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M A R I N E, LIVERPOOL SHIPPING LETTER. Liverpool, July 30--Messrs. Cammell, Laird & Co., ship builders of Birkenhead, Liverpool, formerly known as Messrs. Laird Brothers, have just launched a new type of war vessel for the British admiralty' which is intended principally for scouting purposes in war time. These new scouts are de- signed to be the fastest sea-going vessels coe in the world, and it is expected that 25 | knots will be obtained on 1 prolonged full-power trial. The following are the principal dimensions: Length 370 ft, beam 38 ft.6in. The vessel under notice which was named Pathfinder, will be propelled by two sets of four-cylia der, triple-expan- sion engines of 16,500: 4. PP. has anced on the Yar- row, Schlick and Tweedy system, steam being sup- plied by twelve water-tube boilers of the Laird type, arranged in three watertight com- partments. A pro- tective: deck: is worked through- out the ship. The engines are, pron, bected by 2 an, especially treated Krupp _ non-ce- mented steel made at the company's armor plate works at Sheffield. The armament consists of ten 12-pounder quick-firing guns mounted as_ fol- lows: Three on the forecastie deck, three aft on the upper deck and four on the upper deck in the waist of the ship. Also eight 3-poun- der quick-firing guns, and two 18- in. torpedo tubes above water. When in commis- sion the vessel will have a complement of about 290 men. It should be stated that this new class of warship has been de- signed for special purposes on lines laid down by the admiral- 'ty authorities. When it became evident that the kind of destroyer that was in use was hardly large enough for acting as a scout at sea, the naval people pressed for a larger type of ship, which would be able in all weathers to maintain a speed in excess of the vessels in any foreign fleet. The admiralty for wise reasons decided to leave the submission of the designs of this entirely novel type of ship to the en- terprise and experience of private firms, and they invited those who had been identified with the building of war ships for many years to consider what they would propose to build on the conditions laid down. The conditions might or might not R E V I i ; 15 have been the best possible for the purpose, but they were of such a nature that four of the most experienced shipbuilding concerns submitted designs which so nearly fell in with one another in regard to size and power to obtain the speed required that it was quite evident that the ships they pro- posed were the smallest and the least costly type by which the results required could be obtained. The four firms were Messrs. Vickers, Son & Maxim; Messrs. Armstrong, Fairfield Shipbuilding Co., and Messrs. Cammell, Laird & Co,; idgr names which are celebrated all over the world for ships designed for war purposes. As the result of what was sub- mitted in the way of designs and _ estimates, slight modifica- tions have been suggested by the admiralty to bring the vessels more into line, and the new type of ship as finally decided upon, of which the Pathfinder is the first to be launched, em- bodies the ex-. perience of ex- perts seldom available, and form--if they accomplish\what is confidently hoped of them » --one of the greatest tri- umphs of naval architecture yet carried out. Mr. Jo Me ated speaking at the launch - said critics had at- tacked the scouts in a rather hostile manner, but the information on which the criticism was based was, he thought, erroneous. It did not appear that the critic had grasped the fact that the scouts were more than merely enlarged torpedo boat de- stroyers, that they were really modified protected cruisers. They had protection in the way of armor for the machinery and a protected deck throughout their length of 370 ft. Had they been merely enlarged destroyers to steam 25 knots without any protection they could have produced a much cheaper but less efficient vessel. As they stood the scouts would be most formidable. With regard to the bunker ca- pacity of the scouts, the severely critical articles written about them, Mr. Laird said, appeared to have been based on a mis- apprehension, as the statements contained in the navy es- OUTWARD BOUND.