Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-09-03
More About tho wetmors.

Perhaps no American boat has ever
SO challenged the attention of nautical
journals as the whaleback Wetmore,
with whose peculiarities our citizens
have had such an excellent opportunity
to acquaint themselves. Much of what
has been said by others, in addition to
what our own people have remarked,
has been given within the past few days
in EVERY EVENINGS columns, but
seaooard comes along to-day with an
other long article, descriptive, historical,
laudatory and conjectural, from which
we CLEAN some additional information.
We find it definitely stated for the first
time in Sedboard that the whaleback
structure is protected by patents
and the building of boats of
this type will therefore be con
trolled by the inventor, Cap
tain Alexander McDougall, manager
of the American Steel Barge Company,
at West Superior, Wisconsin, village
on the southern shore Of the western
most extension of Lake Superior, oppo-
site Duluth. From an official connected
with the construction department Sea-
board learns authoratively that the cost
OF building these vessels averages from
$40 to $40 per ton; that the cost of run
ming them, as compared with other
steamships, is as 8 to 10; that the Wet
more consumed only 1876 tons of coal in
going from Montreal to Liverpool, and
$50 tons in returning from Liverpool to
New York; that she came across the
Atlantic without pound in her hold
and $50 tons of fuel on deck, ian ex-
IRENE and unnecessary" test, and that
the company is prepared to build these
boats by the wholesale, as it were. Upon
this latter point .SeaJOards informant
says:
You may safely say that we can launch
gay the west superior YARDS a vessel every
other week; that, under ordinary condl-
tons; We have been launching them
weekly for some time, and could, in an
emergency, continue to do so indefinitely
In fact, have so reported to the company,
that the constructions could be made to
average one week. We built one vessel
in 624 days. Pushed? Why, no. We
have never been driven yet, and so | am
unable to say what we just could do, if we
rushed. Barges can easily be built in 60
days and steamers in 80. We have ten
berths now for construction, and orr land
and water frontage is sufficient for ten
more, when needed. Everything is in
readiness there to build dry dock 500 feet
long, by Tar the largest of the chain of
lakes. We have not finally decided re-
garding the particular style of dock. nor
have we executed contract with the
builder, but we expect to at once.
ON Puget Sound, at Everett, at the
mouth OF the Snohomish river, we have
100 acres of land laid aside for this bust
ness; The Wetmore will carry $50 tons of
shipbuilding machinery from Whining
ton, Del, and the Continental Iron Works
OF Brooklyn. The remainder of the ma
chincry will he shipped BY rail. For con
sstructlon at Puget sound, as soon as estab-
lished, we have plans prepared for two
vessels Of 1000 tons capacity each.
'Sea6oard says editorially that the
whaleback can be constructed in this
country cheap enough to compete with
the English tramp and looks upon the
new type Of vessels as solving the
problem Of "ships built in America, of
American design, having in view the
supplanting of foreign ships in the
transportation Of Americas commerce.