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es » 2 7 : oe = . ri ~ ~ GORRESPONDENGE. responsible in any way for the views or 1r correspondents, It is our desire that all affecting the interests or welfare of the lake ma- fairly represented in Tue Manin Reconn. "PLACE {HE MACHINERY AMIDSHIPS. Record: Cuicaco, November 8, 1892. ro the Editor of The Marine V8 ‘The recent terrible losses in lake shipping through Mex “ _ the: -Gilcher, struction of the steamers Western Reserve and lead me to suggest, if I may do so through your ble paper, that possibly the fatal fault, if there be in the construction of the larger class of steel lake steamers, may be found in the placing of the engines so far aft instead of amidships. Building the engines amidships makes a stable and comparatively solid mass that is well calculated to afford good constructive sup- port to both ends of the vessel, and is especially effiica- cious in keeping a boat on an even keel when travelling light, and I may venture the assertion that had the ill- fated Western Reserve been so constructed she would _ have been afloat to-day. Ihave seen a good deal of steamer construction in various parts of the world, and my observations have led me to the conclusion that the - method of construction adopted in most lake vessels of placing the engines so far aft, while perfectly safe for smaller craft, has an element of weakness when applied to steamers of, say, three hundred feet or more in length, that more than offsets the economy of space it affords. THos. BLACK. Record BREAKING CARGOES ON THE LAKES. CLEVELAND, O., November 5, 1892, To the Editor of The Marine Record: I desire, as one of your closely interested readers, to thank you for being so thoughtful (as you invariably are) of the vesselinterests, as to publish the article en- titled ‘‘Record Breaking Cargoes on the Lakes,’’ in your issue of October 27th. The entire editorial is very ably and well written and, to use a popular phrase, ‘‘it strikes the nail right on the head.” As you correctly say, this record breaking has perhaps been carried a notch toofar. I think, however, that there are readers of THE RECORD who would re- quire abstruse arguments to establish in their minds the indisputable fact that there is something mysterious in the modeling of a ship that will enable her to carry more cargo than a sister ship of the same dimensions, weight of scantlings and draft of water; therefore, so long as the builder has no established rules or rating to conform to, there is a temptation to lighten the scant- ling, for the purpose of record breaking, and I for one am willing and anxious to see some good underwriters’ rules of construction established for the lakes. J. F. Panxuurst, General Manager Globe Iron Works Co. re ce COL. LUDLOW AND THE LIGHTHOUSE BOARD, The Washington Post treats the recent Ludlow-Heyer- man difficulty as follows: 5 “The recent action of the Lighthouse Board in reliey- ing Col. Ludlow and Commander Heyerman, his inspect- or, from further service on that board, evidently does a gross injustice to two meritorious officers. The more closely it is serutinized the worse it looks. It is a case that clearly calls for intervention by the Treasury De- partment in order that a great wrong may be set right. _ Col. Ludlow was charged with the duty of establish- ing lights on the St. Mary’s river for the guidance of mariners at night. He made the necessary examina- tions, assuming the chart furnished by the government to be correct, and devised a plan for thirty-eight lights, whereby the safety of navigation would be assured. This plan was sppepyed by the board. He subsequently discovered that the original chart, by reason of certain cuts made by the government after its publication, deepening the channel and increasing the number of angles, would have to be revised, and that the changed situation, of which he had not been previously aware, would require the establishment of forty-five instead of thirty-eight lights. The board made no objection and the work went on, until just about the time of its com- letion, and after the engagement of keepers for the ights, a peremptory order was received by Col. Ludlow to erect only thirty-eight. A formal request was made for the additional lights, only to provoke another order that there be but thirty-eight, and those in the positions originally indicated, It then occurred to Col. Ludlow and Commander Heyerman that by omitting six lights in the lower part of the river, where they were least essential, and retain- ing those in the upper part, where they were indispens- able, the number might be reduced for the time being to thirty-eight as prescribed. ‘This recommendation was overruled and then came a final order to erect the lights in strict accordance with the original plan, to which Col. Ludlow protested, on the ground that such an ar- _Tangement would be misleading to navigators, and upon the two Officers calling attention to the statutes against erecting such lights, they were summarily relieved and given no opportunity of explanation or z defense. The official reason assigned for their removal is no . . t insubordination, but “failure to comply promptly with THE MARINE RECORD. recent instructions,” instructions that unquestionably involved a statutory offense. = One of the most surprising features of this extraor- dinary performance is that after Col. Ludlow and Com- mander Heyerman had been relieved and their succes- sors appointed, General Poe and Captain Read, the lat- ter were given full discretion as to placing the lights, and adopted exactly the same plan which Col. Ludlow had recommended, and which the board now approves. The whole credit is due to Col. Ludlow, and the return he gets for his valuable services is a relief from duty on charges which he has no opportunity to disprove and for confronting which he cannot even have the benefit of a court of inquiry. = Another surprising thing is that the members of the Lighthouse Board who have raised this unprecedented question of discipline are the two civilian members and the three executive officers of the board, the vote upon removal standing five to three. ‘The three officers vot- ing in the minority give the reasons for their action in the following statement to Secretary Foster, of the Treasury Department: The honorable, the SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. Sm: We, the undersigned, members of the Lighthouse Board, and a minority thereof, beg leave to inform you that we dissent from the recent ac- tion of the board in the matter of Maj. William Ludlow, Corps of Engineers, U.S. A., and Commander Oscar F. Heyerman, U. S. N,, lately engineet and inspector of the eleventh lighthouse district. It is our judgment that the ex- planation of these officers in respect to their recent action and correspondence with the board concerning the lighting of St. Mary’s river fully exonerates them from any wrong doing or intent. We believe, on the contrary, that they have shown great professional ability and zeal in the lighthouse service, especially in the work referred to, and that they should be restored to their duties under the board. We think it due to you, to them and to ourselves to make this statement. Very respectfully, Georce H. Euuiort, Lieut. Col. Corps of Engineers, U.S, A.; Jamas H. Gittis, Commo- dore U. S. N., Oswatp H. Ernst, Colonel, U. S. A. Ih view of these eircumstances and especially of the fact that the Lighthouse Board is not a military board, and that its proceedings are subject to review by the Secretary of the Treasury in his capacity as president, is it too much to expect that Col. Ludlow and his associ- ate may be afforded prompt opportunity of vindication and relieved, not from a service to which they have ren- dered laudable contribution, but from the wrongful and injurious attitude which they have been made to occupy on the official records?” en es THE ATLANTIC STEAMSHIP TRAFFIC. The Campania, recently launched by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company for the Cunard Line, is 620 feet long and the largest vessel now afloat. ‘The accompanying table, giving particulars of seyeral of the large Atlantic liners, taken from Industries, Lon- don, may be interesting as showing the steps by which the advance in tonnage and displacement has been made in the vessels engaged in this traffic since 1881. From 1889 the City of Paris, together with her sister vessel, the City of New York, have held the first place, but are now relegated to the second position by the Campania, whose tonnage is 2,000 more. WHEELER & CO. It is gratifying to note that the important indus shipbuilding on the lakes engages the attention of our — foreign contemporaries. 7 z In arecent issue of /ndusiries, London, England, find an illustrated article giving a most complete dis- — cription of the Cornfield Point Light Vessel recently built by F. W. Wheeler & Co., of West Bay City, Mich., and numbered 51 by the Light-House Board. The article quoted is as follows: 4 “No. 51, one of the four vessels of this description constructed by the above firm were designed by Mr. Walfrid Sylven, chief consulting and constructing engi- neer to the United States Light-House Board. They were ordered by Act of Congress, 1890, and the contract was secured by F. W. Wheeler & Co.—the lowest bid- ders—for £42,800 for the four. These vessels are constructed wholly of iron, and are the first constructed for the United States Government of that material. ‘‘No. 51’ is the best equipped vessel of her class afloat, and demands attention as the first light-vessel for ocea:1 service built on the Great Lakes. She is constructed of the best American iron, has a bilge keel extending 50 feet each side, and is divided into five water-tight compartments by bulkheads extending to — the main deck. Her principal dimensions are as follows i —length over all, 118 feet 10 inches; breadth, moulded, 26 feet 6 inches; and depth of hold, 14 feet 6 inches; light draft of water, 8 feet, with stores, etc., on board, 9 feet 6 inches; displacement about 350 tons; and her speed is 9 miles per hour. Messrs. F. W. Wheeler & Co. also con- structed the fore-and-aft compound engines for these vessels, the cylinders being 14 inches, 24 inches by 16 inches stroke. Twe cylindrical single-ended boilers of the return tubular pattern, 8 feet diameter, 9 feet long, each having ninety-six 3-inch tubes, furnish the steam required. They are provided with a Keiller circulator, and are fed from either the sea or tanks ‘by a duplex pump. Each boiler has a 36 inch Fox’s corrugated fur- nace, ‘The propeller is 6 feet diameter. 4 A peculiar feature of these vessels is their center hawse-pipe made at an angle of 45 degrees through the stem, to reduce the stress on the cables when riding in a heavy sea. The heaviest cable is 24 inches diameter, the others 2 inches, and 250 fathoms have been supplied. ‘These cables are worked by a steam windlass con- structed by the American Ship Windlass Company, Providence,Rhode Island, steam for which is supplied by a donkey boiler. Elastic chain stoppers are also fitted. ‘Three anchors—one mushroom of 5,000 pounds weight ; one bower, 2,500 pounds; and one harbor anchor, 2,000 pounds—form an important part of the vessel’s equip- ment. ‘These vessels were originally designed to have single-cylinder engines, but as the other light-vessels often broke from their stations in a heavy gale, which.. caused great delay and damage in searching for them and placing them in position again, the government a 7 { a s 7 4 84 | | 2 a a gealeeubsarl oo Sane 3 & |e oe 8 33 3 2 | Displace-| | 3 5 Name of Ship, | Name of Builders. | 23 8 | 43 3 A ment | Tonnage.) Type of Engine. & | LHP. g | Ba | 2 |e £ B | intons. q 3/3 a} B | Bel ® E z 18 Col a iaa & & \% Alaska Fairfield Co, ssi | s20ft.| soft.) soft, 39.5 ft.) 9,500 Scrankcompound. | 100 | 19.500 | 13 | a Servia J.&G. Thomson | 1881 | 540 | 515 | 52 40.75 | 12,300 do, 90 | 10300 | 16.9 | 1 City of Rome Barrow Co. 1ss1 | 600 | 546 | 523 $8.75 | 13,500 3 crank icompannd 90 | 11,890 | 18.98} 4 tandem. Oregon Fairfield Co. ses | 520 | 500 3975 | 12,500 Bcrank compound.| 110 | 12380 | 19 4 America -&G. Thomson | 188t | 459 | 432 aT 9.550 do, 95 7354 | 178 | 1 Umbria | Fairfield Co, 1884 520 501.6 38.2 13.300 do. | 110 14.320 49 B ie City of Paris | J.& G. Thomson | 1889 | 560 | 527 39 2 17.270 8 crank triple, 150 | 20.600 |. a1.8-)9. 4) ‘Teutonic Harland & Wolff | 1890 | 582 | 566 39 4 16,740 do, 180 | 18.000 | 21 2 Normannia Fairfieid Co. 1890 | 620 | 500 388 -— do. 160 | 16.000 | 205 |2 Campania do. 1802 620 600 ALS 18,000 do. 160 30,000 easel * | PROMOTION IN THE NAVY. decided to supply them with compound engines. Park Benjamin, in Harper's Weekly, ‘The advance of a naval officer through the different grades is due solely to the retirement or resignation of of his comrades above him. Individual merit finds no short road to the top. Ability, however, conspicuous, must remain in subordinate positions so long as the su- perior ranks are filled by law. As a consequence, many of the ablest men leave the service in search of wider fields of activity; others are content to remain and achieve high reputations in special studies taken up con amo ¢, and with practically no hope of material reward in the shape of professional advancement; others hold on sometimes for the purely sentimental reason that they are unwilling to yield up the semi-public pace andl accompanying social advantages so long worked for in exchauge for civilian nonentity, or for the more mate- rial consideration that the snug harbor and certain pay of the navy seem safer and surer than to embark in the struggle for existence in the great outer world, especi- ally when one.has given ‘“‘ hostages to fortune’’ in the shape of a proverbially large family. But all are alike human, and all, therefore, are more or less influenced by the knowledge that the admiral’s stars will com to him who lives long enough, and. behaves himself and does routine, as surely as to him whose brilliant achieve- ments command general admiration. ‘The wonder is that so high an average standard of ability, and such implicit devotion to duty as exists, can obtain, under such conditions. But the best work of any man, or any body of men, cannot be had without strong incentive on the one hand, and freedom to compete on the other. Natural selection is a natural law. Our mistake lies in the apparent premise that this in the navy can somehow be controlled by acts of Congress and the Blue Book, Nevertheless, the fer sonnel of the navy is not expected from the general scheme of the universe, and progress therein to higher standards can no more be made con- sistently with artificial regulation of the individual abilities than can great oaks be induced to grow better on trellises than in the freedom of the forest. “No. 51’ is to be lighted with electricity, and is the first Government light-yessel to have this system of lighting. ‘The plant is placed in an after-deck house on the main-deck, and was constructed in New York under the supervision of Major D. P. Heap, U. S. Corps of Engineers. It consists of two horizontal high-speed engines of 8 horse power, with 70 pound steam pressure, from which power is transmitted by two Evans friction cones to two compound-wound Thomson-Houston dyna- mos of 60 amperes and 110 volts, supplying energy to 8 100 candle-power and twenty 16 candle-power lamps, the former lighting the two signal lanterns on the masts 49 feet above the deck, and the latter distributed throughout the ship. The signal flashes are regulated by a make-and-break apparatus in the engine room, and in case one of the dynamos become disabled the engineer can, by opening a valve and pressing a button, throw the other into instant action. These dynamos are auto- matically regulated, so that three-fourths of the lamps may be extinguished w'thout change of speed. ‘No. 51” is rigged with two 67 feet masts, which carry the- lights, day marks and sails; ‘‘Nos. 52,’ ‘53’, and ‘54’? have special trysail masts. Steam is used throughout — for heating the four officers’ staterooms and the crew’s space for fourteen men. Everything is finished in a plain and substantial manner, All parts of the vessel are connected by a complete system of bell communica- tion and speaking tubes. Sea-water is distilled by Baird’s evaporator and condenser, and an aerator and filter are provided with circulating pumps having a capacity of 2,500 gallons per day. resh water is stored in six | wrought-iron tanks of 4,500 gallons capacity, The fog whistle, which is 12 inches diameter, is worked by a a machine driven by a horizontal non-condensing engine, which, though worm gearing, turns acam wheel 20 inches in diameter. ‘The cams work against a small roller in the middle of a lever, one end of which is attached to the balanced whistle valye, the distance between the cams determining the interval between blasts. This whistle is audible on a calm day distance of fifteen miles.” Nm