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fleet' of such sizé has ever 'madé such: a voyage and it will be of very great educa- tional use to all engaged in it. The only way by which to teach officers and men how to handle the fleet so as to meet every possible strain and emergency in time of war is to have. them practice under. similar conditions m time of peace. - Moreover, the only way to find out our actual needs is to perform in time of peace whatever maneuvers might be necessary in time of war. After war is declared it is too late to find out the needs; that means to invite disaster. This trip to the Pacific will show what some of our needs are and will enable us to provide for them. The proper place for an officer to learn his duty is at sea and the only wav in which a navy can ever be made efficient is by prac- tice at sea under all conditions which would have to be met if war existed. In this paragraph the president over- looks a mighty important fact. That fact is that in time of war this particular! manettver could not be made at all. . It is not only proper but it is extremely wise to practice in time of peace those maneuvers which must be made in time of war; but there is no sense in practic- ing maneuvers which cannot be performed when they are needed. The succeeding The president probably had colliers in mind sentences, however, are qualifying. when he wrote that after war is declared it is too late to find out our needs and that the trip to the Pacific would show what some of our needs are and will en- able us to provide for them. If this trip actually will enable us to provide for them, it will be worth a hundred times more than it will cost; but the present maneuy- er could not have been made without the assistance of Great Britain, and it might awaken the country to a' realizing. sense of its own impotence if the president of the United States would flatly say so. VERTEBRATE PROPELLER BOAT. As each new idea in the way of a labor, time, or money saving device puts in an appearance, the average person interested is usually struck with its great simplicity. In fact, the de- vice in his opinion is so simple that he is surprised to .think the idea should have escaped _his attention. It has fallen to the lot of a New Yorker, however, to devise a method of pro- pelling a boat by practically repro- ducing in the propelling apparatus the action of a swimming fish. This does not apply to the movement of the tail of the fish alone, but to the whole body. The inventor, after several years of experimenting, has perfected a model boat with what he terms a vertebrate propeller, and experts have agreed that the device bids fair to revolutionize the methods of marine propulsion. This vertebrate propelling machin- ery consists of a series of flat plates, "TAE MARINE. REVIEW hinged together, working horizontally along the bottom of the boat. Two keel plates fitted vertically on either side of this sinuous line of plates en- sure the water set in motion being driven direct towards the stern of the boat. The motion is imparted to the plates by rods passing through the bottom of the boat and having their ends attached to the hinge pins. The upper ends of the rods are attached by connecting rods to a crank shaft coupled to the engine, the four cranks being set at an angle of 45 degrees. When in operation, the motion im- parted to the plates is similar to the swimming of a fish, both sides of the propeller exerting the same force in thrusting against the water. We had an opportunity of inspect- ing the model under way in the 30- ft. tank at the headquartets of the inventor, the boat--about six feet in length and built of metal--traveling the entire length of the tank in about four seconds. The full power of the clockwork machinery exerted at the start was not maintained throughout the entire trip, but the ability to travel displayed by the model was sufficient proof of the fact that there are great possibilities in the verte- brate propeller. A 50-ft. boat is now being. com- pleted, decked fore and aft, in which will be installed a 75-horsepower en- gine to drive the propeller, and great things are expected of the new comer. The idea of applying the action of a swimming fish, to propel craft through the water belongs to Joseph Turner, of New York. THE HONORABLE PETER WHITE. Orders may now be sent to the MARINE, Review for the second edition of the book entitled "The Honorable Peter White." It is now on the press and will be out of the bindery in about 10 days, in ample time to be- delivered anywhere in the United States for the Christmas trade. The first edition of this work met with such instantaneous success that the publishers resolved to greatly enlarge the scope of the sec- ond edition, embracing much new mat- ter that had been discovered since the first edition was published and much that has also transpired since it was published. For instance, the new matter includes an account of the celebration at Sault Ste. Marie: upon the completion of the first half cen- tury of the canal's usefulness. The book of the second edition is nearly twice as big as the one of the first, containing among other things nearly 100 extra pages of pictorial 53 matter alone. The purpose of writing this book was to put in an imperish- able form an authentic history of the - development of the great iron de- posits of the Lake Superior country while it was yet possible to do so. The record has been obtained from the men that actually took part in the discovery and initial development of the iron mines. So vast indeed has been the progress of this industry, and so stupendous its results in the creation and distribution of. individual wealth, that it seems incredible that it should have occurred within the life- time of oné man. Yet if ts so, man was there at the beginning and he is there yet--the Hon. Peter White of Marquette. He assisted in strip- ping the first iron mine developed in the Lake Superior country and it has seemed just to incorporate the story under his name, so universal have been his activities in this great indus- trial theater. The story as told is of uncommon interest to the iron world; in fact the history of iron manufac- ture in the United States is not com- plete without it since three-fourths of all the iron that is made in this coun- try is smelted from ores that come from the Lake Superior mines. In- cidentally there is detailed the devel- opment not only of the mines but of the whole problem associated with the transportation of the ore. The growth of both docks and ships is faithfully followed. Good fortune has attended the publishers in procuring not only photographs of the earliest ships used in the transportation of ore, but also of the earliest docks and earliest types of unloading machines. It is therefore possible to follow the development of the unloading machine from the wooden tub to the automatic clamshell buckets capable of grabbing 12 tons of ore at a time. In this work an endeavor has been made, probably not altogether without success, of relating the history of the iron trade from the human standpoint, investing, what might otherwise be a mass. of statistical data with the struggle of man against the obstacles - of nature. Money is so plentiful now- adays that natural conditions offer no obstacles whatever. But the pioneers in the Lake Superior country were without means and their struggles were consequently severe. of the book is $2.00, postage 18 cents extra. The boilers of the burned steamer Cormorant, which was raised recently, have been taken out and sent to Chi- cago on the steamer Hines, The hull was towed to Duluth. One. The price . PS SER SAD Oe ee