Smyrna times., 1885-07-08
For the Smyrna Times.
THE DOLPHIN"

CApIeSSeu ledTS are well founded, that
the dispatch boat Dolphin is Il "bad
bargain or broken contract" it may
not augur badly for the revival of
American ship building under the new
school of marine architecture, with
metallic ships; but does assuredly, so
far as that revival rests on a scientific
basis, which it must do by the pressure
OF foreign competition in this art and
for this class of ships. Admittedly.
John Roach, the builder of the steamer
Dolphin, is the leading representa-
tive shipbuilder in the United States.
the variety and magnitude of his past
contracts with the merchant marine.
together with the elaborate and COSTLY
building plan at his works in Chester.
Pa, place him in this enViable position
II his present situation can be called
such. If the aphOrism of the Secretary
of the Navy of "a bad bargain or a
broken contract" is not to stand, then
it is misleading if not mischievOus, and
cannot be sustained at the expense of
the only means whereby our already
demOralized commerce can be re-
stored. Nor does it point out the cause
and i'll doing SO provide the remedy
That there is trouble begotten of failure
in the DOLphin's performance needs
not the further assurance of Secretary
Whitney that he does not wish to
prosecute or persecute Mr. Roach
in this matter, still less can any pOliti-
cal significance be attached to it other
than would naturally follow from Mr..
Roach being caught in Il different
M fVs,v = I
So far, so good; which is only true to
certain extent. Had the Dolphin
been intended for the merchant SER
vice her chief default, want Of speed
would have been OVershadOWed by the
second deficiency, want of strength
As 1t is, one or both of these require
ments became absolute to insure success
in her case, so then the two factors en-
terlng into the design and construction
OF the Dolphin and which from the
start were absolute, may have been
dictated and ordered by the Naval
Advisory Board in the contract or not,
in either case by no means relieving
Mr.. Roach from real or apparent fail
ure because he Is, or rsupposed to be sur
rounded with engineers scientific
enough to have seen disaster in the
plans submitted, which would have
been done had they been equal to it,
and precisely indicating by this omis-
sion not alone the failure of Mr.. Roach
III the DOiphia but that of the
whole fraternity of American ship
builders as compared to foreign in pro-
ducing fast ships for ocean commerce.
Unhappily, this has been brought about
by adherlng and still clinglng to a
principle in marine architecture that
has seen its best days, and which does
not at ali meet the requirements Of the
science at the present time, or to come.
When the yacht America years ago
| crossed the Atlantic and entered the
lists with the English yachts for the
Queens cup offered to the best boat in
high speed, Queen Victoria was pres
| ent in her yacht at COwes to witness
the contest; the day being inclement
she remained in the cabin and received
the reports. At length came the mes
sage:
Your Majesty, the winning yacht is
in sight"
Well, asked Her Majesty, (which
one?"
Your Majesty, the 4mericaa," was
the answer.
Which is sccondY" she next in
quired.
Your Majesty, there is no second, y
answered the messenger
Even SO it was, as the Americd
swept past the headlands Of COwes
with all sail set and her masts bending
like whip stocks before the freshening
gale, all eyes were directed towards
her, when out sprang to leeward the
| Stars and Stripes before the royal no.
bility of England, with not competing
yacht in sight and America in double
sense had won. Won, not bv the in
trinsic value of the Queens cup, but
by the impetus given to American ships
Ill carrying the worlds commerce af-
forwards. The years passed and while
still the Queens cup remained with us,
these ships and that commerce had dis
appeared in a sea of blood of our own
creating, and with it our representa-
tive shipbuilders-Steers and Webb, of
/ New York; and Mckay, of Boston.
From this it must not be inferred that
| the shipbuilders of Great Britain ig-
nored the principles enunciated by the
AmericG III her race or made no at
tempt to profit by them; on the con-
trary they gave the key, but were diff
tercntly applied, although not at the
start. They saw, it is true, that the
success of the Americd was due to the
| peculiar formation of the longitudinal
| parallels to that of fiOtatiOn against
| which was concentrated the centre of
effort ofall the sail : the prepOnderance
of this sail rightly distributed consti-
tuted the tulcrum acting against the
! immersed parallels or Waterlines
and overcome whatever positive resist
ance the the water offered. So then,
the distribution of the effort of sail
! immersed parallels became at once the
alpha and omega i'll the science of ship
! building the world over, correct
enough when applied to the winds as a
motive power, but fatal as an error
when applied to steam as the motor,
and on this rock Mr.. Roach or his en-
gineers or the Naval Advisory Board
have shipwrecked the DOlphin's pros
poets for high speed.
In the decade between 1850 and go
Scott Russell, the famed English
marine engineer, applied this wave
line " theory for all it was worth in de-
signing the steamship Great Eastern,
with minimum of horse power and
ruined his brilliant reputation with
her failure. And here it is we'll to note
that ship is regarded failure when
not meeting the requirements she was
originally designed for, although il
eventually developed that her great
work in laying the Atlantic cable was
her redeeming feature. Still, the pas.
sage of the Atlantic in six days was the
original intention, when, in fact, she
could not do it in twelve. The ship
builders on the Clyde saw with dismay
the towering genius of Scott Russell &c
down never to rise in the Great Eastern
but it was their opportunity which
they soon seized as we shall see in
their present Alaska and Oregon. AT
this time, under the auspices of the
! Pennsylvania Railroad, four steamships
were projected to secure the trans-At-
lantic traffic in passengers, namely,
the Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and
Illinois, and speed was their first re-
quirement. The contract was given,
not to John Roach, but to an equally
representative firm of American ship
builders and the ships were built by
American skill, labor and materials,
and with what results? Instead Oi
making the passage of the Atlantic in
six DAYS it was nearer sixteen. Now
! au froiUbt oarriarq this WAS tOlapa hi