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

116 steamed away. The newspapers say I accuse the captain of the Manuel Calvo of cowardice. That is only newspaper talk. The Spanish boat may have been unmanageable for some reason or other. "With my seven companions, I stayed on the floating bow all night not knowing at what time it would go down from under us. We couldn't leave as both the lifeboat and launch were smashed. : "At about. seven o'clock Monday morning a. German and an English- man came up and in a very short time (merely a matter of minutes and seconds) the German had a boat at our side and we were sliding down a rope to safety." Capt. Gunter says there are several things in connection with the accident for which he cannot account. In the first place he has no idea whatever why the Oklahoma buckled. "She was the largest of her kind under the American flag and until re- cently, in the world. On.our trip up, we were not short 1 in. of oil. There was no explosion when she broke, as. has been reported, for we were run- ning with ballast. On the contrary, there was hardly any noise whatever on account of the storm. The Okla- homa had been in much worse storms - than this one. It is too bad the bow was not towed into port for examina- tion. Another thing which was news to me was when I saw these photos is the fact that the bow turned over after we left it. However, at the time we were taken off, there was a decid- ed-list. It must have turned turtle only a short time later." Massachusetts and Its Waterways By Frank Fessenden Crane.* Massachusetts as a state has shown both ignorance and diffidence in its atti- tude toward the United States govern- ment, in regard to appropriations for waterway improvements. It has been a common occurrence to hear senators Or congressmen condemned for their inability to make a showing of govern- ment appropriations for the rivers and harbors of the state, when the facts are, that Massachusetts as a state has not submitted projects of any mag- nitude, properly surveyed and ap- proved by the United States govern- ment engineers during their tenure of office. It seems to be a well authen- ticated fact that our senators and con- gressmen-have secured about all that we have asked for in the past. For the first time in the history of the state of Massachusetts, it has failed Rivers *Director, National. and Congress. n Harbors THE MARINE REVIEW to be in the front ranks of the stu- dents of one of the greatest economic problems of the age, that of transpor- tation. Transportation is costing the people of the United States almost seven times their income from all sources of revenue, and Massachusetts is one of the states that transportation makes or breaks, as it hauls both ways, the raw material to the factory, and the manufactured article to the consumer; and yet, as a state, it has taken little or no interest in the development of the Connecticut, the Merrimac, and the improvement of Narragansett bay --the southern gateway to New Eng- land, whose waters extend further in- to the state than any other tide water, and if further extended by a canal would make it possible to deliver freights in bulk from the great lakes or the ports of the south to the port .of Boston. These three great arteries given the state by Almighty God as aids to its commerce and its prosperity, remain today almost in the same undeveloped condition of an hundred years ago. But a change is coming, the two great waterway associations of the United States--The Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, whose project is a protected waterway along the whole Atlantic seaboard; and the Na- tional Rivers and Harbors Congress, whose slogan is, "A Policy and Not a Project" --have become recognized powers in the creating of national in- terest and enthusiasm in improved transportation for the whole country. They have many prominent Massa- chusetts men in their ranks, who are asking for government surveys of these important water routes, and when they are approved by the Board of United States Engineers at Wash- ington, the government will be asked for an appropriation of money to do the work. With a state that is annually con- tributing to the national government a revenue of $35,000,000, and which has received in all time but about $19,- 000,000, it would seem proper to over- come our diffidence and ask the gov- ernment for the larger appropriations necessary to complete these great na- tional avenues cf trade, which mean so much to our industries and our state. The navy department has awarded contract to the Erie Forge Co. for 100 torpedo flasks at $582.46 each. The other bids were: Midvale Steel Co., $643.65; Bethlehem Steel Col; $646.71, and National Tube Go.. $703.50. - March, 1914 Handling Boats at Sea Editor Marine Review :--The matter of safety of life at sea has been wide- ly discussed by some of our ablest "marine architects and most practical men who have taken. part in many disasters and who have had a long career at sea which qualifies them to speak on the subject with a knowl- edge only obtained through' actual experience. De In all discussions of the subject the matter of davits and boats have re- ceived great attention. Davits as to strength, operation, installation and adaptability, boats as to capacity, shape, durability, strength, buoyancy, etc. No mention is made regarding the most essential feature, without which the ablest seaman, with the best and most modern appliances for lowering boats, is greatly handicapped and their efforts are often rendered abortive. No matter how able and experienced a sailor may be, no more should be expected of him than of a first class mechanic with poor tools to work with. In the discussions that have taken place the essential matter of freeing boats from the tackles by which they are lowered to the water seems _of such minor importance to those en- gaged in the controversy as to have been forgotten, or, through ignorance of the importance of this most es- sential feature, to have been entirely neglected. Handling boats at sea is attended with the greatest difficulty and danger and is called for at the time of great confusion and excitement, and is only accomplished by coolness and _train- ing of those performing the work. The least they have to do to suc- cessfully get the boat away from the side, when lowered: to the water, the better. Therefore, devices for detach- ing boats should be reliably automat- ic, that will only release when the boat is waterborne and not so con- structed as to require some one to pull a lever, lanyard, or throw off a latch, or do something at a critical time to free the boat from the tackles by which it is lowered to the water. A device of this kind that requires. some one to do a particular thing at the right time is not so reliable as one that requires no one to operate it, for the reason, boats are always crowded, the man whose duty it is to operate the detaching gear is liable to be interfered with so as to not be able to pull the lanyard, lever oF throw off the latch at the right time, thus making a disastrous launch of the boat; devices for this put pose that pulled off of also can be