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1899.) MARINE REVIEW. i3 OUR NEWEST NAVAL VESSELS. DECISION UF THE NAVAL BOARD OF CONSTRUCTION AS TO ARMAMENT FOR THE THREE SPANISH GUNBOATS RAISED AT MANILLA. It is announced that the naval board of construction has, upon the recommendation of Admiral Dewey, decided to retain permanently the names Don Juan de Austria, Isla de Cuba and Isla de Luzon, originally held by the three Spanish gunboats captured at Manilla. These vessels. which were sunk at the battle of Manilla, were subsequently raised by Naval Constructor Capps and have since been rebuilt. In the matter of armament the naval board has recommended that the Don Juan de Austria have four 5-inch guns, four 6-pounders and four Colt automatic guns, and that the Cuba and Luzon each have four 4-inch guns, four 6-pounders and four Colt automatic guns. The guns will be shipped to San Francisco in April. The work of raising these vessels has presented some very interest- ing enginering problems. Work on the Cuba, the first of the vessels upon which operations were undertaken, was begun Oct. 29 by the Hong Kong Dock Co. which had agreed for $800,000 silver to raise the three vessels. Three centrifugal pumps of 6, 9 and 12 inches respectively were employed, one to drain the forward part of the deck, one the engine room and one the afterpart. The conditions were such that it was possible to operate the pumps only at low tide. The fact that the vessel had settled into a bed of mud added to the difficulty of the problem, and several failures preceded the successful attempt to raise her. In the first instance all three pumps were set to work, but although a buoyancy of 1,400 tons was given the vessel she did not move. The plan which eventually proved successful was to work only the after pumps, while the forward one stood idle. With the after compartments thus cleared, the vessel was given a buoyancy at the stern, which caused her to rise grad- ually. Then additional problems presented themselves in quick succes- sion, due among other things to the fact that several compartments were 'not reached by the ship's drains. The smaller bunkers and the boilers were full of water. After being floated, the vessel on two occasions went clear to the bottom again, and several times in addition she was raised part way and then settled back. Each time the difficulty came from the fact that the vessel would sink into a mud berth, from which she could only be res- cued by the most tedious process. After she had been dragged as far as possible, the gunboat was allowed to settle and make a new berth for herself, from which she was in turn raised and dragged a little distance further before she would again fill. Eventually the vessel was brought to deep water. The line of operations followed in the case of the Luzon was very sim- ilar to that of the Cuba, save that the problem as complicated by the fact that in sinking she had backed into a submerged wreck. Her propellers had become fouled and one blade was broken and four badly bent before she could be gotten clear. The work on the Austria was facilitated con- siderably by reason of the fact that the drainage system on that vessel is vastly superior to that of the other gunboats. The condition of the vessels was really much better than could have been anticipated. The fires set by the American shells of course burned them all out aft, and in the case of the Austria the fire had gone well forward. Fortunately the engines were found in admirable condition, everything considered. They had been heavily coated with oil when the ships went down, and upon this a deposit of mud formed, the two constituting a very satisfac- tory protection. The Cuba and Luzon are English-built, steel, twin- screw vessels of 1,300 tons. The Austria was built in Spain. FINE NEW RIVER STEAMER. The new Pittsburg and Louisville side-wheel steamer City of Pitts- burg is now nearing completion at Marietta, O. The vessel, which is the largest and finest craft built on the upper Ohio river in some years, is 300 feet in length, 79% feet beam and 6% feet depth of hull. The cylinder diameter of engine is.26%4 inches and the stroke 10 feet. Steam will be supplied from three Scotch boilers. The appointments of the vessel are most elegant, including electric bells, bath rooms, barber shop, etc. The capacity will be about 175 passengers and 1,500 tons of freight. The City of Pittsburg is owned by Capt. John M. Phillips of Pittsburg and Capt. Dana Scott of Zanesville, O. Her first trip will be from Pittsburg to New Orleans. G Important improvements projected by the Great Northern Ry. Co. are reported from the head of Lake Superior. The lease of the coal dock now occupied by the Ohio Coal Co. on the Wisconsin side of the bay at West Superior expires on May 1, and the dock will from that date be occupied by the Great Northern for its fuel business. The Ohio Coal Co. will continue business from its dock on the Duluth side of the bay and will possibly arrange with the Great Northern company with refer- ence to the hoists and machinery left on the dock. It is also announced that the contract for building the foundation of a new 3,000,000-bushel steel grain elevator at Superior has been let. Its location will be on the site of No. 1 coal dock, now occupied by the Northwestern Fuel Co. The elevator will be modeled after the ones in Buffalo, but 500,000 bush- els larger. The excavation for the foundation will require the removal of 70,000 cubic yards of material and the driving of 30,000 piles. Leading men of the engineering profession in the United States, and especially those of the navy, appreciate very much the writings of Rud- yard Kipling along engineering lines. If it were not for Mr. Kipling's illness, arrangements would very probably have been made for a dinner in his honor. at the Engineers' Club, New York. The dinner was sug- gested a short time ago by Engineer-in-Chief Geo. W. Melville of the United States navy, and was immediately taken up by the club. Fuel trials are still in progress on the British torpedo boat Surly. Patent fuel is the latest tried. It gave less heat than the oil fuel but also less smoke. The black smoke produced is, at present, the most serious objection to the oil fuel. STEAM PUMP CONSOLIDATION. It is the general impression that very little change will be made in the conduct of the steam pump business by the formation of the combi- nation that is to be known officially as the International Steam Pump Co., and whose capital of $27,500,000 will be divided into 125,000 shares of 6 per cent cumulative preferred stock and 150,000 shares of common stock. It is now stated that the companies participating in the consolida- tion are Henry R. Worthington, Blake & Knowles Steam Pump Works, Limited, Deane Steam Pump Works, Snow Steam Pump Works and Laidlaw-Dunn-Gordon Co., the concerns mentioned transacting, it is claimed, fully 90 per cent of the pump business of the Unite. States. All plants will continue to operate individually. Branch offices will be con- tinued, and about the only immediate perceptible effect is likely to be found in the elimination, to a certain extent, of competition, owing to the establishment of unitorm price lists. The directors will be Charles C. worthington of the Henry R. Worthington corporation, Max Nathan of the George F. Blake Mnfg. Co., Charles L. Broadbent, vice president of the Blake company, Lewis E. Fellows of the Deane company, John G. Mackintosh of the Deane company, Robert Laidlaw and John W. Gunn of the Laidlaw-Dunn- Gordon Co., Danied O'Day of the Snow Steam Pump Works, James H. Snow, Philip Lehman of Boston, and Edward F. C. Young of New York City. The assets of Henry R. Worthington are estimated at $6,145,355, and the net profits for 1898-99, based on ten months business, at $550,000; Blake & Knowles works assets $3,178,000, with net profits at the rate of $425,000; Deane Steam Pump Works $1,155,000 assets, with net earnings at $111,973; Laidlaw-Dunn-Gordon Co. $800,000, with profits at $70,000; and the Snow Steam Pump Works $700,000, with profits at $55,000: It will be seen that the aggregate profit for the five concerns based on ten months of 1898, and as above stated, is over $1,200,000, which it is claimed will prove sufficient to pay the preferred dividend and allow 8 per cent on the common stock. The control of the companies is taken over free from debt with assets valued at $12,000,000. Of this $4,700,000 is in cash mer- chandise and accounts and will furnish ample working capital for the new organization. ; Reservation from the authorized capital.of a requisite amount of pre- ferred stock will be made to provide for the retirement of $2,000,000 7 per cent cumulative preference shares of Henry R. Worthington and $1,150,000 6 per cent debentures and $500,000 8 per cent preference shares of the Blake & Knowles company. An amount of common stock to facilitate the retirement of these outstanding securities will also be de- posited. It is proposed to retire these securities by the sale or exchange of the preferred and common stock of the new company. In regard to the estimated savings through consolidation, the pros- pectus says: 'Each of the five companies now maintain agencies in the principal cities of the United States. The Worthington and Blake com- panies have stores and carry stocks in London, Paris, Hamburg, Vienna and other cities. Some of them have expensive salaried managers. - All these. agencies in this and other countries will be consolidated; the stores and agencies maintained in the cities of this country and the forces. of clerks, salesmen, etc., necessary. to conduct them will be united and de- creased, involving an estimated saving of at least $500,000 per year. The expenses of each company for their arafting department, incident to the elaborate drawings and specifications for estimating on work, when united will bring about a further reduction. The standardizing of the patterns for foreign and domestic work, which is now under way in the Worthington factory, when applied to the entire business of the new company will result in an estimated saving of at least $200,000 per year. A conservative estimate of the advantages derived from consolidation is believed to be $1,800,000 over the present earnings, which would make a total of future net earnings, with the estimated earnings based on ten months of the year's business, of $2,500,000, or 6 per cent on the pre- ferred stock and over 11 per cent on the common stock of the new com- pany." NEW PLANT OF THE MCLELLAN DOCK co. New Orleans, La., March 21.--Ship owners having vessels plying to southern ports will be glad to learn that rapid progress is being made in the work of reconstructing the sectional dock originally built for the United States government at Pensacola, Florida, and recently purchased by the McLellan: Dock Co. of New Orleans, La. This steel dock, con- sisting of four sections when completed, will have a length of about 300 feet on keel blocks, a draft of 27 feet and a liiting capacity of 350 tons dead weight-- equivalent of a 4,000-ton ship. The pumps, engines and machinery are all of modern construction, capable of lifting and operating a dock 400 feet long. ; The McLellan Dock Co., although already owning and operating two dry docks in Algiers, La., (the Ocean and Marine, the former with a lift- ing capacity of 1,000 tons, the latter of 1,300 tons) in order to meet the demand for increased docking facilities for vessels of large tonnage and deeper draught, found it necessary to secure this larger dock and to move its plant from Algiers to a point some two miles further down the Miss- issippi river, where a straighter current, safer water, and more extensive and convenient batture privileges could be secured. There--at McLellan- ville--the company 'has a clear frontage of nearly three-quarters of a mile, on which it has located its entire plant and has erected wharves, sheds, shops, offices and all the essentials of a modern ship and dock yard. With ample water front for all possible requirements of its business, with derrick boat, large floating fire and wrecking pump, end dock designed for the use of such large vessels as may not wish to go into dock, and with the completion of its steel dock, the McLellan company can supply all the facilities demanded by the increased importance of New Orleans as a port and the greater draught and carrying capacity of modern ships. Should future conditions warrant it, a fifth section may easily and quickly be added to their steel dock, thus making it possible to raise battleships and vessels of the largest size and weight. \ Rear Admiral Hichborn, chief constructor of the United States navy, has recommended that the $100,000 worth of repairs which will be neces- sary on the cruiser Raleigh, now enroute home from Manilla, be made at the Portsmouth navy yard.