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120 engaged in transporting lime to this port from Nova Scotia, are now_at the yard of the Staten Island Ship Building Co., being converted into motor vessels by the installation of two 160 horsepower Bolinders hot bulb direct twin built 1,120 reversible oil engines, driving screws. ‘These barges, which were at Wilmington, Del., in 1901, are of \rol ORK at the Seattle Construction & Dry Dock yards, Seattle, ex- ceeds every former high mark, declare company officials. Two 5,000- ton steel freighters are being built for the Ward Co. as well as three sub- marines and one torpedo boat destroyer for the United States navy and a num- ber of smaller craft. Pe eee At the Dockton shipyards. of John Martinolich, the Washington Steamboat Co. of Seattle is having constructed a passenger carrying steamer, 122 feet in length, 18-foot beam and 7-foot draft. The estimated cost of the hull is $10,000. ek The Blue Funnel liner PotypHEMuUS recently arrived at Puget sound from England; this is her first voyage to the Pacific Coast. She is commanded by Capt. Arrowsmith. ee ee Two more steamships have been char- tered by Frank Waterhouse & Co, Seattle, for operation over the Seattle- Vladivostok route. They will load on Puget sound during March and. April. taking capacity cargoes for the Siberian port. The addition of the two vessels will materially strengthen the great fleet of chartered vessels now operated by the Waterhouse firm on the trans- pacific route. With these new vessels the company will have nineteen sailings from Seattle during the first months of the year. ; * x The = commerce of ‘the district of Washington for December, 1915, once more broke all previous records. The value of foreign imports and exports for the month reached the sum of $20,- 370,000, an increase of more than $1,000,- 00C over November. Wek ake The Astoria, Ore., port commission has voted to build and maintain a mu- nicipal steamer service between Astoria and upper Columbia river points. Port bonds to the amount of $250,000 will be cffered and steamers chartered until sufficient craft are built by Astoria capital. Thirty merchants of the city pledged themselves to support the mu- nicipal line. The service will start in February. oe Because of the great scarcity of ves- sels on the Pacific, the Nome liner Victoria, of the Alaska Steamship Co., . which usually lays up during the winter months, is to enter the southwestern Alaska trade. She will load one million feet of ties for the Copper River & Northwestern Railroad Co. at Port Blakeley. Vicrorta is in command of John A. O’Brien, her veteran master. Fabulous charter rates were offered for Victor1A but they were all refused, as THE MARINE REVIEW gross tons each. When converted they will trade on their former route. a : The steam lighter MANHASSETT, owned by the Manufacturers & Merchants Lighterage Co., is being converted into a motor vessel by the installation of a 320 horsepower Bolinders direct revers- ible four cylinder hot bulb oil engine. the Alaska Steamship Co. is anxious to move railroad supplies and other freight to southwestern Alaska, and to bring out copper oOFe., eee ee The new Bering Sea Packing Co., re- cently organized by Puget sound cap- italists headed by Capt. Harry W. Cros- by, of Seattle, has purchased the small steamship RusH, once famous as a revenue cutter, from F. W. Wonn. As a means of reducing the possibility of passenger steamboat and disaster to a minimum, Anderson, president of Seattle, steamship Capt.. John: L: the Anderson Steamboat Co., advocates the March, 19 passage of a law requiring all builde of passenger vessels to submit plans and specifications to the fede authorities before beginning const tion work. Capt. Anderson contends ¢ if the plans and specifications had fulfill certain safety requirements, yp. safe vessels could not bs constructed, — William J. Hingston, marine arch tect and builder, Buffalo, is at present in Portland, Ore. and is making his headquarters at the plant of Josep Supple. Pee he After plying on the Bering sea route out of Seattle for nearly fifteen years and bringing many millions of dollars worth of gold from the mining camps of the Northland, the Nome liner SENATOR has been ordered withdrawn — from this service. Officials of the Pa- cific Coast Steamship Co., owners of the famous craft, which has been called “the Nome gold ship,’ have decided to operate the steamer Umaritra on the — Seattle-Nome route. UmarTILita has re- — cently been converted into an oil burner, — To take care of growing business, the — Pacific Tow Boat Co., Seattle, which is — engaged in log towing on Puget sound, will add four or five tugs to its fleet — during the present year. ay Doings By G. S. Hudson HE France-Canada line has un- dertaken to deliver 50,000 horses to the French government, and a number of liners with temporary ac- commodations for the animals have been chartered... A. ship. of.. the “type. of Uttonta and Luceric can carry nearly 2,000 horses with but small percentage of loss. The movement of cereal by the France-Canada line is heavy and quantities of steel billets are included in cargoes. St. Nazaire, France, is the destination of the carriers, which return to this port in ballast trim. Ne ee ee A novel fate is in store for the old coast guard cutter Woopsury, which was recently purchased by a Boston junk dealer. The hulk is to be fitted with a small gasoline motor and taken to Labrador by a motion picture concern, where she is to be sent full tilt against an iceberg for a thriller. WoopBury will be accompanied by another vessel. She is 50 years old, and has been re- placed by OssIPEE, stationed on the Maine coast. * * x The five-masted schooner BAKER PALMER, owned by J. S. Winslow & Co., Portland, Me., foundered while in passage from Boston for Buenos Ayres with a 4,000-ton cargo of coal. Capt. Dunton and crew were rescued and landed at Buenos Ayres by the Boston sailing ship Rune, Capt. Bray. — * * Capt. J. I. Kemp, formerly master of the Boston harbor tug CoNnFIDENCE, commanded the superdreadnaught Ox ta- HOMA in her speed trials off the New England coast. * * * The first direct sailing from Boston to Denmark was that of the Danish steamship Tura, Capt. Terkeldsen, last month. Tua carried general cargo for Copenhagen. ee ae J. S. Carder has been appointed gen- eral freight and passenger agent of the Eastern Steamship Corporation.. Fishermen are disappointed at prices received for tilefish, notwithstanding the publicity recently given that species by the United States Bureau of Fisheries. The schooner Hortense, which recently trawled 16,000 pounds of tilefish from the gulf stream, received but 5 cents per pound. * * * Grain shipments to Europe continue heavy, though some difficulty is experi- enced in filling reservations on account of delay to liners incident to rough weather. For the first week of Feb- ruary there were booked to European ports 1,700,000 bushels of wheat, corn, oats and barley, several full cargoes consigned to the Greek government hay- ing been taken to Piraeus. ee Boston longshoremen are working un- der a new wage scale, whereby, the men receive an increase of 5 cents per hour for handling grain and 2 cents per hour for general and bulk cargo. The old agreement signed by the agents of trans- atlantic steamship companies and the longshoremen’s union, was worked un- der without apparent dissatisfaction, and conferences held at the close of 1915 brought out very little acrimonious dis- cussion, the agents readily agreeing to the increase, in view of prosperous: conditions. x * * The Boston fishing schooner VANESSA. is reported as sold to Buren, N. F.,, interests and will be operated in the general coasting trade.