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1899. ] MARINE REVIEW. : 19 SHIP YARD NEWS. ACTIVITY IN ALL YARDS AT ITS HEIGHT AS THE YEAR CLOSES. Attention in ship building circles has been especially directed of late to progress made by the Merrill-Stevens tngineering Co. of Jack- sonville, Fla. This firm is just completing in the handsome steamer H. B. Plant the fiftieth vessel which has been turned out from its yard. A force of more than one hundred men is now employed regularly, and contracts have recently been placed for an equipment of pneumatic tools and new machinery. There is also being constructed a new marine railway which is double the capacity of the former marine railway. It will be operated by electricity instead of steam. The Merrill-Stevens company has a heavy run of repair work, among contracts recently com- pleted being one for the remodeling of Pierre Lorrilard's famous house- boat, the Caiman. Officials of the Union Dry Dock Co., Buffalo, N. Y., report the outlook as promising for an exceedingly busy season. Among work in hand, in addition to a large volume of repairs, is the steel steamer (dupli- cate of the Buffalo) for which a contract was recently closed with the Lehigh Transportation Co., a fire boat for the city of Buffalo and four drill boats for the contracting firm of Dunbar & Sullivan of Buffalo. The force of workmen will shortly be increased to 700, which will repre- sent the size of the force during the winter. The drill boats will be entirely of steel, 50 feet long, 16 feet beam and 5 feet depth. The Wm. Cramp & Sons Co. has just taken another step in the equipment of its yard on a more extended scale, as noted from time to time in the Review, by placing contracts for a considerable quantity Business is in a very satisfactory condition at the yard of the New Jersey Dry Dock & Transportation Co. at Elizabethport, N. J., accord- ing to reports just received from the office of that concern. Within a iew weeks there have been launched three large harbor barges, building lor the Pennsylvania railroad company. Among recent repair work was that on the Holland submarine boat, which went into dry dock previous to starting for Washington, Lewis Nixon, proprietor of the Crescent Ship Yard, Elizabethport, Neale as understood to be endeavoring to purchase more water front property, in order to enlarge his plant. It is said that there is enough work on hand to keep the yard in operation for fully three years, and that if more land cannot be secured at once it will be necessary to carry on operations night and day. ; Charles Ryan of Oshkosh, Wis., is building two steamers for the engineer corps, war department. One is the Fox, a side-wheeler 112 feet over all, built especially for service in shallow water, and the other is the Wolf, 85 feet long, also a side-wheeler and built upon very much the same lines as the Fox. The Merchants Towing Co. has been organized at Portland, Me., for the purpose of operating towboats, barges and other craft. The capital stock is fixed at $300,000 and the officers are: President, S. W. Kilbut of Providence, R. I.; treasurer, A. P. Weeden of Providence, R. I. Work on the three-masted schooner building at Brooks' ship yard, East Boston, Mass., for R. R. Freeman and others of Boston is progress- THE UNITED STATES REVENUE CUTTER MANNING--CREDITABLE SERVICE DURING THE SPANISH WAR HAS RESULTED IN HER ASSIGNMENT 10 IMPORTANT DUTINS, of pneumatic tools. Compressed air has been used on quite a large scale at the Cramp works for some time past, but contracts have now been placed with the Rand Drill Co. for an air compressor of 5,000 cubic feet capacity, and with the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co. for thirty shell riveters, 120 chip and riveting hammers, ten deck riveters, seventy-five drills and a number of special tools. ; A report which appears to be well founded is to the effect that Flint, Eddy & Co. of 30 Broad street, New York city, will build a fleet of five steamers for service in the Brazilian trade. According to the report, each vessel will be of about 4,000 tons register and have a carrying ca- pacity of 6,000 tons dead weight. The speed of the vessels will be 12 knots. Although designed primarily as freight carriers, there will be limited cabin and steerage accommodations, and the time limit for the completion of the five boats is placed not later than Jan. fee S Oils Another Oriental steamship line is projected by American manu- facturing and commission houses engaged in the East Indian, Chinese and Japanese trade, who are dissatisfied with the freight rates at present charged. It is proposed to subscribe $1,500,000 for an enterprise similar to the China Mutual Steamship Co., which was the outgrowth of similar conditions in London some years ago. Four steamers of about 8,000 tons each will be constructed, it is said, in American yards. The steam yacht Virginia passed successfully through her speed trial Thursday, Dec. 14. She proved an ideal sea boat, comfortable, staunch and fast. Under natural draft she is a good 12-knot boat, but with forced draft she can steam at a 14-knot gait. The Virginia was built by the Bath Iron Works, and is a very handsome, well-appointed vessel. She will leave New York early in January with her owner, Isaac Stern, on board, for the Mediterranean. ing rapidly. The vessel, which will be named Future, is 185 feet over all, 156 feet keel, and will have a carrying capacity of 1,100 tons of coal. Longfellow & Harper, who are acting as representatives of McKay & Dix of New York City in the operation of a ship yard at Machias, Me., have received word from the latter firm that they have decided to build two vessels instead of one at the Maine yard next year. Kelley, Spear & Co. of Bath, Me., have received a contract to build two spruce barges for the Staples Coal Co. of Taunton, Mass. The barges will be 160 feet long, 34 feet beam, 10 feet deep and of 850 tons carrying capacity. They will be compieted in March, 1900. , Carter & Co. of Belfast, Me., said to be the oldest ship building concern in the United States, has transferred a one-fourth interest in its yard to Capt. Fields Pendleton, a ship owner of Islesboro, Me. Work will soon be started on another vessel at this yard. Ship building yards at Essex, Mass., are crowded with work. A. D. Story has four vessels on the ways; John Bishop has a schooner well advanced toward completion and James & Tarr have a good-sized force cf workmen busy on three wooden craft. The name Richard Croker has been given to the new steel tug which the Gas Engine & Power Co. and Seabury & Co., Consolidated, of Morris Heights, New York City, are building for the department of docks and ferries of the city of New York. President M. E. Ingalls of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Co. is authority for the announcement that the railroad will within a short time place a contract for a new steamer, a small vessel, to ply between New- port News and Norfolk, Va.