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MARINE REVIEW. 11 Commander Robley D. Evans, U. S. Navy. The naval secretary of the United States light-house board is an officer whose duties bring him very close to the shipping in- terests of the country. By intelligent co-operation with vessel owners, this officer, who is most actively engaged in the execu- tive affairs of the light-house institution, can readily command the support of the large interests represented in the merchant marine. Commander Robley D. Evans, who recently succeeded Commander George W. Coffin to this position, is spoken of as an officer well qualified to meet such requirements, He was ap- pointed to the Naval Academy from Utah in 1860, served through the war and was severely wounded in the assault and capture of Fort Fisher, and promoted by act of congress for that engage- ment, In service outside of the department since the war Com- mander Evans has had charge of some very large works, and has held several important charges with the department in the con- struction of the new navy. In 1891 he was ordered to command the Yorktown and proceeded in her to Valparaiso, Chili, remain- ing there until ordered north. In May, 1892, he was ordered to command the Behring sea fleet to stop poaching in those waters, and upon his return was assigned to the position which he now occupies, Around the Lakes. At the Sites' mill, Warren, O., there was turned out recently a piece of ship timber 60 feet long and 30 inches square at each end. A projected enlargement of the Manitowoc Boiler Works will result in a shop 54 by 116 feet. A 1o-ton traveling crane will be included in the new equipment. A steel yacht ror feet long and costing about $50,000 is to be built by the Hamilton Bridge and Tool Company of Hamil- ton, Ont., for Alfred EK. Gooderham of Toronto. Capts. R. Fitzgerald and F. Chapman of Ogdensburg, and M. J. Galvin of Buffalo, are figuring with Detroit parties for the purchase of a freight steamer to run as a '"'tramp" between Chi- cago and Ogdensburg. Citizens of Ashtabula are talking of a dry dock at that port. In future dry docks will be located only where there is close at hand a plant for repairing steel vessels, and in this regard Ashta- bula, as well as many other small lake ports, is at a great disad- vantage. It has been reported that the steamer Centurian, the fourth big steel boat upon which work was begun recently at the ship yard of F. W. Wheeler & Co., West Bay City, was sold to the owners of the Gilbert, and it was also said that the owners of the Emily P. Weed had purchased the boat. Mr. Wheeler pro- nounces both stories untrue. The boat is being constructed on builders' account, The steel steamer building at this yard for Capt. John Mitchell and others of Clevelsnd may be chartered for package freight business through Duluth parties, with whom negotiations have been going on for some time past. 'This boat will be launched within the coming month. W. A. Sproul of Philadelphia and George I. Bishop of Cleve- land visited Sault Ste. Marie last week, in company with Capt. Charles M. Swartwood, and looked over sites for the proposed dry dock. A meeting of parties interested in the formation of a company to take up this enterprise will be held shortly and a proposition made to the people of the Sault. When the Detroit Dry Dock Company alters its old dock at the Orleans street plant, it is proposed to secure in the new construction a dock 250 feet in the clear, 79 feet wide at the top and 44 feet wide at the bilge with 12 feet of water over the blocks. Otherwise the new dock will be built on the plan of the big dock, with a pontoon gate and all the appliances for quickly filling and emptying. z A large tug to be built at Milwaukee during the summer will be engined by the Sheriffs Manufacturing Company, the ma- chinery to be a duplicate of that in the steamer A. E. Shores, Jr., which is a fore-and-aft compound embracing the triple-expansion principle, the intermediate cylinder being omitted. 'The engine of the Shores has cylinders of 16 and 43 inches diameter, with 30 inches stroke, and can be turned up to 130 revolutions per min- ute. To furnish steam there will be a boiler embracing the water-tube and Scotch types, capable of furnishing a working pressure of 160 pounds. 'The engine is to be provided witha surface condenser and al] modern appliances. J. W. Powers of Sycamore, Ill., is having built at Rockford a new-style triple-expansion engine. 'The three cylinders are ar- ranged in triangular form at equal distance apart. They are pro- vided with a compound piston head, which does away with the steam chest and eccentric in use in the ordinary steam engine, each piston head performing the work of cut-off and plunger. The pistons are attached toa common crank head. 'There are no valves in its construction. When the piston of one of the cylinders is changing the direction of its passage the other two are both at work and no power is lost. It is claimed that the -- engine can make 1,000 revolutions per minute. Mr. Powers has been at work on this novel piece of mechanism twelve years, and has secured patents on it in nearly every country in the world. He will exhibit the engine at the world's fair--HExchange. Personal Mention. Mr. H. M. Hanna of Cleveland is accompanied on his trip south in the yacht Comanche by John F. Pankhurst, E. C. Pechin and Charles Chapin. . J. Jenks, the former partner in the lumber business of George W. Pack and John IL. Woods, Cleveland, died at Sand Beach, Mich., aged eighty-two years. Prof. R. H. Thurston of Cornell University has been made a member of the Advisory Council of Engineering and Marine Architecture, World's Columbian Exposition. Mr. W. D. Kearfott, from Philadelphia, has opened an office at No. 54 Frankfort street, Cleveland, and will hereafter look after the lake business of Henry R. Worthington, New York. A, Ll. Evans, formerly general agent of the Lake Shore Transit Company at St, Paul, has been appointed general agent of the Western Transit Company, with headquarters at Minne- apolis, Mr. Henry Beatty, manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway steamers, running between Owen Sound and Port Arthur, has resigned, and will be succeeded by Mr. Peres, formerly private secretary to President Van Horne. Commander John J. Reed, U.S. N., inspector of the eleventh light-house district with headquarters in Detroit, has been pro- moted to a cabtaincy by the light-house board examining committee. Commander E. IT. Woodward, of the ninth district, Buffalo, stood next to Commander Reed but failed in the physical test. At the end of six months Commander Woodward will be examined again and will be placed on the retired list if he fails then to qualify physically. Mr. Smith, deputy minister of marine of Canada, gives notice that the back range light tower at Corunna, St. Clair river, burnt down in June last, has been replaced by an enclosed wooden tower, square in plan, painted white, 42 feet high from the ground to the top of the lantern, The new tower stands on the site of the old one.