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j ne, THE MARINE RECORD. 7 A WESTERN PIONEER. Jonathan Carver is said to have been born in Stillwater, N. Y., in 1732, and in his “Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America’’ he has left a record of his serv- ice with the Massachusetts contingent in the Lake George region during the French and Indian war. He narrowly escaped death in the massacre that followed the surrender of Fort William Henry to Montcalm, but managed to fly to the woods, and after wandering for three days in an ex- hausted condition, for he had been wounded, beaten and nearly stripped by the Indians, he reached the English lines. Later he participated in the capture of Crown Point and when the war was over he formed the bold resolution of crossing the continent to the Pacific ocean, on which he intended to establish a trading post. Leaving Boston in June, 1766, by way of Albany and Niagara, he reached the frontier post of Mackinac, and traveled thence with a fur collecting party by the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to Prairie du Chien, where he started on his work of exploration in a canoe, accompanied by a Canadian interpreter and a Mohawk servant. November 17 he reached the Falls of St. Anthony, which he was the first white American to see, and of which he has left a de- scription. Following the Mississippi up to the mouth of the St. Francis, he returned and explored the Minnesota river for 200 miles, passing the winter with the Santee In- dians. From them he heard much of the Shining (Rocky) Mountains, of which he wrote: _“Probably in future ages they may be found to contain more riches in their bowels than those of Hindostan and Malabar, or than are produ- ced on the golden coast of Guiena, nor will I except even the Peruvian mines.” He also told of a country west of the Rocky Mountains “full fraught with all the necessaries or luxuries of life, and where future generations may find an asylum.” To Carver is to attributed the first mention of “the Oregon, or the River of the West,” and philologists have been puz- zling over the meaning of the word ever since. In April Carver accompanied the Indians to a cave on Lake Pepin, where they buried their dead. Then after re- turning to Prairie du Chien for supplies, he made his way by the St. Croix and by portages to Lake Superior, the northern shore of which he followed to Grand Portage, where he hoped to obtain from Hudson Bay traders stores that would enable him to cross the continent. Disappoint- ed in this, he followed in his birch canoe the northern and eastern coast of Lake Superior to Sault Ste. Marie, reach- ing Mackinaw in November, 1767. He had traveled nearly four thousand miles and visited twelve nations of Indians. Twenty-five years later the feat jhe had attempted of cross ing the continent was actually performed by the young Scotchman, Alexander McKenzie. In 1768 Carver went to England and sought from the crown the reimbursement of his expenses. The govern- ment took possession of his papers, but finally allowed him to publish them. Twenty-three editions of his book in four languages have been issued, but he was reduced to the direst poverty and died in London in destitution, January 31, 1780. A representation of his sufferings brought out in an edition of his book published for the benefit of his family led to the institution of the English Literary Fund for the relief of destitute authors of all nations, an institu- tion which now has an annual income of some $15,000. oo oo BRITISH SHIPBUILDING. The shipbuilding program of the British Admiralty for the coming year shows four new battleships and three third-class cruisers. The former will probably be either of the Canopus or Majestic class. At first sight this would seem to be a very modest list, but during the finan- cial years 1897-98 the following vessels will be either build- ing or completing: fourteen new battleships, eight first- class cruisers, nine second-class cruisers, two sloops, four twin-screw gtinboats, fifty-two torpedo boat destroyers, eight light-draught steamers for special service, one royal yacht. Thus the total number of vessels under construc- tion will be 108; their aggregate displacement will be 380,000 tons; and their aggregate horse-power will be 800,000 of indicated horse-power. The tendency with ordinary boilers is to steadily increase the pressure per square inch, 200 pounds being used in many cases. Two new mail steamers of large dimensions are being built upon the Clyde, the pressure in whose boilers will be 205 pounds to the square inch. During the year a cargo ves- sel, the Inchmona, built on the Northeast Coast, has commenced work, the engines are quadruple expansion, with five cylinders, and the boilers, which are of rather small diameter, work at a pressure of 255 pounds per square inch. Since the beginning of this year the Penn- sylvania, 13,726 tons, built at Belfast for German owners, has commenced running in the North Atlantic trade. In point of tonnage this vessel is the nearest approach yet made to the Great Eastern, which measured 18,915 tons. The Pennsylvania has a length of 560 feet, as compared with 678 feet for the Great Eastern, ‘and 601 feet for the Campania and Lucana. The White Star Line have under construction the Oceanic, of 17,000 tons, 704 feet in length, and a sea speed of over 20 knots. It is exnected that this vessel will be launched in January next. One of the most interesting features connected with mercantile shipbuild- ing is what may be described as the development of type in cargo steamers. The latest contribution to this proc- ess of evolution is the appearance during the past year of the trunk-deck steamer, the peculiarity of this design being the fitting of a continuous straight-sided erection on the upper deck of the vessel. Three such steamers have been built, each of about 2,600 tons gross, and seven more are under construction. From the returns compiled by Lloyd’s Register of Ship- ping, it appears that, excluding warships, there were 428 vessels of 828,481 tons gross under construction in the United Kingdom at the close of the quarter ended 31st of March, 1897. These figures exceed those for last quarter by 44,000 tons, and are the highest which have been received since March, 1892. Of the vessels under construction in the United Kingdom at the end of March, 349 of 623,671 tons are under the superivision of the surveyors of Lloyd’s Register with a view to classification by this society. In addition, 31 vessels of 82,175 tons are building abroad with a view to classification. The total building at the present time under the supervision of Lloyd’s Register is, thus, 380 vessels of 705,846 tons. The following table gives the total figures for vessels now under construction 1n the principal shipbuilding dis- tricts of the country, as compared with those for the same period last year. Each district, of course, includes places in the neighborhood of the port after which it is named: Mar. 31, 1897.| Mar. 31, 1896. Descrip- 3 DISTRICT. Hon, : No TOSS | No ross ‘/Tonnage Tonnage Steam 24 | 147,242 | 19 | 104,993 We Cae Bhs spol eae Paste I 2,254 Total 24 | 147,242 | 20 | 107,247 Steam 7 7345 | 4 6,270 Barrow and Sale: 3 3,690 | 3 5,060 District... .... — Sailer RES RSrs | BS eseeee aks Total 10 11,035 | 7 II, 330 Steam. ...| 86 | 160,719 | 81 162,596 Glasgow.....- Saks: I = 50 | 10 4,5 50 Total...| 87 | 160,969 | 91 | 167,146 Steam 34 74,800 | 32 62, 367 Ce Dae ee 4 10,760 | 9 14, ae Total. ..} 38 85,560 | 41 77,245 Steam 17 47,420 | 17 46,516 Hartlepool and Santee ame emer trot ac kat eas Whitby ...... oe NAS al aa Total. 17 47,420 | 17 46.516 Steam 26 | 67,506 | 24 48,040 Salles sas I 2 1,260 AMS In Sie ener a0 bia Total 27 67,514 | 26 49,300 Steam 68 | 129,731 | 50 | 136,130 Sail eseee Hoye oa aes eli ssht 2 i938 ADS a tember oe d . ee Total...| 68 | 129,731 | 50 | 136,130 Steam. . 44 | 134,321 | 48 | 137,116 Witeew’ OY droid Sais pcialien Fees Be ts | orld: ete a Total 44 (134,321 | 48 © 137,116 OO oo ovoxXh G. J. Lydecker, Lieut. Col. Engineer, U. S. A., asks for proposals on the cost of removing obstructions from Bal- lard Reef Channel, Detroit, Mich. Bids are to be opened June 1. . keel and bottom plates show no signs of distress. STRENGTH OF SHIPS. ‘ (By Joseph R. Oldham, N. A. and M. E.) Prof. Mosely says that the strongest form that can be given to a.solid body, in the formation of which a given quantity of material is to be used and to which the strain is to be applied under given circumstances, is that form which renders it equally liable to rupture at every point, so that when, by increasing the strain to its utmost limit the solid is brought into a state bordering upon rupture at every other point. Moreover, the strongest form is also the form securing the greatest economy of material. As to the structural strength of ships. It is not unusual to find strain existing in the side plating butts below the upper deck and in the bilge plating butts above the bot- tom while the upper shear strakes, deck stringer plates, Now such straining could not be caused by longitudinal bend- ing, because stress due to bending moment is a maximum on the upper stringer and shear strakes and at the keel and lower bottom plating alternately. The distress at the upper turn of the bilge might be attributed to trans- verse bending as the break in the framing above the upper bottom is an element of transverse weakness, but there is no such discontinuity of strength between the upper deck and the side plating. From this it appears that such signs of straining as those just indicated could not be caused by longitudinal bending alone. is understood, however, that longitudinal shearing stress generates equal shearing stress in a transverse direction, the distress frequently observable on the sides well above the bottom and near the neutral axis, and below the upper decks, in ships having great longitudinal strength, may not be so difficult to explain. The late Prof. Jen- kins pointed out that in the case of a body subject to bending moment as well as to shearing stress, the dis- tribution of shearing stress differs materially from that in the case of a body subject to shearing stress only. In this he is in accord with Rankine, who showed that a shearing stress, when combined with a bending stress, is not uniform over the section, but is greatest at the neu- tral plane and least at the top and bottom. The excess of the maximum shearing stress over the mean depends upon the arrangement of the material in the section. On the contrary, the longitudinal bending moment is a maxi- mum at the top and bottom and nil at the neutral axis. If the truth of these statements requires confirmation, such may be found in the fact that in steel shafts, disin- tegration begins at the center, and gradually spreads un- til it reaches the surface, when fracture occurs without | warning. Of course it will not be assumed from this” that the structure of a floating body is free from stress along the neutral plane, for such cannot be the case, as besides a vertical longitudinal, there is also a horizontal transverse bending moment, which produces maximum stresses at the longitudinal neutral plane. But of more im- portance than this is the stress due to shearing moment, _ which, as I have said, is maximum where stress due to longitudinal bending moment is. nil. In addition, the force of the waves has to be resisted at all parts of the external surface of the hull. Sir William Fairbairn established the practice of the mathematical investigation into the strength of a ship con- sidered as a hollow girder so far as longitudinal bending moment is concerned. The principle is the same as that by which the strength of a beam may be calculated. It follows, therefore, that the sum of the products of the small elements composing the section of a ship, such as keel plates, stringer plates and the effective area of steel hatches, multiplied by the squares of their respective distances from the neutral axis, will constitute the mo- ment of strength of the entire section, The principles generally governing the strength of beams or girders enable us to compare the relative importance of any as- semblage of plates and bars such as are commonly select- ed to form the structure of a modern steel ship. arr oe or Although the Niagara Paper Co. handled an immense amount of pulpwood last season, a much greater quantity will be brought down the present season. The following have been chartered in this trade: Canisteo and consorts A. Stewart, S. B. Pomeroy, and W. B. Ogden; City of New York and consorts William Grandy, Golden Rule and E. C. Roberts; D. Leuty and consorts W. K. Moore and R. Botsford; St. Louis and consorts Champion and Don- aldson. The new steamer building at Wheeler’s for the company will also be put in for a trip or two. When it.