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Bids for Mail Contracts To be Opened Feb. 20 On Feb. 20, the postoffice department will open bids for two ocean mail con- tracts which in the aggregate during a ten year period may require the ex- penditure of $23,300,000 on new ship construetion. One of these routes is for a service from New Orleans to the British Isles, Galveston to the Mediterranean, Adri- atic and Black sea ports and Galves- ton to Honolulu, Shanghai and other Pacific and transpacific ports; also Houston to Northern Europe. The other route provides service from Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Portland or New York to the British Isles. It is estimated that on the first of these routes, a total of $20,000,000 will have to be expended for the building of new ships and the reconstruction of existing ships. In the second route the expenditure for new ship construc- tion is estimated at $3,300,000, So far mail on these routes has been carried by the shipping board. The contracts now in line would go to private operators. John Lorne Denny Dies John Lorne Denny, surveyor to Lloyd’s Register of Shipping and for the past five years assistant edi- tor of the American Yacht Register of Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, New York, died on Dec. 24. Mr. Denny was born in Dumbar- ton, Scotland, and received his edu- cation at the Dumbarton academy and his shipbuilding training in the local shipyard of Archibald, MeMillian & Son Ltd. He came to the United States in 1901 and worked in sev- eral of the leading shipyards. He was appointed surveyor to Lloyds during the war. He is survived by his wife and a daughter. A Century of Service The Cooper Bessemer Corp., Mt. Ver- non, O., builder of diesel engines for marine service, is celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of its founda- tion. The beginnings of the company go back to the time when the two brothers, Charles and Elias Cooper, built a small iron foundry at Mt, Ver- non in 1833. The business has now grown to a valuation of $8,000,000. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Cooper company was wide- ly known for its high powered steam engines. At that time the gas engine began to come into notice, and the Bessemer Gas Engine Co., across the border in Pennsylvania, began mak- ing clutches for engines in the oil field, and this company grew along similar lines. In 1908 the Cooper MARINE REVIEW company designed and built a single gas engine of 1000 horsepower, which was considered an exceptional per- formance at the time. The two com- panies prospered through the follow- ing decades and in 1923 the Bessemer company, capitalized at $3,000,000, had grown to such size that it occupied 29 separate buildings. In 1925 the Coop- er company obtained manufacturing licenses for the German M A N diesel engine. In 1929 the Cooper company purchased the Bessemer company and the present corporation was organized. During the last ten years this com- pany has built the largest diesel en- gines in the country for powering pri- vate yachts, including two 1500-horse- power diesel engines for H. E. Man- ville’s yacht H1-Hsmaro. A large num- ber of diesel engines have also been built for commercial craft of different types, one of the latest installations being in the diesel electric tug DEAR- BORN for the Ford Motor Co. Heads United Fruit Co. Francis Russell Hart has been elect- ed to succeed V. M. Cutter as president of the United Fruit Co. He is famil- iar with the business of the company as he has been a director and mem- ber of the executive committee since 1901. He also spent some years in the tropical countries in which the company operates. Mr. Hart is a New Englander, born in New Bedford, Mass., a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, and now lives in Boston. He also has in his spare moments writ- ten a number of books including the Admirals of the Caribbean. He is a member of many societies. V. M. Cutter, who resigned as presi- dent, was elected chairman of the board. Francis Russell Hart Elected President, United Fruit Co. February, 1933 L’Atlantique Burns at Sea Salvaged by French The L’ATLANTIQUE, magnificent French liner, for the French-South American service and only a year in operation, was nearly destroyed by fire on Jan. 4 in the British channel. She was enroute from Bordeaux to Havre for reconditioning preparatory to re-entering service. No passengers were on board. Of the crew of 200 men, 19 are unaccounted for. The fire started from an unknown cause in the second class cabin sec- tion and rapidly gained such headway that in a comparatively short time the vessel was ablaze almost from stem to stern. The wireless operator was able to send only one S. O. S. call be- fore his quarters were swept by flames. The crew fought the fire for several hours before the order was given to abandon ship at about daybreak, the fire having started at 3:30 in the morn- ing. The survivors including Captain Rene Schoofs were brought ashore at Cherbourg and Brest by the vessels ACHILLES RuHR, Forp CAsTie and STERRA VENTANA. Captain Schoofs, the last to leave the ship, jumped over- board following seven or eight of his crew who had remained with him. The burning huli did not sink but drifted for 35 hours until taken in tow by French tugs off the coast of Eng- land, 65 miles from the position she was in off the island of Guernsey when the fire broke out. Considerable rival- ry had developed between Dutch, Ger- man and French tugs for towing the prize in, the French finally winning. The L’ATLANTIQUE, a steam turbine driven vessel of 42,512 gross tons was built in St. Nazaire and entered the South American service in September, 1931. She was the second largest ves- sel in the French merchant marine and the twelfth largest ship afloat, and had accommodations for 1234 passen- gers. She was an exceptionally luxt- rious vessel. It is quite apparent that the hull construction and subdivision served to save her from complete disaster, but what baffles shipping men is how a modern ship with every means for fire detecting and fire fighting could be so completely at the mercy of a fire. This disaster, following as it does, a number of other serious fires includ- ing the loss of the French liner GEORGES PHILIPPAR, which burned and sank in the Gulf of Aden last May with the loss of 50 lives, will be most thoroughly investigated. There is con- siderable opinion that sabotage might be the cause on account of the simi- larity between the L’ATLANTIQUE and the GbrorGes PHItIPPAR disasters. Faulty electrical installation has also been suggested as the cause. The re- port of the commission inquiring into the destruction of the GrorGes PHIL- IPPAR has not been made public.