The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-03-18

TESTING WAR VESSELS.

What are the absolute facts connected
with the trial trips of the harbOr defense
vessel Monterey? The officials of the Navy
Department must know whether anything
is amiss with the boilers or the machinery,
and they can speak with authority on the
subject and set criticism and fault-f finding
IN suspicious quarters at rest. An that the
public know is that the vessel has under
gone her trials and has been accepted by
the Government. In place of earning
bonus, however, the Union Iron Works
Company of San Francisco only receives the
contract price. The whole matter turned
upon the one requirement of horse power,
and in cases resembling this one. where the
contractors have the plans for the machinery
and boilers and in fact all the designs fur
nished and insisted upon by the Navy De-
partment, 1t would be insanely optimistic
to expect supreme achievements in every
feature of construction. II good average
result is attained under such a system it is
satisfactory.
The New York Times. in jaundiced way.
which suggests that its sources of informa-
ton are dubious, processes to give the true
history of the Monterey on her trial runs.
But there are no exact data, such as an en-
gineer would desire to ponder. Serious
of steam in the boilers. Apart from resort
to fierce firing the gra7amen of the charges
lies against those who supplied the plans
for the boilers and in no sense against the
contractors, who followed their instructions
to put in this and that type Of boiler. Act
ing under direct orders from the Navy De-
partment contractor is not free agent
any more than a builder is who follows an
architects designs. Commodore Melville
chief OF the Bureau of Steam Engineering,
is saddled with the responsibility of having
ordered two Scotch" boilers to be intro
duced as an auxiliary to a set OF Ward tube
boilers, against which he seems to have q
prejudice. Tube boilers are used In loco
motives, OF fast passenger steamers and on
war vessels of the modern type, commonly
and almost exclusively. They generate steam
rapidly, and they are adapted TO sustain
high pressures Under forced draught at
trial trips IN the English navy it frequently
occurs that defects in these tube boilers
are detected, but this arises through faulty
design and construction aud not because the
principle is unsOund. Private firms like
Armstrong, Earle. or the Fairfield Com
pany. when they work upon their own de-
signs. as they generally do for foreign
vessels. do not fall into these mistakes,
WHICH are usually que 10 lDSuuleleUL
strength of material. But in the case of the
Monterey the Ward tube boilers worked
we'll even under pressure of go pounds
Our New York contemporary puts it that
they worked altogether too we'll for the
Scotch boilers, which were not intended to
sustain greater pressure than 200 pounds
on the square inch. The pressure of the
tube boiiers was communicated to the other
boilers and the result was a dangerous
strain upon the plates OF the latter. The
Scotch boilers were thus injured.
How much truth or the reverse of truth
there is in this story we do not know. Per-
haps Commodore Melville will come to the
rescue of his Scotch boilers, and the Navy
Department can certainly disclose all the
facts. 1t is very improbable, however, that
the Navy Department has accepted a vessel
with any defects in her machinery for which
the contractors are liable, and which they
ought to correct. The fact that although
primarily designed for haTbor defense the
Monterey was pronounced available for
cruise to Hawaii is prima-facie evidence
that she is fit for a long voyage. In ship
building the Union Iron Works Company
has done such good work that people are
slow to believe there have been in this in
stance either mistakes Of Judgment or of
artifeers' labor A contractor may have to
execute work of which he disapproves, but
this does not imply that he does il careless
ly. Disparagement of the Monterey is per-
haps in line with the wish to disparage the
Pacific Coast in securing Government con-