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I RAIN = 18 MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. WORK AT FORE RIVER. The Fore River Ship & Engine Co., Quincy, Mass., has just laid the keel of the six-masted steel schooner to be named the William L. Douglas, after one of her shareholders, and to be built by a syndicate headed by Capt. John G. Crowley, the man- aging owner of the Lawson. The Douglas, like the Lawson, is to be a collier and is planned to have a very large capacity and an equipment for most economical management. She will have engines to handle her sails and load and discharge her cargo, steam steering gear, and all of the mechanical appliances by means of which Capt. Crowley believes the American schooner will be enabled to re-establish the American merchant marine as ocean freight carriers. She will measure 339 ft. 6 in. over all,and 306 ft. on the waterline, with 48 ft. beam and 29 ft. 9 in. depth. This gives her a hold capacity of 5,700 tons of coal--half as much again as that of the largest six-master now afloat. Her mast- heads will be 120 ft. above the deck, the top masts being Oregon pine spars fitted into cylindrical steel lower masts; from these will be stretched upwards of 36,000 sq. ft. of duck. She will have two decks, with a tank for water ballast reaching from the keel to the second deck. The preliminary work of making final detail plans for two new steamers to be added to the Fall River Lines Long Island sound service is now under way at Fore River. The construction of these two boats will; in some ways, be of especial interest, for they are the first sound steamers to be built in New England and are the first boats to be entirely built for this particular line at one plant, the custom in the past having been to construct the Fall River steamers under separate contracts for engines, hull and joiner work. <A $1,000,000 passenger boat with accommoda- tions for 1,200 people, and a $500,000 freighter are called for, both to be superior to anything built heretofore for the sound service. The passenger steamer will be a side-wheeler with twin engines, 297 ft. long over all, with 90 ft. of breadth across the ailways f slides No. 5 Sail No. 00 Duck, hard finish No. 4 Sail No. 00 Duck, hard finish No. 00 Duck, hard finish - --$-- No. 3 Sail No. 00 Duck, hard finish 406" SSS, 37/0" #3 na : 2 "No. 3\Topsail ga? * 4 Duck / Ant 7 400 39 6" : 'an. 20, Besides its ship building the Fore River company has in its forge and machine shops a large amount of heavy work, includ- ing the making of seventy sets of rapid-fire naval ordnance for the United States government--ten sets of 6-in., 50-caliber guns, which are the most approved pattern, for the main batteries of battleships and cruisers, and sixty sets of 3-in. pieces of like caliber, such as are used in the secondary batteries of larger vessels. These are the largest pieces of modern ordnance ever made in New England. They are forged, oil-tempered, an- nealed, bored and turned at Fore River and then sent to the shops at the Washington navy yard where all the naval ordnance is finished. AN INTERESTING ADMIRALTY DECISION. An interesting decision was handed down this week by United States District Judge Edward B. Thomas in Brooklyn in the case of Martin J. Garvey who had libeled a ship because of: injuries sustained in falling through a hatch of the vessel while she was in dry dock for repairs. Judge 'Thomas dismissed the libel, for the reason, he holds, that the admiralty court has no jurisdiction. 'This decision is note- worthy, and establishes a point that has never before been presented to the courts for settlement. It is held by Judge Thomas that being on dry dock the steamship was not on navigable waters, nor was the dry dock, which rested upon the water, and not the water's bed, a vessel in any sense, but was a part of the land itself. 'The decision says: "The dry dock, consisting of five sections, connected by stringers, was fitted into piers, to which it was held by cleats, so that it had only a vertical motion. If the cleats were removed the dry dock would be drawn out of position and would float. This action is based upon an alleged maritime lien upon the ship. 'The action must be sustained, if at all, upon the theory that the dry dock was a vessel in navigable waters, or that the 3 - a K Bs S o to aa °S g eS 2 (Ns ~\fopsail a Duck 740.0" 3'0" 265» 8955 5 8 co <6 . 2 oS me Rete ece 7 ch ieee eel Fore Staysail No. 1 Sail No. 00 Duck, Ea oe No. ai hard ant No. 00 Duek, aoe \ No. 2 Sail hard finish 38/0" \ No. 00 Duck, é Se hard finish 40'6" CLR FF go MARINE REVIEW Sail Plan of the Six-masted Steel Schooner William L. Douglas. wheel guards at the widest point, the steel hull having 50 ft. of beam and 21 ft. of depth, and the paddle boxes being built into the superstructure. She will have a double bottom divided into thirteen watertight compartments, and above that watertight bulkheads will separate the vessel into seven compartments, with a collision bulkhead and a watertight collision steel deck ex- tending back from the stem about one-third of the steamer's length, 11 ft. below the main deck. The engines and the six Scotch boilers are to be in steel enclosures with walls that rise above the upper deck, and a steel deck will cover them. Steam steering gear will be used, and the auxiliary machinery includes an electric lighting plant capable of supplying current for 1,600 incandescent lamps. 'The fire extinguishing service called for by the specifications is particularly elaborate, the main pipes, under the immediate control of the engine room, with connec- tions in every part of the vessel, being supplemented by separate powerful fire pumps in addition to the usual equipment of chem- ical extinguishers. Besides the customary lifeboats and rafts the steamer will carry a Lyle gun for shooting life lines. 'The interior finish is to be of pine, elaborately decorated with carv- ing, frescoes and gilt work. A pressure water system supplied by a special pump, will be connected with all the plumbing. The freight boat will be equally modern in construction and general. equipment. She is to be a twin-screw steamer, with two 4,500-H. P. engines, and will be 318 ft. long over all, with a molded width of 60 ft. 6 in. and a molded depth of 26 ft. 6 in. She will have steam steering gear and there will be dou- bel freight elevators at her forward and aft hatches. All of the work on both vessels, except the furnishing and upholstery, will be done at Fore River. ship was in navigable waters. The first alternative is negatived by the case of Cope vs. Vallette Dry Dock Co. 'Thus the final question is, was the ship in navigable waters? In her position on the dry dock she was not only out of commission and with- drawn from navigation, but was also incapable of navigation. "The ship could not be navigated on the dry dock, nor could the combined ship and dry dock be navigated in the water. Hence, if the ship be eliminated from consideration, the injury on the dry dock was not on a vessel in navigable waters; or, if the ship be considered, she was not on navigable waters or capable of navigation; or if the combined ship and dry dock be considered, the whole was not a ship or capable of navigation. "The piers pertain to land, and the dry dock is adjusted to and intended to be an attachment to the piers. The fact of its resting in the water rather than. in the water's bed and rose and fell with the tide, did not make it a vessel, nor a part of the water. Its nature pertained not to water, but to land. 'To land it was attached, and to land it was intended to be a part. The pertinent decisions have been so often discussed by this and other courts that there is no occasion for reconsidering them. This precise question is thought not to have arisen before, but the solution depends upon very obvious and fundamental rules relating to the admiralty jurisdiction. 'The libel is dismissed solely for the want of jurisdiction." A. C. Brown & Sons, Tottenville, S. I, have secured an order for a new tugboat from O'Brien Bros., New York. She will have a wooden hull and will be 74 ft. long, 19 ft. 6 in. beam and 8 ft. 6 in. deep.