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——_—_ _ Latest Data on New Marine Work Information on New Ships Ordered—Building and Repair Con tracts Let—Shipping Board Loans Made, Authorized or Pending N Mar. 1 there were under O construction in American ship- yards 26 vessels for foreign trade costing in the aggregate $116,- 838,324.64. In addition there were five vessels being reconstructed for overseas trade at a cost of $8,828,850. The majority of these vessels when completed will be operated in routes covered by ocean mail contracts under terms of the Jones-White law. Loans covering 75 per cent of the construc- tion cost of these vessels, have been authorized by the shipping board. Since creation of the original con- struction loan fund of the shipping board in 1923, loans have been made on 42 vessels completed for domestic and foreign trade. The total cost of these vessels was $78,875,319.20. Ac- cording to the monthly report of the shipping board vessels now under con- struction in American shipyards ay- erage about 33 per cent completion. Three New Diesel Electric Ships Are Planned According to reports the Interna- tional Mercantile Marine Co. has de- cided to enter the Seattle-New York service with three new diesel-electric passenger ships, which it is said, will be faster and larger than the CALI- FORNIA, VIRGINIA and PENNSYLVANTA, Plans for the new vessels which will cost about $10,000,000 each have been virtually completed and bids will be asked in the near future. New Eastern Ships Will Enter Service in 1932 The two new steel ships to be built by the Newport News Ship Building & Dry Dock Co. for the Eastern Steamship Co., contract for which was announced in the March issue of Ma- RINE REVIEW, will be ready for serv- ice in 1932. One of the ships, which will operate between Boston and St. John, N. B. is scheduled to make her maiden voyage on May 1 and the other ship, which will run between New York and Yarmouth, will make her first trip on June 15. The new steamers will be twin- screw, oil-burning ships with a speed of 20 and 22 knots and a cruising ra- dius of 13 days at 18 knots. They will each have a capacity of 756 pas- sengers in addition to a crew of 178 men and will have a freight carrying capacity of 158,900 cubic feet. 80 The ships will each be 402 feet 9 inches in length, 61 feet beam, will have a depth of 29 feet 9 inches and will be of nearly 10,000 tons displace- ment. There will be 14 suites with tub baths, shower and toilet on each ship, 12 special rooms with toilet, shower, twin beds and folding upper berth; four special rooms with toilets, twin beds and folding upper berths, and 15 rooms with toilet, shower and Pull- man __berths. Thirty-seven special rooms will have toilets, upper and lower berths with settees, two state- rooms with twin beds and folding berths, and there will be 102 state- rooms with upper and lower berths . and settees. Highty staterooms will be equipped with upper and lower berths. . Besides, there will be free berth accommodations for 57 men and 30 women. In the dining rooms, the seating capacity on each ship will be for 250 persons. Each ship will have two sets of single reduction geared turbines of the shipbuilding company’s Parsons type with underslung condensers, shaft horsepower of 11,400, four Bab- cock & Wilcox oil burning watertube boilers, a working pressure of 375 pounds with 210 degrees super heat or a total temperature of 650 degrees and the ships will be equipped with electric motor driven auxiliaries. Lux fire extinguishing and Rich fire de- tecting systems with steam smother- ing lines in all cargo compartments will be installed and an automatic fire alarm in each compartment and state- room. In the saloon passageways there will be 12 sliding steel doors and the galleys will be electrically equipped. FT Navy Department to Build Eleven Destroyers Construction of eleven new ships will be undertaken by the department of the navy during the coming fiscal period. Due to necessary design and other preliminary work, contracts for the construction of ten destroyers and one destroyer leader will probably not be placed before July 1. Con- struction of the eleven destroyers will require an ultimate expenditure of $47,000,000, the leader being estimated at $5,000,000 and the other ten at $4,- 200,000 each. The final plans for the modernization of the three battle Ships IpaHwo, Mississippr and NEw MExIco, are being completed and the MARINE REeview—April, 1931 selection of the yards where the work is to be done is expected to be an- nounced in the near future. It ig probable that the work will be done in East Coast navy yards. It is quite possible that some of the eleven de. stroyers may have to be built in pri- vate yards, since the work already on hand will make it impossible to build all of the vessels in navy yards. Electrical Contract for Cruiser ls Awarded Receipt of an order in excess of $500,000: from the navy department for the main propelling machinery and engine room auxiliaries for a new 10,000-ton treaty cruiser is an- nounced by the Westinghouse Elec- tric & Mfg. Co. The new vessel, designated as Cruiser No. 38, is yet unnamed and will be built at the Mare Island yard, California. Her four main geared- turbines will deliver a shaft horse- power of 107,000 giving the vessel a speed of 35 knots. The electrical equipment will be a duplicate of that ordered for Cruisers 37, 34 and 36 all being for Westinghouse machinery. The cruiser will have a main arma- ment of nine 8-inch guns. Bids Opened for Building Two Suction Dredges Bids were opened March 15 at the United States engineer’s office, Memphis, Tenn., for the construction of two steel hull, self-propelled suc- tion dredges. These vessels will be 214 feet long molded, 46-foot mold- ed beam, 9-foot molded depth, 3- foot draft, and estimated weight 1073 tons. The hull will be of box shape with tunneled and raked aft body. There will be five side-to-side transverse bulkheads, four longitudi- nal bulk heads and a center line keel- son. Partial bulkheads will be ar- ranged to form foundations for the machinery, to enclose the bunkers and to separate the wings from the main body of the hull. The main deckhouse will be built entirely of steel 140 feet long, 35 feet wide and 12 feet high. The propelling machinery will be vertical, jtriple expansion, marine type steam engines, each capable of delivering not less than 600 indi- cated horsepower at 180 revolutions per minute when supplied with steam