Amaranth (Tender), 25 Feb 1892

      Two light-house tenders, the LILAC and COLUMBINE, building at the yard of the Globe Iron Works Company, Cleveland, to go, respectively, to the First light-house district with headquarters at Portland, Me., and the Thirteenth district with headquarters at Portland, Ore., are described in the annual report of the lighthouse board just issued. These boats as they appear on the stocks at the yard of the Globe company are of great credit to the officers of the light-house board as well as the builders. They are duplicates, and it may be said of them in a general way that the hulls are as fine in appearance as either of the costly steam yachts that left the stocks in Cleveland recently and their engines are as neatly built as anything ever turned out by the Globe company. They will prove good specimens on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the work of lake shipbuilders. Another light-house tender for lake service, the steamer AMARANTH, is nearing completion at the yard of the Cleveland Ship Building Company, and four others, lightships for the Atlantic coast, described in Vol 4 No. 7 of the Review, are under way at the yard of F. W. Wheeler & Co., West Bay City, so that shortly after the spring opening seven boats will be turned over from. lake builders to the lighthouse department, six of them going to the coast.
      The engraving shows the general plans of the LILAC and COLUMBINE. The material is Siemens-Martin mild steel, and the dimensions are:
Feet. Inches.
Length over all 155 0
Length from inside rudder post to inside stem 145 0
Beam molded 26 6
Depth of hold from top of beam to top of keel plate 15 2
Depth of hold from top, of beam to top of double bottom 12 4
      The vessels will be fitted with a double bottom. Inside height of this double bottom, in the 'clear between plates amidship, will be 34 inches. The vertical center keel plate will run from end to end of the vessel, tapered forward and abaft the double bottom, to the height of keelsons at these places; it will form the keelson and extend down to the skin of the vessel for three frame spaces, the floor plates on these frames being cut and securely riveted to the center keel-plate by angles 3 by 3 inches by 6 pounds. The side keelsons or girders will also run continuously, the floor plates and brackets between the girders being cut. This double bottom will be divided into four separate water-tight and independent compartments, each provided with a sufficient number of manholes properly constructed and so located that access can be had at all times to every compartment for cleaning and other purposes. There will be seven watertight bulkheads dividing the parts of each vessel above and forward, and abaft the double bottom, into eight water-tight compartments. The vessels will be built with a flat plate keel in double thicknesses and provided with an extra protective keel, also with one outside bilge keel on each side of the vessel. The vessels will be rigged as two-masted schooners, with pole top masts, gaffs and derrick booms. Each will be supplied with a steam windlass, steam hoisting engine, and the best appliances for handling anchors, buoys, and cargo or any other purpose required by the service. An electric plant for operating a search light and for illuminating all parts of the vessel will also be a feature of importance.
      There will be for each steamer one right-banded cast-iron screw propeller, about 9 feet 4 inches in diameter and of suitable pitch, driven by an inverted cylinder, surface condensing, fore-and-aft compound engine; the cylinders to be 22 and 41 inches in diameter, with a stroke of 30 inches. The steam will be furnished by two cylindrical single-ended boilers, 10 feet 8 inches in diameter and 10 feet 9 inches long, each fitted with corrugated furnaces.
      In addition to the necessary trials of the machinery at the dock a trial trip is also to be made of about twelve hours' duration, or as may be directed by the lighthouse board, at the expense of the contractor, and the engine must develop 600 indicated horse power when making 110 revolutions per minute, with a coal consumption of 2 + pounds per indicated horse power, and steam, per gauge, at 100 pounds pressure per square inch.
      The Marine Review
      February 25, 1892