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1903.] MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD: 31 the matter are aware, is now being used to great advantage as floor and deck covering on. steamships, ferry boats and yachts. It is also largely used for floor covering for corridors in hotels office and public buildings, offices, court rooms, etc. _ Ike steel tug for towing and passenger service in . Costa Rica is 60 ft. in length, 12 ft. beam and 4 ft. draught. She will have Scotch boiler and a Wells patent balanced compound engine with cylinders 7 and 14 in. by 10 in. stroke, of 125 H. P. All space forward of boiler and engine room will be used for cargo while aft will be mail and toilet. rooms. A wood awning will cover the upper deck fore and aft, while side seats will be pro- vided for passengers. The tow, cargo and passenger boat building for Santiago parties is to be used in Cuba for towing Mahogany log rafts and carrying freight and passengers. She is built of wood, copper bottomed, is 75 ft. in length, 16 ft. beam and 5 ft. 3 in. draught. Her propelling power will be a 75 H. P. Standard gasolene engine, built by the United States Long Distance Automobile Co. of Jer- sey City, N. J., an engine, by the way, that is gaining an enviable reputation as motive power for both boats and automobiles, as it combines lightness, power, speed and endurance, very necessary qualities in an up-to-date gasoleue engine. All space forward of the er.gine room will be for freight, for the handiing of which a crane of one ton capacity is provided, freight being stored in the hold through a large hatch. The hoisting gear operating the crane 1s in direct communication with the engine shaft and can be thrown into service at will by movement of a lever in the pilot house which connects a friction' clutch on the main shaft with the hoisting apparatus. The pilot house and toilet rooms are located amidships, while a covered deck aft furnishes accommodations for passengers. Her speed is to be from 11 to 12 miles an hour. The fifteen double-skin mahogany life boats, which the com- pany is building for the United States government, are to be used in the life-saving service. They are of the non-sinkable, self bailing variety, costing $1,000 each, are rapidly nearing completion and will soon be ready for delivery. In fact all the work men- tioned is in an advanced condition, with other work offering, as the reputation of the company for turning out superior work is becoming known. Gro. W. RAMAGE. COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE SHIPPING, 'Representative Gardner of Massachusetts introduced a bill in the house a few days ago creating a commission to consider and recommend legislation for the development of an American -merchant marine, in accordance with the suggestions contained in the president's message. The bill provides that the commis- sion is to be composed of the secretary of the navy, postmaster- general, the secretary of commerce and labor, and three mem- bers each of the senate and house. The commission is to investi- gate and report to congress at the next session what legislation is desirable for the development of the American merchant ma- rine, commerce, and. incidentally for a national ocean mail serv- ice of adequate auxiliary naval cruisers. The investigation is to be conducted by hearings. INVESTIGATING WRECKS CAUSED BY OVERLOADING. _ Senator Perkins of California offered the following resolu- tion in the United States senate last week which was adopted after, minor discussion between him and Senator Spooner: Whereas disasters to documented vessels on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts number each year nearly 500; and whereas the values of said vessels and their cargoes aggregate net far from $10,000,000; and whereas said disasters imperil the lives of 3,000 or more persons; and whereas it is alleged that many. of these disasters are due to overloading or improper loading of cargo; therefore, be it ; Resolved by the senate, that the secretary of commerce an labor be, and he is hereby,, directed to transmit to the. senate a statement showing the losses at sea reported by collectors of cus- toms during the last fiscal year of American merchant vessels, sail and steam, over 100 tons gross registry, in so far as there may be reason to believe that said losses were caused by over- loading or improper loading of cargo." Rear Admiral Bancroft Gherardi died at his home at .Strat- ford, Conn., last week where he had lived since his retirement from the navy in 1894. He was nephew of the historian George Bancroft, whose name he bore. He was born at Jackson, La., Nov. 10, 1832, and was appointed midshipman in the navy from Massachusetts in 1846, The National Pilots' association held its biennial convention at Washington recently. Representatives from all ports of the United States were present. . Capt. J. Edward O'Brien. of Pen- sacola, Fla., was elected president; Capt. Edward Young of New York, vice-president; Capt. J. H. Low of Boston, secretary and treasurer. va M. B. McDonald & Sons, Mystic, Conn., have taken an order for a four-masted wooden schooner from Miller, Houghton & Co., ship brokers of New York. The new schooner will be 160 ft. long, 37 ft. beam and 13 ft. deep. bog The Rice Bros. Co. has been organized at East Boothbay, Me., to succeed the firm of Rice Bros., ship builders, with: $100,000 ' capital stock, of which $75,000 has been paid in. Senator Frye offered a bill in the senate this week to ap- propriate $175,000 for a vessel to remove or destroy derelicts. English Royal Navy - : . Russian Imperial Navy The "Messageries Maritimes" Company BELLEVILLE WATER-TUBE BOILERS: On Board Sea-going Vessels, NOT INCLUDING New In- | stallations Building or Erecting. | | French Navy nat . - or Japanese Imperial Navy - ' Austrian Imperial Navy - Italian Royal Navy - 2 - Chilian Navy -- - : ' SG Argentine Navy - | Chemins de fer de l'Ouest: (The French West plying between Dieppe and Newhaven Total Horse Power of 'Boilers in Use : r ee Railway Co.) Steamships Societe Anonyme des Etablissements Delaunay Belleville -- CAPITAL: 6,000,000 FRANCS mi : 'Works and Dock Yards of the Ermitage at Saint-Denis (Seine), France. 355,560 HPs - 929,306 S21 . 122,700. °" : 56,700 «© - 13,500... " 26,500 * 13,000 " $7,000: - 48,500 57 - 4,850,860 2 t o reerin Telegraphic Address: Belleville, Saint-Denis Sur-Seine ta ee en