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io MARINE REVIEW. Five Masted Ship Marie Rickmers. The illustration below, presented through the courtesy of the American Shipbuilder, New York, shows the largest five- masted auxiliary steel sailing vessel in the world. She was built by Russel & Co., Glasgow and fitted with triple expan- sion engines having cylinders 16, 26 and 42 inches by 27 inches, and the indicated horse-power is 780. She was engined by Kincaid & Co., Greenock. Her tonnage is 3,813 gross; carry- ing capacity 5,850 tons. 'The vessel is owned by the Rickmers, of Bremen. During her trial trip last February the new ship made eight knots an hour under steam alone and with 1,560 tons water ballast, and coal on board. She is fitted with a double bottom and deep midship water tanks, capable of holding 1,300 tons water ballast. 'The propeller has always been a difficulty in the case of auxiliary powered sailing vessels. In the Marie Rickmers the difficulty has been avoided by the use of a Bevis patent gun metal feathering propeller, the blades of which can Regularity in Launches. In all the vessels launched from the yard of the Globe Iron Works Company, Cleveland, within the past ten years, there is not a single instance where the time appointed for launching has varied a minute. 'The hour is 3 o'clock and the regularity with which the big steel boats built by this company have shd into the water at that time of the day is surprising when the detail connected with the launching ofa vessel is taken into consideration. The work of clearing the blocks under the ves- sel is, of course, in all cases timed so as to be finished within a a fraction of a minute before the hour, but if this work should be finished in advance of the time alloted for it and there was not to much ofa strain on the vessel the ropes would not be cut until exactly 3 0'clock. Atevery launch Supt. John Smith is seen to keep an eye on his watch with as much care as he listens for the announcement from the men at both ends of the boat \ FIVE MASTED AUXILIARY SAILING SHIP MARIE RICKMERS. be feathered to any pitch, and be made to lie in a fore-and-aft direction when the vessel is under sail alone, the mechanism for doing this being worked from the engine room. 'The Rick- mer's dimensions are as follows: Length over all 375 feet, on water line 360 feet, beam 48 feet, depth 25 feet 8 inches. 'To answer the question often asked as to which is the largest sailing vessel in the world, the following detail will suffice: The France, a five-master built of steel by D. & W. Henderson & Co., Glas- gow, last year for Ant. Dom Bordes & Fils, Dunkirk, France, is 361 feet long, 48 feet 8 inches beam, 25 feet 9 inches depth with a tonnage of 3,784 tons gross and 3,624 tons net register. The carrying capacity of this leviathan is upwards of 6,000 tons dead weight. The difference in the capacity of the France and Rickmers is caused by the weight of machinery of the latter. The eye of the sailor will be attracted to the fifth mast and the two top yardsand hemust be pretty wellinformed ifhe can give their correct names. Any one sending the correct names of the masts yards and sails of this ship to the MARINE REvIEW with their address will receive ten handsome phototypes of lake steamers. that all is clear. Why this care is exercised as to the hour for launching is not explained, further than that there is a desire for promptness in such matters. At the Wyandotte yard of the Detroit Dry Dock Company the clearing of the vessel and the cutting of the ropes is regulated by telephonic communication on the ground between the two ends of the vessel, but it is not probable that the time for launching is adhered to as strictly as at the Globe yard. The Pennsylvania Railway and the Southern Pacific Com- pany, the Mexican Central Railway and the Grand Trunk Rail- way have recently ordered experimental sets of Serve ribbed tubes. The Paris, Lyons & Mediterranean Railway has 200 locomotives fitted, some of them having been in use two years. These tubes are gradually being adopted for marine boilers in England and it is only a question of time until some enterprising builder on the lakes tries them. The Cunard and Inman line have put them in several steamers where they are making tests. as against plain tubes with retarders,