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10 THE MARINE RECORD. ESTABLISHED 1878. Published Every Thursday by THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Incorporated. Cc. E. RUSKIN, - - - - Manager. CAPT. JOHN SWAINSON,~— - - - Editor. CLEVELAND, CHICAGO, Western Reserve Building. Royal Insurance Building. SUBSCRIPTION. One Copy, one year, postage paid, - - One Copy, one year, to foreign countries, = - Invariably in advance. $2.00 - — $3.00 ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. All communications should be addressed to the Cleveland office, THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Western Reserve Building, Cleveland, O. Entered at Cleveland Postoffice as second-class mail matter. No attention is paid to anonymous communications, but the wishes of contributors as to the use of their names will be scrupulously regarded. CLEVELAND, O., SEPTEMBER 6, 1900. ee UNITED STATES SHIP BUILDING. Complete official returns for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1920, show that 1,446 vessels of 393,168 gross tons were built and documented in the United States. Since 1856 this rec- ord has been exceeded only twice: In 1864 when 415,740 gross tons were built, and in 1874 when 432,725 gross tons were built. The construction may be classed according to the follow- ing types: Schooners, schooner barges, and sloops 499 of 109,605 gross tons; Great Lake steam vessels 25, of 97,847 gross tons; canal boats and barges 523, of 74,860 gross tons; ocean screw steamships 20, of 60,369 gross tons (of which all but one, the Maracaibo, 1,771 gross tons, were built wholly or principally for trades reserved by law to American vessels); river steamers 375, of 44,282 gross tons; square rigged vessels 4, of 6,205 gross tons. The steam vessels built—420 of 202,498 gross tons—sur- pass the record, the nearest approach being 1891, when 488 steam vessels of 185,037 gross tons were built. The steel vessels built—g0 of 196,85t gross tons—exceed the previous record year 1899, when 91 such vessels of 131,- 379 gross tons were built. Cleveland, Ohio, ranks easily first as builder of steel vessels, with 9 steamships of 42,119 gross tons, followed by Newport News, 7 steamships of 28,202 gross tons; Chicago, 5 vessels, 24,504 tons; Detroit, 4 steamships of 15,693 tons. During the past decade the steel steam vessels built in the United States aggregate 465, of 742,830 gross tons, of which 198 of 450,089 gross tons were built on the Great Lakes. For comparison it may be noted that the British Board of Trade reports that 727 steel steam vessels of 1,423,344 gross tons were built in the United Kingdom during 1899. - During the ten years 69 steel steam vessels of 194,080 gross tons were built at Cleveland, and 110 of 138,593 gross tons at Philadelphia. The total tonnage built and documented on the Great Lakes during the year, 125 vessels of 130,611 gross tons, is the largest in the history of that region. The total for the Middle Atlantic and Gulf coasts, 605 vessels, of 135,473 tons exceeds any record since 1872. The total for the New England coast, 199 vessels of 72,179 gross tons has not been equaled since 1891, while the product of the Pacific coast, 300 vessels, of 40,396 tons is surpassed only by the returns of 1898 and 1899. Construction on Mississippi river and tributaries, 217 vessels, 14,509 tons is 9,000 less than 1899. The foregoing figures do not cover yachts or government vessels. se PARR The Bureau of Navigation reports 101 vessels, of 31,564 gross tons, were built in the United States, and officially numbered during the month of August, 1900, as follows: 5 WwooD STEEL TOTAL SAIL wooD STEAM No.| Gross |No.| Gross ||No | Gross ||No.| Gross. Atlantic and Rance ra EE ae Gulia a 42| 11,283} 16] 792]|) 2 661|| 60 | 12,736 Pacihiti.srs- ce 5| 2,891] 4] 2,075 || I 16||10| 4,982 Great Lakes....|| I 17} 5] 151 || 3 |11,608]| 9 11,776 Western ‘S Rivers......|| 4 g1| 18 | 1,979 ||--:)---+-- 22| 2,070 MOtA ee ce 52 | 14.282] 43 | 4,997 || 6 | 12,285|| 101 31,564 The largest steel steam vessels included in these figures are: Princeton, 5,125 tons, built at Lorain, Ohio, and owned by American Ship Building Co.; Waccamaw, 1,359 tons, built at Toledo, Ohio, and owned by Craig Ship Build- ing Co.; Rensselaer, 5,124 tons, built at Cleveland, Ohio, and owned by American Ship Building Co.; wooden schooner George W. Wells, 2,970 tons, built at Camden, Me., and owned by John G. Crowley. The foregoing figures do not include craft without motive power of their own. From other sources than construction 1 vessel of 2,953 gross tons were added to the merchant fleet, the principal one being the steamship Argyll, 2,953 tons, by Act of Congress. OO OOS CHICAGO RIVER TUNNELS. Chicago street railway companies have filed an answer to the mandamus petition of the city to compel the lowering of the river tunnels. The answer sets forth that the great pro- portion of vessels navigating the river are less than fourteen feet draught, and that the interests to be benefited by a chnnnel of twenty-one feet are not so important to the public, either in the number of men employed, capital invested or convenience to the public, as are the transportation facilities of the defendants. The claim is advanced that the jurisdic- tion of the citv of Chicago over the river bed ceased, with the passage of the act creating the sanitary district. The defendants assert that at the time of the construction of the several tunnels, they were at a sufficient depth below the surface of the river to permit free navigation. It is declared that the cost of lowering the tunnel at Van Buren street to the grade of twenty-one feet below the surface of the river, would aggregate $600,000, and to the thirty-foot grade, as required by the ordinance of the sanitary district, an addi- tional $830,000. The expense of preparing the approaches is estimated at $2,000,000. The cost would be about the same for the other tunnels. The LaSalle and Washington street tunnels are leased from the city by the street railroads, and in these cases the defendants protest that the city has no right to impose new conditions on the companies. The companies also urge that the lowering of the channel of the river would undermine the buildings located beside it, and compel the construction of new docks along the whole river front. OO oO oe NOTICE TO MARINERS. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA—NORTHERN LAKES AND RIVERS—NEW YORK, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF THE LIGHT-HOoUSK BOARD Washington, D. C. September 5, a, | OswEGO BREAKWATER LIGHT STATION.—Notice is hereyb given that, on or before September 30, 1900, the color of the tower at this station will be changed from brown to white. This light station is situated on the crib inside the angle of the breakwater, west side of the entrance to Oswego river harbor, southerly side of Lake Ontario, N. Y. By order of the Light-House Board: FRANCIS J. HIGGINSON Rear-Admiral, U. S. Navy, Chairman, oer ORDERS have been ‘received from St. Petersburg by the Russian naval inspectors at Cramps’ ship yards, which will necessitate a new trial by the cruiser Variag before her formal acceptance by the Russian government. ‘This is due to the accident which happened during the last trial, when the head of one of the high pressure cylinders was cracked. A sustained speed of 23 knots for twelve hours is required by the contract. The vessel exceeded this by 1.6 knots for six consecutive hours, when the accident occurred. It was not expected that a new trial would be demanded, as the accident is one of common occurrence aboard first-class ships. No date for the new trial has been decided upon, - SEPTEMBER 6, 1900, DECADES OF SPEED. In the latter part of 1883 the writer dealt, in the columns of an engineering contemporary, with the possibilities of a 40 knot steamer. As the article suggested, inter alia, quad- rupling the then prevailing boiler pressure, doubling the number of revolutions and halving the weight of fuel to be carried, by substituting oil for coal, needless to say it raised some considerable amount of controversy, the general con- census of opinion plainly leading to the idea that the writer was a “‘crank,’? Indeed one paper, more outspoken in its comments than its fellows, went so far as to state that “this idle dream of a visionary will never be realized.” Barely two decades have elapsed since the article appeared and the Viper has already come near, and her sister ship the Cobra, will, we believe, come nearer to realizing the ‘‘idle dream”’ of 40 knots. This, however, has yet to be proved; but, if we divide what we may term the existence of practi- cal steam shipping into decades, six such will embrace it, and into the last of these the naval architect and marine engineer have compressed the greatest and most rapid of all their improvements. Whether the ship be “diner” or . “tramp,” battleship or cruiser, or torpedo craft, the last ten years has witnessed the greatest development of the speed, power and dimensions of each type. Of course, there were earlier excepti6ns to the general rule, as, for instance, the Great Eastern and the enormous Italian battleships, but these were abnormal growths and held no place in the gradual evolution of larger ships and higher speeds, Asa general proposition, one may say that the large high-speed ship came in with the twin screw, the City of New Vork and the City of Paris, circa 1889, being the first ships of any great size to embody twin scre Ws driven by separate engines placed in two distinct water-tight compartments. averaged 20 knots, with 20,000 i.h. p. The Paris quickly broke the record for the trans-Atlantic trip, and we may take it that 20 knets was.the maximum speed in 1890, or at the beginning of our last decade, the City of Rome and Aurania, with their 17 knots being the quickest vessels during the early ’80’s, while the 15 knots of the Adriatic constituted a record in 1871, as did the Scotia’s 13 knots in 1862. In 1850 the Collins liner Atlantic did an average 12 knots. The Atlantic was 2,860 tons, the Scotia 3,870 tons, the Adriatic 3,888 tons, the Aurania 7,269 tons, and the City of Rome 8,144 tons. From these few typical cases, it will be seen that in the three decades 1850 1880, speed had increased from 12 to 17 knots, and tonnage from 2,860 to 8,144 tons, the horse-power of the Atlantic’s engines being 2,000 i. h. p., as against the 11,500 i. h. p. of the City of Rome. 1890 saw, as we have just said, the advent of the City of New York and the City of Paris, and the increase of the average to 20 knots, and how rapid the progress has been since then both in speed and size may be gleaned from the following brief particulars of our present-day leading vessels. The Campania followed the two ‘‘Cities’’ in 1893, she being of 19,000 tons, 30,000 i. h. p., and 22 knots. The Campania and her sister, the Lucania, did not hold the speed record long, for in 1897 the North German Lloyd Co. sent the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse on her maiden voyage — to New York. The new German ship was of 20,000 tons displacement, and engined with 28,000 i. h. p., and soon established her record with 22.62 knots. Two years later saw the Oceanic, of 28,500 tons, 28,000 i. h. p., and 20% knots, while this year has seen all previous Atlantic records lowered by the Deutschland, with her average of 23 knots right across. A glance at the performances of the two latest leviathans leaves us open to doubt whether latter-day speeds are not obtained at too great a cost. The Oceanic propels her 28,500 tons of displacement at a cost of 28,000 i. h. p., the Deutschland requires 35,650 i. h. p. to force her 23,000 tons through the water at 23 knots. Thus the Oceanic requires but .98 i. h. p. to move one ton at 20% knots, while the Deutschland takes 1.55 i. h. p. to move a ton at 23 knots— that is, to gain something less than 12 per cent. on the English ship’s speed, her German rival has to exert 56 per cent. more power, and, as we may take the coal consumption per unit of power to be the same in each ship, this implies greater cost and bunker space and more stokers for the Deutschland. We still adhere to our contention of seventeen years ago, namely, that the 4o knot ship is possible, and we believe now, as we did then, that the go knot ship will not b driven by reciprocating machinery.—Ex. These vessels were of 15,000 tons, and