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302 by three Babcock and Wilcox water- tube boilers, working at 225 lbs. pres- sure. The shafting is continuous from end to end of the vessel with a propeller on each end. Coal is used for fuel, the bunkers being located in each wing of the boiler space. Two stacks are provided. The specified speed for this vessel is 14 statute miles per hour, which was exceeded with ease on a recent trial. Elected General Manager Alfred G. Smith was elected gen- eral manager of the American Ship Building Co. at a meeting of the board of directors held on Wednesday, June 17. Mr. Smith served his apprentice- ship in the yard of the Globe Iron Works, Cleveland, under the direc- tion of his father, who was one of the pioneer lake ship builders, and at ALFRED G. SMITH that time superintendent of the Globe yard. He entered the Globe yard in 1886. His experience has not been wholly confined to hull construction, having served in the machinery de- partment with Walter Miller during _the construction of the Great. North- ern Steamship Co.'s steamers North Land and North West. After serving in the drafting department of the Globe yard, Mr. Smith was appointed foreman of hull construction at Lo- rain in 1898, remaining there until 1901, when he was appointed superin- tendent of the Buffalo Dry Dock Co. In 1902, he was made general super- intendent of the Chicago Ship Build- ing Co., which office he held. until THE MARINE REVIEW 1908, when he resigned to go into business for himself as a naval arch- it wil be seen that he has itect. been actively associated with the construction of all types of - lake vessels since boyhood. Olympic Larger Than Aquitania Shipping men and_ trans-Atlantic travelers on both shores of the big pond are talking of the latest surprise in marine circles--the official figures just issued at Lloyds showing that the White Star steamer Olympic is entitled to the distinction of being called Britain's largest liner, because she is 712 tons larger than the Cun- arder Aquitania. It always has been an established rule of the sea that the vessel having the greatest tonnage is considered the largest, and the fol- lowing comparisons of these two steamers will be found most inter-. esting: Olympic Aquitania Gross tonnage)... 3. 46,359 45,647 Underdeck tonnage.35,043 28,408 Net tonnage 327, 22,350 21,993 eenoth: 35 ea S62 tt, Gin: 901 ft;:0 tn. Beams se cr: 92:tt.5 in. 97 ft. 0 in; Depth ox SO ft, bin. A94t7 in. The Olympic and the White Star's newest leviathan, Britannic, now un- der construction, which is 50,000 tons gross register, are the two largest British steamers. Navigation in Fog Whenever a terrible accident oc- curs people rush into .print with all sorts of foolish suggestions. It was so after the Titanic disaster and is so after the Empress of Ireland dis- aster. But once in a while a sug- gestion is made that does seem to have many practical elements about it. For instance, a correspondent in a Liverpool contemporary has sug- gested that had the boats of both the Empress of Ireland and the Storstad been cleared for lowering, though not swung out, the probabilities are that a far greater number of lives would have been saved. His. suggestion is that it should be a rule that all the passenger lines should during fog make a point of mustering the boat's crew and have all the boats cleared for lowering so that they might in case of accident be put in the water, providing weather conditions per- mitted. And, furthermore, he urges fiat. during fog "in smooth- water would be a good time for boat drill, and this would serve the purpose of being ready for anything that might happen while at the same time caus- ing no. alarm to passengers, August, 1914 The Alexander Seaman's Bill By a unanimous vote the house com- mittee on merchant marine reported the LaFollette Seamen's Bill, but so changed in form that it will henceforth pe known as the Alexander bill. Repre- sentative Alexander attended the re- cent conference in London and _ prac- tically redrafted the measure in accord- ance with the conclusions of that con- ference. The life boat provisions have been amended so that boats operating on courses five miles from shore must carry a complement of life boats and rafts to accommodate 50 per cent of the licensed passenger capacity. Of this number of rafts and boats, two-fifths may be in life boats and three-fifths in rafts. The provision requiring two able seamen for each boat has been g0 amended that they may be drafted from any department of the crew. Lake freighters which go on trips of more than 13 hours between ports are re- quired to carry a full life boat equip- ment to accommodate everybody on board. Lake bulk freighters now carry life boat equipment for practically double the number of the crew. There is one provision in the bill, however, which will give steamship owners operating passenger boats on the lakes some trouble, and that is the provision that all lake passenger vessels bolt: after July 1, 1915, must be con- structed after a new type in order to comply with the proposed law, since all such vessels will be required to carry a full complement of life boats to accommodate every passenger. The superstructure of the side-wheelers on the lakes is such that the boat deck could not sustain any such weight as is here contemplated. It will be necessary to build another kind of ship altogether and one that probably could not be operated profitably at present rates. Gen. Garret -J. Lydecker, who had charge of many important improve- ments on the lakes, died at his home in Detroit on Thursday. He was as- signed to the lakes in 1878 and had charge of the original survey for im- proving St. Clair river and _ building ime St. Clair Flats canal. "He super vised the completion of the Poe lock at the Sault. His latest assignment was the improvement of the Detroit river. He retired in 1907. The port of Astoria commission has received the following bids for dredg- ing the harbor of Astoria, Ore.; Stand- ard American Dredging Co., Oakland, Cal., $202,500; Puget Sound Bridge & Dredging Co., $206,250; Guthrie-Mc- Dougel Co., $212,500; Tacoma Dredg- ing Co., $186,250.