Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-08-27
STORY OF A SHIP.
Built with the Purpose of Becoms
ing Confederas 20 Cruiser.
What Changed the Plans of Her Owners
The Embryo frivateer Now Engaged
In the Novel Business cf Cxr-
rylng Oil In Bulk.
philadelphia Times. !


kron, cleared from this port recently,
bound for Geestermunde, Germany. This
fact is not likely to awaken an interest in
the mind of the average reader, for arriv-
ais and departures, known aud unknown,
'tramps" and liners" are noted every
day. But the Andromeda has a history.
almost a romance AT one time she was
probable factor and instrument in the
hands of the Confederacy: she might havo
become of National interest; now she car
lies kerosene to our German cousins-in-
trade, and carries it in bulk The novelty
may be some compensation for the loss of
the romance
In the early part OF 1864 some English
men, having watched with evident satis-
faction the numerous profitable captures of
The Alabama, conceived the thought that
there was room for one more such craft on
the water. They laid the keel of what was
10 be larger and in every way a better
vessel, and hurried her forward to compile
ton
They did good work and made stanch
ship, while they no doubt looked forward
with intense satisfaction to the time when,
sailing under a commission from the Con-
federate Government, she should make
war against the Yankee merchant marine
and bring gold and silver galore to the
pockets of her enterprising owners The
ship was launched, christened in the usual
way, Der machinery made ready for plac-
ing and every thing was being rushed for
ward with all possible haste, when news
came that the Kearsage had followed the
Alabama into Cherbourg and that battle
was probable. Probability became fact
on Sunday, June 10, and the Alabama's
sun went down not in a sea of glory, but
stem first and full of holes.
1t is said that Admiral Semmes sought a
conference with the owners of the new
ship. 1t is not doubted that he was able to
present excellent credentials and to give
numerous instances of past success as in
dicative of future possibilities, but the news
from Cherbcurg had dampened the En-
glishmen's ardor and Semmes was not
welcomed with any excessive degree Of cor
diality. The owners would not replace the
Alabama with their new ship. They would
wait awhile. Confederate bonds were los
ing their golden hue and cotton's crown
was getting very shaky. With their usual
caution they considered a guinea in the
pocket worth several on the war-troubled
railroad parlance, they side tracked the
the one-time intended ally of the Confeder-
acy. Their decision was wisely made. The
march through Georgia made eventful the
closing months of 1864, while April, 1865,
found Grant at Appomattox, and the North
was up and the South was down. No in
depreciation of international law could
make of a second Alabama any thing else
than a pirate, SO the owners of the new
ship stopped her embryonic romance in
the first chapter and changed her into a
freighter, and a tramp at that. The ma
chinery was sold, and, as full-rigged ship,
with iron masts, she became the andre
media For nineteen years she sailed
the ocean blue. Then she changed hands
and now halls from Gestermunde, on the
river Weser fifty odd miles from Bremen.
The Andromeda is not an ordinary ship.
With net tonnage at 1871, she has
length over all of 200 feet beam, 371S feet:
depth of hold, 26 feet, and depth at water
line, 2315 feet. She is of composite"
build, with iron frame and wooden sides
and planking. small upright boiler and
engine, placed Immediately forward of the
mainmast, provide power for the pumps
used in loading and discharging the car
go. The Andromeda carries nothing but
oil, and that, as before stated is carried in
bulk. Prior TO her first trip. in January of
this year, bulk transportation had been
considered lmpracticable by the oil trade.
There are yet some minor difficulties to
overcome, but the experiment, for it was
such, is in the main a success. The hold of
the Andromeda is fitted up with seventy
two tanks, arranged in six series of twelve
each, each series or group having one
overflow or expansion tank with the
proper connections. The storage tanks are
filled flush with the top. Any pressure on
the tank caused by expansion of the oil
through rise in the temperature opens a
check-valve in the pipe leading to the over
flow tank and allows a sufficient volume
of the oil to escape. Then; in turn, if the
storage tank loses any oil through eSapo-
that is scarcely possible
Or through leakage or contraction from
cold, the pressure from the expansion tank
causes a second check valve to open, and
the main tank is again filed 1t is a sort
of perpetual motion that, if not complete
is practical.
The object, in detail. TO be obtained by
this complicated arrangement is the pre-
vention of what would otherwise he a con-
tinual shifting of her cargo in case the hull
of the Andromeda were made in to one huge
tank and the oil pumped into it. Loaded
that way and one hours steady blow and
the Andromeda's cargo would be in all yer-
ity oil on the waters, while her iron ribs
would make summer houses for the mer-
maids down below. So much danger at
taches to any possible "shifting'' that this
system of pipes, valves, etc, is made an
absolute necessity. Six inches of shortage
in Any one one tank when there is a storm.
viii p ay havoc with it's iron sides, while
the whole cargo may be endangered, and
tie expansion of the oil, causing pressure
beyond the resistant power of the tank,
will, of course, have a like result But dan
ger to the cargo or to the vessel itself is
here reduced to a minimum
The advantages to be gained by bulk
transportation are numerous and obvious
Time, money and labor are saved in load
ing; there are no barrels to fill, none to
load and none to pay freight on; there is
no loss caused by defective cooperaSe or
careless handling and at least twenty-five
per cent. more oil may be carried The
Andromeda was loaded with 13, 700 barrels
OF OH, yecnnlcally known as 1Odegree Abel.
Eine thousand five hundred would have
been the limit Of her barreled cargo. 1t Is
noted as a singular fact that on her first
trip from New York she carried twelve
hundred gallons more than on her second
TIP, and this notwithstanding the fact
hat her capacity had not been changed
and that her tanks were filed to the fun
each time. Here is problem for scientists
and the oil trade.
snaiis Fortune TeIIers
lst. Adams (yt.) sfessenger.1
Several st. Albans girls were OFT in
good season Saturday morning hunting
Tor snails. because of their faith in that old
saying which holds that the color Of snails
fosnd by young damsels on a morning
win indicate the color and several other
important charac: eristics of their "irue
love-" We haven't heard whether the
st. Adams girls found any snaffs or not;
but any girl that can get nm ar five a n,