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1901.] sisting of state room, sitting room and bath room. The second-class passengers have a large airy dining room, comfortable ladies’ drawing ig gentlemen’s smoking room, likewise fitted with bar and barber shop. The complement of the vessels will consist of about 200 men each. the officers being located on the upper deck abaft the galley and around the engine casings, the petty officers being forward. The after part of the main deck will be fitted up for the carrying of cattle, but both the cattle fittings and the steerage berths forward will be portable, so as to be re- moved to enable these holds to be filled with general cargo, if desired. The vessels carry about 8,000 tons of water ballast, and about 5,000 tons of coal, the holds having cubical capacity sufficient to carry about 26,000 tons of coal. The dead-weight capacity of these vessels is stated at about 20,000 tons. They will cost in the neighborhood of $2,500,000 each. The keels are already laid for a length of about 400 ft., and the vertical keels, floors and longitudinals are now being rapidly erected. The first vessel will probably launch about March, 1902, the second vessel following soon after. THE EASTERN SHIP BUILDING CO.’S PLANT. The Eastern Ship Building Co., builders of the vessels just described, have recently completed the first stage of the erection of a very inter- esting plant for the construction of steel ships of every type. Although this yard has been planned to be of capacity sufficient to construct the largest vessels in the world, yet the number and floor space of its shops and amount of money expended is much smaller than that of some other American ship yards, principally owing to the fact that the company has decided, for the time being, to sublet orders for the machinery of vessels that they contract to build. At this time there are no large machine shops, boiler shops or foundries at the New London works, the plant consisting of a number of efficient and well-arranged buildings fitted to economically and rapidly construct the hulls complete, of vessels of every type. The promoters of this company apparently believe that there is economy in specializing, and that by following a plan that has already found favor in MARINE REVIEW. * Morro Castle, Ward Line Steamship. Among the handsome steamships turned out during the year, the Morro Castle, built for the New York & Cuba Mail Steamship Co. (Ward line) by the William Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Co., must be included. This excellent vessel went into commission during the fall of 1900 and has already beaten the record of the Havana and Mexico, which are employed by the Ward line in the coasting trade between New York and Havana. The Morro Castle has exceeded her requirement Of-a sus- tained sea speed of over 18 knots per hour. The general dimensions oi the vessel are as follows: Length on load water line, 400 ft.; breadth, molded, 50 ft.; depth, 36 ft. 6 in.; gross registered tonnage, 6,004; net tonnage, 3,732; displacement at load draught, 8,280 tons; deep load draught, 21 ft.; light draught forward, 8 ft. 10 in.; light draught aft, 15 ft. 7 in.; light draught, mean, 12 ft. 2% in; capacity of bunkers, 915 tons. The hull is subdivided by six water tight compartments. In the construc- tion of the vessel only the best of steel was used. The frames are of bulb angle steel, 7 in. by 3% in. by 20 lbs., carried up alternately to the hurri- cane and main declss from stern to within 60 ft. of stem, forward of which all frames are carried to hurricane deck. The frame spacing is 24 in. The main, lower and orlop decks are completely of steel, while the hurricane and shade decks are of wood with steel stringers, tie plates and margin plates. The vessel has a double bottom for nearly her entire length, which not only affords additional protection in case of grounding, but can be utilized for carrying water ballast or a fresh water supply for the boilers. The capacity of the trimming and double bottom tanks are as follows when filled with salt water: Forward trimming tank, 121 tons; after trim- ming tank, 165 tons; double bottom compartments, 746 tons; total, 1,032 tons. The vessel can be converted into an auxiliary cruiser on a few hours’ notice. Special strengthening and foundations are provided to carry three 6-in. guns on the hurricane deck, and eight 6-in. guns on the main deck. The arrangements of the upper deck are such that an efficient secondary battery can be easily installed. The hold spaces are very large and magazines in the immediate vicinity can be easily and expeditiously Steamship Morro Castle, for the Ward Line. Built by the Wm. Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Co., Philadelphia. Europe they can buy machinery auxiliaries, various types of fittings, and articles of equipment for the vessels that they build from companies that make a specialty of each of these items at a price much cheaper than it would cost to produce the same articles themselves. The ship yard covers a plot of land of about forty acres, well located at the old Groton terminus of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. The railroad facil- ities are ideal and the water front of almost a mile in extent is unrivalled in the country. The works are located within two miles of the mouth of the Thames river, and a channel with a minimum depth of 65 ft. ap- proaches the works. The buildings at this time include a plate shop 80 ft. wide, containing every variety of heavy steel working tools, manufactured by Hilles & Jones Co., Hill, Clarke & Co., the Niles Tool Works ‘Co. and the Cleve- land Punch & Shear Works. All these tools are operated by steam. A large Ingersoll-Sargeant air compressor is located in the north end ot the shop and furnishes power for the pneumatic tools used in the con- struction of the vessels. The boiler house and blacksmith shop is a brick building containing four boilers of about 1,000 H.P., manufactured by the Erie ‘City Iron Works. The plate and angle furnaces are of large size, opening onto a bending floor about 80 ft. long and 50 ft. wide. A large three-story building, 250 ft. long and 70 ft. wide, contains the carpenter shop, joiner shop and mould loft. The joiner shop contains a fine set of quick-running American wood working tools, all steam driven; the pipe and ship machine shop is south of the joiner shop, and is well arranged with modern high-class tools. The office is a three-story building, 70 ft. long and 30 ft. wide, the draughting room being on the third floor. The usual paint shops, rigging loft, store rooms, etc., are located to a good advantage throughout the works. Considerable land is available for stowage. All material coming by rail enters the plant from the south end, and is unloaded and stored by means of locomotive cranes. The arrangement for handling material over the building ways is one of the most ingenious contrivances that has ever been devised. The scheme consists of a series of steel spars, each supporting a yard about 200 ft. long, and a-series of cable ways runs upon these yards distributing the material to any part of the ship. arranged. There is a complete below-water fire main for special use when converted into an auxiliary cruiser, this main having risers to the prin~ cipal upper compartments. The fire service, which will be used when serving as a merchant vessel, is entirely independent above the water and under the upper deck. There is an efficient pumping system for freeing the ship of water in case of bilging lower compartments, and the vessel is well subdivided into water tight compartments, there being a water tight door on the water tight bulkhead between two fire rooms. The passenger accommodations are roomy and well ventilated and provide for 186 first-class, sixty second-class and forty-four steerage. The vessel is propelled by twin screws, driven by two vertical, four cylinder, triple expansion engines, making about 8,000 I.H.P. at 100 revolutions with a working steam pressure of 170 lbs. The cylinders are as follows: High pressure cylinder, 32 in., intermediate pressure, 52 in., two low pressure, each 60 in. The propellors are of the three-bladed, solid type, of Parsons manganese bronze of the modified Griffith type. There are eight main boilers of the single-ended return tubular, cylindrical marine type, each 14 ft. 234 in. in diameter by 10 ft. 514 in. There are three Morison corrugated furnaces in each boiler, the same being 39 in. in diameter. The working pressure is 170 lbs. The total grate surface is 442 sq. ft. and the total heating surface 18,200 sq. ft. For forced draft there are four Sturte- vant fans. The interior fittings of the steamship are not excelled by any- thing afloat. The dining room is especially fine, while the distinguishing feature of the ship is the smoking room. Following are some of the firms who have contributed to the out- fitting of the vessel: American Ship Windlass Co., Providence, R. I., windlasses and steam capstans; Williamson Bros., Philadelphia, steering engine; General Electric Co., electric plant; Weston Electrical Instrument Co., ammutators and voltometers; Page Bros & Co., Boston, running, mast head, stern and anchor lights; Thomas Drein & Son, Wilmington, Del., boats and rafts. Capt. Thomas Currie of Port Huron, aged fifty years, died on Friday last. He was a member of the Shipmasters’ Association of the Great Lakes.