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'capacity was 2,000 tons or 13,400 barrels. e MARINE REVIEW. Loy PROF. GEO. R. McDERMOTT, N. A. Several weeks ago we presented a.portrait of Prof. W. F. Durand, principal of the School of Marine Engineering and Naval Architecture, Cornell University, and now through courtesy of the American Shipbuilder is given a likeness of Prof. Geo. R. McDermott, who also is instructor in this school. In 1879 Mr. McDermott entered the drawing offices of J. & G. Thompson, on the Clyde, and in 1883 was made chief of the designing department under Prof. J. H. Biles, who was manager and naval architect. Four years later he was given entire charge of the cost department and had in hand all details from the time of enquiry to the time of delivery of vessels. He was for a short time with the Southampton Naval Works, from which position he was secured by Prof. R. H. Thurston, through Mr. Doran, of the International Line, as instructor in the American college. His experience in construction is varied, as he has designed or assisted in designing everything from a tramp to a greyhound and from a torpedo boat toa battle ship. The Japanese cruiser Chiyada Kan and the Spanish war ship Reina Regente were built under his - observation, as were 80 other vessels of every conceivable class and for every service, except lake service. With the peculiarities of the latter practice, he and Mr. Durand expect to make them- selves familiar next season, when they will visit lake ship yards and probably make a trip on some of the newly built lake steamers. Petroleum Tank Steamers. Until the year 1886 American petroleum was shipped to Europe in saling vessels, and while on board it was stored in bar- rels. The usual cargo was from 7,000 to 10,000 barrels, and in a few cases aS many as 14,000 barrels were carried at one time. No firm of underwriters would insure a steamer laden with oil in barrels, nor could a crew be found that would risk the danger of being burnt out of their ship. About the year 1880 one of the Baku oil owners organized a fleet of tank steamers to carry oil across the Caspian sea to the mouth of the Volga, but the dis- tance traveled is small, and no rough weather is met with on the Caspian sea. Such craft would not be seaworthy even in the Mediterranean, and are not to be compared with the modern tank steamer. They are only noteworthy on account of their having been the earliest forerunners of the modern system of ocean transport. In the year 1886 Riedemann & Schutte of Bremen first conceived the idea of adapting the tank system to their ocean traffic, and they accordingly fitted out one of their sailing ships with a series of seventy tanks made like horizontal boilers. These tanks were connected together with tubes, and the end ones were left empty to allow for expansion. Their total It was difficult to effect an insurance on this steamer, and harder still to get a crew. Still, at the end of 1886 she sailed away from America for the first time, and after that time she performed several successful voy- ages, until she was finally wrecked on the British coast. Her success encouraged the owners to continue this method of ship- ment, but they decided to try steamers instead of sailing ships. Their first steamer was built at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and ever since the use of tank steamers has increased. At first the tank system had its violent opponents among the workmen here, for the loading and unloading was, of course, done by steam pumps out of and into storage reservoirs instead of by manual labor as heretofore. 'The seamen also objected on account of the danger from fire, and the Standard Oil Company itsetf looked askance at it, for the disuse of barrels would throw their cooperage es- tablishment out of work. The Knights of Labor had to be re- strained by the police from interfering with the loading of the ships, and it was only with great difficulty that the first cargo was put on board. 'The new system was worth fighting for, as it enabled the shippers to deliver the oil much more rapidly. The old sailers which carried the oil in barrels used to take 45 days for the voyage from America to Bremen, and 35 days were occupied in the return voyage. 'Then it took a month to load - and another to unload, so that a vessel could only make at the most three round trips a year and deliver 40,000 barrels during that time. A steamer, however, will make the voyage in fourteen to seventeen days, and requires only five days to load and five days to unload, so that it can make seven round trips every year and deliver five times as much oil. In the construction of tank steamers the chief points to be taken care of are to protect the oil from the heat of the furnaces by means of water spaces and to con- struc the tanks in such a way as toallow for the expansion and contraction of the oil. The latter point has caused the most trou- ble, for in most of the ships vacant spaces were left to provide for this expansion. 'These spaces are naturally usually filled with air and petroleum vapor, and many explosions have resulted. The latest arrangement to prevent these disasters is to form the upper part of the tanks in the shape of a hydraulic cylinder, and to allow for expansion and contraction by means of the movable piston whose rod passes through a stuffing box in the top of the tank. Such a construction will probably obviate all the danger that has hitherto been met with in tank steamers.--Engineering and Mining Journal. Do You Want a Photograph of Your Steamer? To accommodate subscribers who are anxious to secure photographs of lake steamers in which they are in any way in- terested the MARINE REVIEW has made a collection and is able to furnish 7x9 photographs, well mounted, of the following steamers at $1 each. Write to the MARINE REVIEW, 516 Perry- Payne building, Cleveland, O.: Arabia, Harlem, Packer; ik. A America, Helena, Petoskey, Averell, W. J., Haskell, W. J., Peerless, Avery, Waldo A., Hall, John E., Parnell, C.S., Alaska, Hudson, Philadelphia, Albany, Hurd, Jos. L., Prince, F. H., Atlanta, Italia, Perrett, J. C., Argonaut, Indiana, Pathfinder (whaleback), Boyce. Mary H., Tonia, Panther, "9 Boscobel, Juniata, Pillsbury (engines), Baldwin, S. C., James, H. R., Pontiac, Buffalo, Jewett, H. J., Rochester, Boston, Langdon, Jas. R.. Rosedale, Bieleman, C. F., Lackawanna, Rugee, John, City of Duluth, Louisianna, Russia, City of Rome, Lehigh, Smith, Gov., Caledonia, Lycoming, Saranac, City of Ludington, Lawrence, Syracuse, City of Racine, Manola, Susquehanna, Cayuga, Maruba, Seneca, City of Fremont, McVittie, A., Sachem, City of Naples, Masaba, Smith, Ed., Chemung, Maryland, Schuyikill, Clarion, Marina, St.Lawrence, (do engines) Conemaugh, Mather, Sam'! (whaleb'k)Scranton, Conestoga, Maytham, Thos., Sheboygan, Chicago (Goodrich Line), Manchester, Shaw, John (schooner), Chicago (West'n Tr. Co.),Merrimac, Tilley, Sir 8. L., City of Traverse, Minnesota, Tacoma, City of Paris, Manhattan, Tuscarora, Codorus, Massachusetts, Thomson, A.D.,(whaleb'k) Donaldson, Jas. P., Marshall, Sam'1, Tioga, Eddy, John F., Mills, Rob't, Uganda (engines), Egan, W. M., Milwaukee, Viking, Eddy, C. A., Mahoning, Virginia, Fayette, Neosho, Vance, F. L., Foster, Parks, New York, Wheeler, F. W., Florida, Northern King, Wyoming, Flower, R. P., North Wind, Williams, George F., Gilcher, W. H., Owen, J. Emory, Wisconsin, Gogebic, Owego, Wissahickon, Grecian, Owen, Ira H., Wilbur, E. P., Gladstone, Onoko, Westcott, J. W., Grover, M. B. Portage. ~ashburn, Gilchrist, J. C., Palmer, Thos. W., Marine Review for one year and Patterson's Nautical Dictionary for $6.