PROFESSIONAL NOTES
Prepared by Lieutenant R. A. Hall, U. S. Navy
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FRANCE
Warships Dropped by French Senate.—The French Senate, by a vote of 235 to 2, adopted the naval program calling for abandonment of the construction of warships of the Normandie type, the transformation of the dreadnaught Beam into a mother ship for airplanes, and the laying down of certain light units.
In the discussion preceding the vote Viscount de Kerguezec, president of the Senate's navy committee, declared:
"Henceforth, it will be impossible to make any resolution whatever concerning naval matters without taking into account what happened at Washington."
M. de Kerguezec discussed at length the much-talked-of Castex incident, and declared that the opinion of Captain Castex, whose article on the submarine, published by the Revue Maritime, figured in the submarine discussions at the Washington conference, was purely personal. The speaker declared the French Parliament long ago repudiated the doctrine of submarine piracy and considered the submarine a purely defensive weapon.
M. de Kerguezec strongly urged adoption of the program because, he said, it soon would be impossible to embark France's crews and officers for lack of ships. "We were much surprised to learn," he said, "that the naval program laid before the Washington Conference in the name of France was drawn up by the naval general staff, although really no naval program can be presented in the name of France unless it has been approved by Parliament."
The French naval program, as previously cabled to this country, provides for the construction of three cruisers, of 8,000 tons, 98,000 horse-power, 38 knots, with eight guns of 150 millimeters each, four guns of 75 millimeters and twelve torpedo tubes; six torpedo destroyers and twelve torpedo-boats, the destroyers of 2,500 tons, 35 ½ knots, with six 18-centimeter guns and six torpedo tubes, and the torpedo-boats of 1,400 tons, 32 ½ knots, together with twelve submarines of 1,100 tons and an action radius of 7,000 miles. —Washington Post, 18 March, 1922.
French Air Budget.—The French air budget for 1922, as passed by Parliament, totals approximately 436,000,000 francs. The main appropriations are: Minister of War, for home squadrons, 214,287,500 francs; Algeria and Tunis, 9,936,490 francs; Morocco, 22,173,092 francs; total 246,397,082 francs. Under Secretary of State Department for Aeronautics: 147,219,970 francs, which includes foreign air attaches, 200,000 francs; technical service, 5,400,000 francs; prizes and subsidies for commercial aviation. 45,382,000 francs. Ministry of Marine, 37,318,543 francs; Ministry of Colonies, 4,991,000 francs.
Of considerable interest and importance are the figures now available for the past year's growth of flights and passengers and freight carried. For the full twelve months to December 31, 1921, compared with 1920. The figures are: 1921—flights, 4,022; passengers, 13,369; goods, 150,309 kg.: mails, 3.308 kg. 1920—flights, 3.359; passengers 6,850; goods, 120,745 kg.; mails, 1,474 kg. For the month of December the figures are: 148 flights (arrivals and departures), 359 passengers. 7,277 kg. of freight, and 84 kg. of mails. These figures are for the airways in operation between Paris and London; Paris. Brussels, and Amsterdam; Paris, Strasbourg, Prague, and Warsaw; Paris and Amsterdam; and Paris and Havre.—Aviation, 3 March, 1922.
Oil by Pipe-Line to Paris.—It seems probable, says a Paris report, that within the next three months plans may be approved for the laying of a pipe-line between Havre and Paris to convey petroleum and petrol direct from tank steamers to the French capital. The concessionaires have to establish at their own cost works for the transport of a minimum of 2,400 tons of petroleum per day between Havre and Paris, with reservoirs at each end of the line representing a minimum total capacity of 60,000 tons.—Engineering and Industrial Management, 2 February, 1922.
French Ports Open to German Vessels.—German vessels bound for South and North America will enjoy all privileges of the international commerce and shipping regulations and will be permitted to call at French ports, "providing the German companies fulfill the commerce and shipping rules." This statement was made to the Associated official quarters today.
First among these rules is that a request be made for permission to enter a port of call, which, it was said, was not done in the case of the German steamer Cape Polonio or in any other instance; thus there was no request and no refusal. (It has been alleged by the Germans that the steamer Cape Polonio on her recent trip to South America was refused permission by the French to touch at Boulogne, but official denial of this has been made by the French government.)
The French Ministry of Merchant Marine makes no secret of its belief that there is a question of boycott against French shipping at Hamburg and Bremen, consisting of refusal to allow the same privileges to French tonnage as obtain for British and other steamers. But it is declared at the ministry, this question is not related to the reported refusal to allow German liners to call at Boulogne.—Washington Post, 5 March. 1922.
Acute Depression in French Shipbuilding Industry.—The depression in the shipbuilding industry is being more acutely felt in France than in other European countries. The country's merchant marine has been reconstituted without the home shipyards contributing to its rehabilitation, while the allocation of surrendered German tonnage has provided France with a tonnage in excess of her requirements so that there is little prospect of the French shipyards finding much work to do in the future. These number twenty in all and employ in normal times 60,000 men. They are capable of turning out 500,000 tons of new shipping a year.—Nautical Gazette, 11 March, 1922.
GERMANY
German Disarmament—Effect on Industry.—It is said of the Washington Conference that the victorious powers, having disarmed their enemies, are now voluntarily disarming themselves. The effect of this disarmament on German industries will be of particular interest at this juncture, and a brief review of the position may be welcomed by our readers. The naval clauses of the Peace Treaty can be summarized shortly as follows: (a) Germany may have a navy not exceeding the following number of ships in commission: six pre-war dreadnoughts, six light cruisers, twelve destroyers, and twelve torpedo boats, with no submarines of any type at all; (b) these ships may only be replaced after a definite life and the replacing ships must not exceed the tonnage given below:
? | Life (Years) | Displacement (Tons) |
Armoured ships | 20 | 10,000 |
Light cruisers | 20 | 6,000 |
Destroyers | 15 | 800 |
Torpedo-boats | 15 | 200 |
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(c) The personnel is to be reduced to 15,000, with not more than 1,500 officers; (d) all warships under construction at the signing of the Armistice are to be broken up.
The remainder of the German fleet, except for some very old ships, having been surrendered it will be seen that the reduction in that fleet is much more drastic than the proposals of the Washington Conference. In Germany, as in this country, the establishments affected are of three kinds, viz.: (a) the old Imperial establishments corresponding to our Royal dockyards and arsenals; (b) the large armament works and shipyards which specialized in naval and military work; (c) smaller works only utilized during the Great War and now engaged in their pre-war occupation.
The main establishments under heading (a) include the following: the ex-Imperial dockyards at Wilhelmshaven, Kiel, and Danzig, the arsenal at Spandau near Berlin, and the torpedo factory at Friedrichsort on Kiel Bay. So far as the dockyards are concerned, Danzig having been taken away from Germany the yard there is not under its control. It has been decided to leave Wilhelmshaven as a building yard to help in supplying the warships required in the future. It is capable of building the hull and supplying the machinery of a battle cruiser of the Hindenburg class. It also has graving docks large enough to accommodate the biggest ship allowed for the post-war fleet. These occupations only utilize a part of this extensive dockyard, and the remainder has been separated and handed over to a company under the control of the German Treasury, which is developing it on commercial lines, it being suited for general engineering work and the building of small steamers, etc.
The ex-Imperial yard at Kiel has also been divided into two parts. One which contains the graving docks and basins will be used as the Baltic Sea base for the post-war fleet, and the remainder, including the building slips, the engineering shops, etc., has been transferred to a department under the Treasury and is being worked as an ordinary shipyard. Work on some 8,000-ton steamers has been begun. The department of the Treasury previously mentioned has also taken control of the Friedrichsort torpedo factory and the arsenal at Spandau. In all cases the management has been recruited from the officials previously attached to each place, but their number and status have been altered to agree with the reduced personnel and the changed conditions. The number of employees in these various establishments as given in Schiffbau have varied as follows: The oldest dockyard, that at Danzig, employed about 3,500 men before the war and increased its staff to 9,000 men in 1918. This yard, as mentioned before, is not now under German control. The Imperial yard at Wilhelmshaven employed 11,000 men in 1914 and this number increased to 23,000 in 1918. The post-war numbers have dropped to 11,000, of which about 4,000 are employed in the commercial yard. The employees at the Imperial yard, Kiel, numbered 9,200 before the war, but a total of 17,000 was reached in 1918. After the Armistice the number was reduced to about 11,800, of which the greater number were absorbed by the commercial part of the yard. The big torpedo factory at Friedrichsort increased its numbers from 3,000 to 5,500 during the war. When transferred to the Treasury the personnel had been reduced to the former figure. These reductions in personnel have led to a great reduction in the number of permanent officials. At present they number less than twenty-five per cent of the pre-war figures.
It is typical of the existing regime that efforts should be made to use the state yards and factories up to the hilt to meet the needs of the future. Control has passed from the military to the civil authorities, and work has been distributed so as to give employment generally. This state enterprise is favored by the workmen generally, and they resent any suggestion to transfer any of these industrial concerns to private owners. The conditions of labour, hours, and wages are standardized throughout the country. There are no doubt political reasons for the adoption of this form of nationalization. It is notorious that the dockyard towns were centres of unrest, and revolts in them precipitated the asking for the Armistice. By giving employment this spirit will be quieted. On the other hand, the unemployed official class are very discontented, and generally have monarchistic tendencies.
The second type of establishment corresponds to our big armament works. The firm of Krupp was the outstanding example. With its steel works at Essen, its shipyard at Kiel and the allied establishments throughout the country, it employed about 200,000 hands during the war. The M. A. N. and A. E. G. groups also employed thousands of men on munitions, and the optical works of Zeiss and Goerz were also on war work entirely. In short, all the big engineering concerns of Germany were engaged on war contracts," and when the Armistice came had to be transformed to a peace production basis.
It has always been the rule to build the great majority of the German fleet in private shipyards, and, in fact, as mentioned previously, only one Imperial yard could build a battlecruiser, namely, Wilhelmshaven. So far as Kiel was concerned it could build smaller battleships and light cruisers. Apart from one battlecruiser on the slips at the former dockyard and one light cruiser launched from Kiel, the whole of the warships and submarines under construction at the time of the Armistice were being built in private shipyards.
The amount of work in progress was as follows: battleships, 3; battlecruisers, 4; light cruisers, 7; torpedo craft, 114; submarines, 240.
In addition, orders had been placed for two large cruisers and one small cruiser, and over two hundred submarines, but work on them had not been begun.
The effect of the sudden stoppage of work on this big programme was to dislocate the shipbuilding and marine engineering industry. As with the auxiliary vessels which were in hand at smaller yards for the navy, and were also stopped, it represented practically the whole of the work in progress at the time. Labor trouble arose immediately, and the breakdown of the transport arrangements, the shortage of fuel and all raw materials accentuated the difficulties in the yards. A form of communistic control of industry was attempted, and for a period the Workmen's Councils took charge. It was no uncommon thing to see the red flag flying over works. In Hamburg, which had suffered severely from the blockade, the shortage of fuel and food being pronounced, two of the largest shipyards closed down for want of fuel. In actual fact, a portion of the men on the books could have been employed, but the trade unions refused to let them work unless all were paid. The end of the war brought a general slackening of effort and demands of all kinds for improvement in pay and conditions of labour. The street fighting which was prevalent interfered seriously with industry. With the establishment of a stable government this phase passed and conditions steadily improved. Strikes, except for political purposes, have been very rare, and the output is now nearly up to the pre-war figure. Piecework and overtime, banned at the first flush of the revolution, have gradually been reinstated and are now the general rule.
The same shipyards build both warships and merchantmen, the plant required being practically identical. In fact, most of the large yards under heading (b) normally had both types of ships under construction at the same time. Thus the only problem was one of obtaining work. Immediately after the Armistice and up to the signing of the Peace Treaty there was a large volume of reconditioning and refitting work as well as the completing of merchantmen due for surrender to the Allies, which kept the reduced staffs busy. In addition, such yards as were building submarines had to destroy those vessels.
By the time peace was signed the conditions had materially improved. The management could estimate the cost and time on a job fairly closely and the workmen did not insist on so many of the rules which tend to restrict output in this country. Accordingly, of the large volume of work which was released when peace was signed, a considerable portion from neighboring countries went to German yards. In addition, the warships under construction detailed above had to be broken up, and many men found employment on that work.
It is remarkable that the shipbuilding industry of Germany has profited from causes, most of which are the consequence of that country losing the war; but it must be remembered that the German workman has, apart from the short period of unrest previously mentioned, assisted in every way to put the industry on a stable basis.—The Engineer, 10 March, 1922.
German and Austrian Notes.—Vice-Admiral Rogge, formerly director of the Ordnance Division of the German Marine-Amt, writes in the Marine Rundschau to query certain statements made in the British technical press last September concerning comparative trials of British and German armour-plates, the latter taken from the Baden. These trials, it will be recalled, demonstrated the superiority of the British plates over the Krupp product. Admiral Rogge adduces a number of facts and figures relating to comparative tests held in Germany before and during the war of British, French, and Krupp plates, from all of which, he claims, the Essen armour emerged triumphant. His article closes with the following passage: "On the basis of our own proving-ground experience, therefore, we can justly claim to have possessed at the beginning of the war the best armour in the world, and which was, in particular, superior to the British. Moreover, it was the cheapest armour. One cannot resist the conclusion that the British have circulated unverified reports of comparative tests in order to 'puff' the British armour-plate firms, and to this end have belittled the German material."
That is, of course, the stock German reply to every foreign statement that reflects on the quality of German products, but it comes with an ill grace from those who before the war carried on a widespread propaganda against British naval material and lost no opportunity of publishing, both in their own press and in foreign journals, false and disparaging accounts of our ships, ordnance, armour-plate, and other equipment. All this was done with an eye to attracting foreign naval contracts to Germany. Admiral Rogge alleges that at the Battle of Jutland not a single British A. P. shell detonated after passing through the armour of a German ship. The value of his rejoinder as a whole may be judged by this one statement, which has been disproved by German accounts of the battle (e.g., von Hase) and by photographs taken on board German ships after the battle.
The Marine Rundschau prints the following paragraph about the four British battle cruisers Of the super-Hood class, since cancelled: "These ships are not to have the anti-torpedo bulge outside the hull, as is the case in all post-war vessels above the light cruiser category. The ground for this decision may have been that an extension of beam due to a bulge of one or two metres in width would have necessitated docks larger than those now available. The reduction in speed resulting from the bulge has hitherto been accepted. The Admiralty maintain, however, that they have not given up the ideal of the anti-torpedo bulge, but have simply transferred it to the interior of the ship for reasons of convenience. Actually, this seems to show that British constructors have adopted the German and American principle of sub-division, that is to say, an imitation of the German torpedo bulkhead." It would be interesting to learn when and where the Admiralty made any such statement as that imputed to them.
In view of the mutinies which paralyze the high sea fleet during the war, one would suppose that the present German naval authorities would do their best to discourage politics on the lower-deck. It seems, however, that an exception is made in favor of political propaganda on reactionary and revanche lines, for the semi-official organ of the Marine-Amt warmly recommends, as suitable for the men's libraries, a new book entitled The Guilt of the Enemy Alliance. It would be interesting to know whether they are equally broadminded in respect of pacifist and socialistic literature.
In a series of interesting articles on "Austria-Hungary as a Sea Power," two former officers of the "K. and K. Marine" review the peculiar political and economic conditions that obtained 'in the dual monarchy and their effect on naval policy. It seems that in order to placate Hungary, a large share of Austrian naval contracts had to be allotted to Hungarian yards, although the latter were not really capable of undertaking such work. For instance, the battleship Szent Istvan, the cruisers Helgoland and Nozara, the Tatra class destroyers, and the 250-ton torpedo-boats of the F-class were ordered from the Danubius yard, Fiume, at a time when its resources were wholly unequal to the work involved. The result was serious delay in the completion of these vessels, notably the Szent Istvan. It was Hungarian opposition that prevented the building of railways in Dalmatia which would have enabled the navy to utilize the magnificent harbours of that coast as war bases. Hungary would do nothing calculated to diminish the importance of her own port of Fiume. Not until after the outbreak of war was her opposition to the Lika railway withdrawn, and then it was too late. The navy was thus tied to a single base, Pola, and was never able fully to develop a base on the southern coast, which would have been more advantageous from the tactical point of view.
With so many different nationalities assembled under one flag, it was inevitable that racial antagonisms should affect the personnel of the Austro-Hungarian navy. In one large ship, the authors state, no fewer than ten nationalities were represented. Croats from the coastal districts made excellent seamen and stokers: their intelligence was limited, but they were staunch and loyal, and did their duty almost to the very end. The Italian element was comparatively small; it was "not regarded as fully trustworthy, and was responsible for cases of sabotage, espionage, and high treason, chiefly the work of so-called 'intellectuals.'" Most specialist posts were filled by Germans. Czechs, or Hungarians, and the technical corps as a whole enjoyed a high reputation. The Czechs serving in the navy are described as having been the cause of most of the trouble, and it was they who finally seduced the Croats and Slovenes from their allegiance. The authors seem to think that had the German element predominated, the mutinous spirit would have been less in evidence; but this theory is hard to reconcile with what occurred in the German navy during 1917 and 1918. They pay a warm tribute to the character and professional attainments of Austro-Hungarian naval officers. Training at the Fiume Naval Academy was strict and very practical and the technical education was exceptionally thorough. Among the graduates of this academy there prevailed a spirit of comradeship in which racial jealousies had no part. Owing to the shortage of officers, however, it was necessary to reinforce the establishment with a large number of special-entry cadets, whose loyalty was not always beyond cavil.
But discipline and morale suffered most through the incursion of reserve officers from the merchant service at the outbreak of war. The majority of these, say the authors, were Italians or southern Slavs of a low standard of culture, whose seamanship was not to be compared with that of German merchant officers. They brought into the navy the demoralizing influence of racial animosity, and, being generally suspected, they could not be trusted with important appointments. It is claimed, nevertheless, that regarded as a whole, the personnel of the "K. und K. Marine" did their duty in an exemplary fashion, and that the navy, down to the final debacle, was an intact, well-organized, and efficient striking force. "The personnel did everything possible to defend the coasts of the monarchy, and in general was imbued with a martial and enterprising spirit. In spite of difficulties arising from the conditions governing the personnel and of the fact that its ship material was far inferior in strength to that of any other Mediterranean power, the navy, thanks to its really good training, and not least to the devotion of its officers and men, was able to protect its own coastline all through the war, while making repeated attacks on the enemy's seaboard and assisting the land forces with such resources as it could spare."—Naval and Military Record, 1 March, 1922.
German Motorships Building.—Claiming that the accounts appearing in the daily and foreign press about the great number of motorships building in Germany are grossly exaggerated, a correspondent of Hansa asserts that the construction of only twenty-five such vessels of large type has been commenced in German yards since the beginning of 1919. These aggregate 120,000 gross tons and have all told engines of 55,000 horsepower.—Nautical Gazette, 4 March, 1922.
Vessels Repurchased by Germans from Allies.—The following is a partial list of the merchant ships which were surrendered by Germany to the Allies under the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty and which have since been reacquired either by their former owners or other German shipping concerns:
Name | Original Owner | Gross Tons |
Adler | North German Lloyd | 1,304 |
Bagdad | German Levant | 2,364 |
Cap Polonio | Hamburg So. Amer. | 20,597 |
Claus Horn | Horn | 4,174 |
Dora | H. Schuldt | 2,662 |
Elbing | Ger. Australian | 4,884 |
Erma Woermann | Woermann | 5,528 |
Erika | Ozean | 2,666 |
Florenz | Slomann | 1,533 |
Furst Bulow | Hamburg Amer | 7,638 |
Habsburg | Hamburg Amer | 6,437 |
Hannover | North German Lloyd | 7,305 |
Hans Hemsoth | Hemsoth Reederei | 2,487 |
Helene | M. Jebsen | 1,237 |
Henry Horn | H.C. Horn | 1,287 |
Hersfeld | Cont.-Reederei | 4,487 |
Ina Blumenthal | Joh. Blumenthal | 2,229 |
Industria | W. Kunstmann | 2,199 |
Isolde | Balt. Reed. A.G. | 1,530 |
Kypros | Levant | 2,210 |
La Plata | Hamburg Amer. | 4,032 |
Lili Woermann | Woermann | 2,283 |
Lisboa | Oldenburg-Port. | 1,799 |
Lotte Reith | Reith | 1,489 |
Martha Woermann | Woermann | 2,282 |
Muansa | Ger. E. Africa | 5,408 |
Munchen | North German Lloyd | 18,000 |
Nitokris | Kosmos | 6,150 |
Offenbach | Ger. Australian | 4,336 |
Ostmark | Hamburg Amer. | 4,399 |
Parma | F. Laeisz | 3,091 |
Paual Blumberg | F. Laeisz | 1,660 |
Peiho | F. Laeisz | 2,118 |
Passat | Reed F. Laeisz | 3,091 |
Pinnas | Reed F. Laeisz | 1,946 |
Rabat | Hansa | 4,678 |
Radames | Kosmos | 4,756 |
Regina | W. Schuldt | 1,297 |
Rhenania | W. Kunstmann | 4,116 |
Reichenfels | Hansa | 4,679 |
Roma | German Levant | 2,606 |
Rudia | Hamburg Amer. | 6,605 |
Rugen | Braulich | 1,854 |
Santa Ines | Hamburg So. Amer. | 5,199 |
Schwan | Argo | 1,212 |
Schwarzenfelde | Fuhrmann | 3,837 |
Schwinze | Bugs. Reed. Berg. Ges. | 2,646 |
Seydlitz | North German Lloyd | 8,008 |
Spezia | Hamburg Amer. | 3,786 |
Svionio | Kunstmann | 2,797 |
Tarpenbeck | Knohr & Burchardt | 2,118 |
Tucuman | Hamburg So. Amer. | 4,702 |
Turpin | Roland | 5,152 |
Volga | Neue Dampf. Co. | 1,098 |
Wigbert | Hamb.-Bre. Africa | 3,667 |
Woglinde | Cont.-Reederei | 4,487 |
York | North German Lloyd | 8,909 |
Total (59) | 239,012 |
—Nautical Gazette, 25 March, 1922.
GREAT BRITAIN
Reduction of the Navy.—A statement by the First Lord of the Admiralty explanatory of the navy estimates for 1922-23, was published on Monday in advance of the estimates themselves, which are shortly to be laid before Parliament. This document shows that very substantial reductions are to be made in naval expenditure during the coming financial year as a result of the Limitation Treaty entered into at Washington. It is appropriate that Lord Lee of Fareham, to whose efforts the success of the Conference was due in great measure, should be sponsor for the first navy estimates that reflect the decisions reached at that gathering. Some twelve months ago, shortly after taking up his appointment as First Lord, he expressed the hope that "as a result of frank and friendly discussion with the principal naval powers" it would be possible "to avoid anything approaching to competitive building, either now or in the future." As he observes in his present statement, "that anticipation has now been largely realized, and a new era of hope ushered in for an impoverished and war-weary world."
The reduction to be effected in naval disbursements during 1922-23 is shown by the following comparison with the estimates for the current fiscal year:
? | Gross (£) | Net (£) |
1921-22 | 91,554,869 | 82,479,000 |
1922-23 | 68,950,000 (approx.) | 64,883,700 |
Reduction | £22,604,869 | £17,595,300 |
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The "one-power standard" of naval strength, which has been adopted by the government, connotes the maintenance of a navy not inferior in strength to that of any other power. According to Lord Lee, the Admiralty has not only framed its requirements in conformity with the new standard, but has gone further in accepting drastic economies, and consequent risks, which could only be justified on the assumption that the British fleet will not be engaged in any great war for many years to come. The Admiralty adds that on purely naval grounds such an assumption could not be justified, but as both the financial and the international situation call for an exceptional response, it has made it, realizing, however, that in this matter a very grave responsibility is imposed upon it. The principal economies which it is proposed to effect may be summarized as follows:
- The scrapping of twelve capital ships, in addition to the eight recently sold for breaking up, and the maintenance of only fifteen in full commission, as compared with thirty-eight in March, 1914.
- Further reductions in the destroyer flotillas of the Atlantic fleet, involving the maintenance in full commission of only forty boats. One of the present flotillas is to be reduced to two-fifths complement, arid twenty-three destroyers of the local defense flotillas are to be placed in reserve.
- Of the eighty-five submarines now on the Navy list, twenty-seven are to be scrapped. These latter, it is understood, comprise all the remaining K and E boats and most of the R class.
- The abolition of two of the Home Commands, viz.. Coast of Scotland and Western Approaches.
- A reduction of the personnel of the fleet by more than 20,000 officers and men. In consequence of this very drastic cut it will be necessary to diminish the ship's company of each vessel of the Atlantic fleet by fifteen and seven-tenths per cent. The present complement per ship is higher than the pre-war establishment, war experience having shown the desirability of increasing the number of officers and men borne in each vessel.
- The discharge of over 10,000 men from the royal dockyards, and a drastic reduction of civil staffs at the Admiralty and other establishments. Rosyth is the dockyard principally affected by this decision. In future it will be reserved for the docking of such ships as, by reason of their dimensions, cannot be docked at the southern yards, and for certain refitting work in connection with these vessels. Chatham and Pembroke are to be retained as royal yards—the first because it has small docks and storehouse accommodation with which the fleet cannot well dispense, and the second because its abolition would deprive the inhabitants of the town of Pembroke of their chief source of livelihood and thus create so much local distress that any direct saving in national expenditure would be more than neutralized by the necessity of granting relief. The Gibraltar yard is to be reduced, the annual saving at this establishment being estimated at £58,000. As the Admiralty points out these dockyard economies have been determined upon solely in the interests of national economy, and without regard to the requirements of the fleet. The result will be to delay and restrict a great deal of important ship construction and reconstruction, as well as repair and refitting work on vessels of the fleet. It is obvious that the plan of so enlarging the main slips at Portsmouth and Devonport as to enable those yards to undertake the building of post-war capital ships has been postponed indefinitely.
For the past month or two it had been persistently rumoured that the two new battleships which the Naval Limitation Treaty authorizes this country to build would not be proceeded with. Fortunately, these rumours are now disproved, the First Lord stating that the vessels in question will be laid down early in 1923. The delay is probably due to the necessity of recasting their designs in harmony with the displacement limit of 35,000 tons specified by the Treaty. It is no longer a secret that the four battlecruisers authorized last year, but subsequently cancelled, were to have had a displacement of about 47,000 tons. In place, therefore, of the 188,000 tons of new construction contemplated last year, we are to build only 70,000 tons. Had the four battlecruisers been proceeded with the coming year's vote for contract shipbuilding would have amounted to £10,557,800, whereas it is actually limited to £300,000. This is, of course, the largest individual item of reduction directly attributable to the Washington Conference. Vote 9—Naval Armaments—shows a cut of £1,837,200 as compared with the last estimates. This money is to be saved by deferring the overhaul of and reconditioning of surplus stocks of ammunition, by keeping smaller reserves of mines and depth charges, and by delaying the issue of new armour-piercing shell. Economies of this kind would be inadmissible were the international situation less promising, but as it is they cannot be said to entail serious risk. Expenditure on naval works is to be reduced by £1,573,600, the Admiralty having arranged to proceed only with those undertakings the completion of which is either essential or would involve less outlay than the liquidation of the contracts. A further large saving is to be made in regard to oil fuel and coal, economies under this head reaching the impressive total of £5,386,500. It will mean cutting down the fleet's fuel allowance to the lowest possible limit, the laying up of several of royal fleet auxiliary ships normally employed on fleet fuelling duty, and the restriction by £500,000 of the development in 1922-23 of the Navy's oil fuel depots at various bases abroad. The Lords of the Admiralty have not taken this step "without considerable anxiety, which will, they believe, be shared by all who realize the extent to which the mobility of the chief units of the British fleet is restricted under existing conditions, owing to the absence of the necessary oil-fuelling bases."
The votes for education and scientific services show between them a reduction of £122,000. The Admiralty—wisely, as we think—has declined to accept the drastic cut in expenditure on scientific and research work that the Geddes Report recommended. Such a measure would, it feels, "be inexcusable at a time when we are forced to rely more and more on the hope that the Navy will make up in quality of personnel and superiority of technique for the lead that has been surrendered in respect of materiel. Of all the lessons of the war, none stood out more clearly than the importance, and the previous inadequacy, of scientific research, and the Admiralty is convinced that the measures which it has taken are not more than sufficient to maintain research and experiment on a sound and at the same time very moderate and economical basis.''
The foregoing review of the First Lord's statement shows that the Admiralty has made a determined attempt to cut down expenditure on the naval service. It is clear from his observations that further economies can be effected only at the cost of sacrificing efficiency to such an extent that the Navy would be no longer competent to carry out its duties in a national emergency.—The Engineer, 17 March, 1922.
Navy Estimates.—The navy estimates for 1922-23, "prepared on the assumption that the Naval Treaty concluded at Washington will be effectively ratified by all the signatory powers," amount to the grand total of £64,883,700, as compared with £82,247,900 for the current year.
The numbers provided for are: Officers, seamen, boys, and marines 118,500, and coastguard and marine police 2,900, but the first number, it is stated, will be reduced to approximately 98,500 as soon as practicable.
The votes for effective services total £54,774,200, a reduction of nearly £21,000,000, the result of the Washington Conference and concurrent administrative economies.
The non-effective votes have increased by £3,000,000, almost entirely due to provision for pensions and retiring gratuities to the great number of officers, men and dockyard employees (amounting to over 30,000), who are to be reduced this year.
It is stated that the King has approved of the giving up of the royal yacht Alexandra in order that the cost of her maintenance, about £26,000 a year, may be saved. The Admiralty yacht Enchantress is also being given up. Rosyth will be specially affected by dockyard reductions, as it has been decided to place this establishment on the footing of a docking yard.—Naval and Military Record, 15 March, 1922.
Super-Hoods to Burn Coal.—It is reported that one of the features in the design of the two new battleships which are being laid down instead of the four super-Hoods is that they will be fitted to burn coal as well as oil. There is no intention, however, to banish oil fuel from the Navy altogether, and the ships will only use their coal for cruising at reasonable speed. When extreme speed is desired the oil-boilers will be lit up and the extra steam raised very much quicker than would be possible with coal.—Engineering and Industrial Management, 2 February, 1922.
Defence Ministry Shelved.—In view of the tremendous importance of the subject, the government have wisely decided to let the question of uniting the Navy, Army, and the Air Force under a Minister of Defence stand over for the time being. This announcement will be hailed with relief by the vast majority of those who take an intelligent interest in the welfare and efficiency of the fighting services. Except that now there are three distinct services to be considered instead of the two that were then in existence, the arguments which the Hartington Commission brought forward against the creation of a Ministry of Defence are just as cogent and apposite today, as they were a generation ago. It was pointed out that while the position of the Minister of Defence would necessarily be a very powerful one, his decisions could never be final, since they would be liable to be overruled either by the Cabinet or the Prime Minister. Whatever its faults may be, the present system is based upon rational principles which, on the whole, have worked well in practice. It enables the Cabinet or the Prime Minister to hold the balance between the Admiralty and War Office claims on the one hand and financial exigencies, as represented by the Treasury, on the other.—Naval and Military Record, 10 March, 1922.
Sale of Imperial Airships.—General regret has been caused by the announcement that in spite of the efforts made to utilize the existing British airships for experimental Empire services, or alternatively to employ the airships for test work and the accumulation of data on airship design and construction, the Air Ministry has decided to dispose of the existing fleet and material, together with certain airship stations. It is not believed that the disaster to the Roma has influenced this decision, which is based mainly on a desire of economy, and the inability of Dominion governments to co-operate in the proposed scheme for airship services. The airships which are to be offered for sale are the R-80, R-33, R-36, and the ex-German L-77, which are completed, and the partially built R-37. There is a considerable quantity of airship material, and the stations which will be included in the deal are those at Pulham and at Cardington, near' Bedford. It is difficult to imagine where the Disposals Board will find purchasers in view of the failure of the home government to obtain the support of Dominion governments for restricted airship services, and it is probable that it will be necessary to look abroad for buyers.—The Engineer, 10 March, 1922.
Scrapping Submarines.—There will not be much surprise in the Navy that the Admiralty have decided to scrap the Material Reserve of submarines, which is formed of almost the whole of the E, G, and R types. The fact that these craft were in the Material Reserve was indicative of their utility having come to an end, although this is not to say that the vessels were past service if they had been needed. The three G boats had been for some time on the disposal list, and were long ago regarded as of no further value; but the E and R submarines were all excellent craft, built during the war under the emergency war programme.
The E boats were a particularly fine type, and proved most satisfactory. They performed splendid work almost throughout the war, and their activities were so constant that no fewer than twenty-seven of them were lost in action. The thirteen vessels remaining, with the exception of one used as a target vessel with the Submarine School, are in the Material Reserve. The R boats were a product of the anti-U-boat campaign. They were all launched and finished in 1918, and were described as "submarine destroyers of submarines." Their outstanding features were their abnormal submerged endurance, and the very unusual quality of travelling faster below the water than on the surface.—Naval and Military Record, 8 March, 1922.
Swimming Tests.—To standardize and improve existing instructions as regards swimming tests, a fleet order states, the following revised regulations are issued:
There will be two tests, viz.: Provisional test—to be carried out in a swimming bath. Standard test—to be carried out in the open sea. The "provisional test" is only to be employed when open sea facilities are not available. In each case in order to pass the test every man is to swim forty yards in a duck suit in deep water after which he is to be able to keep himself afloat for three minutes.
Qualifications in both tests are to be awarded as follows: "Fair."—Meaning that the man only just managed to pass and should be given more practice. "Good."—An average swimmer. "Very Good."—A strong swimmer. These qualifications are intended to assist officers at sea to recognize backward swimmers.
Notations on service certificates are to be as follows: "Passed Provisional Test (P.P.T.)," followed by qualification and date; or "Passed Standard Test (P.S.T.)," followed by qualification and date; or "Cannot Swim," and date. Every effort is to be made to ensure that all officers and men pass the standard test.—Naval and Military Record, 22 February, 1922.
A Reduced Flag List.—The announcement on Monday that the active list of flag officers in the Royal Navy is to be cut down from ninety-two to seventy-seven does not come as a surprise. The necessary steps to inaugurate the reduction will, it is understood, take effect in August. It is not yet clear whether this means that the total number of flag officers must come down to seventy-seven by that month, or whether a stop will then be made to promotions to flag rank until the list is down to the new establishment. The latter course would not be in the best interests of the Service, for it would have the effect of stagnating all promotions to rear-admiral for over twelve months, with corresponding influence on the lower grades. The better way, and the one which seems most likely to be adopted, would be for those officers whose prospects of employment are remote to retire voluntarily between now and August. Several admirals have since the armistice, shown their patriotism by retiring voluntarily in order to facilitate the promotion of those junior to them. If fifteen more were to do so now it would keep up the flow of promotion, and would relieve the Admiralty of the necessity for retiring compulsorily, by order in council, those officers who in August will be surplus to establishment. The sequel to this cut in the admirals' list is no doubt being very fully considered by the Admiralty, for the problem in its relation to employment, retirement, the flow of promotion, and the age of officers is a very complex one. We are now getting back to the flag establishment of the early nineties, but whereas there were then only 168 captains and 236 commanders looking forward to promotion, there are now 356 captains and 557 commanders, or more than double the numbers. It is true that during the last twenty years the regulations for compulsory retirement for age and non-employment have been made more stringent, thus causing a greater flow of promotion to flag rank, but the effect of this will be neutralized when there are fewer vacancies to fill. We cannot afford, moreover, to retard advancements to rear-admiral, because the average age of the flag officers would soon become higher and higher, and we should be back in the bad old days when admirals never got their flags until they were fifty, and never handled a fleet until they were sixty. The circumstances of the moment seem to point to the necessity in the early future of a bold retirement scheme to clear the captains' and commanders' lists, and of a reduction of the ages at which flag officers must retire.—Army, Navy, and Air Force Gazette, 25 February, 1922.
Amount Realized by Britain from Sale of German Ships.—Lord Inchcape's report on the sale of former German ships on behalf of the Allied reparations commission, made public in London last week, shows that 418 ships, aggregating 2,500,000 tons, were sold for £20,076.216 (normally $100,381,080). Expenses in connection with their sale amounted to twelve and one-half per cent.—Nautical Gazette, 11 March, 1922.
JAPAN
Naval Bases in the Pacific.—According to reports which have lately appeared both in American and Japanese newspapers, the closing stages of the negotiations at Washington were marked by acute differences of opinion with regard to the problem of fortifications in the Pacific. At one time, it is stated, the discussion threatened to end in a complete deadlock, which might have wrecked the whole scheme of naval limitation, for the American government attached particular importance to this question of fortified bases and felt that its settlement was a condition precedent to the maintenance of peace. A study of Article 19 of the Naval Treaty shows that a broad belt of the Pacific Ocean has been virtually neutralized by the agreement reached in respect of island fortifications. America has agreed not to proceed with defensive works at any point in her insular territories west of Hawaii, while Japan, on her part, promises to discontinue the erection of batteries and naval harbours at the outlying islands of her empire. The British Empire, also, pledges itself not to create any new fortifications in the Pacific except such as may be contemplated at points adjacent to the coasts of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Such, in broad outline, was the agreement reached after protracted and at times somewhat critical negotiations.
Japan, it seems, wished to exempt various islands of hers, particularly the Bonins and the Luchus, which, she contended, were so near to her coasts as almost to represent an interior line of defense. This may be true of the Luchu group, but it scarcely applies to the Bonins, which lie about 500 miles to the southeast of Japan proper. Nor is it easy to comprehend why Japan should have made such a point of excluding the Bonins, seeing that these islands are already well defended, the work having been completed only a few months since. It is not as though the agreement demanded the razing of defences already built; it merely provides that the status quo, at the signing of the treaty, is to be maintained, so that even if the Bonins or any other islands embraced by the compact had just been equipped with forts and guns of the most modern and powerful type, there is nothing to prevent the maintenance of such works in a state of complete efficiency. It has been suggested in America that Japan's reluctance to accept this particular portion of the agreement was due not to any qualms about the safety of the Bonins or the Luchu Islands, but to an idea that she might eventually find it expedient to convert into naval bases one or more of the ex-German South Sea Islands, of which she is mandatory, and therefore desired to retain freedom of action in this matter. The American government, however, pointed out that, unless the status quo principle was accepted, they would have no alternative but to fortify the Philippine and other Western Pacific islands on a large scale, a step that would have brought the American fleet within easy striking distance of Japan, this being a contingency which the latter was, of course, most anxious to avert. This argument seems to have clinched the business, for Japan made no further objection to the fortification clause of the treaty.
It has since been suggested in the American Senate that Great Britain has gained an unfair advantage by the exclusion of Singapore from the non-fortification compact. A great naval base at this point would, it is asserted, enable the British fleet to dominate the waters of the Far East, and especially those areas from which the American Navy will henceforth be cut off owing to lack of base facilities. Considering the almost identical aims of British and American policy in the Far East and the absence of any cause of friction between them, the strategic value of Singapore should be to Americans a matter of friendly interest rather than misgiving but in any case there is no reason to suppose that this port will now be developed into a great naval station. As Mr. Hughes, the Australian Prime Minister, said recently, the question of providing a suitable base in the Pacific for the Imperial Navy was discussed at the Conference in London last summer, and a decision was then reached to establish such a base, but not at Singapore. The point actually selected has not been divulged, but, in view of the present shortage of money and the suspension of competitive shipbuilding it is most improbable that the project will materialize. We note that a Japanese paper, the Mainichi, professes to have discovered the venue of what would have been the British Empire's great naval station in the Pacific, namely, Geelvink Bay. The Mainichi, however, has overlooked the fact that Geelvink is situate, not in British territory at all, but in Dutch New Guinea. It is just possible that Japanese and American experts have exaggerated the importance of this question of naval bases in the Pacific. In that ocean of magnificent distances, fixed bases would doubtless play an important part in war, but there is nothing in naval history to justify the assumption that a large elaborately-equipped and well-defended harbour within the zone of operations is indispensable to the successful conduct of a campaign. It is a significant fact that in every naval war of modern times the victorious fleet had improvised its main- war base, while the defeated side invariably operated from a large and well-nigh impregnable stronghold, furnished with every possible facility. Had the delegates at Washington been more familiar with naval history, it is doubtful whether they would have spent so much time in discussing a question which, after all, would probably prove to be of secondary importance in the event of war occurring in the Pacific.—Naval and Military Record, 15 March, 1922.
Aeroplane Markings in Japan.—The mark of recognition for the aeroplane is a sun in red, displayed at each end of the upper surface of the upper wing and of the under surface of the lower wing, as well as on each side of the body (or on each side of the frame if the machine is of the frame system). The name of the aeroplane is displayed above the number on the rudder, and the number is displayed in Arabic figures on each side of the rudder, or on each outer side (if there are two or more rudders) and on the under surface of the lower wing with its head to the front.—Aerial Age Weekly, 13 March, 1922.
Reduction of Japanese Armaments.—Reports just to hand indicate that as a result of the decision to reduce armaments, about 60,000 workers, including men employed in naval and military establishments, are to be discharged. The number of hands on the pay roll of the Japanese Imperial Dockyards is about 80,000, but it is hoped to find employment for a considerable percentage of them for some years in the breaking up of the warships, which are to be scrapped under the Washington agreement, and in the building of auxiliary vessels which are authorized by the naval pact.—The Engineer, 17 February, 1922.
N.Y.K. Withdraws Its Best Liners from Seattle Run.—As a result of the competition of the Shipping Board's fast combination passenger and cargo carriers operated by the Admiral Line on the Seattle-Yokohama run, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha announces the withdrawal from that service of its 10.500-ton liners Katori Maru, Kashima Maru, Suwa Maru, and Fushimi Maru. The withdrawn vessels will be employed on the European route and are to be replaced by the smaller 6,000-ton ships Kaga Maru, Iyo Maru, Shidsuoka Maru, and Yokohama Maru. The new schedule will go into effect in east-bound travel with the sailing of the Kaga Maru from Yokohama, March 17, and westbound with the sailing of the same ship from Seattle in May.
New minimum fares from Yokohama or return and to Hong Kong or return will range from $210 to $275 as compared with $300 and $375 on the larger vessels. This is a reduction of approximately thirty per cent.
According to an announcement from the Seattle office of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, the 6,000-ton ships will ply in the Seattle-Oriental service only temporarily and are to be replaced by a new type of vessel especially designed for this service. These new ships will be larger, faster, and more luxurious than any steamers heretofore calling at Seattle.—Nautical Gazette, 4 March, 1922.
Poland and Japan Line.—According to a Polish newspaper, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha contemplates establishing a regular shipping connection between Poland and Japan via Danzig. Toward the end of February, it is stated, the first shipment of Polish goods will be despatched to Japan, and in the event of the experiment proving successful a regular Danzig Japan Line will be started.—Nautical Gazette, 25 March, 1922.
UNITED STATES
Navy Department, Bureau of Construction and Repair
Washington, D. C.
March 10, 1922
Vessels under Construction, United States Navy-Progress as of February 28, 1922
Type, Number and Name |
Contractor | Per Cent of Completion | |||
March 1, 1922 | Feb. 1, 1922 | ||||
Total | On Ship | Total | On Ship | ||
Battleships (BB) | |||||
45 Colorado | New York S.B. Cpn. | 89.6 | 88.7 | 87.9 | 86.8 |
47 Washington | New York S.B. Cpn. | 75.9 | 70.3 | 75.3 | 69.4 |
48 West Virginia | Newport News S.B. & D.D. Co. | 74 | 70.2 | 73 | 69.2 |
49 South Dakota | New York Navy Yard | 38.5 | 31.6 | 38.5 | 31.6 |
50 Indiana | New York Navy Yard | 34.7 | 27.2 | 34.6 | 27.1 |
51 Montana | Mare Island Navy Yard | 27.6 | 19 | 27.6 | 19 |
52 North Carolina | Norfolk Navy Yard | 36.7 | 27.1 | 36.7 | 27.1 |
53 Iowa | Newport News S.B. & D.D. Co. | 31.8 | 27.4 | 31.5 | 27.1 |
54 Massachusetts | Beth. S.B. Cpn. (Fore River) | 11 | 4.3 | 11 | 4.3 |
Battlecruisers (CC) | |||||
1 Lexington | Beth. S.B. Cpn. (Fore River) | 33.8 | 24.2 | 33.2 | 23.4 |
2 Constellation | Newport News S.B. & D.D. Co. | 22.7 | 19.5 | 22.3 | 19.1 |
3 Saratoga | New York S.B. Cpn. | 35.4 | 28 | 33.7 | 26.7 |
4 Ranger | Newport News S.B. & D.D. Co. | 4 | 1.5 | 4 | 1.5 |
5 Constitution | Philadelphia Navy Yard | 13.4 | 8.4 | 13.3 | 8.3 |
6 United States | Philadelphia Navy Yard | 12.1 | 7.1 | 12 | 7 |
Scout Cruisers (Light Cruisers CL) | |||||
4 Omaha | Todd D.D. & Const. Cpn. | 99.2 | 94.7 | 99.2 | 94.3 |
5 Milwaukee | Todd D.D. & Const. Cpn. | 99.2 | 87 | 94 | 86.5 |
6 Cincinnati | Todd D.D. & Const. Cpn. | 88.1 | 81.8 | 88 | 81.6 |
7 Raleigh | Beth. S.B. Cpn. (Fore River) | 64.2 | 46.6 | 63.7 | 45.6 |
8 Detroit | Beth. S.B. Cpn. (Fore River) | 81 | 68.1 | 79.1 | 64.8 |
9 Richmond | Wm. Cramp & Sons Co. | 87 | 80 | 85 | 79 |
10 Concord | Wm. Cramp & Sons Co. | 83 | 77 | 82 | 75 |
11 Trenton | Wm. Cramp & Sons Co. | 58 | 46 | 57 | 46 |
12 Marblehead | Wm. Cramp & Sons Co. | 47 | 33 | 47 | 33 |
13 Memphis | Wm. Cramp & Sons Co. | 40 | 26 | 40 | 26 |
Auxiliaries | |||||
Repair Ship No. 1 Medusa (AR1) | Puget Sound Navy Yard | 77.6 | 69.8 | 75.9 | 66.6 |
Dest. Tender No. 3 Dobbin (AD3) | Philadelphia Navy Yard | 68.1 | 67.8 | 67.5 | 67.2 |
Dest. Tender No. 4 Whitney (AD4) | Boston Navy Yard | 50.9 | 42.1 | 49.6 | 40.4 |
Sub. Tender No. 3 Holland (AS3) | Puget Sound Navy Yard | 21.5 | 5.5 | 21.5 | 5.5 |
Patrol Vessels | |||||
Gunboat No. 22, Tulsa (PG22) | Charleston Navy Yard | 72.3 | 60 | 72 | 59 |
Destroyers | |||||
*339 Trever | Mare Island Navy Yard | 99.8 | 99.8 | 99.6 | 99.6 |
340 Perry | Mare Island Navy Yard | 90.7 | 90.7 | 87.7 | 87.7 |
341 Decatur | Mare Island Navy Yard | 84.3 | 84.3 | 83.3 | 83.3 |
*Ready for commissioning | |||||
Destroyers authorized but not under construction of contract (12) Nos. 348 to 359 inclusive. |
There are three fleet submarines and thirty-eight submarines under construction.
There are six fleet submarines and one submarine authorized but not under construction or contract.
Finish "West Virginia" Under Naval Treaty.—Secretary Denby today ordered work on completion of the battleship West Virginia, building in the yards of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Docks Company, resumed, that vessel having been selected for completion instead of the battleship Washington, under the terms of the Naval Limitation Treaty.
The special naval board found the West Virginia to be eighty per cent finished, as compared to the sixty-nine per cent completed status of the Washington. Work on the Washington in the yards of the New York Shipbuilding Company at Camden, N.J., will remained suspended, as is the case with other new battleships and battlecruisers which are slated to be scrapped or converted when the treaty has been ratified and ratifications have been formally exchanged.
The battleship Colorado and the West Virginia will be the vessels to be added to the fleet as the equivalent in the American Navy for Japan’s retention of the battleship Mutsu.
The Navy Department has not reached a decision as yet as to which of the three battlecruisers nearest to completion are to be converted into airplane carriers.—Philadelphia Public Ledger, 17 March, 1922.
Backs Army and Navy.—President Harding is confident that Congress will not enact legislation that will cripple either the United States Navy or the Army. This was made known at the White House following the cabinet meeting and a conference with Representatives Anthony of Kansas and Sisson of Mississippi (Democrat), members of the subcommittee of the appropriations committee in charge of the army appropriation bill, and an earlier conference with General Pershing. Mr. Anthony, after his interview with the President, said that he believed the House committee would give very careful consideration to the views held by the President regarding reductions in the Army. The President had previously talked with members of the navy committee.
The President, it is said, feels that just at the moment the country, and its temper is reflected in Congress, is passing through the acute stage of a disposition to cut everything to pieces. Mr. Harding realizes that there is a strong and well justified sentiment in Congress to reduce expenditures for the Army and Navy, and he is in cordial sympathy with the disposition in that direction, but he does not approve of cutting appropriations to the point where the Navy and Army could not function properly. He has assumed that there will be further reductions made in the Army, but he would oppose any reduction that would bring the Army to less than 130,000 men until the national guard has reached the stage where it can be turned to in an emergency. Mr. Harding believes that while the whole world is passing through a stage of social and political unrest, the situation is hopeful, particularly in America. He does not believe, however, that the time has come when this country can regard itself as perfectly secure without armed forces.
In his recent address to the joint session of Congress he spoke of the merchant marine as the second line of defense, and while he does not desire to stress that viewpoint, he believes, it is understood, that if America had a well-established, reasonably swift fleet of merchant ships, it would be of very great advantage to our naval defense.
Both the President and the Secretary of the Navy, it is understood, are aware that there have been many extravagances as a result of the war. So many subsidiary vessels were built during the war that there has been a natural temptation to place them in commission upon completion, and there have been literally hundreds of destroyers that have been operated at a very great expense entirely unnecessarily.
That there will be numerous changes made in the Army personnel is regarded as inevitable. The administration's view, it is understood, is that as at present organized the army is somewhat top-heavy in the matter of commissioned officers. So many promotions have been made that there are comparatively few men of the lower ranks left.
As for the Navy, it is thought that there will be a material reduction of the personnel, but the President has made it known that he is not in favor of a reduction below 80,000.—Washington Post, 4 March, 1922.
Navy Yards Would Be Costly Repair Plants.—In a circular to its members, the American Marine Association calls attention to the fact that the shipbuilding industry is being menaced by an attempt to enact legislation whereby the navy yards of the country will be permitted to bid against private shipyards for reconditioning government-owned merchant vessels.
If the contemplated action is taken, it means that private yards would get only the work that the Navy could not handle; because it would be a perfectly simple matter for the government to underbid any price submitted by any private yard. As is well known, government operations never have regard for all of the fixed overheads of a private corporation; while on the other hand it is an easy matter for any department to offset its operating losses through deficiency appropriations or transfer of funds from one account to another.
Thus a bid by a navy yard for the reconditioning or building of a ship would mean absolutely nothing except additional taxes to an extent far greater than the difference between the government bid and that of a privately-owned yard; because in no event would the actual work be done under government supervision at anything like the cost to a well-organized corporation.
Again, there is nothing in the argument advanced by some members of Congress, that if the government-owned vessels were to be reconditioned at the navy yards it would keep several thousand men at work who would otherwise become idle through the agreement to reduce and restrict the number of naval capital ships. It is true that if the government were to do the work more men would be employed than were the contract given to a private yard; but aside from that, it takes just so many men to do a given piece of work and it would simply mean that the workmen of one centre would suffer at the expense of those at another.—Nautical Gazette, 11 March, 1922.
Board Rejects All Bids.—The Shipping Board rejected on Monday all of the bids received for its 1,490 steel vessels recently announced for sale. Chairman Lasker said that bids were received for about 100 ships, which were so low as not to warrant serious consideration. He also characterized the bids as facetious.
"The results obtained by the advertisement proved conclusively," Mr. Lasker said, "that there is no market for shipping board vessels, even of the most approved types, at this time. Our reports would indicate that there is not more than $15,000,000 in the American market available for investment in ocean-going ships, where £45,000,000 is said to be available for a like purpose in the United Kingdom."—Nautical Gazette, 25 March, 1922.
"Columbia" Sold to Admiral Line for $1,250,000.—The fast triple screw turbined passenger and cargo steamer Columbia, formerly the Great Northern, has been sold by the Shipping Board to the Admiral Line for $1,250,000. This is $250,000 more than the amount paid for the Northern Pacific, the sister ship of the Columbia, which was recently destroyed by fire. The fact that the Navy made improvements to the Columbia while it had the vessel in its service accounts for this increase in price. It is understood that the Columbia will be renamed H. F. Alexander and that she will be reconditioned at the yard of the Sun Shipbuilding Company, Chester, Pa.—Nautical Gazette, 11 March, 1922.
Seagoing Steel Tonnage According to Yards
Building or Contracted for in the United States, March 1, 1922
Shipyard | Private No. | Account Gross | U.S.S.B. Account | Total | ||
No. | Gross | No. | Gross | |||
Bethlehem S.B. Corp., Ltd. | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Batl. D.D. Plant | 1 | 4,000 | … | … | 1 | 4,000 |
Spar. Point Plant | 2 | 27,000 | 1 | 10,500 | 3 | 37,500 |
Union Plant | 2 | 27,000 | … | … | 2 | 27,000 |
Federal S.B. Co. | 1 | 6,000 | … | … | 1 | 6,000 |
Hanlon D.D. and S.B. Co. | 1 | 1,500 | … | … | 1 | 1,500 |
Merchant S.B. Co. | 2 | 15,600 | … | … | 2 | 15,600 |
New York S.B. Corp. | 2 | 13,600 | … | … | 2 | 13,600 |
Pusey and Jones Co. | 2 | 5,420 | … | … | 2 | 5,420 |
Sub S.B. Co. | 1 | 9,000 | … | … | 1 | 9,000 |
Total | 14 | 109,120 | 1 | 10,500 | 15 | 119,620 |
—Bulletin of the American Bureau of Shipping, March-April,1922.
February Shipbuilding Output in Detail.—The Bureau of Navigation Department of Commerce, reports 39 sailing, steam, gas, and unrigged vessels of 28,359 gross tons built in the United States and officially numbered during the month of February, 1922, as follows:
? | Atlantic and Gulf | Pacific | Great Lakes | Western Rivers | Total | |||||
? | No. | Gross | No. | Gross | No. | Gross | No. | Gross | No. | Gross |
Wood | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Sailing | 4 | 581 | … | … | … | … | … | … | 4 | 581 |
Steam | … | … | … | … | … | … | 1 | 115 | 1 | 115 |
Gas | 19 | 628 | 3 | 49 | 1 | 17 | … | … | 23 | 694 |
Unrigged | 2 | 1,137 | 1 | 271 | … | … | … | … | 3 | 140 |
Total | 25 | 2,346 | 4 | 320 | 1 | 17 | 1 | 115 | 31 | 2,798 |
Metal | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Sailing | … | … | … | … | … | … | … | … | … | … |
Steam | 2 | 28,611 | … | … | … | … | 4 | 5,644 | 6 | 24,255 |
Gas | … | … | … | … | … | … | … | … | … | … |
Unrigged | … | … | … | … | … | … | 2 | 1,306 | 2 | 1,306 |
Total | 2 | 28,611 | … | … | … | … | 6 | 6,950 | 8 | 35,561 |
Totals | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Sailing | 4 | 581 | … | … | … | … | … | … | 4 | 581 |
Steam | 2 | 28,611 | … | … | … | … | 5 | 5,759 | 7 | 34,370 |
Gas | 19 | 628 | 3 | 49 | 1 | 17 | … | … | 23 | 694 |
Unrigged | 2 | 1,137 | 1 | 271 | … | … | 2 | 1,306 | 5 | 2,714 |
Grand total | 27 | 30,957 | 4 | 320 | 1 | 17 | 7 | 7,065 | 39 | 38,359 |
The above total includes 24 rigged vessels of 6,300 gross tons and 3 unrigged vessels of 1,960 gross tons, total 27 vessels of 8,260 gross tons built in years previous to 1922.
The largest vessels built during the month were the steel cargo carrier Bethore of 14,899 gross tons and the combination passenger and cargo carrier Pan America of 13,712 gross tons.—Nautical Gazette, 18 March, 1922.
Proposed U.S.-Chinese S.S. Co.—It is reported from Washington that a new steamship company, financed by American-Chinese capital, is negotiating with the War Department for the purchase of the latter’s surplus transports. The new company is said to be contemplating a service from Pacific Coast to Chinese ports, with feeder lines to the Straits, Settlements, and to be figuring on the Army transports Sheridan, Dix, Thomas, Sherman, and Logan, which will soon be offered for sale.—Nautical Gazette, 18 March, 1922.
"Glory of the Seas" No More.—The old clipper ship Glory of the Seas, which thirty-five years ago set a record for "windjammers" between San Francisco and Australia, is being broken up following the discovery that barnacles have eaten into her hull beyond repair.
The stout old ship was built at the famous Donald McKay yards in Boston, Mass., in 1869, and since then has called at most of the important ports of the world. One of her fast voyages was that made in 1875, from San Francisco to Sydney, N.S.W., in thirty-five days. Some years ago the Glory of the Seas was purchased by a Tacoma fish company and was put in the service between Puget Sound and Alaska. She is being broken up for what metal she holds.—Nautical Gazette, 11 March, 1922.
Conversion of Battlecruisers into Airplane Carriers.—To insure to the United States the benefits conferred by Article IX of the Five-Power Naval Treaty, should that Treaty be ratified, Congressman Frederick C. Hicks has introduced a bill, H. R. 10647, to authorize the conversion of two battlecruisers into airplane carriers. This highly desirable measure reads, in part, as follows: "The President of the United States is hereby authorized to undertake the conversion of any two thereof (battlecruisers of 1916 program) into airplane carriers within the limits of cost heretofore authorized for said battlecruisers." This permits the savings of two thirty-three-knot ships of about 33,000 tons each displacement, gives us two fast and serviceable carriers, and approximates the recommendation of the General Board for two large size carriers of sufficient speed to enable them to maintain their position in the advance scouting line of the fleet or in any position which strategy and tactics make necessary. And, too, the cost of the battlecruisers, as originally laid down, will equal approximately the estimated cost for the construction of new carriers of equal tonnage and speed—about $28,000,000 each. So much money already has been spent on these cruisers that the conversion will give us not only two desirable carriers but will save a sum estimated at $20,000,000. On the other hand, should the bill not become law, and the two cruisers therefore not be converted into carriers, the monetary loss will be the $30,000,000 already paid out or contracted for under the 1916 program, plus the cost for the two new carriers under the terms of the Five-Power Naval Treaty.
The crux of the whole matter is found in this phase of the Treaty: The United States is permitted to convert these two cruisers, which are of 43,500 tons displacement, into carriers of 33,000 tons displacement; but if this is not done we must content ourselves with new carriers of not more than 27,000 tons displacement. Also the two 33,000-tonners will accommodate eighty airplanes. The 27,000 tonners will not carry more than sixty planes.
Even the novice can see the desirability of this legislation. We save millions; we get two real carriers of size sufficient to make them formidable ships; we get them quickly; the money already has been appropriated under the 1916 program; we show ourselves to be squarely behind the Treaty; and we recognize the importance of aviation with the fleet. Without a preponderance of aviation no fleet can successfully meet an enemy so equipped.—U. S. Air Service, March, 1922.
Shipping Subsidy Provisions of New Merchant Marine Act Summarized.—President Harding's recommendations concerning the direct and indirect aids to be extended to our merchant marine have been embodied in a bill just introduced into Congress and which has been designated the "Merchant Marine Act, 1922." Section 701-703 of this measure provides for the granting of subsidies in varying amounts to American owners of every sail- or power-driven vessel of more than 1,500 gross tons and operated in the foreign trade, who elect to avail themselves of such compensation. For each 100 nautical miles traveled by such vessel, the subsidies payable are to be calculated on the following speed basis when on light draught:
Speed (knots) | Subsidy (cents per gross ton) |
Under 13 | .5 |
13 and over but under 14 | .7 |
14 and over but under 15 | .8 |
15 and over but under 16 | .9 |
16 and over but under 17 | 1 |
17 and over but under 18 | 1.2 |
18 and over but under 19 | 1.4 |
19 and over but under 20 | 1.6 |
20 and over but under 21 | 1.8 |
21 and over but under 22 | 2 |
22 and over but under 23 | 2.3 |
23 or over | 2.6 |
Vessels Under 5,000 Tons
Power-driven vessels over 1,500 and less than 5,000 gross tons are to receive compensation as though they were in reality of 5,000 tons. The mileage upon which compensation shall be paid is to be determined, both for sailing and power-driven ships regardless of the vessel's log, according to a table of distances to be approved by the Shipping Board between the ports cleared and entered by such vessels.
Only vessels engaged in direct foreign trade, that is, where one of the ports is a port of the United States or of its possessions, shall be entitled to compensation, but vessels engaged in indirect foreign trades which shall transport passengers or freight to or from a port of the United States at least once a year are to receive compensation for mileage covered in such indirect foreign trade. Furthermore, American vessels operating between foreign ports primarily to gather cargo for delivery to home vessels engaged in the direct foreign trade and actually turning over one-half of the cargo handled by them to American ships in direct trades are likewise to be entitled to a subsidy.
Where a vessel is owned to the extent of a half or more by a single individual or corporation, no subsidy is to be allowed her unless one-third of her cargo-carrying capacity has been opened to engagement by independent shippers. This provision is clearly aimed to prevent vessels owned by great industrial companies, such as the Steel Corporation, from enjoying the benefits of the subsidy when they are engaged in carrying products exclusively for their owners.
Foreign Ships Barred
In order to guard against vessels under foreign flags being transferred to American registry for the purpose of enjoying the benefits of the proposed subsidy, the new act provides that no foreign built vessels shall be entitled to compensation after the date the act takes effect except in special cases where the Shipping Board passes a resolution permitting such foreign built vessel to receive the payments provided in the contemplated statute.
Another clause provides that no ship-owner is to receive a subsidy three years after the passage of the act who is unable to show that seventy-five per cent or more of the total gross tonnage owned directly or indirectly or operated by him, whether as owner, charterer or agent in the foreign trade consists of vessels of American registry. This provision will affect concerns in the position of the International Mercantile Marine Company, the bulk of whose tonnage is under British registry.
Before becoming entitled to a subsidy, the owner of a vessel must enter into a ten-year contract with the governm.ent by which he binds himself to have all repairs to his vessels effected in an American port and to carry foreign mails from this country without compensation. If he lacks experience, means, or ability, the Shipping Board may decline to enter into a contract with him.
Should the Shipping Board in the case of an individual service decide that the compensation allowed by the act is insufficient, it may increase the sum awarded the vessel owner until it amounts to double the figures named in the statute. Conversely, if the Board is of the opinion that the amount of compensation awarded is excessive it may reduce the amount prescribed by law.
In another section, the wording of which is not exactly clear, the act provides that whenever an owner shall derive in any fiscal year from the operation of such of his vessels- as are in receipt of a subsidy, a net operating income of more than ten per cent per annum, he must turn back to the government one-half of all his earnings in excess of such ten per cent. According to Chairman Lasker of the Shipping Board, this ten per cent profit limitation clause applies to the owner's investment in each individual ship rather than to his fleet as a whole. The section means further that all earnings above ten per cent are to be split equally between the owner and the government subsidy fund, until the full amount of the subsidy has been repaid, after which the owner may retain all income. —Nautical Gazette, 11 March, 1922.
AERONAUTICS
Why the Council of Ambassadors Refused America's Claim for a New Zeppelin of 100,000 Cubic Meters.—Reports that commercial airships built or fabricated in Germany for America will be limited as to size, if permitted at all, which recently reached Washington from Berlin, have been characterized as doubtful by American air officers.
Basing their opinions on the fact that the recently concluded Arms Conference placed no limit on either size or type of aircraft, and on the specific authority of the Council of Ambassadors permitting the construction in Germany of a large commercial airship for the U. S. Navy, these officers point out that the interests of this country could only be obstructed intentionally by either Great Britain or France. The former might attempt to prevent the arrangement owing to national jealousy or for commercial reasons, and France because of a fear of aerial attacks from Germany if her airship industry is permitted to flourish, it was said.
One possible reason for objections on the part of Great Britain, is said to be that if she cannot control the air as well as the sea, she is loth to let America get started in lighter-than-air construction. England has still to hear from her dominions relative to their willingness to aid in the financial support of her contemplated "imperial airship scheme" which would link the mother country to their shores. Their replies are due next month, and it is believed that Australia, New Zealand and South Africa will agree to support the project, although Canada may not on account of the bad weather prevalent off her Atlantic coast.
The recent announcement from London that Great Britain has abandoned her airship project and that the rigid fleet with its accessories will soon be dismantled for want of a bidder is not credited in Washington, for it is pointed out that the final reply of the Dominions is still in abeyance.
The source of this report, which savors of propaganda, may be readily determined by a simple process of elimination, air officers believe. It is certainly not Germany, as that country, being the creator of the rigid airship industry, is anxious to preserve her pioneer position; France, though apprehensive of Germany in the air could hardly suspect American aggression in the air, while if the United States did secure a couple of German ships, this would hardly keep the German interests active for more than a year or two; then too, they say despatches from Paris indicate that Americans there feel confident that no effort is being made to prevent the building of the American ship; Italy is not anxious about any possible attack from an American air armada; but in England, despite her previous assistance to this government in securing the permission of the Allied Council for the construction of a rigid in Germany, there lies a possible reason, it is said. Great Britain at one time wanted to take over the German airship works and operate them for the Allies, and she still has her lighter-than-air fleet, reports to the contrary notwithstanding. This fleet, though not in commission, is still held pending the decision of the Dominions as to future trans-oceanic airship lines. England, it is pointed out, is jealous of the remarkable growth of the French merchant air fleet and also looks askance at recent developments which indicate American interest in commercial airship lines.
It is also to be noted that England has an air officer in Germany today. Air Commodore Masterman, R. A. F., who heads the Inter-Allied Aeronautical Commission in Berlin, from where the recent stories of limiting the size of America's Zeppelin and of possible prohibition on construction came.
The history of the German airship case goes back to the treaty of Versailles which provided that all German aircraft be turned over to the Allies. At the time there were fourteen large German rigids in existence. Seven ships were delivered; two each to England, France and Italy and one to Japan, but none to the United States. The remaining seven were in the meantime illegally destroyed in Germany. Following this action, the Allied Reparation Commission directed that Germany replace the destroyed ships by cash payment, or in kind if the Allied or Associated powers so desired. The commercial airships Nordstern and Bodensee were seized and turned over to France and Italy respectively, leaving five due from Germany. None of the Allies requested further ships, principally because of France's fear that if Germany were permitted to continue airship manufacture it would constitute a menace to her.
The United States was entitled to two airships, and it was her first choice, as France had received the L-72, and England the L-71, the two best and largest of the original German fleet. Only one ship was asked for by this government, however, when after the destruction of the Z-R2 Great Britain was asked to assist America in securing a reparation ship of 100,000 cu. m. capacity. It is claimed that the Council, at England's request, ruled that any rigid airship of over 30,000 cu. m. capacity was a military ship and could not therefore be constructed in Germany, although British air experts had previously stated that an airship of less than 100,000 cu. m. was valueless as a commercial carrier. This discrepancy was pointed out to the Council, however, with the result that finally they permitted the United States to have constructed in Germany an airship of 70,000 cu. m. capacity, or about 2,450,000 cu. ft. of the L-71 type, for commercial purposes. Today three naval air officers are en route to Berlin to supervise the laying out of the plans and the construction of this craft.
There was another difficulty to be surmounted in the securing of a rigid airship for the United States, on which the Secretary of the Navy made the following statement:
"It now appears that the valuation placed on the seven destroyed Zeppelins by a technical commission operating under authority of the Treaty of Versailles, which the United States was not a party to, was placed at so low a figure that a credit which the United States was assigned by the Allies on the reparations account to cover two destroyed ships is insufficient to cover what the Germans claim to be the cost of building one ship of a modern design under present conditions in Germany.
"The Navy Department has taken the position that no payment of money will be made to Germany for the one airship, and that the extremely low valuation placed upon destroyed ships by the Allies in 1919 and the high estimate now given by the German Government for a single replacement ship in 1922 must be reconciled. The State Department is now conducting negotiations with all parties interested in order to make it possible for the German government to proceed with the construction of an airship in accordance with the specifications of the Navy Department which is representing the Army and the Navy in this matter."
In consequence of the above stated concern demonstrated by British representatives in the efforts of this country to secure a large commercial airship, the attitude of the Allied Council, and the "no aerial-limitation" policy adopted by the Arms Conference, American lighter-than-air experts are at a loss to understand why the subject of limiting the size of American airships, whether built or fabricated in Germany or not, is being agitated now.—Aviation, 27 March, 1922.
Helium Plant Closed Down.—According to a special despatch to the New York World, the helium plant a few miles from Fort Worth built by the government at a cost of $7,000,000 to extract helium from the natural gas piped down from the Petrolia fields has been shut down because funds for its operation have been exhausted.—Aerial Age Weekly, 27 March, 1922.
Hitch in Zeppelin Deal.—The Navy Department has notified the State Department that it does not wish the German Zeppelin now being constructed for the United States by Germany under the reparations clause of the Versailles treaty unless it comes to America without cost.
The question has arisen as to whether the amount of money allotted for this purpose by the Allies under the reparations agreement to the United States was sufficient to complete the Zeppelin.
At the Army Air Service it was said that if the Navy refused to take the Zeppelin under additional cost that would not preclude the Army from taking her.—Aerial Age Weekly, 6 March, 1922.
A New Gas for Airships.—Currenium is the name given a new gas for airships, which has been developed by Dr. Edward Curran, head of the research department of the International Transportation and Manufacturing Company, of Los Angeles, which controls the formula and all rights in the product. It is the result of several years' work by Dr. Curran, who is a chemist, and who produced the gas successfully in 1918. The company owning the formula is preparing to engage in the manufacture of the gas by an electrolytic process at a cost, it is estimated, about $100 per thousand cubic feet less than its costs to produce helium.—Aerial Age Weekly, 27 March, 1922.
The "R-38" Report.—Two days after the loss of the Roma, the report was published of the Accidents Investigation Committee on the loss of the airship R-38 at Hull on August 24 of last year. In general, the committee found that in order to fulfill the requirements laid down for the vessel the designers took risks by not availing themselves of the results of model experiments and by basing their calculations too extensively on the precedents set by earlier British designs of airships. The vessel as constructed failed to fulfill the prescribed requirements, and at the same time was structurally weak so far as maneuvering stresses were concerned. Professor Bairstow, a member of the committee, calculated that the factor of safety under aerodynamic loading conditions that were known to have occurred was not above two, and that under conditions that might easily have arisen it would not have been above one. The design, it would appear, was satisfactory from the point of view of the strength provided to resist the forces and moments arising from the buoyancy and the distribution of the weight; but, from the point of view of maneuvering stresses, it was defective. In this connection it is to be noted that the instability of the vessel was such that large movements of the control organs were necessary in order to hold her on any set course, and that she was fitted with specially powerful control surfaces of a new design. The material of which she was built was in general up to specification, althou.gh the committee found one or two weak members which, although they did not contribute to the disaster, were significant as indicating some lack of supervision during the construction period. The vessel met with disaster when maneuvering at high speed simply and solely because the dynamic stresses added to the static were in excess of what her structure could support. As in the case of the Roma, defects of a prions nature developed in the vessel on flights preceding that on which the disaster occurred. On the third trial, for instance, disaster was narrowly averted by the prompt action of the commander in steadying the vessel and relieving the stresses on certain amidship girders which had failed when the speed was increased to 50 knots.—Engineering, 3 March, 1922.
The "Roma" Disaster.—The Roma disaster, with its lamentable sacrifice of valuable lives, is the last bit of evidence that Congress should need in urging the necessity of appropriating sufficient funds to develop our supply of helium. It may be argued that the use of helium would not have saved the Roma, but the crowning horror of the airship's bursting into flames would by its use have been avoided. So much is apparent in advance of inquiry, which must be searching in vital details of construction and operation.
There is no parallel between the accident to the R-38 and that to the Roma, for whereas the R-38 collapsed on a test flight, the Roma had made scores of trips in Italy prior to its being brought to the United States, and on its first long trip from Langley Field to Washington, it made a very creditable showing.
The report of the investigating commission will be awaited with great interest.—Aerial Age Weekly, 6 March, 1922.
Inflammability of Airships.—The R-38 and Roma disasters, although due to different causes, naturally focus attention on the fire which was the one common element of both. In both cases the ships would have been complete wrecks without the fire, but with the loss of few, if any, lives. In neither case was there any explosion, except of gasoline tanks, but the extremely rapid spread of the flames left little chance for escape.
The most obvious remedy and perhaps the only one for small blimps is, of course, the use of helium gas. For larger ships, of say 1,000,000 cubic feet or more, there is another solution of the problem which seems to hold even better promise than helium. This is to make the envelope itself fireproof, which for all ordinary purposes would make hydrogen as safe as helium. Even a slow burning or so-called "flame-resisting" fabric would be immensely safer than the very inflammable materials used at present. Not only would they be more resistant to external ignition, but a hydrogen fire started would spread much more slowly.
In either case, helium or fireproof envelope, no aircraft will be entirely safe from fire until we have satisfactory heavy oil engines. It looks to us as if all three lines of development should be prosecuted with almost equal vigor, i.e., helium, fireproof envelope, and heavy fuel. Any two of these together should be sufficient to make an airship safe from fire.—Aviation, 13 March, 1922.
Helicopters.—Experimental work carried out in France is giving definite results that offer at least some possibility of important developments in the future of aviation. The helicopter has always been regarded as an illusory application which may be perfect in principle but exceedingly difficult of realization, and while more or less successful attempts have been made to raise a machine vertically from the ground, most experimenters have found it difficult to make horizontal flights and to prevent the machine from rotating. M. Pescarra, an Italian engineer, has probably done more than anyone else in the way of obtaining practical results. His helicopter was shown at the last aeronautical exhibition in Paris, and since then he has been developing his ideas with the aid of funds supplied by the French government, which is taking a keen interest in this new phase of aviation, as well as in everything else connected with aerial flight. The Pescarra apparatus weighs about 800 kilos, and is fitted with an engine of 180 horsepower, driving a number of horizontal propellers in opposite directions whereby the effects of rotation are eliminated, or at any rate considerably reduced. In preliminary trials carried out during the past month the machine repeatedly left the ground and was maintained for several minutes at a height of three feet or four feet, when the apparatus itself was almost stationary. While the trials are satisfactory so far as they have gone they are yet far from conclusive, but it is obvious that progress has been made with the helicopter, and its future will be looked forward to with interest, not less in this country, where Mr. Louis Brennan's machine is nearing completion, than in other lands.—Engineering, 13 March, 1922.
Brennan Helicopter Lifts Off.—Louis Brennan's experimental helicopter completed its first actual successful test at the Farnborough airdrome on February 9. Rising vertically from the ground and hovering in mid-air for some minutes, the helicopter landed lightly almost on the identical spot from which it rose. The machine, weighing more than a ton, carrying a pilot and 250 pounds of excess weight was sent up secretly in a gyroscopic test.—Aviation, 27 March, 1922.
Speed of 312 Miles an Hour Claimed for a Helicopter.—An air journey from New York may be made in a single day, according to the remarkable claim made on behalf of Hansch helicopter, news of which has been received by the Air Ministry through unofficial channels.
The machine is the invention of a Dutchman. It is said to be capable of attaining a speed of 312 miles an hour, to be able to ascend and descend vertically or to remain stationary in the air over any given spot without the least danger of failing.
The news is the more interesting since the British Air Ministry intended, subject to Treasury sanction, to offer a prize of £50,000 for a practical design of a helicopter.—Aerial Age Weekly, 13 February, 1922.
Armored Fighting Airplanes.—In the paper on fighting airplanes read by Major Green before the Royal Aeronautical Society, which is reproduced in parts in this issue, the view is expressed that few fundamental changes will occur in this type of machine in the near future, say, within the next ten years. The lecturer is of the opinion that the principle improvements will consist in better performance and in an increased rate of fire for the guns, and that the specialized types for high altitude and low altitude work which were developed toward the end of the war will remain the main fighting craft of the air.
As Major Green says, it is very unsafe to predict the development of airplanes. However, it seems to us that the lecturer's views on the immediate development of the fighting or pursuit airplane are ultra-conservative, for they do not contemplate the possibility of a change in the strategy and tactics of air fighting.
What indeed is the present situation? Drawing on the naval simile, the pursuit airplane represents the capital ship of the air if not in punishing power, then at least in its intent and function. That is, the pursuit airplane exists for the purpose of enabling one to establish aerial ascendancy, or mastery of the air, by sweeping the skies clear of enemy pursuit airplanes and, as a secondary result, of observation and bombing airplanes as well.
Now, the pursuit airplane derives its offensive power from gun power and maneuverability, and not from gun power and protection, as the capitalship. The protection in the case of the pursuit airplane is entirely a function of its maneuverability, for given two airplanes of equal gun power but unequal maneuverability, the advantage will lie with the more maneuverable ship, all other things being equal. But the reason this is so is due to the fact that our capitalships of the air are highly vulnerable to gunfire provided it is possible to hit them. The question then arises whether there should not be developed a type of armored pursuit airplane endowed with a good performance, maneuverability, and range, which will be invulnerable to gunfire, or almost so. If such a ship had a performance and range slightly superior to that of observation and bombardment airplanes, and be just capable of outmaneuvering the latter types, there would become available an airplane which would actually fill the function of a capitalship of the air. Such an armored single seater could tackle any kind of military airplane, for, given equal gun power, the superior performance and maneuverability of the ordinary pursuit machine would be of little avail against the armor-plated "battle-plane," for the latter's superior range would enable it to "keep the air" while the pursuit plane would be forced down by lack of fuel, if for no other reason.
The development of such an armored battle plane is well within the present engineering possibilities. As a type, the cantilever metal monoplane is suggested, for it would permit of working the armor plating into the structure of the machine and so make it contribute to its strength, while on the other hand the cantilever monoplane does away with all those exposed vital parts (struts, wires, etc.) which when damaged may cause the machine to collapse.
We are fully aware that there are some serious objections to the use in warfare of such a machine; we nevertheless believe that the question should be gone into in detail if for no other reason than the possibility of some other air force tackling the question.—Aviation, 20 March, 1922.
Order for Douglas Torpedo Planes.—Rear Admiral William A. Moffat, Chief of the Bureau of Naval Aeronautics., has placed with the Davis-Douglas Co. of Los Angeles an order for the construction of eighteen Douglas torpedo planes.
Contrary to a rumor current in the industry, this order was not placed with the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, but the latter will build six Douglas bombers, while eighteen additional machines of this type will be constructed on competitive bids.—Aviation, 3 March, 1922.
New Invention in Aerial Photography.—A recent invention by F. M. Huddleston, Los Angeles, Calif., is creating considerable interest in aero-photographic circles. The Aerograph, as this invention is called, consists of a small pilot balloon from which is suspended a combination gyroscope and gimbal for holding the camera, together with electrical devices for controlling its operation. Absolute control is had from the base, which consists of a truck upon which is installed a winch and hydrogen generator, as well as a control board.—Aviation, 13 March, 1922.
New 1,000-Horsepower Airplane Engine Weighs only 2,200 Pounds.—A new airplane engine which, though weighing only 2,200 pounds, develops 1,000 horsepower, has been constructed by D. Napier and Son, Ltd., of England.
This new engine is to be fitted to a specially designed airplane now being built for the British Air Ministry for coming trials. At the present time there are rumors that Prof. Hugo Junkers, of Germany, is building a huge monoplane which will carry four 1,000-horsepower. Junkers opposed piston-type Diesel oil engines.—Power, 7 March, 1922.
British Safety Tank Competition.—A number of tanks entered into the safety tank competition organized by the British Air Ministry were recently tested at the Royal Aircraft Factory in Farnborough.
The Air Ministry offered prizes amounting to $10,000 for a tank which will not burst or leak and will, be safe from penetration by bullets. Twenty-seven firms have entered, of which one is Italian, two French, one Japanese, one American and the rest British.
The rules of the competition provide that the tank shall weigh not more than one and three fourths pound per gallon. Among the other qualities insisted upon are lightness, durability, indifference to extremes of temperature and simplicity of construction.
Imitation "crashes" are realistically staged in the tests. Each competing tank, incased in a rough wooden fuselage, is attached to a lump of concrete weighing 600 pounds to represent the engine. The whole contraption is hauled to the top of a large balloon shed, about 100 feet high, then released" and allowed to rush on wheels down a rail to smash into a bed of hard slate at the bottom. The tank descends at the rate of about 80 m.p.h. and reaches the bottom with a satisfactory thump.
Three kinds of shock-absorbing tanks have so far been tested. The first, manufactured by Beasley, Sims and Morris, consisted of three shells —an outer one of thin steel with a layer of rubber on the inside, then a steel with another layer of rubber, and, thirdly, the gasoline vessel itself, which is kept in position by shock-absorbing springs.
The second type, the invention of J. Gibson, is made on the bulkhead principle, the tank, shaped like a barrel, being made in three sections, the sections in front and behind the actual gasoline tank arranged to prevent damage to the gasoline tank itself.
The third tank sent in by the French firm of Bramson, is made of a rubber preparation with a sort of armoring of fine woven wire. This tank is mounted on rubber shock-absorbers, so that when it collides it bounces back like a ball.
No result will be reported until the tests are finished. Later the tanks will be fired upon by machine-guns at short range to test their capacity to remain gasoline-tight when penetrated by nickel or incendiary bullets.—Aviation, 20 March, 1922.
Flying Weather Forecast.—Arrangements have been made for the inclusion by the Weather Bureau of a flying weather forecast for zones 1 to 5, inclusive, for the period midnight to noon of the following day, in the weather broadcast from the naval radio station at Arlington, at 10 p.m. daily, commencing January 16, 1922.
The form of this forecast and the areas covered will be the same as that included in the morning weather broadcast from Arlington.—Aerial Age Weekly, 6 March, 1922.
Safe Flying in Fog.—The very latest idea for flying is a wireless compass which can be set to any destination. The pilot will grope his way down to the airdrome by an arrangement of intersecting searchlight beams, the height of the point of intersection of the beams above the airdrome being known by the pilot. This is the idea of Sir Arthur Whitten Brown, navigator to the late Sir John Alcock on his trans-Atlantic flight, who states that the wireless compass will be worked by directional wireless, the compass tuning in with a ground wireless station. Thus, if a pilot wants to fly from London to Paris, he sets the compass in tune with the Le Bourget (Paris) wireless station, and then he steers by this compass through the fog—or above it when possible—and he will find himself in due course over the Paris terminal.
In practically all fogs the airplane pilot finds clear weather before 1,000 feet up, and experiments have recently been conducted successfully at Croydon with an instrument for ascertaining the height of the fog. This instrument is sent up on a small balloon, and on it is a brass ring. As long as the instrument is in the damp fog the ring is held in position, but as soon as it gets above the fog into clear, dry air, the catch holding contracts and the ring slides down the string. The amount of string paid out is measured, and this gives the height of the fog. It is expected that by next year fog will not in any way interrupt the air liners.—Aviation, 13 March, 1922.
ENGINEERING
Removing Boiler Scale with CO2.—After trying to remove the scale accumulation from a battery of boilers by the usual method with little success, the authors decided to experiment with a solution of carbon dioxide in water. The success of the laboratory work and the subsequent tests on factory boilers led to a continuation of the investigation. While the experiments failed to develop a "cure all" for boiler troubles, the results presented in this report seem worthy of note as indicating what may be done in the case of certain troublesome scales. Fortunately it is easy for the engineer to find out whether this treatment will be successful for his particular conditions without going to the expense of making a trial with the actual boilers. The effect of the treatment on a given scale can be determined by the apparatus shown in the figure. This consists of a heavy soda-water bottle equipped with an ordinary bicycle tire valve. The method of clamping indicated insures a tight joint and at the same time permits the valve to be removed in order that scale or water may be placed in the bottle or withdrawn.
In testing, a few fragments of scale were placed in the bottle and covered with water. The bottle was then closed and charged from an ordinary carbonating apparatus such as is used in connection with soda fountains. The pressure regulator was set so as to give a pressure of 70 lb. per sq. in. The action on the scale was observed from time to time, but it was ordinarily several days before marked disintegration of the scale became apparent. Little was gained in any case by continuing the treatment more than a week or ten days.
Further details of the experimental work will be given near the end of the article. For practical power-plant work it is sufficient to know that if the scale shows marked disintegration in the bottle, it may be expected that the gas treatment in the boiler will produce the same result.
After preliminary tests with the bottle experiments were made on two horizontal-return-tubular boilers supplied with feed water containing about 7 grains of total solids per gallon. The chemical composition of the solids were as follows: Silicon dioxide (SiO2) 56.1 per cent; ferric oxide and alumina (R2O3), 0.58 per cent; calcium oxide (CaO), 6.98 per cent; magnesium oxide (MgO), 3.98 per cent. The scale was the results of years of accumulation. It was hard and very adherent, so that the air hammer and other methods of scale removal had little effect on it.
Before trying the carbonated water, an attempt was made to remove the scale by the use of a solution of sal soda and lye. One hundred pounds of sal soda and seventy pounds of lye were put in the boiler. It was then filled with water to the normal .level and kept boiling for a week. The removal of a small amount of recently formed scale was accomplished by this treatment, but when it was repeated, some weeks later, no scale was removed.
Before beginning the carbon-dioxide treatment the blow-off pipe from the boiler was connected with the suction of one of the feed-water pumps. This pump then functioned as a circulating pump, withdrawing water from the rear of the boiler and discharging it into the front end. The boiler was cut out of service and allowed to cool with all exits closed. This was done so that it would be filled with boiled water free from dissolved gases. Cooling was facilitated by fitting temporary connections to several of the fire tubes and passing cold water through them.
Two cylinders of carbon dioxide, each containing about 50 lb. net were emptied into the boiler through the discharge pipe from the circulating pump. The pressure gauge on the boiler then showed 37 lb. The next day another full cylinder of gas was put in, and the gauge showed 45 lb. pressure. The temperature of the water was 84 deg. F.
The boiler was then allowed to stand eight days, by which time the pressure had fallen to 30 lb. It was then opened up, and the softened scale was knocked off with water from a high-pressure hose. The scale raked out of the manhole was found to weigh 287 lb. Almost half the surface of the boiler was free from scale and rust, and the exposed surface had the blue color of new tubes.
After a week's service the boiler was again opened up, but no scale was found to have accumulated on the crown sheet. Similar treatment was given to another boiler of the same battery with practically the same results. About a year later it was found possible to cut the boilers out of service, so the treatment was repeated on both. This time, more than 100 lb. of scale was removed from each boiler, after which they were practically free from scale.
The experiments indicate that carbon droxide in water is a solvent for certain boiler scales that ate high in lime and silica and comparatively low in carbonate. The use of this treatment is advocated only after laboratory tests (by the "soda-water bottle" method) have shown that it is applicable to the case under consideration.
In applying this method, it is important to have all joints and valves absolutely tight to prevent the loss of carbon dioxide. However, small leaks in the main stop valves of the steam lines will do no harm if steam pressure (from other boilers) is on the line. This will prevent any outward leak.—Power, 14 March, 1922.
A New Development in Marine Propulsion.—The contract which was placed recently with Messrs. Scotts' Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited, Greenock, for the construction of a 400-ft. twin-screw vessel for Messrs. Alfred Holt and Co., of Liverpool, has attached a considerable amount of attention in engineering and ship-owning circles throughout the country on account of the departure made in connection with the propelling machinery for which Scott-Still engines have been adopted. In an association extending back to 1865, the firms of Scotts' and Holt have been responsible for many important advances in naval architecture and marine engineering, and it is fitting that they should be associated now with the latest development in marine propulsion.
The engines for the new vessel will be constructed under license from the Still Engine Company, Limited, 7, Prince's Street, Westminster. It is gratifying to know that the Still engine is a purely British production in its inception and subsequent development. Scotts' Company directed their attention in 1916 to the slow-running merchant type of marine Still engine, and have designed and constructed an experimental single-cylinder unit of about 400 b.h.p., with which they have been carrying out an extensive series of trials at their works. The first of these trials was made in May, 1920. Following upon the trials made by French engineers, dealt with in our issue of September 2 last. Captain H. Riall Sankey, M.I.Mech.E., in October last conducted a series of trials, and his report, now available, is appended to this description of the machinery installation for the new Holt liner. The improvements introduced from time to time will be incorporated in the engines for the present contract.
The Scott-Still engines for the Holt vessel now ordered will have a combined brake horse-power of 2,500 when running at from 115 r.p.m., under ordinary service conditions. Each set of main engines will have four cylinders, 22 in. diameter, with a stroke of 36 in. The engines will be of enclosed type with forced lubrication to all the principal bearings. A group of pumps will be driven by levers and links from the crankshaft at the forward end of the engines, and will embody those required for the operation of the main engines, with the exception of the valve gear operating pumps, and the scavenging blowers which will be motor driven. All the usual engine-room auxiliaries, and the winches (11 in number) and the windlass will also be motor driven. The steering gear will be of Hele-Shaw Martineau type. Electric power will be supplied at 220 volts by two i6o-kw. Diesel-driven generators, running at 250 r.p.m., and one generator of 50-kw. capacity driven by a Diesel or semi-Diesel engine. For starting these engines a compressor set will be provided. It is intended that one large generating set will supply the electric power required at sea and normally in port. When all the winches are in operation, the power will be supplemented by the 50-kw. set. A small lighting set of 12-kw. capacity at 110 volts, with a semi-Diesel engine, will also be provided capable of being started by hand, and a rotary converter will be fitted. A special feature of the installation is the absence of high-pressure air compressors. The thrust blocks will be of the Michell type. The present intention is to carry out a series of test-bed trials of the main engines at the works before fitting them on board the ship.
Some particulars of the characteristics and broad principles which have influenced the design of the Scott-Still engine will be of interest. The engines consist of an ingenious combination of oil engines and steam engines. The main source of power is oil consumed within the cylinder for the down stroke, operating on the two-cycle principle, while steam forms a supplementary source of power, being used upon the upstroke. The oil fuel is injected into the cylinders without the use of high-pressure air. The engines are designed to reduce heat losses to a practical minimum, the primary consideration being to accomplish this in such a manner as to improve the thermal conditions of the working cylinders and so ensure the maximum efficiency from the fuel burnt therein. The combustion cylinder liners are of special form to secure immunity from heat cracks. On each cylinder top there is only one opening, and no separate cover is required for the combustion cylinder. Forming an integral part of each engine there is fitted a regenerator which is constructed like a small oil-fired water-tube boiler, and supplies steam for starting and maneuvering the engine. When the engine is started, the oil burners are shut off, and the regenerator then serves merely as a steam and water reservoir with which the water in the combustion cylinder jacket is in circuit. The heat from the jacket water, and that recovered from, the exhaust gases through the medium of the regenerator and the feed heater incorporated therewith, all goes to form steam which performs useful work on the steam side of the engine pistons. The thermal working conditions of the cylinders result in the compression pressure being considerably less than in the ordinary Diesel type of engine. The valves on the steam side of the cylinders are operated by oil under pressure, which simplifies and facilitates the control of the engine for startine-up and while maneuvering. An impressive feature of the Scott-Still engine is the absence of the complicated array of rods, valves and cams associated with the ordinary Diesel engine. The results obtained from the experimental engine at Scotts' Works show that the Scott-Still engine has an advantage in fuel economy over the best Diesel engine; but even more important, from the ship-owner's
point of view, is the fact that the space occupied by such an installation
and the weight of machinery in sea-going trim are considerably less
than with Diesel engines of the same power. It will be seen that the
Scott-Still engines have many novel and attractive features, and the results
of the new Holt vessel will be awaited with the greatest interest. —Engineering, 10 February, 1922.
Test on Still Steam-Oil Engine.—A test recently made on a Still
steam-oil engine, conducted by H. R. Sankey as reported in The Engineer,
is reproduced here. The Still engine used in the test is a one-cylinder
unit. The upper end of the cylinder is the oil-burning portion, while
the lower end under the piston is the steam cylinder. In the commercial
units it is the intention to employ three cylinders arranged with one cylinder carrying high-pressure steam which exhaust into the other two cylinders. This gives three single-acting oil cylinders, one high-pressure and two low-pressure steam cylinders. In the experimental engine a separate steam engine was connected to the crankshaft to act as the high-pressure steam portion. This engine was jacketed by the exhaust gases from the oil cylinder, but not sufficiently to make it thermally as efficient as is to be expected in the commercial engine. The steam supply is secured from the oil engine jacket and exhaust supplemented by a separate boiler.
Table I
Dimensions of engine— | |||||
Main cylinder | |||||
Stroke | 36 in. | ||||
Bore | 22 in. diam. | ||||
Piston rod | 6 ¼ in. diam. | ||||
Auxiliary high-pressure cylinder | |||||
Stroke | 22 in. | ||||
Bore | 14 in. diam. | ||||
? | Overload | Full Load | Three Quarter Load | Half Load | |
Maximum pressure in combustion cylinder, lb. sq. in. | 615 | 595 | 600 | 585 | |
Boiler pressures, lb. abs. | 114 | 112 | 111 | 111 | |
Exhaust of engine (inches mercury) | 26.5 | 26.9 | 26.8 | 25.9 | |
Temperatures (deg. F) Exhaust gases, boiler inlet | 756 | 678 | 579 | 494 | |
Temperatures (deg. F) Feed Water | 78 | 76 | 79 | 78 | |
Temperatures (deg. F) Exhaust gases to atmosphere | 156 | 164 | 181 | 181 | |
Temperatures (deg. F) Steam in boiler | 347 | 346 | 345 | 345 | |
Weight of steam passing through engine (pounds per hour) | 1,025 | 892 | 583 | 355 | |
M.e.p. referred to combustion cylinder— | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Combustion | 89.53 | 81.37 | 71.27 | 56.63 | |
Steam, high-pressure | 5.10 | 3.86 | 2.07 | 1.12 | |
Steam, low-pressure | 6.46 | 6.14 | 4.75 | 2.72 | |
Total | 101.1 | 91.4 | 78.1 | 60.5 | |
Revolutions per minute | 129.3 | 125.0 | 111.3 | 97.4 | |
I.h.p. combustion cylinder | 400.5 | 351.5 | 274.1 | 190.6 | |
I.h.p. total | 451.7 | 394.7 | 300.3 | 203.5 | |
Brake load (pounds) | 1,500 | 1,380 | 1,125 | 850 | |
Hp. absorbed brake | 387.9 | 345.0 | 250.4 | 165.6 | |
Brake efficiency, per cent | 85.9 | 87.4 | 83.4 | 81.4 | |
Hp. used in scavenging | 20.7 | 17.7 | 13.5 | 6.5 | |
Effective horsepower | 367.2 | 327.3 | 236.9 | 159.1 | |
Ratio, effective hp. to total i.hp. per cent | 81.3 | 82.9 | 78.9 | 78.2 | |
Total oil consumption per hour (pounds) | 147.2 | 126.7 | 90.9 | 61.0 | |
Oil consumption per combustion i.hp. per hours (pounds) | 0.367 | 0.360 | 0.332 | 0.320 | |
Oil consumption per effective hp. per hour (pounds) | 0.401 | 0.387 | 0.384 | 0.383 | |
Thermal efficiency i.hp. per cent | 38.4 | 39.2 | 42.5 | 44.1 | |
Thermal efficiency effective hp., per cent | 35.2 | 36.4 | 36.7 | 36.8 | |
B.t.u. per minute per i.hp. | 110.4 | 108.2 | 99.8 | 96.2 | |
B.t.u. per effective i.hp. | 120.6 | 116.4 | 115.5 | 115.2 | |
Lubricating oil per hour, lb. | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | |
Smoke | Slight haze | None | None | None |
The essential results of the test are given in Tables I and II, while Table III shows the results to be expected from a three-cylinder engine.
Attention is called to the following facts brought out by the tests:
- The remarkable fuel economy and the corresponding high thermal efficiency.
- The small change in this economy from half to full load.
- The capability of considerable overload at a comparatively small increase in fuel consumption per effective horsepower.
- The high brake efficiency for a high-compression oil engine.
- The low consumption of lubricating oil.
- The low temperature of the exhaust gases on final discharge.
- The entire absence of smoke, except a slight haze at overload.
At full load the indicated horsepower developed in the combustion cylinder was 351.5, the oil consumption was 126.7 lb. per hour, and since the lower calorific value of the oil was 18,053 b.t.u. per pound, the thermal efficiency was 39.2 per cent. The thermal efficiencies for the other loads are given in Table II.
These thermal efficiencies have been compared with those of an ideal oil engine working between the same temperature limits as the actual engine at the various loads. The temperature limits have been obtained by the use of a temperature-entropy chart, and the thermal efficiencies calculated, taking account of the variation of specific heat.
Table II
? | Overload | Full load | Three quarter load | Half load |
Thermal efficiency of ideal engine | 50.0 | 50.8 | 55.0 | 51.6 |
Thermal efficiency of actual engine | 38.4 | 39.2 | 42.5 | 44.1 |
Efficiency ratio | 76.8 | 77.2 | 83.3 | 85.4 |
At overload, 1,025 lb. per hour of steam (saturated) passed through the high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders. In the case of the high-pressure cylinder the indicated horsepower developed was 22.8, corresponding to a feed of 45 lb. per indicated horsepower hour. The admission pressure was 111 lb. abs. per in. and the exhaust 22 lb. absolute, and for these steam conditions the feed of the Rankine engine is 21.5 lb. per indicated horsepower-hour. Hence the efficiency ratio is 47.8 per cent, which is distinctly low for a high-pressure cylinder.
For the low-pressure cylinder the following are the corresponding figures: i.hp. developed, 28.9; feed, 35.5 per i.hp.-hour; Rankine feed, 17.1 lb. per i.hp.-hour; efficiency ratio, 48 per cent.
Usually, the efficiency ratio of the low-pressure cylinder of a condensing engine does not exceed 40 to 45 per cent, owing mainly to the loss caused by "cutting off the toe of the diagram." The higher value of 48 per cent in this case is due to the heat transmitted from the combustion cylinder.
It cannot be doubted that in the actual marine engine of the type which will be built for commercial use, where the high-pressure cylinder is at the bottom of a combustion cylinder, so that the steam receives heat during admission and expansion, the efficiency ratio of this high-pressure cylinder would be at least 90 per cent. As to the low-pressure cylinder, an efficiency ratio of 90 per cent can be expected if the back pressure be increased to the release pressure by passing its exhaust into the low-pressure portion of a mixed-pressure turbine provided for driving the scavenge air blower. This turbine should be supplied with a small amount of steam direct from the boiler to make up the power required by the blower and for regulating purposes.
In the experimental engine tested, a certain amount of the exhaust gases was used for jacketing the high-pressure cylinder (auxiliary engine). In the three-cylinder unit this waste of exhaust gases would not occur and a corresponding additional weight of steam would be produced in the boiler.
The mechanical losses of the auxiliary steam engine were included when determining the horsepower absorbed by the brake, but in a three-cylinder unit they would not occur.
The auxiliary engine is single-acting, and judging from general experience, its mechanical efficiency at 40 lb. m.e.p. would be about 90 per cent, which works out to a loss of horsepower equivalent to 0.0342 x revolutions per minute. Being a single-acting engine, the loss is practically constant at all loads, and this horsepower can therefore be added to the effective horsepower.
The calculations to ascertain what improvement in economy may be expected, based on the foregoing, are given in Table III.—Power, 28 March, 1922.
Table III—Economical Results That May Be Expected in a Three-Cylinder Unit When the Steam Is Exhausted into a Low-Pressure Turbine Driving the Air Scavenge Blower
? | Overload | Full load | Three quarter load | Half load |
Total i.h.p. | 463 | 404 | 302 | 206 |
Brake hp | 404 | 359 | 256 | 172 |
Brake efficiency, per cent | 87.2 | 88.8 | 84.6 | 83.2 |
Oil per brake hp. (pounds per hour) | 0.364 | 0.353 | 0.355 | 0.355 |
Thermal efficiency per brake hp., per cent | 38.7 | 39.9 | 39.7 | 39.7 |
B.t.u. per minute per brake hp. | 109.6 | 106.3 | 106.8 | 106.8 |
Rotary Steam Engine.—Patents have been issued to Albert C. Johnson, of Stillwater, Minn., covering improvements and modifications in the rotary steam engine. The sketch shows the engine as constructed. The cylinder A rests on the engine base B and has formed upon its opposite sides extension C constituting valve cages. The cylinder has projecting through it the axis or shaft of the rotor D, which carries two lungs containing packing rings. The central portion of the rotor is provided with concentric grooves opposite similar grooves in the ends of the cylinder, and these grooves co-operate to form traps for water condensation or oil, which will fill the grooves and serve as a seal for preventing leakage of compressions from the interior of the cylinder to the slight space around the shaft at the end.
Formed in one wall of the cylinder, adjacent to the cage C, are exhaust ports E, which lead to any suitable pipe or exhaust manifold. Inlet ports F are also formed in the walls of the cylinder. Within each of the valve cages C is a rotary valve G, supported on a steam that passes through one end of the cage. This valve has a portion H cut away, which permits the passage of the rotor piston when in a certain position, and is provided at one end with a flange adapted to cover the adjacent inlet port F, and this flange is formed with a cutout portion of less length than the port F, but adapted to register at certain intervals. Carried on the stem of this valve is a disc I, having pin projections, which engages with an elliptical gear mounted on the end of the rotor.
The number of the pins and teeth in the elliptical gear is such that as the rotor revolves the valve is also constrained to revolve. This admits steam through the port F into the cylinder behind the pistons of the rotor, and owing to the eccentricity of the series of pin teeth and the elliptical formation of the gear, it will be seen that the valve G will not rotate at a uniform speed, but will rotate very rapidly throughout a portion of a revolution and will have its movement retarded during the remainder of the revolution, this retardation being necessary to permit the passage of piston D through the cutout portion of the valve.
Inside each cage, engaging the flame of the valve, is a control disk J. This disk has a cut-out portion on its surface adapted to register with the cut-out portion of the steam-valve flange during the rotation of the valve, so as to control the admission of steam into the cylinder through the ports. Each disk carries a stem upon which is secured a crank arm, and these crank arms are connected by links to a vertical governor shaft.—Power, 7 March, 1922.
Palm Oil Diesel Fuel.—Trials conducted by a Belgian firm have shown that a two-cycle engine of the semi-Diesel type, known as the "Drott" and made by a Swedish firm, can be successfully used with palm oil. The "Drott" engine used in the trials was of the stationary type, and was adapted, but not specially designed, for use with palm oil. It was equipped with a storage tank for the oil, so fitted that the cooling water from the cylinder and the hot exhaust gases melted the contents. The tank was divided into three compartments by wire screenings, through which the melted oil filtered before entering the feed pipe. The engine was started from the cold with crude petroleum, and as soon as it was warmed sufficiently the petroleum supply was cut off, and the palm oil introduced through the automatic feed. Water was also injected automatically.—Engineering, 10 March, 1922.
Heat Treatment of Non-Ferrous Alloys.—Dr. D. Hanson, of the National Physical Laboratory, lectured on the subject of "Heat Treatment of Non-Ferrous Alloys" to the members of the Birmingham Metallurgical Society at the Chamber of Commerce on the sixteenth of last month. The lecture was illustrated with lantern slides, which included excellent microphotographs and was devoted largely to the consideration of the phenomenon of "age hardening" of certain alloys, notably duralumin, and the new "Y"' alloy recently discovered and developed at the National Physical Laboratory. Dr. Hanson reminded the audience, however, that "age hardening" was by no means restricted to aluminum alloys, but was found to occur in several directions and had many commercial applications. In the case of duralumin, "age hardening" was found on close scientific investigation, to be due to the difference in solubility of the magnesium silicide compound present in the alloy. The chairman, Mr. A. J. C. Smout, stated that Dr. Hanson had touched upon quite a new field of work, and one which undoubtedly possessed great commercial possibilities if exploited on scientific lines. He referred to several cases where non-ferrous alloys could be heat-treated advantageously.—Engineering, 3 March, 1922.
Theory of Grey Cast-Iron.—Speaking at a meeting of the Institute of Marine Engineers on the subject of grey iron castings, Mr. H. J. Young suggested that grey cast-iron is a very high carbon steel cut up by and surrounding innumerable plates of graphite, that is, a matrix of steel containing many spaces filled with graphite—for this reason can cast iron be machined, the non-homogeneous material collapsing under the stresses produced by the edge of the cutting tool; for the same reason also has it little or no elongation and many other properties peculiar to itself. A practical object lesson of the truth of these things is obtained from a large propeller casting, blades and boss complete, and weighing, say eleven or more tons. Here the great mass of the boss causes extremely slow cooling of the adjacent parts, the effect getting less and less along the blades away from the boss- and also the section of the blades themselves gets less. In practice, the molten metal flowing to the tips of the blades is almost chilled and, therefore, the tips are very hard and brittle and contain but little free carbon. A short distance from the tip this cooling is less severe and more carbon is released, with the consequence that the metal is grey but rather hard. Half-way up the blade the section is greater and the heat given off by the cooling of the boss delays the cooling, hence the metal will be very normal and perfectly grey and machinable. At the root of the blade, where it joins the boss, the cooling will be extremely slow. The iron has time to free itself almost entirely from combined carbon, and when cold is found to be full of large graphite.—Engineering, 10 March, 1922.
"Vibrac" Steel.—The announcement is made that Messrs. Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Co., Limited, following upon researches carried out at their Openshaw Works, Manchester, by Mr. H. H. Ashdown and other experimentalists, have discovered a new steel, styled "Vibrac" steel, which, it is claimed, gets over the temper-brittleness of nickel-chromium steels, a difficulty which has formed the subject of recent papers presented to the Iron and Steel Institute. In great masses it is said to be consistent throughout; it is also highly resistant to torsion and shock, qualities which render it very valuable for turbine motors and shafts, crankshafts, and all machinery component parts which are stressed to a high degree when running at high speeds.—Engineering, 24 February, 1922.
NAVIGATION AND RADIO
Air Navigation.—The most difficult of all problems in connection with "Navigation" is the provision of means in foggy or misty weather to enable an aircraft to locate the aerodrome for which it is bound and to make a successful landing to it. Professor Lindemann has suggested that the best means of landing in a fog might well prove to be the provision by the aerodrome so affected of two pairs of small kite balloons floating above the cloud layer, the first pair being at such an altitude as would enable a gliding machine, which passed between them, also to glide between the second, and lower pair, and after an equal interval of time to land on the aerodrome. In the case of thin fogs or ordinary mists it may be that the specially bright red ground flares which are now being tried will suffice. In heavy fogs there is always the possibility, given the right ground organization, of detecting the position of an aeroplane by sound and of signaling to it by wireless when to glide down and in what direction. This has been done successfully at Croydon.
Suggestions have been made to get rid of the fog either by mechanical means, such as pumping, or, alternatively, by electrical discharges, or even by burning vast quantities of coal or other fuel in order to warm the air above the saturation point; these three methods could easily be tried on a small scale, and would doubtlessly work; when, however, they are figured out for an aerodrome of normal size the cost of their introduction is found to be prohibitive.
It is a natural speculation as to what is likely to be the amount of deviation error in the magnetic compass when machines are built entirely of steel. Such tests as have already been made are, however, reassuring in this respect. It seems that the deviation error in any machine is largely dependent on the proximity of the engine, and that this effect predominates whether the framework is constructed of wood or of steel.
As regards navigation, either when flying over the sea out of sight of land, or when flying at any time above clouds, the necessary instruments to enable the position to be determined by the methods of nautical astronomy are now available. They have become sufficiently developed to enable the position to be obtained with a probable error of not over 10 miles. This is as high a standard of accuracy as is necessary for ordinary air work; it enables a check to be made on the dead reckoning course, and upon any determinations of position derived from wireless methods.
The study of directional wireless is being steadily pressed forward. A particularly promising form of it is the rotating wireless beacon: this method offers the very considerable bait of freedom from the troublesome quadrantal error, but it, like other wireless methods, depends for its ultimate accuracy on a careful study of the conditions which determine the nature of the path followed by the waves.—The Engineer, 10 February, 1922.
Best Color-Blindness Test for Navigators.—In a just published report, Dr. F. W. Edridge-Green, special examiner and adviser to the Board of Trade on Color-Vision and Eyesight, says that there is no universally recognized standard of rejection for color-blindness since the wool test has become obsolete. The wool test allows fifty per cent of dangerously color-blind to pass and of those rejected fifty per cent are not dangerously color-blind.
The nautical advisers of the Board of Trade are agreed that anyone who can distinguish between the red, green, and white lights at a distance of a mile has sufficiently good color perception for the purpose of navigation at sea. About twenty-five per cent of the men have diminished color perception and about five per cent will fail to distinguish between the red, green, and white lights of a properly constructed lantern or the actual lights themselves at a distance of a mile. These men may be ranged in three definite classes, the dichromic, who see only two colors in the spectrum, red and violet with a neutral division between them; the trichromic who sees only three colors in the spectrum, red, green, and violet, and who designate the yellow of the spectrum as red-green; and those who have shortening of the red end of the spectrum.
A person of very acute color-vision can distinguish seven colors in the solar spectrum, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Those who have for all practical purposes normal color-vision, six, five or four colors, those who see six failing to distinguish indigo, those who see five, orange as well, and those who see four, blue in addition. Those who can distinguish seven colors are called heptachromic and those of less acute preception, in descending order, hexa-, penta-, tetra-, tri, and dichromic.
The tetrachromic, or those who see four colors in the spectrum, red, yellow, green, and violet, though in continual difficulty about blue and green, have a definite yellow sensation and repeated and extended examinations with actual lights extending in some cases over five hours have demonstrated that for practical purposes the tetrachromic are not dangerous. The possession of a definite yellow sensation is therefore the deciding point for passing as practically normal. The lantern is an efficient test, and enables cases of acquired color-blindness, as for instance those with central color scotoma, to be excluded as well as those due to defective light perception such as shortening of the red end of the spectrum.—Nautical Gazette, 18 March, 1922.
Emergency Seaplane Radio Transmitter.—One of the greatest dangers to seaplanes flying over the ocean has been greatly lessened by recent radio developments by the Navy; namely, the emergency transmitting equipment now carried on multi-motored machines which permits the sending of radio messages when a plane has been forced to land on the water.
The recent forced landing of a seaplane off the Florida coast will serve well to illustrate the value of this development. Had a navy F-5L seaplane had such an accident, she could have sent a radio message immediately and assistance rushed to the plane. The plane could have been found more easily by the rescue vessel not only because her position was known, but also because the kite which is part of the equipment would be visible at greater distances than the plane on the water.
Formerly a plane could use its radio only while in the air where the antenna consisted of 200 or 300 feet of wire trailing behind the plane. Of course, when the plane landed this antenna could no longer be used. A second antenna, however, was available on some planes, permanently rigged on the upper wing, but only very short ranges could be obtained on this '"skid-fin antenna," about ten or fifteen miles. With the new apparatus the ranges obtainable on the water are in general twenty-five per cent greater than those in the air.
The equipment for this transmission is very simple, weighing only a few pounds. There are two kites, one for stronger and one for light breezes, and a reel of specially light antenna wire. When necessary to send a message from the water the radio generator is put in the wind stream of the good motor, if it were not there already, and the antenna wire flown from the appropriate kite. A canvas screen rigged in the wind stream concentrates its force on the wind-driven generator fan, so that, with the motor running slowly, the radio generator will develop full power for sending messages. This work has been done through the Bureau of Engineering by the Anacostia Air Station Radio laboratory. Commander Taylor and Lieut. C. D. Palmer have done most of the field and design work in this connection.
While the outfit was developed for multi-motored seaplanes, its field of usefulness is much wider. To mention two other uses: A disabled plane, either sea or land plane, can increase its chances of being found by rescue planes by flying the kite, and with a small expeditionary force a plane so equipped might well be used for all communication.—Aviation, 27 March, 1922.
Japanese High Power Station.—The January issue of the Radio Review contains some notes on the high-power radio station at Qwaki, near Tokyo, which was opened in March, 1921. The transmitting and receiving houses are about twenty miles apart, and the former contains arc and high-frequency alternator apparatus of 400 kilowatts capacity. The aerial, which is of the umbrella type, is supported by one main tower 656 feet high, which is a self-supporting reinforced concrete structure weighing about 11,000 tons. This tower is surrounded by eighteen masts 197 feet high, which are arranged in a circle round the central tower. The station is employed for duplex transmission, with the Hawaiian stations of the Radio Corporation of America, but it is intended to utilize it later for direct European traffic.—Engineering, 3 February, 1922.
Radio Sets Standardized.—In standardizing specifications for radio apparatus in co-operation with the manufacturers the Bureau of Engineering, Navy Department, has effected a reduction in the price of various items used in radio sets at the present time. Aircraft and medium-range receiving sets, for instance, are reduced in price approximately sixty per cent, as are amplifiers, such as those used in receiving the large selection of lectures and concerns now broadcasted from many parts of the country. Detectors used in such receiving sets are now reduced some seventy-five per cent in price. Medium-size transmitting sets, both of the spark and arc type, are down on the average of thirty per cent, while various types of insulators in common use and necessary in assembling a radio set are reduced on the average twenty per cent.
Vacuum tubes for both transmitting and receiving sets, the latest thing in radio in common use, are down in price on the average about forty per cent. All this material is also improved in efficiency as well as reduced in price, the latest vacuum tubes, for instance, having over 1,000 per cent longer life than the early tubes possessed.—Army and Navy Register, 1 April, 1922.
Wireless Telephone Developments.—If statistics published in America this week can be accepted as an accurate representation of the position, there has been an extraordinary development of wireless telephony. It is said that the number of receiving sets in use increased in one year from 50,000 to 600,000. The usual plan is to install a small roof radial communicating with a simple receiving set, and plans are taking shape for the division of the country into definite areas for the distribution of wireless communication in the form of concerts, lectures and other public functions. The thing is becoming a craze with the American citizen, and, as might have been expected, it is being encouraged by a press which has an uncanny knack of gauging the selling value of news features.—The Engineer, 3 March, 1922.
Simultaneous Transmission.—Wireless Telephone and Telegraph Messages may now be transmitted simultaneously on the same wave length from a single transmitting set and antenna. This was demonstrated at the Engineering Societies Building, New York, by Dr. Frank B. Jewett, head of the Bell System Research Laboratories. The new achievement is made possible through an electrical "filter" invented by Dr. G. A. Campbell, which allows the separation of the "various frequencies at which individual telephone and telegraph messages are carried." In the demonstration, two such messages, dispatched at the same time, were received and were then detected by a single vacuum tube circuit. The detected current was then passed through the "filter" which distinguishes the telephone frequencies from those of the telegraph. According to its inventor, the filter differs from ordinary tuned circuits in that it separates not only single frequencies but bands of frequencies of pre-determined width.—Tech Engineering News, March, 1922.
Radio Incidents.—While the radio exhibition was in progress last week some remarkable demonstrations of "wireless" took place, although none of them figured in the official program. From his desk, General Manager Rossbottom of the United States Lines talked, through an ordinary telephone, with the master of the steamship America, over a hundred miles from port. The tragic side of wireless communication was represented by the story told by Captain Jorgenson of the Baltic American liner Esthonia which arrived in New York after passing through a succession of terrific storms on the mid-Atlantic. He described how the radio operator on the Norwegian steamer Grantoft, after sending out the calls for help, jested with his fellow operators while the vessel was sinking 700 miles off Cape Race, the final message indicating his approaching death and that of all on board. An element of comedy was provided by the announcement that a new feature of the reconditioned Leviathan will be a radio telephone equipment in each of the seven hundred first-class staterooms, thus destroying the last hopes of people who have hitherto sought rest and retirement by going to sea.—Nautical Gazette, 18 March, 1922.
ORDNANCE
A New French Gun.—During the month much interest was evinced in a new gun which is the invention of a French officer, Lieutenant Delamare-Maze. Experiments with the weapon have been in progress for some time, principally in Belgium, and next week some official trials of it are to be carried out at Liege under the auspices of the Belgian Government, which holds the Belgian license for the patent. Details of the invention, which, it is claimed, can be applied equally well to field and machine guns, as well as to rifles, have not at present been divulged; but it is claimed that as a result of its application the recoil is eliminated and the speed of the projectile practically doubled. In past trials with a French "soixante quinze" it is stated that a muzzle velocity of 850 m.—say, 2789 feet—per second was obtained, the ordinary velocity being about 1740 feet per second. It is hoped, as a result of improvements since made, that a muzzle velocity of something approaching 3300 feet per second will be reached. The inventor asserts that with the recoil done away with it will be possible to build guns as powerful as those at present in existence at only a third of their weight.—The Engineer, 3 February, 1922.
Airplane Cannon Tests.—Recent tests indicate that the 3-inch or possibly the 5-inch cannon can be mounted on airplanes. At present the greatest difficulty seems to be in eliminating the destructive tendencies of the air blast from the cannon. A 2.95-inch cannon is now under test in a Martin Bomber. This is a modified mountain cannon and is mounted to fire downward from the airplane. A 3-inch non-recoil cannon has recently been mounted on the nose of an NSB-1 bomber and promises such success that plans for testing a 5-inch gun are under way.—U. S. Air Service, March, 1922.
New Test of Thompson Submachine Gun.—Another successful test of the Thompson submachine gun was completed recently, that conducted at the U. S. Bureau of Standards on March 20 and 21, under the supervision of the Aircraft Armament Board, the head of which is Major W. A. Borden, Army Ordnance Department. One of the officers present in an official capacity was Major M. F. Harmon, of the Army Air Service, with Mr. D. B. Gish, representing the Auto-Ordnance Corporation. The report was made by Major Borden. The latest test started by mounting the gun in the altitude chamber on an improvised mount at 8:30 a.m. on the twentieth instant. The temperature in the chamber was then reduced, and at 11 a.m. it was reported that the temperature had dropped to minus thirty degrees centigrade. At 1 56 p.m. the temperature was minus forty degrees centigrade. One burst of approximately five rounds was fired. At this point the wire connecting the trigger to the outside of the chamber broke. The chamber had to be entered, and it was found that the gun had jammed. Apparently the bolt in going forward had not shoved the round all the way home and had ridden up over the round. The jam was cleared by pulling the bolt back. Six bursts were then fired of approximately ten rounds each. Further firing was stopped at 2:03 p.m. The gun was left in the chamber at the reduced temperature, and at 3 p.m., with the temperature at minus thirty degrees centigrade, two bursts were fired, which completed the first 100 rounds. All firing was satisfactory with the exception of the one jam which occurred at the end of the first burst. The gun was reloaded and left in the chamber all night.
On March 21 at 11:30 a. m. the gun was again fired. During this firing the temperature was minus fifteen degrees centigrade, and the pressure inside the chamber was reduced to simulate an altitude of 24,500 feet. One burst of about ten rounds was fired, when a stoppage occurred. Investigation showed that the primer had misfired. The primer had been struck squarely and properly. The gun was reloaded by pulling the bolt back, and the second burst was fired, temperature minus thirteen degrees centigrade, altitude 24,500 feet. This burst was continued until all rounds were fired. This completed the firing of the second 100 rounds. Major Borden in his report of the test says: "The functioning of the gun was entirely satisfactory with the exception of the one jam reported in the first burst, fired March 20."—Army and Navy Register, 1 April, 1922.
MISCELLANEOUS
Oil in Great Britain.—The search for home oil fuel resources is not meeting with success. It was stated by the Secretary for Mines, in reply to a question in Parliament, that the only producing oil well at the present time is that at Hardstoft, in Derbyshire, from which the production for the six months ended December 31 last was no more than seventy-eight tons. The evidence so far obtained has not been sufficiently conclusive to enable the Minister to express an opinion as to the commercial possibilities of oil boring in Great Britain. It is, however, fairly clear that the hopes entertained at an earlier date that a successful industry might be established have been practically abandoned, and it is definitely announced that the government has no intention of introducing legislation to give the Crown any further rights or powers in respect of petroleum than it already possesses. An intimation has also been given that in exercising its powers under the Petroleum Production Act, the government will not interfere with the rights of private individuals further than may be necessary to prevent indiscriminate boring operations.—The Engineer, 10 March, 1922.
War Outrage Recalled.—An echo of the naval war comes from The Hague, where the International Commission of Inquiry into the loss of the Dutch steamship Tubantia has just announced its finding in the Permanent Arbitration Court. The Tubantia, it will be recalled, was a big ocean liner owned by the Royal Holland Lloyd. On March 16, 1916, while on a voyage from Amsterdam to Buenos Ayres, she was sunk by an explosion obviously caused by a torpedo. The only mystery about the business was whence the torpedo came. According to the British government, it was fired from a German submarine, but this was flatly denied by the Germans, who on their part declared the outrage to have been the work of a British submarine. This impudent falsehood was soon refuted, for not only was no British submarine anywhere near the scene at the time, but pieces of metal recovered from the wreckage of the Tubantia were identified as parts of a German torpedo.
In view of this damning evidence it is not surprising that the International Commission should have declared the Tubantia to have been destroyed by torpedo attack from a German submarine. Probably because the commission is composed of jurists belonging to states that were neutral in the war, it has qualified its verdict by stating that the question as to whether the vessel was sunk willfully or as the result of a mistake by the German submarine commander must remain in dispute. On the other hand, it does emphatically reject the ingenious theory put forward from Berlin that the explosion may have resulted from the Tubantia having collided with a floating torpedo. That fairy tale was doubtless invented on the spur of the moment when the fragments of the torpedo were discovered to be of German origin. The world at large, remembering the hundreds of other neutral ships that were torpedoed by German submarines, will draw its own conclusions in this particular case, and doubtless number the Tubantia among the innumerable other vessels that were sunk at sight by the U-boat pirates.—Naval and Military Record, 8 March, 1922.
Breaking Strength of Manila.—From a series of 368 tests of Manila rope in sizes from one-half inch to four and one-half inches diameter carried out at the United States Bureau of Standards during the past three or four years it has been found that the average breaking strength of the rope is very closely represented by the formula L = 5,000 d (d + i). —The Engineer, 10 February, 1922.
Portugal's Steps to Secure National Merchant Fleet.—The Portuguese government decree of November 22, 1921, which came into operation on January i last, has been a source of continual friction and disturbance ever since that date. The decree imposes enormously increased port dues and charges which might have been borne philosophically by the shipping community were it not that discrimination of a most unfair nature has been exercised against foreign and in favor of Portuguese vessels. The genesis of the enactment may be traced to the Portuguese ambition to establish a national merchant navy.
Although a qualified official denial has been issued of what is current knowledge abroad, there appears to be little doubt that the forty ex-German steamers which the Portuguese government seized and registered in its own name on joining the Allies in the Great War are to form the nucleus of the new Portuguese mercantile marine. It is freely rumored that a Portuguese company, furnished with German money, is to be established for the purpose of taking over these ships, and the scheme is inevitably linked with the name of Herr Hugo Stinnes. Be that as it may, it is significant of the trend of events that a direct line of steamers between Portugal and Germany, with an intermediate call at London, has already been inaugurated by a German company; and obviously, behind all these restrictive dues and port charges with their discrimination against foreign shipping, there is an idea that by such means Portugal hopes to regain to some degree at least, her old-time maritime pre-eminence.
The dues to be paid by foreign ship-owners have not only been increased four-fold, but they are first levied in Portuguese currency and then converted into sterling at pre-war or practically par rate of exchange. This sterling is next converted back to Portuguese currency at the present depreciated rate of exchange in which foreign shipping companies have to pay. The effect is, of course, that all shipping other than Portuguese pays over forty times as much as vessels flying the Portuguese flag. It may be argued that ship owners can recover from shippers and merchants the extra cost in port dues and charges, which amounts to 4s. or 5s. per ton, but when they attempt to do so they are immediately reminded by the merchants that such charges are not payable when the goods arrive in Portuguese bottoms and hence the money-saving tendency is to favor the shipment of cargo on national rather than on foreign ships.—Nautical Gazette, 11 March, 1920.
Russia's Merchant Fleet.—The Soviet government has recently published figures showing the size of the Russian merchant fleet on November I last and in 1913. Details are shown in the following table:
Sea | Steamers | Other Vessels | ||
1921 | 1913 | 1921 | 1913 | |
Baltic | 38 | 197 | 1 | 807 |
White Sea | 21 | 48 | 350 | 485 |
Caspian Sea | 165 | 259 | 185 | 545 |
Black Sea and Sea of Azov | 49 | 379 | 254 | 750 |
Most of the ships belonging to the Russian volunteer fleet and to the Russian Navigation and Commerce Company are in foreign waters outside of the jurisdiction of the Soviet government. Steamers plying on rivers are only fifty-three per cent of their pre-war strength.—Nautical Gazette, 4 March, 1922.
Shanghai Port Improvements.—Expenditure of $14,000,000 by China at the instance of five great governments to make Shanghai the greatest port in the world, is fore-shadowed in a report drawn up by an international commission appointed by the governments of the United States, England, Japan, France, and Holland. General William Murray Black was the American member of the commission. They surveyed the entire port at Shanghai as a consultation board for the Chinese Republic.
That port is destined to be the greatest in the world, for nowhere else is there a seaport with a mighty river navigable for more than a thousand miles by vessels of 10,000 tons and under. Prominent in the project is the channeling of the famous bar at Woosung so that vessels of twenty-eight foot draft may pass up the Shanghai River. Levee work, riprap, and dredging are also provided for.—Nautical Gazette, 4 March, 1922.