The Portland daily press., 1895-05-17
Especial to the PRESS. }

known to frequenters of the Portland
wharves. That is the ship Cullen @. Chap
man which, after sailing the sea in all parts
of the globe, has now come to the ingIorious
fate which has awaited many another gal
liant vessel. Her sky scraping masts are
| gone and in their places are three short
poles, with only the running rigging neces-
sary to hoist few fore and aft sa ils. The
long powsprit has also disappeared. In the
| body of the vessel there have been few
changes but one of these tells more plainly
than wordssthe change (which is taking
place In some branches of sea farine, The
forecastle and galley adjoining, where Jack
Tar told his tales and the ships cook pre-
pared his meals. have been removed. Here
after what was once the spacious cabin of
the officers will shelter the four OF five men
at the end of a hawser with tug vomiting
black smoke over the waves, in front. That
is the fate of the good ship Cullen @. Chap
man, in her days one of the crack vessels of
the port of Portland,
While it is rather melancholy interest
which the visitor takes in the dismantled
ship, he torgets all that wien he turns to
look at the great steamer building for the
International line. 1t pays to climb UP
Jacobs ladder, even if it does seemingly
tremble in an ominous way under your in
experienced feet. for on the staging which
| is as far from the ground as the caves of a
two story house. there is place where the
workmen have not finished putting on the
planking. Everybody has seen pictures of
vessels in course of construction with the
great timbers standing like the ribs of a
skeleton. AS you stand on the staging by
the side OF this new steamer and look at
the timbeTs where they have not been
covered BY the plankfng you find them
criss-crossed all over. as the children would
say, with ironstraps running diagonally
from near the keel to the level of the MAIN
deck. These straps where they cross are
securelyknitted together and they are bolted
to the timbers, SO that the frame of the
ship is enclosed in an iron net work and
held in an embrace SO strong that hard in
deed must be the blow to wrench apart the
timbers. These great pieces of wood are of
hackmatack, but the keel, floors and
fultocks are of white oak. The floors are
not the planking on which you walk in the
inside of a vessel. but the heavy timbers
near the keel and next come the fultocks,
which are the timbers bent to make the
curve In the hull beneath thee straight sides
where the hackmatack is used. The PLANK
ing which the morkmen are putting in place
is of Ohio white oak, and the famous yellow
pine of Georgia. The ceiling, which tine man
unfamiliar with shipbuilding might call the
pIanking on the inside of the timbers or
ribs, is also uf Georgia pine.
This steamer. when finished. will look
J.I- e Il. "a
she is about II feei longer than the elder
boat, being 822 feet over all. and s37 on the
load water line. Her beam is abont 40 feet
inches. practically the same as that of
the Cottage City,, SO that her additional
length makes her lines somewhat finer. She
is expected to make about sixteen miles An
hour whan driy en- by the triple expansion
engines. now being built for her by the
Portland Company. The new steamer is
nearly planked and the main deck is being
laid. The International company's con-
tract with the builders stipulates that the
steamer is to be in Portland ready to re-
ceive her machinery July ]. She will be
finished next October. OF course, being
built on the model of the Manhattan and
Cottage City. the new boat is to be pro-
peller. The success of the boats built for
thu Maine Steamship company is a guaran-
Tee of the success Of this one for the Inter
national.
The little Salacia, being built for the
Portland and Boothbay line, is rapidly ap-
preaching the point when she will be ready
for her machinery. Today, the workmen
we're putting up her deck houses. The boat
looks small as she rests on the stocks in the
shadow of the great International liner. bnt
as matter Of fact she is l2O feet long. 2s feet
broad and nine feet deep. She is also
diagonally strapped with iron aad the
material of which she is built is about of
he same kind as that put into the big boat
The Bath Iron Works are building triple
expansion engines for her which will be
capable of driving her about l3 miles an
hour. These two steamers are destined TO
be important additions to the Portland
feet.
Just at present, the New England COM
pany are building no other vessels, but
they nave otLtr contracts pending which
will probably be signed in the near future.
Whilo the Bath shipyards are not perhaps
und ergoing a boom just now. there is.
nevertheless, good deal of work being
done. Kelley & spear are building four
barges for parties in Taunton. Mass, and
VIM. Rogers. one. for a New Bedford con-
Germ. In the yard of MIR. Vim. It. Donnell
there is the frame of 1900 ton schooner,
and G. G. Deering has n schooner of about
the same size partly planked. In s. r.
Percy's yard is another schooner about
ready for Launching. and Nathaniel Palmer
recently launched the schooner Augusta
Palmer, built for the coasting trade and
owned in this vicinity. Down at Phipps-
burg C. V. Minott is building a schooner.
So it will be seen that while times are not
as they were during the boom seven years
ago, when the New England company had
10 launch schooner bow tirst because there
WAS not room enough in the yard to build
her in the usual way, there are, neverthe-
less. large number of men at work ON new
vessels in the Shipyard City.
Down at the Bath Iron Works. where they
build iron vessels. attention is now being
ssiysn to putting the finishing touches on