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October, 1910 ing period of last year, and we ex- pect will maintain the same level up to June 30. Large numbers of contracts, princi- pally for liners and special steamers, were placed during the last six months, the low cost of construction tempting many owners to reconstruct their fleets, but at present the demand has practically ceased and, while some builders are fairly well off for work, there are many very keen for orders, and contracts can be placed today practically as cheaply as they have been recently; but this cannot remain for long, as the cost of production is bound to advance _ proportionately with the increased cost of material and labor, and there are signs ahead of coming advances. 'New tramp steamers of about 7,500 tons deadweight, with ordinary specifi- cations, can be built presently at £5 per ton; in fact, a few-eomtracts for steamers of this size have been made at less, and other vessels of smaller tonnage at proportionately increased cost. Some new steamers of 6,500 tons have been sold at £5 per ton dead- weight, but now they have been dis- posed of there are not many new ves- sels left on the market. Second-hand cargo steamers can still be bought very cheaply, but they are difficult to sell, owing to the demand at present being so small, whereas the value of handy passenger and cargo steamers iS appreciating, and many have recently been sold at good prices. The amount of obsolete tonnage un-- sold is still very large, and as most of the shipbreakers are well bought, the value of such steamers has fallen. We have said for years past that there are hundreds of thousands of tons of antiquated vessels that must be de-. is no other course inevitable molished--there open--and the sooner the is faced the better for all concerned. Our government is adopting this course with regard to its old war ves- sels. The leading feature of the last six months has been the growing disposi- tion for the amalgamation of shipping interests, and the formation of large trusts. We have recently seen the Lund line absorbed by the P. & O., the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. has also been acquired by the Royal Mail Co., and a well-known Australian line, it IS said, will soon 'be bought up by One of its colleagues. Interests of Elder, Dempster & Co. have also been consolidated under one management. The important "TAE Marine REVIEW 41] Coaling Station at Tiburon navy. department has ae pleted the vessels at Tiburon on San Fran- com- coaling station for cisco bay opposite the Golden Gate, and approximately eight miles from San Francisco. This station is by no means elaborate, but has a maximum loading capacity of 500 tons per hour. It consists of a deep water wharf run- ning parallel and about 150 ft. from the shore, with a storage bunker on shore of about 10,000 tons capacity. On both sides of this bunker are con- crete floors serving as storage areas and having capacity about equal to that of the bunker. The minimum depth of water at the pier is 30 ft., enabling the largest ves- sels to coal. Obviously the pier it- self forms a harbor in which small vessels may be sheltered, though the usual practice is for the large ships to load on the exposed side. Provi- sion has been made for two independ- ent methods of coaling. Coal may be transferred directly from barges on one side of the pier to a ship on the other by means of two traveling tow- ers, each of which is equipped with a grab bucket. The second method is to bring the coal by means of a cable railway from the storage bunker on shore which is connected with the coaling pier by a trestle. The coal intended for storage is taken from the colliers by the grab bucket of the traveling tower on the deep water pier and deposited into small cars which are hauled over a connecting trestle to the top of the storage bunk- er and there automatically dumped. When these storage bunkers fill up, new shipments are discharged from the cars through chutes to the emer- gency storage on both sides of the bunker. A similar cable system is used for carrying coal from the storage to the ships. Two tracks are laid under- neath the bunkers and the cars are loaded by gravity. "They are then hauled out and up an incline on a trestle where they proceed to the coaling pier and discharge their loads into continuous lines of shallow hop- pers on both sides of the pier. The operation of this system does not in- terfere with the transfer of coal di- rectly across the pier from barges to ships with either one or both towers. Coal brought from storage by the cars and deposited into. the shallow. hop- pers is chuted by gravity to vessels. Each tower can transfer coal across the pier at the rate of 200 tons per hour, while at the same time the car system can be in operation and de- liver 300 tons in the same period. The coal deposited in the emer- gency storage on both sides of the bunker is reclaimed by the grab buck- et on the traveling tower on the bunker and can be deposited by this bucket either into the bunker or into delivery cars on top. The coaling pier is a double-decked structure 390 ft. long having a floored lower deck about 12 ft. above mean . low water and an upper deck: 38 ft. higher. The lower deck is 48 ft. wide and can be used for the storage of coal or miscellaneous material while the upper deck is 36 ft. wide between tower rails and 55 ft. wide over the coal hopper. The pier is carried on cast: iton cylinders 4 ft. in diameter filled with concrete and resting on hard bottom at depths of 30 to 70 ft. below mean water. The shote end of the trestle, beginning about 100 ft. from the pier connecting the .coaling pier with the shore plant, is of timber construction and carries four tracks. The two in- side or main tracks lead to the tracks on the coaling pier and to those on top of the bunker, forming a loop of the cable system. The outside tracks are connected to the main tracks at the point of beginning on a gravity switch. These tracks run shoreward beyond the bunker and then turn pa- rallel to it, dropping down an incline until they reach grade level at a point near the end of the bunker. Since the cars are operated by cable system they all have loops at their ends. The coal bunker is 37 ft. wide, 650 ft. long and is located about 400 ft. from the coaling pier. The con- struction of the steel towers on the 'coaling pier and on the bunker is the same. Each is a wedge-shaped steel tower about 80 ft. in height with a 30 x 36 ft. base mounted on 16 wheels on 36-ft. gage tracks. The A frame bottoms project on both sides for a distance of 70 ft. and each tower is equipped with a steam operated two- ton grab bucket. Since the tower on -- the coaling pier must be able to clear the rigging of the ships in order that the vessels may be unloaded or coaled without being moved from their first