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1899. MARINE REVIEW. e be no Republicans, Democrats or Populists. Broad as is our country it has, at such a time, no standing room for any class of people other than patriotic Americans. The determination of a national policy under which our ship building industries and our merchant marine may be created and sustained has direct relation to a necessary state of pre- paredness to resist any attack that may be made upon us. The prepara- tion for national defense is as truly a patriotic and non-partisan work as is the defense of the nation when a state of war actually exists. Let us all, therefore, legislators and people, recognize the character of the great question with which we have to deal, and let us strive to clearly comprehend the absolute need, in preparing for the defense of our national honor whenever and however it may be assailed, for the existence of a vigorous merchant marine on the oceans and of prosperous ship building industries to create and maintain such a marine. hen we secure the vessels there still remains the question as to their profitable employment, and here we meet with a practical question demanding the highest order of statesmanship on the part of our national legislators. The law of competition is well understood and of universal application. It is the law of the survival of the fittest when pursued to its natural and ultimate result. If the American people want a merchant marine upon the oceans they must see to it, as a nation needing such a marine, that the conditions are created and continued essential to success. We may be violently, and justly, opposed on theory to subsidies, bounties or any aid by the nation to its merchant marine, but while we theorize our foreign rivals absorb our trade and our merchant marine passes out of existence. If this is a matter of indifference to us as a people then there is nothing more to say about it, but if, on the contrary, we see that the extension of our foreign markets and, above all, our prepara- tion for national defense, demand the existence of a merchant marine, then as a practical people we will relegate our theories to the back SHIP BUILDING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. Ship building returns for Great Britain and Ireland, which have just been compiled for the year 1898, evidence the correctness of the anticipa- tion that the aggregate for the year would exceed the showing for any previous similar period. Following is a summary of launches from private yards for 1898, as compared with previous years: Launched in 1898, 923 vessels of 1,581,998 tons; in 1897, 635 v 1,016,066 tons; in 1896, 743 vessels of 1,257,339 tons; in 1895, 630 yee es 1,028,708 tons; in 1894, 637 vessels of 1,052,779 tons; in 1893, 545 vessels of 849,881 tons in 1892, 702 vessels of 1,210,657 tons. In addition to the above nine war ships were launched from the government dock yards, the six previous years totals being also given: 1898, 9 war ships of 73,090 tons displacement; 1897, 4 warships, 31,885 tons; 1896, 9 war ships, 71,970 tons; 1895, 8 war ships, 70,350 tons; 1894, 8 war ships, 26,700 tons; 1893 9 war ships, 32,400 tons; 1892, 9 war ships, 60,450 tons. Following is a list of the marine engineering firms whose output for the year exceeded 30.000 indicated horse power: Hosaecennn R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie & Co., Newcastle..................... 75,400 Fairfield Ship Building Co., Govan.........ssecseececseeeee [a 74,300 Clydebank Engineering: Go nan: sc. anes eee eee eee 72,300 Wallsend Slipway Cots. iuirdc s3.5u eee ae eee eee 68,110 Earle's' Ship Buldiinies Con, lel erence pees ete ee 48,550 Central Marine Engine Works, West Hartlepool................. 47,300 North-Bastern Marine Engineering: ©o...).25es. 3 ee eee 40,875 Vickers;, Sonse ca Viaxcitnigpls atst@ wreciae sires tetanus ena ener 35,700 Harland & Wolff, Belfast...... bio! hub Tk ee tee nities 88,350 Workman-« Glan G21Gorsb elitastesere ci cine iene eenliek 32,020 Sir -C... Furness; .Weestgarthe& Cot. oas7.ciasoe ry eee eee ere 39,172 Denny) & Cor, Dumbartonk cee eeee eerie Yoana Otten eee 30,120 Inboard and Deck Plans of the Oil Barge now under Construction at the Yard of the American Steel Barge Co., West Superior, Wis. ground and we wili deal with conditions as we find them. We will say that we are strong enough and rich enough as a nation to have what we want, and that wanting a merchant marine we intend to have it. We well know from the alarming decline in our shipping that has taken place during the last thirty or forty years, and from the absolute impossibility of inducing American capital to invest in ocean vessels under existing conditions that there is something to be looked after. Under liberal policies in the matter of bounties, subsidies or compensation under some other name or designation, our foreign rivals have encouraged their people to take possession of the oceans, until today a ship bearing the American flag is a curiosity upon the oceans and in the foreign markets of the world. There are just two courses open to us as a nation. One is to allow matters to take care of themselves, as we have done for many years past, and if our flag and our merchant vessels disappear entirely from the oceans, let them go. The other course is to claim and take that share of the ocean carrying trade which is our just due, and submit to any sacrifice of theories, however hallowed they may be by old associa- tion, that may result. Shall we be driven from the oceans and depend entirely upon foreign nations to carry our products to market, making no provision for the ships or men we will need, either in our foreign trade or for the national defense in time of war? Or shall we enter upon an aggressive campaign to recover some of our lost ground, building in American ship yards and sustaining an American merchant marine upon the oceans that will carry our flag with honor to all the ports of the world and meet all calls upon it, whether for peace or war? Which shall be the policy of the nation? Make your will known to your rep- resentatives in your national legislature. Only a few years ago manufacturers of tools gave little attention to advertising further than the publication of catalogues. Now they are all studying advertising methods, and their expenditures in this line are care- fully placed. The Standard Tool Co. of Cleveland, recently issued a cal- endar--not of the stock kind, but one that contains catalogue features and handy tables that will result in its being preserved by users of tools made by the Standard company. The firm of William H. Birch & Co. of 129-135 First street, San Fran- cisco, is busy on the Nunivak, which they are constructing for the United States government. ANOTHER CONTRACT FOR THE ROACH YARD. A contract was closed by the Roach company a few days ago with John Englis of New York for a steel passenger and freight steamer for the New England coast service. She will be 320 feet over all, 300 feet between perpendiculars, 50 feet molded beam, 62 feet over guards and 20 feet depth. This vessel will carry 500 tons of freight and 100 tons of coal on a draught of 14 feet, and make 16 miles. There will be accommoda- tions for 400 passengers, there being over 200 separate staterooms. A triple expansion engine developing 2,500 horse power will drive a steel propeller 14 feet 6 inches in diameter. Steam will be supplied by six Scotch boilers, working at a pressure of 170 pounds. The contract calls for the completion of the vessel by Oct. 1, 1899. The record of the Roach yard has been a remarkable one. It has built since its establishment in 1872 a total of about 140 merchant vessels, of an aggregate of 260,000 tons, and ten naval vessels aggregating 19,618 tons, a total of 150 vessels with a tonnage approaching 280,000. John B. Roach, the president, was born in New York City in 1839, went to Chester in 1871, and after the death of his father in 1887 was elected to the presi- dency. The credit for the capable management of the yard is shared by Mr. Roach's energetic co-worker, Mr. W. C. Sproul, vice-president of the company. The Rescue, the largest wrecking tug in the world, building for the Merritt-Chapman Wrecking Co. of New York, was launched recently at Brown's ship yard, Tottenville, S. I., N. Y. She is 170 feet lorig, 31 feet beam, 17 depth of hold, and fitted with triple expansion engines develop- ing 1,400 horse power. The vessel, which will cost when completed $100,000, will be fitted with the latest wrecking apparatus, including a fine equipment of Blake pumps. ; A large portion of the workmen at the Harlan & Hollingsworth Co.'s yard, Wilmington, Del., are now working overtime, and it is quite possible that a regular arrangement will ere long be entered into to oper- ate the plant day and night. A recent report is to the effect that the Maryland Steel Co., Sparrow's Point. Md., is preparing estimates for a 400-foot steamer for the Plant line, for service between Tampa and West Indian ports.