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14 MARINE REVIEW. (November 24, BUSY SHIP YARDS. NO DIMINUTION OF ACTIVITY IN PLACING CONTRACTS--BRIGHT _ PROSPECTS FOR NEW BUSINESS--LATEST NEWS - FROM A HUNDRED YARDS IN ALL PARTS OF AMERICA-- PARTICULARS OF LATELY SIGNED CONTRACTS AND REGARDING THE PROGRESS OF WORK IN HAND. 'Reports to the effect that the Newport News Ship Building \& Dry Dock Co. of Newport News, Va., now has on hand so much work that it was found necessary to decline to accept any further contracts for the con- struction of merchant vessels would seem to 'be di$credited by recent evi- dence that the company is likely to ere long increase the already immense amount of work which it has under contract. The assertion of President C. B. Orcutt, made to a representative of the Marine Review a few days ago, that his firm 1s figuring on some contracts of considerable propor- tions entitles to some degree of credence the rumor that the company will within a few days receive contracts for four and possibly six merchant vessels. The statement that the Newport News company will build for the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. a couple of steamers, each of 10,000 tons displacement and to cost $1,500,000 is again made on the authority it is said, of Mr. Collis P. Huntington, who is the principal stockholder in. both the Newport News company and the Pacific Mail line. Two of the vessels referred to in the rumor are the Cromwell liners, which despite all statements have not as yet been formally awarded to the Newport News company. The remaining two are vessels in contemplation by an Ameri- can line whose name is not made public. The fact that S. Loewe, a di- rector of [the English firm of Vickers Sons & Maxim, had a conference with President McKinley a few days ago and that other directors of the above menitioned company have within a few weeks visited the Newport News plant has ibeen made the basis by Washington correspondents of a story to the effect that ithe British firm contemiplates an alliance of some sort with the Newport News company. 'Tt will be remembered that a story, which differed from this only in detail, was some time ago circu- lated with reference ito the Cramp yard and was vigiorously denied by Mr. Henry Cramp. Work was 'begun last week on the $1,000,000 dry dock at the Newport News yard. It.is estimated that 1,000 men will be em- ployed for 14 months in the construction of this dock. Supt. Hianscombe of the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Me., informs the Review thiat the progress being made on the steel steam yacht building for Col. Oliver H. Payne of New York is all that could be desired and that the she will be ready for delivery by the end of February. The vessel is being built in a steel ship shed, 312 feet long and 50 feet wide. She is completely framed and plated and almost two thirds riveted. The steel interior work together with the stiffening, framing and bulkheads are practically finished and the Mr. Hanscombe expresses the opinion that the hull will 'be the strongest and most rigid of any pleasure craft afloat. Pneumatic tools are being used in the hull work and the hull was practi- cally completed last week. The yacht will be fitted with bilge keels. It is stated that the engines will be the largest yet constructed by the Bath company. The bed plate, cylinders and columns are cast and will soon be erected while the boilers are nearing completion. There are now on the stocks at the Bath yard eight vessels that are to attain speeds varying from 12 to 30 knots; an aggregate of 30,000 horse power and a total valua- tion of $2,500,000. But the Bath Company is still figuring on additional contract's. The tank steamer Atlas, building for the Standard Oil Co. at the Roach yard, Chester, Pa., was launched last week. She iis 264 feet over all, 40 feet beam, 25 feet depth and 18 feet 6 inches draught. 'She has twelve tanks with a capacity of 720,000 gallons of oil. The vessel his triple ex- pansion surface considering engines with cylinders 21, 36 and 56 inches by 42-inch stroke, and steam will be supplied from two steel boilers at a working pressure of 180 pounds. The vessel, which was designed by Naval Architect John Haug of Philadelphia, will be supplied with the American Ship Windlass Co.'s windlass and capstans, a Williamson steam steering engine and Baldt anchors. The Atlas is built more substantially than some of the war vessels. The rivets and seams throughout were driven.until they were cold and then calked in all parts of the hull. The water and loil tanks were tested with hydraulic pressure and if the smallest kind of a leak developed the rivet was drawn and a new one subsituted. The new vessel is thoroughly water and oil tight. The W. & A. Fletcher Co., Hoboken, N. J., have contracted to build for the Albany & Troy Steamboat Co., a steamer 130 feet keel, 42 feet beam and 7 feet depth of hold to replace the steamer William M. Whitney on the upper Hudson river. The hull will be built by William H. Baldwin, New Baltimore, N. Y. The side wheel steamer which the Fletcher company has contracted to build for the Old Dominion line will be under way ina short time. The hull will be built by T. S. Marvel & Co. Newburgh, N. Y.; William Rowland will do the joiner work, and the Fletcher people will, of course, furnish the engines. The new steam yacht Corsair, under construction at 'Marvel & Co.'s yard for J. Pierpont Morgan, will be launched the first week in December, and will immediately to towed to the yard of the Fletcher company 'at Hioboken in order that her engines may be placed aboard. ~ The marine department of the Maryland Steel Co., Sparrows Point, Md., 'has been awarded ithe contract for a 23 knot vessel for the New York & New Haven Steamship 'Co. for service between the ports named. She - will be 325 feet in length with a tonnage of 6,000 to 7,000. Work will begin at onice. The Maryland company thas of course, the contract for three torpedo boat destroyers for the U. S: government, and negotiations have just been concluded whereby they will construct.for the Baker-Whiteley 'Coal Co., a steel tug, the Brittania, 125 feet over all, 244 feet beam and 14 feet depth with triple expansion engines having cylinders of 12%, 23%, and 39 inches by 28 inch stroke, to develop 800 horse power. The tug will be fitted with steam steering gear and capstans and an electric light- ing plant. : ace is being pushed on the contracts on thand at the yard of the Harlan & Hollingsworth Co., Wilmington, Del. The Kershaw, building for the Merchants' & Miners' Transportation Co., Baltimore, Md., is in frame and the keel has been laid for the Nanitucket, her sistsership. New ways are being constructed for the Porto Rican steamer to be built for Miller, Bull"& Knowlton, Hanover Square Building, New York. Among improvements in the equipment recently undertaken at the Harlan & Hollingsworth plant is the enlargement of the electric crane, enabling an arrangement of the supports so that a clear space will be left beneath the structure for use as a passage. : At the bureau of yards ana docks, navy department, Washington, D. C., bids will be opened on Saturday for furnishing to the New York navy yard three boilers, set two in one battery and one separate, so that another may be added at any time. There will be also one feed water heater and two feed pumps. Each boiler to be not less than 200 nominal horse power, to have not less than 2,000 square feet of heating surface and 40. square feet of grate surface, to be of the inclined water tube type and designed for a working pressure of 150 pounds. Bids will be opened at the bureau of yards and docks, navy depart- ment, Washington, D. C., on Saturday for furnishing to the Boston navy yard two boilers set in one battery, one feed water heater, one pump, etc, Each boiler will have an evaporative capacity of 6,900 pounds of water per hour and be designed for a working pressure of 150 pounds. There is to be furnished installed and connected up a double-acting feed pump oi sufficient power to supply four 290 horse power boilers and also one feed water 'heater of 800 horse power capacity. Bids for the construction of the proposed dry dock at the Boston Navy Yard will be publicly invited in a few weeks. The dock will be located parrallel with the present granite dry 'dock, and distant about 300 feet. It will be constructed of granite or concrete faced with granite. Its dimensions will be: Length, 750 feet; width on the floor, 80 feet; width at top, 114 feet; width at entrance, 95 feet; depth at floor, 40: feet; draught of water on the sill, 30 feet. The contract for the dock will be let in one sum for ithe entire work, complete. ; 'Press dispatches state that the Neafie & Levy Co., Philadelphia, has in prospect a contract for the construction of two fast vessels for a new daily steamship line between Providence and New York, a project by re- garding which there has been considerable gossip of late. According to report the planis which lhave been drawn contemplate twin screw vessels 200 feet long, 40 feet beam, 16 feet depth, with a carrying capacity of 1,000 tons of freight and 200 passengers and a speed of 20 knots. E. J. Codd 'Co., Baltimore, Md., has just contracted to build two ves- sels. One isa fish steamer for Reed & Edwards, Reedville, Northampton county, Va., and will be 112 feet long, 19 feet beam, 8 feet 6 inches depth, with engines of steeple compound type and a Scotch boiler. Hoisting engine, windlass and capstan are to be provided. The other contract is for a steam dredge for the Baltimore Dredging Co. The Codd company will build all machinery for these vessels. The navy department has practically decided to make the contemplated changes in the designs for the four monitors of the Arkansas class, for which contracts were recently let to Lewis Nixon, the Bath Iron Works, the Newport News Co. and the Union Iron Works, San Francisco. The alterations will increase the displacement from 2,700 to 4,000 tons; coal capacity from 200 to 490 tons; horse power from 2,400 to 3,200, and draught from 12 feet 6 inches to 14 feet 6 inches. The Japanese cruiser Chitose, building by the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, had steam up in her donkey boiler last week and her dynamo and auxiliary machinery was tested. She will go into dry dock to 'be painited and have her propeller wheels placed in position, and it is expected that she will be ready for her trial trip by Dec. 1. The ferry boat Brerkeley--largest in the world--recently completed by the Union Iron Works had a very successful trial trip a few days since. The Gas Engine & Power Co. and Seabury & Co., consolidated, Mor- ris Heights, N. Y., has made remarkable progress on the torpedo boat Bailey. 'Members of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine En- gineers, who visited the ship yard during the recent New York meeting, were surprised to find the plating of the vessel all but completed. The boat could be launched almost any time 'but in all probability will not gio into ithe water until January. 'She is 205 feet over all and 19 feet beam. At the Cramp yard, Philadelphia, high water mark thas been reached in the number of men employed, there being on the payroll at the present time 5,124 men, with a prospect that they will be given steady employment for two years. (The battleship Alabama is 70 per cent completed. Her engines are in place but the armor has not yet been received. The steamer Olivette is niow at the Cramp yard for conversion into a troopship. 'Three vessels building on the Pacific coast are for the Honululu trade. Four-masted schooners being built at Eureka by H. D. Bendix- sen and at Alameda by Hay & Wright are each 104 feet long, 37 feet beam and 18 feet deep, and a four-masted barkentine, also being built at Eureka, and which has not yet been named, will be 191 feet over all, 39 feet beam and 16 feet deep. Hind, Rolph & Co. will own the fleet. Specifications for the 40-ton locomotive jib crane for the Port Royal naval station provide that the crane is to have a working capacity of 40 gross ttons at a radius of 76 feet, measured from the center of the track. The reach is to be variable for a distance of not less than 15 feet within the extreme of 76 feet, and the maximum speed is not to be less than 50 feet per minute. Additional interest is added. to the rumor recently circulated to the effect that the Cramp Company, Philadelphia, may build four steamers fox the United Steamship Co. of Copenhagen, by the report of Ambassador Hitchcock at St. Petersburg that the above company, which also recently purchased the Thingvalla line, is 'to establish a direct line between Russia and the United States. _ Dhie Hyde Windlass Co., Bath, Me., is so crowded with orders that a night force is being operated in many departments. The Hyde company has the contract for equipping almost all the vessels naw building: in the Cramp yard, at Philadelphia, including the United States battheships Ala- bama and Maine, the Russian battleship and cruiser, and the two Ward line steamers.