Towanps the end of last year a decided improvement in the shipbuilding trade began in Great Britain and continued until most of the yards had a sufficiency of work in hand. "The same thing has occurred in America, as we learn from newspapers received by last mail. The "boom" in the iron shipbuilding trade is said to be bigger than any that has been known for many years. It is not confined to the shipyards along the Atlantic coast, but has extended to the great inland lakes and the Pacific. One of the members of a well known firm of shipbuilders stated to the reporter of a newspaper that "More work is under contract than for ten or fifteen years. We are doing more in our yard than we have done since the close of the late war. Not only are the leading yards of the country filled with orders for vessels for the mercantile marine, but there is also a number of men-of-war building for the United States navy. These are of the most moder type and represent the highest development of naval architecture. Those now under contract for the national goverment are equal to any being built anywhere in the world." The Government of the United States are building five men-of-war of steel, which are not armoured with heavy plates, but. the boilers and machinery are covered with a special steel deck below the water-mark, and are believed to be nearly as perfectly protected as they could possibly be. Four gun-boat cruisers, one dynamite cruiser and a first class torpedo boat are also building, and the chief Constructor of the Navy has given, as might be expected from an official in his position, a most satisfactory account of the work which had been done on these vessels. Three of the protected cruisers—the Newark, the Philadelphia and the Baltimore—are under construction in Philadelphia, two—the Charleston and the San Francisco—are being constructed in San Francisco. They are nearly of the same dimensions and of the same general style and furnished with similar machinery. The Baltimore is 335 feet in length, 48} feet breadth, 19§ feet mean draught and 4,400 tons measurement. The machinery consists of horizontal, triple-expansion, twin-screw engines four double-ended, return tubular boilers, 135 pounds steam, and 9,000 indicated horse-power. The cost will be$1,332,000. The Newark will cost $1,248,000, and the Philadelphia $1,350,000. The Bal-timote will be finished in the fall, although the time fixed is Ist June and will be the first of that class of cruisers finished. The other vessels are building in different places, the dynamite cruiser in philadelphia, audshe isto be completed by Jnme Ist. She is to be 246 feet long, 263 feet beam, 84 feet depth and 700 tous displacement, and is to be armed with three 15-inch guns. The speed she is expected to make is twenty miles an hour. The speed of the Baltimore is to be 19 knots and that of the Yorktown 16 knots an hour, The Philadelphia firm—Messrs. Cramp—who are building some of these vessels are said to have had contracts on hand last month to the value of $7,000,000. Shipbuilding on the lakes is said never to have been so prosperous as at the beginning of this year. One of the firms at Cleveland had nine 3,000 ton steamships building, and had refused te take further contracts for six months to come. These vessels are said to be in every respect equal to the Atlantic steamers between Liverpool and New York, except, of coitrse, as regards size, and they may well be so if it be tre that the lake mercantile marine does as much business as is done on the Mediterranean, and that the tonnage which goes through the Straits at Detroit now exceeds what passes any point in the English Channel. A great deal of the traffic on the lakes arises from the grain expert trade and the ore mining near Lake Superior, which give en ployment to eastward bound ye that return with cargoes of Peunsylvanian coal.
A recent timber of the Mew York Maritime Register discusses a resolution which had been passed by the Tudustrial and Shipping Lengne, to the effect that if Congress passed a Dill granting a subsidy to vessels engaged in the foreign trade, the passage of the bill "will promptly restore our ocean commerce and naval power." Our cou-temporary remarks that this is plaeing great belief in Congress, that there are limits even to the power of legislation and that a great industry can sometimes be ruined but can seldom be made by Act of Congress. It goes on to show, what scarcely needed demonstration, that no act of any Government can affect the laws which affect the prosperity oradversity of the shipping interest. When freights are low, steamers lose money and tonnage accumulates, and at such times a Government can only sustain the industry by protecting
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.