The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

14 repair and maintenance of the ma- terial of the fleet. The greater part is expended for the pay and provisioning of the navy and marine corps, ammunition, fuel, and expenditures on account. of in- crease of the navy. So far as con- cerns the last-named item, the depart- ment has long been an exceedingly economical purchaser, the contract price of our latest battleships being hardly more than the actual cost of labor and material and incidental ex- penses, and very considerably below the limit fixed by congress. 'The secretary says also that it would be difficult to find in any large 'manufacturing establishment, or oth- er industrial organization, greater co- ordination than exists among the heads of the great bureaus and offices of the navy department. The secretary recommends that con- gress authorize at its approaching ses- sion the construction of four battle- ships, four scout cruisers, 10 destroy- ers, four submarines, three colliers, one repair ship, one ammunition ship, and two mine-laying ships--these two ships to be converted from cruisers now on the navy list. BUREAU OF CONSTRUCTION REPORT. Chief Constructor Washington L. Capps, United States navy, avails him- self of the opportunity offered by the publication of his annual report to make a vigorous reply to his critics. After tracing the development of the designs of the North Dakota, he points out that the criticisms of Com- mander Key were made 18 months after the formal approval of the de- sign for this battleship. He says: "It appears, from the official rec- ords of the department, that a period of more than 18 months elapsed after the formal approval of the design of the North Dakota by the secretary of the navy before official criticism of that design was submitted to the department by an officer whose duty in Washington with the general board and at.the yard where the North Dakota was being built gave him un- usual opportunities for obtaining def- inite information concerning the prin- cipal characteristics of that design. "Allusion to the above-noted cir- cumstances and dates is considered of importance by the chief construct- or, since some of the publications heretofore used as a medium for the dissemination of unwarranted adverse criticism concerning the material of the navy have contained specific state- ments to the effect that the communi- THE MARINE REVIEW cation criticising the design of the North Dakota was suppressed and pigeonholed in the bureau of construc- tion and repair. The most casual in- quiry would have elicited the fact that this communication was not re- ferred to the bureau of construction and repair but to the board of con- struction, and that when it reached that board one of its members--the chief constructor--was under orders for distant duty, obedience to which could not be delayed, as it involved taking passage with the Atlantic fleet. This fleet was scheduled to leave San Francisco early in July, and the chief constructor actually reported at San Francisco on July 3." Commenting on the results of the Newport conference, this is added: "Tt appears, from the official docu- ments in the case, that the changes recommended in the design of the North Dakota, as a result of the de- liberations of the Newport confer- ence, are of comparatively minor char- acter, andthe more important of these related to subjects which for a long time previous to the calling of the Newport conference, had been given careful consideration by the depart- ment and its responsible bureaus in connection with their regular work of keeping abreast with and anticipating developments in naval material. These developments are constantly in prog- ress in all navies and inevitably ne- cessitate minor changes in design during the progress of the construc- tion of the vessel, and therefore can- not properly be regarded as inherent defects in the original design of any - vessel. "There are now and must always be differences of opinion among officers ~ having responsibility in connection with the design of naval _ vessels, their armament and equipment, as to the best compromise development of the various features essential to a satisfactory design of battleship, but the fact that the Newport conference, composed of more than 50 officers of the seaman branch of the navy and only four officers of the con- struction corps, should after mature deliberation have expressed itself so positively concerning the merits of the North Dakota design is in itself a complete refutation of the numeér- ous ill-considered adverse criticisms which have appeared from time to time in the public press concerning the designs of this vessel. The action of the Newport conference with re- spects to the designs of the last two vessels of the North Dakota class, viz., the Utah and the Florida, pro- posals for which vessels had not at that time been issued, and the plans for which were in course of prepara- tion, still further accentuates the feel- ing of the conference with respect to the general excellence of the designs of the North Dakota." The need of additional dry docks is pointed out in this report. The new stone docks at Norfolk, Va., and Charleston, S. C., are not yet avail- able for use. There is only one dock on the Pacific coast in which a bat- tleship can be docked. As to the docks at the New York navy yard, he says: "The large wooden dry dock at this navy yard, which -has been the principal battleship dock for more than 10 years, is now reaching a stage of deterioration which makes it advisable to undertake extensive repairs as soon as possible. Dry dock No 2 has deteriorated to a still greater extent during the past year, and is now in such condition as to render its use in docking large battle- ships inadvisable except in cases of emergency." SNOHOMISH GOES TO ALASKA. The new tug Snohomish, of the revenue cutter service, said to be the first vessel ever designed and built exclusively for life-saving work, has sailed from Norfolk on a voyage of nearly 20,000 miles to the station which she is to occupy on Neah Bay, on the Alaskan coast. The Snohomish carries all the standard equipment for such work and in addition is fitted with a de- vice which is designed for the saving of life when no other means will avail. -This is a marine cableway and breeches-buoy which will work no matter what the condition of the sea may be. The sending of the Snohomish to this station is the result of the loss of the steamer Valencia with 136 lives in the straits of Juan de Fuca, at the entrance to Puget Sound, two years ago, the government hav- ing decided to provide a means for saving lives so often endan- gered in these somewhat treacherous waters. The cableway with its breeches buoy is an adaptation of the well- known breeches buoy principle to the conditions of storm and stress. The essential principle of the cable- way is an automatic reel, which gives and takes on the cable attached to the masthead of the wreck and to the masthead of the rescuing ves- sel so that there is constantly on the cable a safe tension, no matter how the seas may toss the vessels about. This cable is landed aboard the