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December, 1915 ; By A. A. Willoughby HE UNION IRON WORKS has nine ships. building or under contract: and the yards are the busiest they have been in some years. Two freighters are in the water and will be completed. during the present month. The building program also includes two tankers for the Union Oil Co., three tankers for the Stand- ard Oi Co.,: a. treighter for Hind, Rolph & Co., and a new Matson boat, practically a duplicate of MarTSoNIA. The two freighters are being equipped with Curtis geared turbines and are built on the Isherwood system. Each has a carrying capacity of 9,000 tons. One of the Union tankers will have geared turbines installed and both will be constructed on the Isherwood system. None of the Standard tank- ers has been started. The new Mat- son boat will cost in the neighborhood of $1,000,000 to build. A large bucket dredge for use in gold dredging is also under way. Three shifts are be- ing operated in some of. the divisions and about 3,000 men are now on the company pay roll. A_ steel slip-way with a locomotive type of overhead electric crane is being constructed. Two other slips are being extended 50 feet. A number of new machine tools have been purchased and a new tool room with practically all new equipment has been added. Additions to both the sawmill and the joiner shop are under way. ko The Shell Oil Co., which is erecting a big refinery at Martinez, has con- tracted for the construction of three oil barges for use on the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers and on the bay. Each barge will have a carrying ca- pacity in excess of 20,000 barrels. * * ok One of the old wind jammers, E. P. RitHet, of the Matson fleet, which has been on the Honolulu run for the past 25 years, is on her last trip as a sailing vessel. She will be con- verted into an auxiliary schooner. She was one of the first boats of the Matson line. Capt. Chas. Jackson will continue in charge. ee ee Five of the largest coastwise steam- ship companies, the Pacific Coast Steamship Co., Great Northern Pacific Steamship Co., San Francisco & Port- land Steamship Co. Independent Steamship Co., and Pacific Navigation Co., have instituted proceedings be- fore the state railroad commission to have approximately 50 firms, prin- cipally lumber companies, which are operating steamships carrying pas- sengers and freight, declared common carriers and compelled to file rates and schedules. ‘ok o& The Japanese are quick to seize the opportunity afforded them. of picking up the trade for the Orient from San Francisco, and that port has been included in the schedule of the South American fleet operated by the Toyo Kisen Kaisha. ANyYO Maru stopped there recently on her way to South American ports and will call regularly, as will Szio Maru and Kiyo Maru of the same line. One of these liners will call each month. eek San Francisco may become the ter- minus for another steamship company operating along the west coast of Mexico. Levick & Oliver, of that city, have had the steamer SoutH Coast testing the prospective field and may install regular service. * * * The news that- Secretary of the Navy Daniels had approved the plans of the Union Iron Works for a mam- moth dry dock at Hunters Point, was received enthusiastically in local ship- ping circles. Work will be commenced by the first of the year and the structure will be completed in three years. The dock is to be 1,000 feet long, 40 feet deep and 110 feet wide and can handle the largest battleship afloat. The estimated cost is $2,000,- 000. The navy departmerit agrees to furnish $50,000 worth of work an- nually. ee ee Due to the European war, San Francisco has become the clearing- house for the south seas copra trade, and many wind jammers have been making port loaded to capacity. This product of the cocoanut groves for- merly went to France where there was a large demand for its use in making perfumery and soap. On the Delaware By Dr C8, Street HE two new piers were taken over by the Philadelphia officials late in October. These piers are lo- cated on the Delaware river at Queen and Christian streets and give this port proper facilities for loading and dis- charging the largest steamers. The two piers are less than a mile from the center of the city, and have direct rail- road connections to the trunk lines. They are 180 feet wide and 550 long with 200-foot docks flanking each pier. Mechanical freight handling apparatus has been installed. x eo & The steel collier, Vrirernia, built for the Pocahontas Navigation Co., was launched recently. She will run in the coal trade between Baltimore and Bos- ton. The collier was built by the New York Shipbuilding Co. and is a sister ship to Norrotk, built by the same firm for the Coastwise Transportation Co. VircInta is a single screw vessel, 319 feet in length, 49 feet 3 inches beam, with a tonnage of 3,625. She is expected to make 10% knots. Par- ticular attention was given to the double bottom, so that the new collier may carry water ballast. oe The Atlantic City Steamship Co. has established a route from pier 16, Dock THE MARINE REVIEW 465 street, Philadelphia to Atlantic’ City, N. J. This steamer line will carry freight and passengers. The ane drawback to the line is crossing the inlet at Absecon. Several vessels have been lost there while trying out the passenger line, from Philadelphia. The new company has had help from the state and gov- ernment and the inlet has been dredged. New buoys and lights have been set. + ex The keel of the new steamship _ GEORGEANNA WEEMS has been laid in the yards of the Harlan & Hollings- worth Shipbuilding Co., Wilmington, Del. She is to be used by the Balti- more & Carolina Steamship Co. and will be similar to Henry Wuu1aMs of the Baltimore company, but will be 17 feet longer. On Boston Bay By George S. Hudson IG coasting schooners are in de- mand for foreign voyages and the supply of these vessels is inade- quate. Only a few days ago, the five- master Cora F. Cressy was fixed to load a cargo of 85,000 cases of oil for Rio de Janeiro at the high rate of 35 cents per case. This schooner had been making a precarious living in the coal trade between Chesapeake bay and New England ports. Another schooner, the six-master Epwarp J. LAWRENCE, a col- lier, is carrying a cargo of 5,000 tons of coal to Barcelona, Spain, the rate being $10 per ton or: $50,000 for the voyage with good prospects for a return: cargo. Howarp PALMER, another five-masted collier, has been chartered to carry 4000 tons of coal to Lisbon, Portugal, at the same rate as LAwrRENcE. There is some speculation as to what sort of weather these big fore-’n-afters will make on the Atlantic at this season when loaded almost to capacity with a rather unwieldly cargo. But the five- master Gov. Ames, first of the type, when new, carried a coal cargo to Aus- tralia, went to Liverpool and returned to Boston with no particular trouble. * ok x Col. John Millis, in charge of the U. S. engineers, at Newport, R. I, will recommend that an anchorage area in Nantucket and Vineyard Sound be tried for the period of one year and that a powerful cutter or tug be assigned to assist vessels that may get caught in calms and are unable to move out of the prescribed fairway. No penalty, however, is to be attached to the pro- posed regulation, which, in the opinion of shipping men who attended a hear- ing on the matter in Boston recently, will lessen danger of collision in thick weather. Col. Millis, at the request of the New England Steam Navigation Co., which operates boats between New Bedford, Mass., and Nantucket, ‘recom- mends that the lanes used by these steamers be kept clear of anchored shipping. ee The new seamen’s law affects about 600 men at Boston, and Capt. O. Hains of the U. S. local steamboat in- spection service, is busy with exam- inations. Many men who wanted the A. B. rating were turned down on ac- count of physical unfitness.