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March, 1914 detached before the boat is water- borne, are liable to be detached inop- portunely or at an improper distance from the water, thus landing the boat heavy end or side down. It is im- possible at time of excitement to trim a boat when loading so that she will land on an even keel when dropped from a distance to the water. Instances are too numerous to men- tion, where boats have been detached in this way by some one tripping over the lanyard while getting into the boat, or throwing the lever or latch at an improper time. Another most essential factor to be taken into consideration is the hook- ing on of the boat. This is most im: portant, as boats are often used for other purposes than abandoning ship, such as making rescues, whereby de- lay, caused by not being able to hook on quickly, they are often smashed alongside, to say nothing of the dan- ger to the men in the boat. The accounts of recent disasters will confirm many of the statements here- . in. In the loss of the Titanic, as de- scribed by Mr. Lawrence Beasly, a Cambridge University man, who was a passenger, a vivid picture is given of lowering and freeing boat No. 13, in which he left the ship's side. The boat was lowered with 60 or 70 peo- ple on board, and to quote from Mr. Beasly, after reaching the _ water, with boat No. 14 coming down so close to the occupants of boat No. 13 that they could reach up and touch the bottom of boat No. 14 above them. "We had no officer aboard nor petty officer or member of the crew to take charge. So the stoker shout- ed: 'Some one find the pin which re- leases the boat from the ropes and pull it up' No one knew where it was. We felt as well as we could on the floor and sides, but found nothing, and it was hard to move among so many people. We had 60 or 70 on board." Boat No. 14 was still being lowered when he_ says, "The next drop would have brought her on our heads, but just before she dropped another stoker sprang to the ropes with his knife. One, I heard him say, two, as his knife cut through the pul- ley rope, and the next moment we were carried clear while boat No. 14 dropped into the water." Imagine what would have been the fate of those in the boat with Mr. Beasly had there been a sea on and the stoker with no. knife. Had this boat been fitted with automatic releasing device properly constructed she would have gone clear of her tackles when she reached the water. More recent accounts in the daily ly reversed THE MARINE REVIEW papers of an attempt to rescue the people from the oil steamer Okla- homa, one of the rescuing steamers failed to get two boats away, for the reason, in one of the boats some one neglected to throw back the tiny lever spilling the men in the boat into the water, and in the other boat, one man had his fingers cut off in attempting to operate the detaching gear. Many instances of this kind have appeared in the press from year to year, and can be related by "men who go down to the sea in ships". There- fore, men who perform such perilous work should be provided with the best appliances for the purpose and the selection of them should be con- sidered the major rather than the minor part of the equipment of a boat. There are times when it would be impossible to safely launch a boat with the best automatic devices, but how much more difficult would it be at that time to perform the same work with devices that are complicated in construction and require some one to operate them at a critical time when all is confusion and excitement. James Richardson. "New York, Feb. 26. Pearl Harbor Dry Dock The navy department has complete- its policy in the con- struction: of the dry dock at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, through the appoint- ment of a special board of engineers to submit estimates for completion of the work under the plans of Civil Engineer Alfred Noble, New York. From these estimates the department will decide whether to proceed with the work under contract. or handle the dry dock construction itself. The members of the board are Civil Engi- neers L. M. Cox and F. R. Harris, the former stationed at the Norfolk navy yard, and the other at the New York yard. They have been instruct- ed to take up the work at once and complete it with the utmost dispatch, in order that construction along the new lines may be begun at the earliest possible date. Work on the Pearl Harbor dock had proceeded satisfactorily under the government's contract with the San Francisco Bridge Co. until Jan. 17, when the entire concrete floor of the structure was lifted bY a, tremen- dous subsurface pressure. At that time the contractors complained to the navy department that the plans for the dock were not suited to the conditions as they had developed. At their' request an expert on the foun- dation conditions was sent to Hawaii, Engineer Noble being selected. His Lily report was to the effect that the plans should be changed to meet with con- ditions that had developed. Two weeks ago the were ordered to proceed with the work on the first plans, but Saturday this order was revoked by the new decision. The total contract for the dock, to be 1,000 feet long, involves approximately $3,200,000, a large part of which had been expended when the floor became raised a year ago. Sale of Naval Vessels Several obsolete naval vessels are about to be advertised for sale by the navy department. Among them is the Manila, an iron, schooner-rigged ves- sel, of 1,750 tons displacement, built at Leith, Scotland, in 1881, captured from .the Spaniards at Manila, and now at the navy yard, Mare Island, Calif. The vessel is appraised at $10,- 000 and will be sold on May 4. Another vessel to be sold is the Restless, a converted iron yacht of 158 tons displacement, built in 1887, and now at Newport, R. I., the ap- praised value being $2,000. It had been intended to sell the sec- ond class cruiser Newark, which has been the station ship at Guantanamo, Cuba, and now is at the navy yard, - Norfolk, having an appraised value of $50,000, but the vessel has been with- drawn, and will be turned over to the public health service. Some con- sideration has been given to the sale of the Independence, which has been used as a receiving ship at Mare Isl- and, Calif., but citizens of Vallejo, Calif., have expressed a desire to have the ship turned over to them for pres- ervation as a relic. This is a wooden vessel, built at Boston, in 1837, and having a displacement of 3,270 tons. The Pusey & Jones Co., Wilming- ton, Del., has been awarded a contract to build a. 192-ft. steel steam yacht for E. L. Ford, of Detroit, Mich., and Robert Jacob, of City Island, has re- ceived a contract for a similar craft 188 ft. long from Edward Ford, of Toledo, O. Both vessels were de- signed by William Gardner & Co., of New York, and will have engines built by the Gas Engine & Power Co., and Charles L. Seabury & Co., Cons., of © Morris Heights, N. Y. The latter will also furnish the boilers for E. L. Ford's yacht, and the Almy Water Tube Boiler Co., of Providence, R. 1, ~ will supply the boilers for the Edward Ford yacht. contractors ~