The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

MARINE REVIEW. Indicator Cards, Series No. |. (From Engines built by the Frontier Iron Works.) Bian « VACUUM =~ beeches 35.5°VY F- SA UBE -FR—- REVOLUTIONS - 78 oe TOP sr NOS — LAKE ERIE, AUG2/ ST /89/ 1-160 SHIP LOADED WEATHER FINE Steam 159 }bs M E P.-70.56 Vac. oes HP. -369.51 Rey. = PRE a Nall Spring8o Semen B 1- 64 COAL CONSUMPTION. 1.56 LBS. PER H.P PER HOUR, MEP 219 1HP 29127 ! | reat Se Sprmng 10. CuT-orr 25° MER - 7,22 H.P. -275.8 ee 1H P 286.27 —Ewe. 20" 32'%54'x42°—- TRIPLE EXPANSION ENGINE ,20732°%54" x42? STEAMER MAJESTIC 153 23.5 | H,R-315.63 ——————— Sra. FBP MNOS A Traiere Ene /9 30° 852% 40° BOTTOM aw 4 2 2¢ oA gy 385-904 LOAD, 2782 Tons. OTS ‘ The Sauber’s engines have piston valves throughout, and Joy valve gearon the h.p. cylinder. Cards from F. & P. M. No, 5 engines were taken in mid-winter. TOTAL HORSE POW EA-95894 Still Discussing the Whalebacks. Leading technical journals of England are still discussing the whaleback vessels, as a result of the trip of the Wetmore across the Atlantic,and the criticism in some cases is very severe. The Engineer of London, one of the leading trade publications, describes the Wetmore in all her parts, giving also the comments of naval architects on the boat, and then says editorially: “Our transatlantic kinsmen are just at present occupied upon the modest and promising task of teaching their grand- parents the way to make barges. Great Britain which believes herself to be the mistress of the seas, and is so far entitled to do so as is warranted by the possession of the most powerful navy, and eleven and a half out of the twenty-two millions constituting the world’s total mercantile tonnage, is now being instructed by a citizen of the United States in the art of designing and build- ing steamers for the ocean-carrying trade. Of course, there is nothing preposterous in this fact, and it is quite possible that our shipbuilders and shipowners have hitherto been working upon upon a wrong principal, but, to put it in the mildest way, we don’t think it very likely. At all events it is desirable to be fully informed in what particulars the ordinary ship-shape type of steamer is inferior to the whaleback, and to assure ourselves that under every circumstance the whaleback is superior to the ship-shape type before we discard the latter for the former. Many queer craft have succeeded in crossing the Atlantic, ranging from a 14-foot dory to the Miantonomah, but we could as soon expect the last named vessel to be the model for future war fleets as for the Charles W. Wetmore to be the pattern for coming Atlantic liners.” This last comment brings out a well written article of de- fense for the barges from the Army and Navy Journal of New York. ‘Our nervous contemporary may quiet its fears concern- ing the dangers of the whaleback steamers,” says the Journal, “and accept our confident assurance that they are destined to teach commercial England a lesson that will not soon be forgot- ten. They are destined in the end to convince the last skeptic. of the soundness of the principles of ocean navigation that John Ericsson discovered half a century ago, and for which he—with all his energy and his splendid success during our civil war— was able to obtain but temporary acceptance. Capital and com- _ mercial interests are now enlisted in behalf of his ideas, and pro- fessional prejudices will prove powerless in the face of the new arguments in support of the monitor system thus furnished. Abundant capital is invested in this whaleback enterprise, Among those interested are the all powerful Rockefellers, Henry Villard and others we might name. They will not waste their money on an impracticable idea. Thus far they have found nothing but encouragement in this new application of the princi- ple Ericsson declared was certain to triumph, though its triumph might be delayed for a century. The C. W. Wetmore, repeat- ing the experience of the monitor Monadnock, is to make a voy- age around Cape Horn to the north Pacific coast, and has already started on her way, after having been thrown open for a few days to the inspection of curious visitors. . To satisfy its doubts as to the seaworthiness of this type of vessel, the Engineer should re- call what John Rodgers of our navy said just after he had weathered a gale with the monitor Weehawken, when ‘‘the sea was about thirty feet high.” The behavior of the vessel on this occasion he described as ‘‘easy, buoyant and indicative of thorough safety.”’ Headds: ‘Her movements filled me with admiration. I saw in them everything to admire, nothing to im- prove. ‘The waves rolled furiously across the deck. Instead of spending their force against the side, as in an ordinary vessel, they swept harmlessly by.” The article then goes on to say that the idea that low free- board vessels are not sea-worthy originates in accidents not in- volved in the design itself; that the monitors were lost through causes other'than any fault in their design and that a low turtle back which allows the disturbed seas to pass over, permits higher speed an1 is taken advantage of in the modern ocean tramp, ren- dering safe an otherwise very unseaworthy vessel. ‘“Ihe whalebacks mark a changein the conditions of the ocean carrying trade which will in our deliberate judgment be revolutionary,” the Journal says in conclusion. ‘That those whose interests are against them are skeptical proves nothing. Now that mercantile vessels illustrating the idea of Ericsson are actually afloat, it is beyond ’ the power of those who oppose them to mislead the world as to. the facts, as it has been misled in the case of the Monitor.” _ Sele eB Seige