American Associa- tion of Port Authorities, president, of the New Jersey state board of com- merce and navigation. Mail Contracts Needed Stanley Dollar, president of the Dollar Steamship line on returning from Europe recently said, “A pas- senger and freight line under the American flag in the North Atlantic Propose Diesel Ele ctric UCH interest has been aroused M by the decision of the ship- ping board to take bids on reconditioning the CourRAGEOUS, DE- FIANCE and TRIUMPH in accordance ‘with plans and specifications prepared jointly by Gibbs Brothers Inc., of New York, and Rear Admiral D. W. ‘Taylor, United States navy, retired. It is proposed, by certain changes in the hull lines and by the installa- tion of new power plants, to increase the speed of these vessels, and it is estimated that this work can be done at not over $1,250,000 for each ship. Study of the plan _ indicates that it has merit from a number of standpoints. Roughly, it is proposed by the Gibbs-Taylor plan to thus. obtain American vessels which will be on even terms with the modern com- bination passenger and freight ves- sels now in service and being built under European flags. The Euro- pean freighter which is proving most successful today is visualized as a eraft around 10,000 tons deadweight, 600,000 cubic feet of carrying space and 13 to 14 knots per hour in speed. The shipping board believes that it ean convert the three vessels above named into ships fully meeting this European standard, and that it will be able to do so at a cost substan- tially 60 per cent of the cost of building new ships in the United States and substantially 10 to 15 per cent less than the cost of build- ing new ships in Europe. Indications at the present time are that the bids to be taken by the shipping board on the basis of this plan will be followed by the placing of contracts for recondition- 36 BY E. C. KREUTZBERG ing hoa of the above named _ ves- sels. It is considered likely that cach will be equipped with different makes of engines and other appar- tus so as to afford a broad basis of comparison of operation. Expe- rience obtained with these boats af- ter they are placed in commission, it is expected, will determine not only whether additional vessels will be reconditioned along the same lines, but the kind of equipment which will have the preference. In explaining the principal de- tails of the Gibbs-Taylor plan, it may be stated that the three ves- sels which formed the basis of the report were built by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. and launched just before the termination of the war. Since then they have lain idle. Each of these craft is 11,773 tons dead- weight, and was designed to have a speed of 10% knots. It is proposed, in the first place, to cut off the present bow at the collision bulkhead and to replace it with a bow 11 feet longer than at present. In the second place, it is proposed that the propeller be re- located by installing a new stern frame, and that a new rudder be in- stalled. These are the only hull changes involved, the entire hull be- tween the collision bulkhead and the stern frame remaining exactly as at present. It may be stated that the Gibbs- Taylor plan is the outgrowth of ex: tensive investigations and tank ex- periments which were conducted - con- tinuously over a _ period of nearly seven months. The tank tests in- dicated that the hull changes de- tailed above would produce an im- MARINE REVIEW—October, 1927 trade could be made to pay if it had some support from the government. Once the fleet now in operation passes — into the hands of private owners it must not be abandoned by the gov- ernment. Aggressive operation is what is needed in the North Atlantic trade, and such a line should be for- tified with United States mail con- tracts. With such aid it could be operated successfully in competition with the foreign lines.” Mr. Dollar stated that the Dollar fleet in round-the-world service was doing an excellent business and that the present year showed an improve- ment over last year, also that the trans-pacific business was growing. Conversion provement in speed of at least one knot with the present power plant. They further showed it to be prac- tical and profitable, as a result of these thanges in the lines of the hull, to add to the power. It was determined that it would be advis- able to increase the 2500-horsepower with which each of these boats now is equipped up to 4000 horsepower. In the investigation out of which the present plan evolved, major con- sideration was given to the kind of a power plant to be installed, name- ly, whether the boats were to be dieselized or equipped with diesel- electric drive. It was found that whereas the diesel engine operates more efficiently at comparatively high speeds, the greatest propeller effi- ciency is obtained at lower speeds. Consultations with manufacturers showed that large diesel engines for direct drive would be much _ higher in cost than an equivalent amount of hosepower in smaller units for the reason that the latter with their smaller factors and greater numbers can be made on a manufacturing basis in which the element of quan- tity production enters. It was found that the loss in horsepower entailed in generating electricity then con- suming it in motors was more than outweighed by the fact that propul- sion by the electric drive is much more efficient than propulsion by the direct drive. As a matter of fact, for direct drive a propeller speed of about 120 to 150 revolutions was required whereas with diesel electric drive the best results were obtained with a propeller driven at somewhat less than 70 revolutions. All these facts swayed the decision in favor