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1901.] MARINE REVIEW. 15 LORD BRASSEY DISCUSSES AMER"CAN NAVAL TYPES. The naval annual by Lord Brassey has just been issued in England. The annual is a most thorough review and according to the comments made upon it in the English press has attracted great attention. Con- siderable space has been devoted to the United States navy. Discussing the United States vessels represented Engineering of London says: "The plate of the United States battleship Georgia presents a truly astounding picture of this remarkable class of 15,000-ton war vessels. She literally bristles with guns, and her unarmored portion is insignificant. A broad belt of Krupp-treated steel, varying from 11 in. to 8 in. in thick- ness by about 10 ft. in depth, covers the vitals at the water-line. This thins off to 6 in., 5 in., and 4 in, at the ends. From the armored belt rises a citadel for nearly two-thirds the length of the ship, covered with 6-1n. Krupp steel, and extending to the upper deck. Soaring aloft from this again are the superposed turrets, 9 in. and 6% in. thick, and resting upon 10-in. barbettes. It would appear that the center of gravity of this battle- ship must be uncommonly high, unless the preponderating weight of so immense a mass of armor, reaching up to the upper deck, is balanced by heavy weights below. It is said that the magazines will "contain sixty rounds for each 12-in. gun, 125 for each 8-in., 200 for each 6-in., 250 for each 14-pounder, and 500 for each 38-pounder. All of this ammunition would, of course, be very low down in the ship; but it is generally under- stood that only 50 per cent. of American warships' ammunition is carried at normal displacement. It is therefore difficult to see how stability has been secured, although the immense beam of 76 ft. 3 in. would necessarily create better metacentric height. Assuming the mean draught of this vessel to be 26% ft.--the actual figure not being given in the annual--the coefficient of fineness would be 0.59, which would give her a very sharp under-water contour. A significant comparison between her armament and that of our Duncan class is given in this work, the comparison being unfavorable to the latter. It would, however, be fairer, we think, to place the Georgia alongside of the British battleship Queen. The result would be as follows: Georgia. Queen, Displacement ...... 15,000 tOnSs ee 15,000 tons. Speed ere eas LQknOfS.. 3 ee 19 knots. Pour d?-inw Four 12-in. Eight @-i. 120.6 eee. Eight 7.5-in. Armament....... 'Twelve: O-ins: 23455 .. Ten 6-in. Twelve 14-pounder..... Sixteen 12-pounder. Twelve 3-pounder...... Six 3-pounder. "It will be at once seen that these two classes of battleships, both being as yet, so far as completion is concerned, in nubibus, are, as regards the features of displacement, speed, and armament, almost identical. Their armored protection can hardly be compared, as no plate is given of the Queen. The United States armored cruiser California makes a striking looking picture. In place of the short armored belt and isolated dotted- about armored casemates of the Brooklyn, she has a complete belt of Harveyed steel about 7 ft. 6 in. deep from stem to Stern, 6 in. and 5 in. thick in the middle, and thinning out forward and aft. A sheathing of 5-in. armor rises from this armored belt to the boat deck over all the vitals of the shiv, whilst the 8-in. breech-loading guns have hoods of 6-in. armor. Thus the whole of the upper deck quick-firing guns, as well as those of the main deck, with the exception of a few forward and aft, are embraced within an armored battery of 5-in. Harveyed steel, a condition which does not exist even in our armored cruiser Drake of 14,100 tons, where the men serving the 12-pounder quick-firing guns on the upper deck would have absolutely no protection at all. In this respect, although the depth of armor forward on the Drake is greater than that of the Cali- fornia, we cannot help feeling that the United States vessel would afford better security to her crew in action than the British cruiser of practically similar size and almost equivalent speed. A most important plate must not be forgotten. It is that of the submarine torpedo boat, six of which are being constructed for the United States. With its gas engines, storage batteries, huge air flasks, gasoline tanks, compensation tanks for filling after the expulsion of torpedoes and other special appliances, there appears little room for accommodation of officers and crew. Probably, however, the number of these will be reduced to the lowest possible limits. The drawing, which singularly resembles that of a well-proportioned trout, gives many details and is instructive. "Chapter I, by Lord Brassey, notices the enormous advance in naval expenditure under all the leading administrations. France is spending £13,500,000 upon her navy; Russia, £9,000,000; Great Britain, this year, £30,875,500, being an increase of nearly £12,000,000 upon that of the year 1894-95. But it is remarked that 'the fleet is England's right arm.' Every shilling devoted to it, if expended with economy and judgment, is well bestowed, for it is England's insurance against those great accidental calamities which destroy the prosperity, and sometimes the lives of na- tions. It is the only fighting arm in which, by the nature of things, we have the chance of surpassing all other peoples. It is the form of war most suited to the genius of our race, and bound up with the most stirring traditions of our history. In all campaigns for the past seventy years naval forces have materially influenced, and have often decided, the result. Accepting as our standard equality to any two powers British expendi- ture cannot be considered inadequate. There are some who insist that our fleet should be superior to a combination of France, Russia and Germany. But the maintenance of such a force would impose a heavy burden. It should not be necessary whilst prudent counsels prevail in the direction of the policy of the empire. There are reasons, however, for maintaining our fleet at the full standard of equality suggested which did not exist at the time of Nelson. Blockade in these times must be an arduous science, as steam has made it possible to put to sea in all weathers; and the necessity for keeping reliefs for over-taxed crews, and supplies of coal for blockad- ing vessels, is a far greater difficulty than those met with heretofore. We hardly agree with Lord Brassey, however, in his estimate of the value of 'mercantile auxiliaries as the scouting ships of our squadrons, and the defenders of our commerce.' On the contrary, we cannot but think that a very fast cruiser of large coal-carrying capacity, such as that proposed by Admiral Sir P. Fitzgerald, would be much more useful as a scout, and a fast armored cruiser, such as the 'California, would be much more useful for the protection of commerce than a dozen liners from the mercantile marine. MR. STEVENSON TAYLOR ON THE ERIE-TASHMOO RACE. Mr. Stevenson Taylor, of the W. & A. Fletcher Co., which built the compound beam engines of the steamer City of Erie, is quoted as follows regarding the performance of their engines as against the inclined triple expansion engines of the Tashmoo: "An engineer looks upon an engine with reference to the work it has to do. There is the Tashmoo with a displacement of say 1,350 tons, very nearly--that is the weight of the water she displaces when she is put into the river. There is the Erie with a displacement of twice that amount, say 2,700 tons. The problem for the engineer is to move this bulk through the water at a required speed and he puts in an engine competent for the work. To get the required speed and service out of the Tashmoo it was necessary to build for her a triple-expansion engine that would normally develop 2,500 H. P. To move the larger bulk of the Erie with compound engine it was necessary to have one that would develop normally 3,600 H. P. I speak of the normal horse power of the engine, meaning the power the engine is expected to develop under ordinary cir- cumstances in the running of the boat. Now a peculiar thing about com- pound engines is that this point of greatest efficiency is attained when the cylinder is cut off, that the steam follows the stroke about half the dis- tance. In triple expansion engines this point is quite different, the best economy being obtained by permitting the steam to follow the stroke from 75 to 80 per cent. of the distance. As a result of these facts a compound engine can ordinarily, when in perfect condition, be made to develop nearly double its normal horse power, while the triple expansion engine can_add only about one-fifth to its normal. _"The Erie during the great race actually obtained from her engines, which are normal at 3,600 H. P., the great total of 6,800 H. P., or 190 per cent. of normal. The Tashmoo actually developed in the race 3,200 H. Py her normal being 2,500, or 128 per cent. of normal. This was a surprising performance for the Tashmoo's engine, about 8 per cent. better than might have been expected. It was a great performance for the engine on the Erie also. There being twice the displacement in the case of the Erie, it should have taken twice the horse power to have made her equal to the Tashmoo in speed, other things being equal. The Erie needed 6,400 H. P. to make her equal to the Tashmoo with 3,200. These figures show that the Erie had 400 H. P. to her advantage to balance the finer lines of the hull, reducing the resistance of the water, on the part of the Tashmoo, and the smaller percentage of slip on the part of the Detroit steamer's engines. The slip is the loss of power in the engine--power put in that does not reappear in forward motion in the boat. For the Tashmoo the slip figured out 30 per cent. during the race, and for the Erie 32 per cent." CANADA'S INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. Commercial Intelligence, of London, Eng., has for some time past had a special commissioner in Canada investigating the industrial ad- vancement of the colony. His reports are quite interesting. Following 1s an extract: "At Sydney, C. B., a locality which bids fair to rival in fame the Sydney that lies beneath the Southern Cross, an American, Mr. Whitney, is devoting his energies, with profit to Canadian industry and no less gain to himself, to the development of the rich mineral resources of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. On the Canadian shores of Lake Superior it is again an American, Mr. Clergue, who is the head and front of the new iron and steel developments. In both cases these American industrial pioneers have been remarkably successful in gaining the ear of Canadian governments. The benefits bestowed on the Dominion Coal Co. and the Dominion Iron & Steel Co., of Mr. Whitney, are paralleled in Ontario by the extraordinary favors granted to the newly-formed Clergue Iron & Nickel Steel Co., of Mr. Clergue. In April the Canadian Dominion legislature learned with a gasp that the minister of railways had made a bargain with Mr. Clergue for the supply of 25,000 tons of steel rails per annum for Canadian government lines for a period of five years. Such proceedings are enough to make old-fashioned political economists stare. Some staunch free traders have been known to condone protection in a young community because of its assistance in establishing new industries which, when strong enough to walk alone, could be left to flourish unprotected. But the assistance given by modern 'young com- munities' goes much further. Bounties are paid with a lavish hand and business guaranteed to concerns which have not yet an existence, save in the brains of a financier. The Clergue contract was not swallowed by the Dominion parliament, however, with an easy grace. Long debates of an angry and personal character were waged over its conditions, but the contract remains, and Mr. Clergue has triumphed." Speaking of the fiscal and industrial policies of the two political parties in Canada the correspondent says: "Our readers will gather from these special articles that it is now next to impossible to discover any difference between Canadian liberals and Canadian conservatives on the question of the artificial fostering of Canadian industries, and it may be added that, after the speeches of mem- bers of the Laurier government on the Clergue contract, that Canadian liberals can no longer pretend to pose, as they did when out of office, as opponents of a high protective tariff and of bounties. The two parties still differ as to preferential trade with Great Britain. The conservatives contend that we in the Old Country should have been pressed for some equivalent before the preferential tariff was arranged in 1897, and subse- quently increased from 25 per cent. to 33 1-3 per cent. But both Canadian political parties are now upholders of protection, and of liberal bounties in aid of industry, and the Laurier government has indeed gone a step beyond the conservatives themselves by initiating a new method of foster- ing new Canadian industrial enterprises." Declaring that British industrial circles must recognize the fact that 'Canada is to be reckoned with hereafter in the iron and steel world, he adds: "The natural advantages which the United States possesses in waging war with our iron and steel industry are not greater than those of Canada, while the Dominion has instituted a policy of export bounties on iron and steel, to say nothing of other forms of government assistance, which place the Canadian manufacturer on even a better footing than his confrere across the political boundary line. In Canada we have to face, in short, the enterprise and skill of Americans, the richest and cheapest mineral resources available in the world at the moment, com- | bined with government assistance in the form of a bounty on every ton of iron or steel landed on our shores. What do our manufacturers say to the prospect?"