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20 | MARINE REVIEW. [January 89, UPPER DECK. ay ss SHIP BUILDING AT NEWPORT NEWS. cE Newport News, Va., Jan. 29.--The new Morgan line steamship El Alba left éarly in the week for New York on her maiden voyage, having had her builder's trial a week ago Saturday. This is the twelfth and last steamship of -6,000° tons displacement built by the Newport News Ship Building '& Dry Dock Co. for,the Southern Pacific Co.'s Morgan line fleet between. New York-and:New Orleans. The contracts were awarded to the ship. yard in lots of four each, the total aggregating an expenditure of: $7,200,000; to which must be added the cost of several steel tugs for the same line: The first.quartette of ships was turned out in 1891 and 1892, the second just after the Spanish-American war and the third in the past year. El Alba will sail from New York in a week or ten days on her first voyage to New Orleans with freight. .. . » "There are no better ships on the sea for their particular service than the Morgan. line vessels,' said. Capt. R. B. Quick, the commodore of the fleet and master.of El] Alba. -Capt..Quick has spent a large part of his life - on the seas and he ought to know. ;For many years he has been senior captain or commodore of.the fleet,.as the other officers refer to him. In that capacity he has taken charge of each new. vessel as it was turned out a finished. ship at Newport News. Eight of. these vessels he has sailed from the city of their birth, including El Alba.. 'The vessels are all alike in essential respects," he continued, "but each one is a little better than its predecessor.. Each one makes.a new record down the coast on her first trip out and. we have come to look for a new record every time we take a new ship-to sea from Newport News. El Alba, according to this theory; ought to be the best,of the Morgan liners and I believe, with the little improvements which have been made in her case, that she will be." 'Capt. Quick was asked relative to'a rumor that the Morgan line con- templated building more ships soon. "I don't know about that," he re- plied, "we are using all.of our, old ones and they have all they can do. If the ship subsidy bill is passed; it will be a great thing for American ship building, and, as you can plainly see, for Newport News. The bill ought to be passed... American shipping needs something of the sort, and what- ever theorists say of the subsidy plan, we've got to adopt it if we expect placed in commission. _completed at the Trigg Ship Yard and is expected here this week. MAIN DECK. OO O26 == 8-10 A) GENERAL ARRANGEMENT PLAN OF STEAMERS MINNETONKA AND MINNEMD to keep up with other countries. Even then we shall be handicapped, for we shall never get the cheap labor that the foreign countries do in manning their ships. My men get $25 a month, and, of course, their board. There are some Norwegians and Swedes who get as low as $8, and as for coolies, they cost nothing--several dollars a month and their keep. There is another thing. We treat our men better in the matter of food and accommodations. The food we give them is of a better quality, of a greater variety and, of course, costs more. For this reason, even with the most advantageous legislation, American shipping is going to have an uphill time of it,,so to speak. Our coast trade is, of course, amply pro- tected, and it is a blessing. ' Only ships flying the American flag can carry cargo from one coast port to another. Foreign' vessels, of course, clear coastwise in ballast or with their foreign cargoes, but they cannot carry an ounce of local freight." . The award to the ship yard of another contract for a merchant vessel was announced in the Review of last week. The new steamer, which will be built for the Old Dominion Steamship Co. and which is to cost close -- on to three-quarters of a million, will be launched in the latter part of the year. The contract calls for completion in fifteen months. It is not.um; likely that the ship will be turned out earlier. The new liner will be the queen of the Old Dominion fleet and it is said that the company will prob- ably order one or two more vessels of similar design before this one 18. The new steamer Brandon, built for the Old Dominion's night pas-. senger and freight service on the James river, arrived Sunday from the -- yard of the builders, Harlan & Hollingsworth, Wilmington, Del. On Monday the new vessel had her final trial, which was satisfactory. The Westlake, a sister of the Brandon, building at the Trigg Ship Yard, Rich-_ mond, will be launched within a few weeks. These steamers will be ele- gantly finished and very speedy and will ply by night between Norfolk Newport News and Richmond similarly to the schedule in operation on the Chesapeake and the Potomac between Hampton Roads and Washing ton and Baltimore. : The steamer Virginia, for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, has been