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4 | | MARINE REVIEW. [September 12, SHIP BUILDING IN PHILADELPHIA AND VICINITY. Philadelphia, Sept. 11---The exploded boiler of the steamer City of Trenton has been lying on a pier at Neafie & Levy's ship yard for several days-and has been closely examined by the government inspectors who are making rigid inquiry into the cause of the disaster. The boiler was found to be well built and in good condition with no structural weakness apparent. The crown sheet had been blown downward, carrying with it a portion of the back tube sheet. The collapse pulled it away from the radial stays. The latter were found intact. While the examination of the witnesses will not take place for several days the inspectors admit that it will be but a formality to fix the responsibility. There is a concensus of opinion among marine engineers here that the damaged boiler tells its own story of low water and a burned crown sheet. The new torpeo boat destroyer Bainbridge has been given a trial spin on the Delaware, which demonstrated to the satisfaction of her build- ers that she will fulfill every requirement of the stringent official trial | which is to follow in a few days. President Matthias Seddinger of the Neafie and Levy company is very much gratified that the Bainbridge was able to go out on her builder's trial trip in exactly one week after she was launched. No attempt was made to speed the vessel. The run was to Marcus Hook, about twenty-five miles below here, and return, and was | attended with perfect success. The engines ran very smoothly and with a minimum of friction. The vessel's contract calls for a speed of 29 knots, but owing to the changes made in her stern lines it is thought that she will do better than that. The Chauncey, the second of the destroyers building by the Neafie & Levy, will be launched next week. Her sponsor will be Miss Mae Chauncey Stevens of Grand Rapids, Mich. : The shipping commissioners, O'Brien, Smith and Henley of this port, have engaged the men for the Russian battleship Retvizan, including fire- men, coal passers and oilers. Men especially skilled in those vocations were taken from the Cramp ship yard and the new men will assist them. Nearly 300 men were required for the vessel. Edwin S. Cramp, superin- tending engineer of the Cramp company, is in general charge of the trial trip, and, although the latter is merely to test the structural strength of the ship under gun fire, her builders will satisfy themselves that she is in condition to make her contract speed of 18 knots an hour. Since Major-General Brynk, of the Russian navy, has been on duty at the ship yard he has made several changes in the program originally mapped out for the first trial trip. It was originally intended that only the 12-in. turret guns should be fired, but the General has informed the Cramps that he intends discharging them all with the end in view of thoroughly testing the strength of the battleship. The Retvizan may be away from the city for several days, but will not leave the vicinity of the capes of the Dela- ware. The Cramps have an extensive repair job on hand in connection with the steamship Niagara of the New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Co.'s fleet. The vessel arrived in Philadelphia on Tuesday and will be supplied with a new set of boilers. The steamship Vigilancia 'of the same line, now in the drydock at New York undergoing an overhauling, will also come here for her boilers. The American liner New York is expected back from the Erie Basin, where she has been having her bottom scraped and. painted, tomorrow. She will be rapidly rushed to completion with a view to have her ready to return to the line by the middle of October. The contract to build new block, cooper and spar shops for construc- tion and repair at League Island navy yard has been awarded to Hender- son & Co., Ltd., of 1213 Filbert street, this city, for $107,206. This is $6,000 within the amount authorized by congress for the structure. The first appropriation, made a year ago last winter, was $60,000, and the limit of cost for the building at that time was fixed at $113,400. The last naval bill added to the amount already available $53,400. The specifica- tions call for a substantial two-story brick.and steel building, about 35 ft.: wide and 350 ft. long. The strongest form of concrete foundations are called for to be laid on timber piling, which must be driven down at least 30 ft. The contractor is required to begin work at once and to proceed as rapidly as is consistent with good construction. The base course of the entire building, as well as the base of all piers, will be of granite. The contract covers interior fitting, heating, ventilating, pumping and similar necessary appurtenances, The frame building now on the site is to be taken down and removed by the contractor. This handsome building will add another to the array of shops and other structures which are fast transforming the local navy yard into the best appointed station of the kind belonging to the government. 2 THE CZAR"S OFFICIAL CRAFT. Word has been received by Cramps, Philadelphia, that the new cruiser Variag has been selected by the czar of Russia as the craft to be used on all his private trips. The news of the selection of the Variag was particu- larly gratifying to the Cramps, as well as to the Russian officers who are in Philadelphia waiting to take the big battleship Retvizan home. The czar inspected the ship when she arrived at Cronstadt, several months ago, and pronounced himself greatly pleased with her. Since then he has been aboard her several times and has learned of her speed and seaworthiness. nas cruiser is about to start for Vladivostock, the Russian port in Siberia, and will carry out the new consular code to the Russian represen- tatives all along the route. It will be a leisurely journey and all stories that it is intended to make a voyage as a test of the vessel's ability to do it without recoaling are pronounced absurd. As the czar's official craft the Variag will be the most noted vessel in the Russian service and Capt. Vladimir Behr and his 'men will occupy envied places. The Variag was launched at Cramps' ship yard on Oct. 81, 1899, and is the fastest cruiser ever built. She maintained a speed of more than 23 knots through twelve consecutive hours on her final trial, running all the time under natural eee She is 400 ft. long, 52 ft. beam, and her displacement is 6,500 ons. Spencer Miller, engineer, the Lidgerwood Mf i , on g. Co.,* "sailed £ Europe Aug. 31 on the Patricia of the Hamburg-American line. Mr. Miller will attend the trials by the British admiralty of his most recent invention, the marine cableway, The task set by the admiralty is forty ee of coal per hour'to be transferred from ship to ship, speeding at 10 nots. aS 'WARSHIPS FOR THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT. Lewis Nixon of Elizabethport, N. J., has secured a contract from the Mexican government for two warships. He was not the lowest bidder but his designs pleased the Mexican government. The new vessels are about the size of the Machias class of the United States navy. They are each 200 ft. long, 33 ft. beam and displace 1,000 tons on a draught of 10 ft. They are of steel throughout, with quarters arranged for comfort in tropical waters. The vessels will carry coal enough to steam 7,000 miles. Their battery consists each of four 4-in. rifles, four 6-pounders and a bow tor- pedo gun for firing automatic torpedoes. The speed is to be 16 knots an hour. With the completion of these vessels the Republic of Mexico will possess two up-to-date cruisers that will compare more than favorably with similar vessels of other nations. The vessels are so fitted that 200 soldiers, in addition to the regular crew, can be berthed on board and they can therefore be used as transports for transferring troops hurriedly from one part of Mexico to another. President Diaz and Gen. Reyes, the minister of war and marine of the republic, have taken great interest in these vessels and have expressed their satisfaction that they are to be built in the United States. The award of the contract is significant from the fact that Europe has hitherto built practically all the vessels for Central and South America, with the result that many millions of dollars have been spent in European ship yards. The Mexican government has sent a strong and capable com- mission to superintend the building of the ships. It is headed by Col. Flaviano Paliza, one of Mexico's greatest engineers. He has with him his construction engineer and a large force of officers and cadets, who will see every part of the vessel assembled, and will be ordered to duty on them when completed. The engines of the warships are triple expansion of about 2,400 H.-P. The boilers are of the tubular type. Work on the vessels has already been begun. Keel blocks are laid and the plates are under way. The accompanying illustration is that of a pattern for the steel casting for lower part of stems of the 15,000-ton battleships New Jersey and Rhode Island, for which the Fore River Ship & Engine Co., Quincy, Mass., has the contract. This casting will weigh about 72,000 lbs. and measures about 26 ft. across corners. Ap- proximately 3,000 ft. of lumber entered into the construction of the pattern. RAILWAY REQUIREMENTS IN STEEL. Bradstreets directs attention to a feature of railway development that is bringing about a new and special demand for steel. While the activity in construction during the present year is comparatively large, and prom- ises to add a normal amount to the aggregate railway mileage of the country, it may be noted that a very large addition is being made to the existing railroad systems in another way. Up to within a few years double-track railroad hardly existed beyond the western termini of the trunk-line systems. It is true that some of the western portions of the trunk-line systems, notably the Lake Shore and 'the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago roads, had been in part or whole double tracked, and a few of the lines leading out of Chicago and other large cities were also provided with double tracks for the accommodation of their suburban traffic. At present, however, a number of the large western railroad sys- tems are engaged in double tracking their entire roads, the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy in particular having completed its addition to its main line to a point beyond the Mississippi river, and the same is true of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul. The Chicago & Northwestern also is rapidly completing the same work, so that within a year or so at most double-track lines will extend from New York and other Atlantic ports as far west as St. Paul, St. Louis and Omaha. The work of double tracking in the great western systems is accompanied by a general reduction of grades and an elimination of curves, so that the improvement in question is of much more importance than the mere substitution of two tracks for one. While coming under the head of betterment the operations in question, conducted as they are simultaneously by some of the largest railroads in the country, involve-a heavy expenditure and a considerable addition to capital accounts, while they furnish a market for steel rails and other railroad.material ona scale fully as large as if positive additions were being made to the railroad mileage of the country. oe