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VOL. XXXII. CLEVELAND. NOVEMBER 23. 1805. No. 21. NAVAL ARCHITECTS AND [MARINE ENGINEERS. THIRTEENTH GENERAL MEETING OF SOCIETY HELD IN NEW YORK AND IMPORTANT PAPERS READ AND DISCUSSED. The thirteenth annual meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers opened in the auditorium of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, No. 12 West 31st st.. New York on Nov. 16, continuing throughout the 17th and concluding with a banquet in the evening at Delmonico's. The attendance was large, the papers varied and interesting and the discussion more animated than usual. President F. T. Bowles, formerly chief constructor of the navy, presided at the' sessions. The report of the secretary and treasurer, Naval Con- structor W. J. Baxter, showed a net reduction in the total membership for the year of four, there being now 866 members. There were eight deaths and thirty resignations during the year. The total receipts for the year were $10,620.81, and expenses $0,611.32, leaving a balance on hand of $1,009.49. The society has no liabilities and its present worth, including books, bonds, certificates and fur- niture, is $24,490.50. . PRESIDENT BOWLE'S ANNUAI ADDRESS. In making his annual address -President Bowles pre- faced it with a remark indicative of a disposition to retire from the chair but this was forestalled by a imotion of Prof. H. C. Sadler, seconded by Mr. W. P. Stephens, that the old officers be re-elected. President Bowles and secretary-treasurer W. J. Baxter were unanimously re- elected. In his annual address President Bowles said: "It is the president's duty to briefly recall to you annually the events in our country in the art of naval architecture, but during the past thirteen years of the life of this society this duty has rarely been an agreeable .one 'if measured by the record of the commercial success in shipbuilding. Following the Spanish war, and owing to the purchase of vessels by the government, the increased traffic with Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines for one or two years commercial progress in ship build- ing showed a tendency to measure up to the technical progress shown by the members of our society in its. proceedings. Since these years there has been a steady decline in ship building both for ocean and coast traffic until the former has reached the vanishing point. Ship- building is in satisfactory condition only on the great lakes. There the shipyards are busy and a steady im- provement is made in the economy of transportation by the development of terminal facilities and the use of lar- ger vessels. The success of the lake ship builders is unqualified and shows the results which can be obtained by intelligent application to a definite problem. The coast ship-builders on the other hand have little work and deal with a great variety of problems and their pro- PRESIDENT F. T. BOWLES. gress is therefore subject to the handicap of diversity of work and the small quantity involved. In the past year three or more coast ship yards have gone out of business, two have sold their plants and several more are in the hands of receivers. This is a melancholy record. A few events afford us some hope for the future. During the past year the Merchant Marine commission appointed by congress spent some seven months in a careful in- vestigation held throughout the seaboard and lake cities of the United States and presented a bill to promote the na- tional defense and to establish American ocean mail lines