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ral A VOL. V. NO 26. CLEVELAND, O#JUNE23 1883. $2.00 Per ANNUM SINGLE Copies 6 CENTS. zig DECATOR H. MILLER. The Decatur H. Milier is an iron screw steamer of the Merchants and Miners ‘Trans- portation Company, whose steamers ply be- tween Boston and Baltimore. She is built in a superior manner and fs fitted with all the modern improvements for the comfort and’safety of passengers and for the rapid handling of cargo. _ She isa full three-deck vessel, with an iron middle-deck and iron beams to all the decks, iron waterways, bulwarks and ex- tension for forecastle. She has three iron tore and aft fenders, three lodding ports on each side, in the upper. between decks, and one on each side between the lower between decks, making elght in all. The passenger saloon is on the upper deck aft, containing 18 staterooms, pantry, and water-closete, ete, etc, The saloon commences about six feet aft of the after freight hatch, and will be fitted up inthe best style with hard woods, with a large open circular staircase leading to the social hall on the promenade deck. ‘he saloon ie 60 feet long and the width of the vessel, excepting a narrow space between the house and rail... On the upper deck there isa house commencing about 4 feet forward of the after freight hatch, which is 70 feet long and 18 feet wide, und which encloses the machinery, smoke-stack, kitchen, ice-house, steerage, and boys’ rooms. On this deck is the top-gallant forecastle, 46 feet long 6 feet high and divided for the quarters of the sailors and firemen, and the f ; losets. oon ‘or ward, water-closets ic WORTH the’smoke- “feet long’ and 17 long and 15 feet wide, containing the pilot house, captain’s and officers’ rooms. ‘he vesse! is schooner-rigged with wire standing rigging and a straight stem. | The vessel is 200 feet long on the 6 foot waterline, measuring from the outside of stem to the outside of main post. Her. beam moulded at the widest place is 38 feet 6 inches; depth of hold from base line to top of upper deck beams at dead flat is 26 feer, the depth being divided as follows: Floors, 24 inches; ceiling, 3 inches; lower hold, 8 feet 3 inches; lower deck, 344 inches; lower between decks, 7 feet 6 inches; middle deck 2'4 inches; upper between decks, 7 teet 6 inches. ‘he sheer forward is 6 feet, aft 3 feet on the line of rail; sheer on centre line of deck, 3 feet 8 inches; aft, 2 feet 2 | inches; spring of beam amidships, 10 inches; | dead rise, 12 inches in the one-half floor. | The ship has sharp ends for 12 feet dratt forward and 14 feet att, andis full above | with broad deck lines at the stern. She has | a fine model for a combined passenger and freighting stéamer, such as are employed on our coast. | ‘The anchors are handled by the latest styles of steam windlasses furnished by the American Ship windlass Company, of Prov- idence, R. L, placed on the upper deck and worked by a pair of independent engines, The windlass capstan is on the top- | gallant forecastle deck, and is either worked by hand or steam as occasion may require. On the upper ceck aft, is a fine warping power capstan ornamented with a nickel- plate top. All of this labor saving machin- | ery is trom the American Ship Windlass | C628 Works, which furnishis all of our lead- ing vessels with its appliances. ‘he D. H. Miller nas five boats; four of | thei are metallic 24 feet long, one having a | full square stern and fitted with an iron | centreboard; and one wooden boat 20 feet | long, clinker built and copper fastened; | also. a fine metallic life-raft, all and | are fine speciinens of boat work, and com- pletely titted with oars, sails, spars, water- | breakers, ete., ete. The following are the | dimensions of the spars: wnole length fore- | mast, 83 feet; head, 9 fi partners at up- | | per deck, 23! inches; 1 ain mast, whole length, 86 feet; head, 9 feet; partners, 23 inches. Foretop mast, whole length, 50 feet; | to shoulder, 32 feet; diameter at cap, 12 | inches; foretop-gallant mast 12 feet; pole, 6 | feet; maintopmast, whole length 52 feet; to shoulder, 32 feet; diameter at cap, 11 inches; maintop gallant mast, 12 feet, pole, 8 feet; fore und main boums, 50 feet long to shreave holes; end, 2 feet, yellow pine, 11 inches in diameter in the middle; foregaff, 32 feet long, 2 feet end, 10 inches draw in the middle; mringzff, 50 teet long, 4 feet end, 10 inches diameter in the middle; flag pole, 25 feet long, 5 inch. diameter. Rigging, black iron wire, four shrouds to aside; main, 54g inches in circumference; fore and main stays, 6 inches in circumfer- ence: outer jibstay, 5 inches; fore and main- top mast stays and back stays, 44¢ inches in circumference ; topmast rigging and stays, 31g inches circumference. ‘Tanks for 6,100 galionsof water. She is fitted with all pumps required by law, and has four hoisting engines, 8 inch cylinders 10 inch-stroke, taking stream from either; donkey or main boiler, The machinery. consists of a double com- pound engine with four cylinders 24x54 inches, and 48 inches stroke of piston. Four cylindrical boiler 11 feet in diameter and 11 feet long, carryirg a working pressure of 80 pounds of steam to the square inch. The high pressure cylinders were placed over the lo. pressure cylinders, and the engines laced at quarter-angles, this. arrangement eing in ‘accordance with the latest and most approved type of English compound engines. This steamer was built by the Harlan & Hollingsworth Company, Wilmington, Del., 24 ghthr- 30% arene D. H. and at the time she was launched was com- pk tely described in the Nautical Gazette, of New York, whlch gave also an elegant cut, showing her to be a fine specimen of naval architecture, Our cutis a miniature view of that original illustration and was fur- nished by D. 5, Osbon as were also the facts pertaining to the D. H, Miller. | YACHTING, BY THE SOUTH STREET CRUISER. South Street Cruiser, In the Nautical Ga- zette, speaks his mind freely on yacht build- Ing: In building a yacht, as in everything else, experience is a great teacher; but one thing remains that yachtmen have not learned by experience, and that is, how to prevent their | craft from ecapsizing. Some experienced yachtmen say that the deep, narrow cutter will not go over; others say that the wide centreboard eraft will always be an up- right affair; but the trouble is that they all, like a monkey that climbs a tree, havea tendency to show tbat part of their construc- tion that is intended to be concealed. Now if experience is worth anything, it should teach yachtmen who have passed beyond that age when ther beards have ceased to have the appearance of (he mold on a mislaid_ apple pie, that, if their yachts will not stand up in the way they are built, they should build them the other side up. Saddles should be placed on the keel for passengers, anda game of polo should be played while run- ning a yacht race, thus combining two very fascinating sports in one, and there would be no more accidents from the crew not be- ing on deck. ‘There is no use in giving di- rections how the craft should be rigged, but there are numerous naval architects along the shores of South and West streets that are ready to construct anything that will sail faster, dive deeper, keep dryer, and be more comfortable than anything ever got up, if the owner only stays ina hotel and hires a man with an anchor and a Brooklyn Bridge medal on his arm to sail his pet. ‘he yacht- men tell about how the ‘‘jibboom or spanker boom was under the sea,”’? and make a won- derful story about the “lee rail, etc., being under water most of the time.” Why not build them so that both sails, jibboom and everything else that has a tendency to get wet will stay where it can be wet, and let the keel, that is constantly wanting to come up, be built on top, where it will stay up. There is one difficulty although not a ma- rine one, in making this new departure in building yachts, and that is the heavy strain on the brains of the measuring committee it would cause. For instance, a keel would be jmarked off for 10 or 12 saddles, and an al- lowance of time for the number of saddles allowed, but when a feller wanted his yacht measured off for one or two side saddles ex- tra, what allowance should be given for div- ing belles, side shows and that kind of a circus? SHIPWRECKS ON BRITISH COASTS. A carefully compiled article in the Scien- tific American shows that during the past twenty-five years about fifty-five thousand wrecks, casualties, and collisions have occur- red on the British coasts, involving the loss MILLER. of nearly twenty thousand lives. But once since the season of 1874-5 has the number of | marine disasters in a twelvemonth fallen below three thousand, the most disasterous year being that of 1876-7, when the casu- alties numbered 4,164. Last year the number was 3,575, involving the loss of 984 lives. Orly 705 cares involved total loss, and lives were lost in 238. Since in cases of collision two or more | vessels are involved in one casualty, the number of vessel3 more or less hurt (4,297) considerably exceeds the number of casu- alties. The collisions numbered 743, and the other | wrecks and casualties 2,862. Of the latter | 636 were wrecks, ete., resulting in fotal loss, and serious damage was experienced in 670 cases. The heaviest losses were encountered on the east coast of England and Scotland, Out of the 2,862 casualties other than col- lisions 2,569 occurred to vessels belonging to Great Britain and its dependence nod 293 to foreign ships. Of these 2,569 British vessels, 1732 were employed in the coasting trade, 667 in the foreign and home trade, and 170 as fishing vessels. disaster, 1,342 did not exceed 100 tons burden, 791 were from 100 to 300 tons, 170 were from 300 to 500 tons, and 267 above 500 tons burden. vessels totally lost irrespective of collisions, 44 ave known to have been Dduilt of iron, and of these 30 were steamships and 10. sailing vessels, A most remarkable showitg appears in connection with the ages of the vessels that were wrecked or otherwise injured, some three-fifths of these having been over fifteen years old. Excluding collisions, 495 steam- ships and 2,367 sailing vessels were lost, or damaged, on the British Coasts during the year. Of these disasters 146 happened to Of the 2,569 British ships which met with | were | Of the 540 British , nearly new ships, 322 to ships from three to seven years of age, 506 to ships from seven to fourteen years old, 932 to ships: from fitteen to thirty years old, 463 to ships from thirty to fifty years old, 59 to ships trom fifty to sixty years old, 34 trom sixty to seventy years old, 6 from seventy to eighty, 7 trom eighty to ninety 5 to one hundred, and 6 to vessels upward of one. hundred years old; while the ages of 83 are unknown. = It would be interesting to know more of the history of those ancient vessels, the cireum- stances under which they met with digaster, and for how much they were insured. In the course of the vear the entrances and clearances of vessels at all the ports of the United Kingdom numbered 668,000, and the numoer of persons carried on v1] occa- sions was probably between three and four millions. ‘The loss of a thousand lives may seem by ‘comparison a small number; but its actual magnitude is not to beso rated. And when we consider how many thousands of vessels, and hundreds of thousands of passengers and seamen (not around the British islands only, but on all the seas and along all the coasts of the whole world,) are constantly exposed to the hazards of storm and sea, we begin to see how large is the need of improved devices for saving life and preperty when subjected to such hazards. The lifeboats of the National Lifeboat In- stution are credited with saving something like twelve thousand lives during the past quarter century—-evidence enough of the value of one line ot invention and eftort in that small part of the world. Equally valu- able inventions doubtless remain to be. made. —— FLOATING BETHEL. The floating Bethel is moored at the foot of St. Clair street in Cleveland. It is man- aged in the interest of sailors. As the word implies, it isa kind of religious home for seamen. ‘Ihe gospel is preached four times a week at the Bethel. The annual report of Chaplain J+ D. Jones shows that during the year the services were attended by 9,360 per- | sons. Connected with the Bethel isa read- jing room, and much is done towards | helping sick and unfortunate sailors. This institution is patronized by the best | citizens of Cleveland, and is truly a human- itarian institution. Says the annual report: | “Our present shipkeeper who was formerly a lake captain, we ftnd to be the right man in | the right place. He keeps the reading room and chapel in erder, looks after the Sailors’ mail, assists in visiting the Hospital and shipping in the bor, and the conducting of meetings. Fifty-eight calls have been | made at the city hospital, over 2,500 papers and magazines, bave been distributed among | the sick. Prayer and conversation has been | held with the sick when it was thought best. Mrs. H. McLean, Mrs, J. D. Jones, the ship- | keeper and chaplain constitute the visiting ;}committee They have made over 250 visits | to the homes of the sick in different parts of | the city and have expended $225 in procuring | medicines and necessaries ot life. They |have made the sick rooms cheerful with ‘flowers and plants. Drs. Peck and Lowman have visited the sick when called upon free of charge. | We have over 206 different volumes ih our |libracy and over forty different daily, | weekly, and monthly papers and magazines ;on file. Frequently more than twenty sail- /orsand young mencan be found in our ) reading room at atime, reading or writing. | Onur register shows the signatures of over 3,000 whose homes are in tdirty-two States and Territories and nineteen foreign coun- ‘tries. In our mail box we find letters com- ing to our care from alinost every country in the woild; we have received about 400 letters and papers and furnished free writ- ing material to over 500 men, We have had over 30,0C0 visitors in. our |reading room. During part of the year a monthiy free supper has been given at the close of one of our services. The money voluntarily given at the meetings has more than paid the expenses of this, There has been over $600 contributed to our general work by those who attended our services and visit our reading room. Over 130 have j signed the temperance pledge. One hun- died and twenty-six volumes of bonnd books have been given to poor children,