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12 | MARINE REVIEW. Tips from the Man on the Dock. How modern inventions are destroying sentiment. The. other day. I noticed a new contrivance which was to succeed the good, old, trusty anchor, the emblem of hope. It was a trian- gular. piece of iron and not unlike the triangle used to keep pool- balls in position on a pool table. Imagine how the classic figure of hope would look with this triangle alongside her starboard side. 'To have her costume correspond with the new contrivance, she should carry a parasol over her bare head and wear rubbers instead of sandals. We will have to require a new set of jokes to fit this piece of mechanism, and the following anchor story would be a misfit and out of place: An Irishman, coming over toa country where his great executive ability would be properly ap- preciated, found on the forward part of the ship he was on, a num- ber of large anchors that had not yet been fitted with wooden stocks. He looked them over carefully, and ina careless way tried to lift one. Asa true Irishman he scorned to ask any fool- ish question, contenting himself by asking a member of the crew 'Where be thim agoiu?" 'Io New York", was the answer. When the vessel arrived, Mike with his bag, took a place along- side the anchors. After everybody had gone ashore, the mate accosted him with "Are you not going ashore?" "Not yit", was theanswer. " What are you waiting for?" "Well,sur, ?m waitin fur to see the man that handles thim picks." He wasa WMGperOn picksr 7 ACNE 2 : Tet me return to my observations about mates and masters. - While it is true that the mate without intelligence and horse sense tnay do well enough under the eye of the "old man", who will correct him when he slips a cog, and that the same mate will not make a successful master, still it by no means follows that all masters are the reverse of this. Now the barometer is a thing that -every school boy understands the principle of. It is simply a scale, or weighing instrument, which indicates the weight of the atmosphere, and observation having taught us that certain meteoric conditions are apt to follow its fluctuations, it has, as'a result, founda place in every chart room, simply that by noting its changing conditions the observer may make his own deduc- _ tions as to what is likely to tollow. Now I know a skipper who stands: today on the bridge of one of the very finest steamers afloat. He and I and several others sat one evening in a certain hotel, and during the conversation I said something about the varying weight of the atmosphere as shown by the barometer. 'Why,' said the skipper, "the barometer ain't to tell the weight of the atmosphere; it tellsapproachin' storms." Here was your navigator for you. And the oddest part of it was that if Torri-' celli had attempted it he could hot have convinced him to the- contrary. Some men haveatalent for concealing their ignorance, - others for exhibiting it. Another instance of the latter was a= captain who was so full of his boat and himself, that, not content with bragging his end all it would stand and a little more, he descended, figuratively, to the engine room and threw a little red fire around that department. Saidhe: "That boat has the best air-pump I ever seen. I see her with forty pounds of vackum on, laying to the dock." And now how many of you can show where he was out? Another thing that is very fatiguing this hot weather is such an item as that from Chicago giving the skipper of the Manitou credit for making up nine hours between Chicago and Mackinaw. In the first place, admitting it to be true, what the devil did the skipper have to do withit. Put the boot on the right foot gen- tlemen. and say that the engineer did it. And in the next place "it ain't so,' evenif we did see it in the REviIEW. Just get down to figures for a minute or two and see where you fetch up. Nine hours is going it too blooming strong. A Phenominally Fast Launch. Fi-Seen, or flying arrow in the Japanese language, is the name given to the latest high-speed launch built by Gardner & Mosher, No. 1 Broadway, N. Y. She is intended solely for speed and will certainly make 30 miles an hour. In describing this boat, the Engineer of New York says: '"Those who are not familiar with actual high-speed launches, as distinguished from alleged high-speed, or spurt-boats, so to call them, will be interested in a few facts concerning them. 'The Fi-Seen is 78 feet long by 9 feet 6 inches beam, that is she is about nine times as long as she is wide. 'This gives her good stability for a vessel of her size, for there are many steam craft afloat which are ten, and a few even eleven times as long as they are wide. She isbuilt of mahogany upon adequate frames, albeit they sound light to the reader. These frames are 134 x 2 inches and are spaced about 8 inches. from centers. The hull consists of two thicknesses of light planking with cemented canvas be- tween them, and is absolutely water-tight without other aid than _ the copper fastenings. The model is peculiar in that it resem- _ bles a barrel in midship section as nearly as any other form; there is no keel, and the bow lines are all straight, (and very handsome they make the Fi-Seen look in the water) while 'the stern is of peculiar construction. This begins at the extreme stern and extends forward tosay 20 feet, where the screw-shaft emerges from the hull. This method of construction prevents squatting, so-called, or burying at the stern, a fault common to all high-speed vessels of light draught, and also prevents the car- rying (to some extent) of the water of replacement, for the hull rides on top of it instead of dragging it along with her. The wave of replacement is the water which has been driven aside at the bow and closes in at the stern ofa vessel. In some high- speed torpedo boats this wave stands, or stood on the trial runs, 3 and 4 feet above the stern and threatened to come on board momentarily. 'The stem of the Fi-Seen is covered with a bronze shoe which is brought to an actual knife edge, and a brass rail is carried all round her from stem to stern, giving the vessel a beautiful appearance. 'The boat has no sheer and nothing above deck except a roomy pilot house anda slight trunk over the boiler a few inches high. There are limited quarters aft and also forward. 'The draught is 3 feet. | "Naturally the interest of this boat to engineers and yacht owners centers upon the machinery, as it well may, for it is unique even for its kind. High-speed marine engines are quite common, and Mr. Mosher does not profess to be the originator of them, but he has been very successful with them, and this success has been obtained by courage tempered by common sense. The engines are of the quadruple type, with.cylinders 9%, 13%, 18 and 24 inches by ro inches stroke, and the boiler is Mosher's patent water-tube marine boiler. All told, the weights are for engine and boiler inside of 9,000 pounds. When we say that the engine is capable of exerting 609 indicated horse power per hour and weighs only 3,600 pounds, we have stated extraordinary _ facts. 'This, it will be seen, is only six pounds per horse power exerted, dead weight of engine and all that is on the bed-plate, and is undoubtedly the lightest marine engine so far constructed | for actual use in propelling a vessel. The valve gear is of the Marshall radial type, with some modifications introduced by Mr. Mosher, and the working parts, piston, crank-shaft, in fact every- thing, is forged steel of a high tensile strength; not tool steel be. it observed, but machinery grade. The crosshead and guide bar are of the slipper pattern, the former being of bronze witha babbited face. The piston rod, connecting rod and crank-shaft are all bored out; reducing the weights materially. Externally the piston rods are perhaps 134 inches diameter, but the removal of the center takes off part of the weight. The connecting rod end onthe crank pin has a peculiar box which no one else but Mr. Mosher ever used. A watermelon with the stem coming out of the side instead of the usual place represents it as well as any familiar object can. This bearing is very long and there is only one bolt through the halves of the boxes, one of which is forged solid on the rod itself. It isone of the teatures of this en- _ gine that everything is as solid and with as few artificial fasten- ings as possible. Naturally, with a piston and connecting rod vibrating 1,200 times a minute-- as these do at high speed-- there must be as few loose parts as there can be, and Mr. Mosher _has brought them down to their lowest terms. All the valve!" motion joints are bushed with bronze, and every refinement of the best engineering practice has been introduced throughout. "The boiler has 1,200 feet more or less heating surface, and 33 Square feet grate surface. It has shown by an evaporative test, conducted by Prof. James EK. Denton, professor of engineer- ing at Stevens Institute, over 600 horse power per hour with forced draught or very nearly 20 horse power per square foot of grate surface. 'The working pressure is 275 pounds per square inch, with capacity to go much higher than this if needed. 'The coal capacity of the launch is 3 tons, which is carried in bunkers alongside. The screw is 36 inches diameter with four blades, and is necessarily in solid water, since it is under the boat. 'The pitch is not given to the public by Mr. Mosher." The American Shipmasters' Association of No. 37 William street, New York, publishers of the Record of American and Foreign Shipping, classed last week the American bark Magun- ticoot, British schooner Golden Rule, British barkentine Curacoa and British half-brig Moss Glen.