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28 vice in the boiler rooms and undoubt- edly great advantages in saving weights. In particular, the weight saved in the German ships cannot fail to be very great in that item. I' think we are undoubtedly moving in the direction of some such inter- mediate type of boiler as Mr. Wether- bee recommends. I think it is a ques- tion for the consideration' of engineers who have to do with warships. Mr. L. H. Chandler: It is possible that I have had as much experience with the type of boiler that Mr. Weatherbee speaks of as any one in the service. From the point of view of practical operation, I had the grate built by the Bath Iron Works, and had a great deal of experience with them, and also with a good many other types of torpedo boilers, and my experience is that the Normand boiler--from my personal point of view--I would rather take care of it and operate it than any other type of boiler I know, as I had less diffi- culty with it and secured much better practical results, They are easy to clean, and it is possible to clean the most difficult places, that it, where the tubes enter the lower drum, it is re- markable in that. particular the ease with which you can clean them, es- pecially the lower drum and guard against pitting of the tubes around the part where they enter the lower drum. Mr. Forbes: How do you do it? Mr Chander: . The 'form .of the casing is such that it forms a pocket below. and outside of the lower drum, and you get inside, preferably with an air blast, and blow through, and the dirt drops out. into this pocket, and you hook it out with a hoe. I know of nothing so easy or satisfac- tory as that arrangement. As far as forcing the boiler is con- cerned, I tried on one cccasion, when we were trying to speed up a little on the boat--there wes a sort of family competition among the water tenders on the different boats; I was in the engine rom and did not intend to force her, and I looked at the air gage on the aft fire room, and found the water tender running with 10 im, Of air pressure. It was doing beautifully. [I do not know how long they ran that way, but the boiler never said anything about it, except to furnish steam. Ihe Heffernan Dry Dock Co., Se- attle, Wash., thas the contract for con. verting the bark St. James into a barge for her new owner, James Grif- fiths, of Seattle. 'of South American Republics. -except the THe MARINE REVIEW MERCHANT MARINE CONGRESS. The Merchant Marine Congress, which continued in session practically throughout the whole . of last week in the Metropolitan Temple, New York, was of the utmost importance. Illness kept Mr. Edwin S. Cramp, of Philadelphia, from presiding at the opening session on Monday, Feb. 1, but his place was ably filled by Congressman W. E. Humphreys, of Washington, who delivered the princi- pal address. On Tuesday evening Mr, Louis Lombard presided and the principal address was made by John Barrett, director of the International Bureau Mr. Barrett spoke of the South American market offering greater openings for the extension of American. foreign trade than any other port of the world. He urged New York to be che leader in the development of this trade. He said, however, that it was just as important to have facilities on sea as on land to advance inter- national intercourse. The immeasur- able benefit to commerce of quick mail exchanges and the unquestionable advantages of fast and commodious means of communication now pos- sessed by Europe, and entirely neg- lected by the United States, are self- evident to every student. No line now flying the American flag goes south of Panama. The principal speaker on Wednes- day evening was Hon -j.-T.. Me- Cleary, of Minnesota. He was intro- duced by Mr.. Edwin S.: Cramp, Mri McCleary is especially well informed on American shipping, as he was for 'several years in charge of the delivery of the mails oversea. Mr. McCleary's views are very clear. He definitely advocates subsidy. The Pacific ocean, he declared, with its enormous Ameri- can coast line, should be an American lake, yet, today, there are only seven ships flying the American flag. Henry Clews, the banker, spoke on Thursday evening. Mr. Clews ad- vocated free 'ships, but in this view he was most vigorously attacked by Mr. Joseph G. Butler Jr., president of the Merchant Marine League of the United States. He maintained that free ships would accomplish nothing destruction of American ship yards and pointed out that Presi- dent Roosevelt, President-elect Taft and Speaker Cannon are definitely in favor of subsidies. Robert Watchorn, of the immigration department, also opposed the building of American ships in foreign yards. Such a policy, he declared, would result in the low- ering of wages of American seamen, At the concluding session on Fr. day, Col. John T. McCook presided, the principal address being delivereg by Mr. Leslie M. Shaw, formerly, sec- retary of the treasury. Mr. Shaw proved a most vigorous and eloquent speaker. He referred to the cruise of American battleships around the world, pointing out that they were accompanied by 47 foreign colliers that would be withdrawn at a mo- ment's notice. THE CITY OF EVERETT. (Capt. Alex McDougall, of Duluth, believes that the steamship Republic, which sank off Naptucket, could have been saved if the' ves- sels master had allowed the whaleback steam- er City of Everett to take his ship in tow. "The city of Everett cuuld have towed the Republic to Liverpool if it were merely a matter of power,' said Capt. McDougall. "The whaleback is a powerful vessel and there are few, if any, boats on the ocean better adapted to the very work. I think it was a great mis- take on the part of the master of the Re. public that he did not accept the offer of the master of the whaleback, for he doubtless could have taken the ship to the shore of Martha's Vineyard and there beached her. It is the popular theory that a large vessel cannot be towed at sea, unless she has a rudder, but in weather such as_ prevailed at the. time of the loss of the Republic, it would certainly have been managed. There would be a tendency to strain from side to side, but she would have come ahead all right." The steamer City of Everett gives the story of the Republic something of a local color, for she was a whaleback and her hull was planned in Duluth and built at Everett, Wash., the Duluth News-Tribune says. She is now in the employ of the Standard Oil Co., and her career has included numerous incidents of more than ordinary interest. She carried a cargo of food to the famine sufferers of In- dia, and was the last merchant vessel to quit a Spanish port at the breaking out of the war of 1898. The City of Everett was in the Galveston storm, and her success in making the bay and coming to anchor was commented on at the time. The cargo of food referred to was grain contributed by the people of the Pacific coast. Her visit to India and her subsequent passage through the Suez canal, and in fact her whole voyage, was a sensation, for besides her whale- back build she was the first merchant steamer seen in those waters flying the American flag and it is probable the only one. She may be said to be the only American merchant steamer to have circled the globe. She was the only ship built in the yards of the Pacific Steel Barge Co, as the Everett yard of the parent concern at Superior was known. Her machinery was built by the old Frontier Iron Works, of Detroit, from designs from Mr. Henry Pen- ton, and was installed by Mr. Jas. M. Smith, now manager of the Col- lingwood Shipbuilding Co. Her first master, who also navigated her on her eventful trip, was R. D. Bucknam, formerly on the lakes and now Buck- nam Pasha, at the head of the Turk- ish navy, into which service he went with the delivery of the cruiser Medj- idia, built for the sultan by the Cramp Co., of Philadelphia, in 1904.'