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' 1903] MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. oe TRIAL TRIP OF A MODERN FERRYBOAT. New York, June9.--Thenew double-decked, double-screw: fer- ryboat Syracuse, built by the W. & A. Fletcher Co. of Hoboken N. J.,;for the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad for use in its West Shore service, between New York and Weehaw- ken, had her trial trip on Thursday last, and she demonstrated her ability to make faster time than any craft of her kind plying in or about the waters of New York harbor, and at the same time added one more testimonial to the superiority of the pro- peller over the side wheel style of ferryboat. The Syracuse is 208 ft. long over all and 178 ft. between per- pendiculars; beam over all, 66 ft.; beam moulded, 4o ft.; depth amidship at side, moulded, 18 ft. Her hull is of steel, and was built by T. S. Marvel & Co. of Newburgh, N. Y., while the joiner work was done by Wm. Rowland. The boat is built after the model of the West Point, which was designed by Mr. J. W. Mil- lard, naval architect of 32 Broadway, New York, and which be- fore the advent of the Syracuse had the reputation of being the fastest ferryboat in the country. The two boats will be in service on the same West Shore ferry from the foot of Franklin street, North river, New York, to the West Shore railroad station at Weehawken, N. J., and will lessen the former time considerably between those points. The boat has the usual wagon ways and cabins for men and women on the main deck, with general sa- loon on the upper deck. The cabins and saloon are commodious and handsomely finished in cherry, the decorations being from designs by Mr. Samuel Huckel, Jr., the architect of the new Grand Central station at Forty-Second street and Madison avenue, New York. The propelling equipment includes two Scotch boilers, 12 ft.9 in. by 12 ft., each having three Morison corrugated furnaces, The engines, made in the shops of the W. & A. Fletcher Co., are double compound with two high pressure cylinders 18 in. diameter and 28 in. stroke, provided with piston valves and Stephenson double bar links and valve gear. 'They are connected together on line of shafting, which extends the entire length of boat, with steel propeller wheel at either end, the forward wheel pulling while the aft wheel pushes when the boat is under way. The boilers and engines are built for a working pressure of 140 Ibs. to the square inch. The air pump and jet condenser are of the Blake vertical twin type, with steam cylinders 12 in. and air cyl- inders 25 in. diameter, with piston stroke of 18 in. The engine room is also furnished with Blake fire and feed pumps. The electric light plant consists of two engines and two dynamos of General Electric make, installed by the Western Electric Co., and of 250 light capacity. The heating and ventilating plant was fur- nished by the B. F. Sturtevant Co., and consists of large steam heaters with blower, which will furnish either fresh, hot or cold air as required to cabins and saloon. On the trial trip, which was witnessed by a number of invited guests, the Syracuse was in charge of Capt. J. B. Brannigan ot the West Shore service, assisted by Wheelman F. H. Penny, the two manning the pilot house, while the engine room was in charge of Engineer D. O. Smith, with J. McQueen as assistant. Shortly after theboatlefther moorings at the Fletcher works a vigorous attack by healthy appetites was made on a sumptuous luncheon provided for the occasion. The first sail was up the Hudson to a little above Spuyten Duyvil, when the course was changed down stream, and when opposite Weehawken the en- gines were slowed down almost to a standstill. What's the matter?" asked several on board. "Going to race the West Point," someone replied, and added "Just waiting for her to come out of her slip on trip down." And soon she came, plowing through the water like a loco- motive through a slight snow drift, throwing the spray from her prow in a perfect stream. The Syracuse ranged alongside and the test of speed was on. For the first few rods it looked as though the West Point was going to keep her laurels as the fast- est ferryboat afloat, but when the Syracuse got under full head- way she began sradually to gain on her antagonist. _ "Hooray! We're beating her!" shouted an enthusiast aboard the Syracuse, and others took up the cry with: : "Let her out Captain!" "Hurrah for the Syracuse "We're it!" Everybody aboard seemed as interested as though a fortune to him depended on winning out. Just like all boat races, when everyone aboard makes winning or losing a personal matter. From opposite Weehawken to a point opposite the foot of Jay street, New York, in a run of fifteen minutes the Syracuse gain- ed a length or more on the West Point. Then she slowed up and awaited the up trip, and when the West Point got fairly under way for Weehawken another test of speed was made with simi- lar results, and everybody voted the Syracuse the new record- maker for ferryboats, the tests both up and down stream, with and against the tide, proving her superiority. : After a trial of two hours the boat made a landing at the Forty-Second street pier of the West Shore ferry and the happy guests, after congratulating the builders and owners, and thank- ing Mr. S. Taylor, manager of the Fletcher company, for the en- joyable outing, dispersed their several ways. : That the Syracuse, while built on the same model in every re- spect as the West Point, is the faster boat only goes to show that their builders, the W. & A. Fletcher Co., are not satisfied to let well enough alone, but are ever striving to do better and to improve if possible on former work. This is all the more to their credit from the fact that the house enjoys the reputation of building the engines for the fastest boats on the Hudson, such as 1? the New York and Albany of the Hudson River Day Line, and other fast craft on the great lakes and in various parts of the country, and have only their own record to beat. _ _ Among those presentatthe trial were the following officials of the marine department of the N. Y. C. & H. R. R.; Walter B. Pollock, manager; Capt. George J. Eiseman, superintendent; Fred. Pollock, assistant superintendent; Frank Ward, chief en- gineer and B. C. Fessenden, superintendent of ferries; also Fourth Vice-President Cartensen of the railroad. Among invited guests were E. E. Olcott, president of the Hudson River Day Line; W. F. Hermann of Cleveland, general passenger. agent of the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co.; John Cherry, superintend- ent floating equipment, Erie Ry.; Capt. Harvey, superintendent Hoboken Ferry Co.; T. C. Pollock, assistant general freight agent Pernsylvania Co.; J. A. Benson, chief engineer, department docks and ferries of New York; W. J. Burlee of Burlee Dry Dock Co.; Fnomas Drum of New Jersey Dry Dock Co.; James Clark, chief ugineer, marine department, B. & O. R. R.; Com. H. B. Moore; W. 1. Babcock; Harry Joyce, president Manhattan Literage Co.; Paimer Campbell, manager Hoboken Land & Improvement Co.; F. L. DuBoise, assistant engineer Pennsylvania Co.; Stephen Ransom; Samuel Huckel, Jr.; C. F. Matlage; Vice-President Irving, National Bank; Com. Mike Moran; M. F. Frame; Her- bert Calkins; David Chalmers; Wm. H. Bailey; Geo. E. Weed; G. Foster Howell; C. E. Lambert; R. E. Wescott; Capt. George Nerton; W. FH. Wiley; Mayor Klein and Messrs. Listman, Rathsford and Wolf of Syracuse; M. D. Fletcher; M. D. Fletch- er, Jr.; Wm. H. Fletcher; Harry M. Fletcher and S. Taylor, while the insurance interests were represented by Messrs. Leth- bridge, Barnett and Wm. H. Eiseman. ELIMINATING SUBSIDIARIES AT SAULT STE. MARIE. Mr. Cornelius Shields, president of the Consolidated Lake Superior Co., has just given out an interview in Ottawa, in which he states that the company is to undergo another reorganization by eliminating a number. of the subsidiary companies and in- corporating them as departments of the Consolidated Lake Su- perior. He says: i "It has been decided to do away with a number of the sub- sidiary companies and to incorporate them as departments of two principal companies. The two principal companies will be the Lake Sunerior Power Co. and under it will be included all companies that have received charters from the Dominion gov- ernment, and the Consolidated Lake Superior Co., in which will be all the companies that were granted charters from the gov- ernments of different states. The special charter is only to apply to the subsidiary companies on which there is not any bonded debt. It is expected that by the new arrangement the manage- ment of the entire companies as a unit will be rendered much more simple. It was found that the parent company with fifteen subsidiary companies was pretty difficult to manage. The Cana- dian government has signified its intention of granting the spec- ial charter." Mr, F. H. Clergue, who is at present in Montreal, says con- cerning this latest move: "What was needed most at the Sault was a man whose prac- tical general knowledge would enable him to take charge of all the various works and run them as the unit. We had all the specialists we needed, but we did not have anyone whose experi- ence would enable him to assume general direction. Anyone who understands the real nature of the works knows that it is only by binding each department close to one anvther that they can all be worked out successfully. From the progress that has been made during the past few months we are convinced that we have found such a man in Mr. Cornelius Shields. He has been very careful about any changes that he has made and all have benefited the company a great deal. I do not think a better man could have been secured anywhere. Mr. Shields has made a most favorable impression with the directors, with the heads © of the various departments and the heads of the government. The outlook was never better than at the present time." Mr. Yarrow, the celebrated English ship builder, comes out strongly against the submarine boat as a war craft. He says he has no faith whatever in the submarine boat, either for offensive or for defensive purposes. He does not think that anything prac- tical will ever result from the experiments which all maritime nations are making in this direction. Submarines, if entirely successful or otherwise, would be of use only against stationary vessels. For the purpose of attacking vessels in motion they could not be guided, he maintains, with sufficient accuracy and knowledge to be relied upon, while even if they could, at least so much has been accomplished already by torpedo boats with far less risk and cost. From a statement recently issued by the imperial statistical office it appears that on Jan. 1, 1902, the German commercial fleet consisted of 3,959 vessels with 2.080,548 register tons, and a total crew of 43,046 men. Vessels of less than 18 tons regis- ter are not included in these figures. Hamburg and Bremen to- gether possess eleven steamers each of over 10,000 tons. During the last ten years the total increase in the number of ships con- stituting the commercial fleet has been 8 per cent. whereas that of the tonnage has been 50 per cent. R. M. Leathers, Astoria, Ore. has just begun work on a steamer 66 ft. long for G. W. Hume.