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184 draught, 24 feet, and speed, 14 knots loaded. These ships are especially designed with regard to the carriage of passengers and freight in tropical service. The Mercantile Marine vessels, the ship building company’s statement said, will be .of 10,000-ton capacity each and are understood to be destined for use by the Atlantic Transport Co. They are 430 feet in length, with 56- foot beam and a draught of 27 feet 10 inches. They will make 11 knots when loaded. Gear Makers Organize An organization of gear manufactur- ers of the United States was effected at Lakewood, N. J., at a meeting held March 25 to 27. This organization will be known as the American Gear Manu- facturers Association and its purpose will be to advance and improve the gear industry in a general way by the stand- ardization of gear design, manufacture and application. The executive commit- tee consists of the following: F. W. Sinram, Van Dorn & Dutton Co., Cleve- land; H. F. Eberhardt, Newark Gear Cutting Machine Co., Newark, N. J.; F. D. Hamlin, Earle Gear & Machine Co., Philadelphia; Frank MHorsburgh, Horsburgh & Scott, Cleveland; Biddle Arthur, Simonds Mfg. Co., Pittsburgh ; George L. Markland, Philadelphia Gear Works, Philadelphia, and Milton Rupert, R. D. Nuttall Co., Pittsburgh. The fol- lowing officers were elected: President, F. W. Sinram; vice president, H. E. Eberhardt;. secretary, F. D. Hamlin, and treasurer, Frank Horsburgh. The next meeting of the association will be held at Pittsburgh, May 14 and 15. New Delaware River Yard The Fort Mifflin Ship Building Co., recently organized with a capital of $10,- 000,000, has purchased 160 acres on the Delaware river at Philadelphia and will begin at once to erect a large ship yard. The property purchased occupies a mile along the river front just below the Schuylkill river and dredges will be put to work immediately to improve the site for the erection of docks and wharves. Plans for the initial structure, 500x 800 feet, to contain the various shop de- partments, have been already completed. The incorporators of the new company, which has been chartered under the laws of Delaware, are A. G. Steelman, C. P. Cannon and C. M. Dombley. A proposition bythe Alaska Steamship Co. to purchase the steamships GREAT NortTHERN and NortHERN Paciric from the Great Northern Pacific Steamship Co. for $3,250,000 has not been ac- cepted. THE MARINE REVIEW Death of James H. Hoyt James H. Hoyt, a leading attorney of Cleveland, and prominent for years in Great Lakes shipping affairs, died March 21 at St. Augustine, Fla. He was 64 years of age. Mr. Hoyt had been nationally known, not only for his abilities as a lawyer, but for his patriotic and earnest devo- tion to governmental affairs. He was among the first rank as an after-dinner speaker. His interest in public ques- tions had brought him into. intimate con-- tact with most of the leaders in federal and industrial life. He was senior partner of the firm of Hoyt, Dustin, Kelley, McKeehan & Andrews, lawyers and proctors in ad- miralty, Cleveland. He was_ general counsel and director of the American Ship Building Co., director of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., a trustee of the Carnegie pension fund, secretary and director of the Pittsburgh Steamship Co. and other lake companies, second vice president, director and general counsel of the Hocking Valley railroad, secre- tary and director of the Lake Superior & Ishpeming railroad, and a director of several Cleveland banks and trust com- panies. Death of John S. Hyde John S. Hyde, president of the Bath Iron Works, Ltd., Bath, Me., died March 17 in St. Augustine, Fla., aged 50 years. He was one of the best known. ship builders in*the country, many warships having been turned out at Bath under his direction. He was born in Bath, March 15, 1867. After studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in Europe, he began work at the Bath Iron Works as an_ apprentice. After filling various positions, he _ be- came president and general manager in 1905. He was a member of several technical societies and had served. as mayor of Bath, and as state representa- tive and state senator. Ships in Ballast Over 13 ships of every hundred (13.88 per cent) making the transit of the Panama canal in 1916 went through without cargo, or in ballast. The total number of them was 174, of which 128 were passing from the Atlantic to the Pacific and 46 from the Pacific to the Atlantic. A factor in the preponderance of ballast ships from the Atlantic has been the practice of sending ships light to the Chilean nitrate ports to load quickly with nitrate for Europe and the United States. The total net tonnage of the ships in ballast during the year was 459,745, ac- cording to the rules for measurement for the canal. This was composed of 409,619 tons from the Atlantic to the May, 1917 Pacific, and 50,126 from the Pacific to the Atlantic. On the basis of net ton- nage, the ballast ships formed 11.68 per cent of the aggregate net tonnage during the year. Plan New Terminal Plans for converting the water front at Bayonne, N. J., into a modern rail- way and steamship terminal, such as within recent years has been devel- oped in Brooklyn, have been sub- mitted to the Bayonne city commis- sioners by J. Spencer Smith, presi- dent of the New Jersey state board of commerce and navigation. The re- port embodying the plans was pre- pared by Benj. F. Cresson Jr., chief engineer of the board, and F. Van Z. Lane, engineer of the Bayonne cham- ber of commerce. The report was accepted by the commissioners who now have it under advisement. Should it be approved, the project will be presented for consideration at the next session of the legislature, after which the citizens of Bayonne will take a vote on it. Inasmuch as the project is a popular one, it is believed it will be approved and carried to completion with the minimum amount of delay. The plans call for an expenditure of approximately $7,235,000, and the site of the proposed terminal includes 400 acres now under water which will be reclaimed and 20 acres now above tidewater. This site will provide dockage for 30 modern freight steam- ships as well as for smaller craft. The plan also includes a large railroad yard, a ferry terminal, four miles of bulkhead platform, large bulkhead sheds and.more than 200 acres will be set aside for the erection of industrial buildings. The site of the proposed improvements is. on New York bay and extends from East Thirty-fifth street to East Forty-sixth street, Bayonne. Harbor Expenditures at Philadelphia In connection with the table on harbor expenditures in the United States, published in the April issue of The Marine Review, George S. Web- ster, director, department of wharves, docks and ferries, Philadelphia, points out that the city of Philadelphia should have been credited with lib- eral expenditures for its harbor. From 1854 to June 30, 1916, the city ex- pended $28,770,622.15. During the same period the state of Pennsyl- vania has appropriated $1,775,000 and the Girard estate has expended $2,- 477,209.71, a grand total of $33,022,- 831.86.