The Portland daily press., 1895-08-05

WHICH open inosU ol 6he StaterOOmS, Will
be handsome apartment. The use OF
sycamore in its finish will add much to
the pleasing effect and the main STAIR
ease, built of mahogany, will be as rich
in its appearance as the stairways of
MANY transatlantic liners In the state
rooms, which are of good size the berths
fronts will be of sycamore and the wash
stands of sycamore with mahogany tops
There are seyenty-two staterooms, and on
the lower deck are cabins for men and
women each to contain "a berths. For
ward on the main deck . is the smoking
room. Here also is the pantry. In the
smoking room and the big wheel house
above sycamore is used in the finish. A
dome roof gives abundance of light and
air in the saloon.
The reading of the contract shows that
the St. Croix will have all the modern
improvements. The old, arm tiring work
of steering is not required. The steam
steering gear will relieve the pilot and
his assistants of that. Much of the
'peering ahead in the inky blackness of
tAiS WIllCil ullO pllOuo LII ullG 0uUIJ
books spend SO much of their time in do
ing, will be unnecessary, as an electric
search light will dilute the inky black
ness. This search light will be the first
in use on Portland steamer All parts
of the vessel will also be lighted by
electricity
The old days of the "yeo-h -heave-ho" as
the sailormen slowly hauled up the
anchor by trotting around the windlass
are gone on modern vessels. When the St
Croix gets up anchor Hyde steam
windlass will do the work in short order.
That the New England company has
performed its contract faithfully and will
it is not necessary to state. The many
fine vessels they have built are guaran-
tee of that.
While the ship has been building at
Bath, the machinists of the Portland
company, at the works in this city have
also been busy. The International COM
pany's contract with the Portland COM
pany is not as long as that with the Ship
buildings Co., but it is equally explicit.
1t calls for the construction of boilers and
engine which shall drive the ship through
the water at a rate, in times of average
tide and wind, of not less than
SIXTEEN MILES AN HOUR.
To do this, down in the hold of the ST.
Croix there will be placed four big boilers
of the Scotch type capable of generating
steam pressure of 165 pounds to the
square inch and turning the screw 100
times minute There is also to be
boiler for the donkey engine, also of the
Scotch tye. The plates of the large boilers
are to be 1-S inches in thickness. 1t
takes lots of heat to make the steam to
drive such a ship as the ST. Croix, and
this heat will come from the fires in
Fox corrugated pattern. They are built
under English patents. The furnaces are
really large steel pipes running into the
boilers, with fire box and ash pan in
each pipe. These pipes instead of having
q smooth surface are corrugated, that is
they have wrinkles in them, running
round and round them and greatly in
creasing their strength. How this CORFU
gated surface increases the strength is
shown by simple experiment. A tube
of thin metal is first shown you. 1t is
perfectly smooth and can be easily bent
out of shape when pressed in the hand.
Then tube made of exactly the same
metal, but corrugated like the Fox fur
naces, is produced A man may lay this
on the floor and stand on it, He cannot
change it's shape.
The engine OF the St. Croix will be of
the triple expansion type. That is, the
steam will pass through three cylinders,
26, 40 and 81 inches in diameter. with
three feet stroke of pison. The engine
will turn a screw made of glistening
Manganese bronze and having four
adjustable blades This screw is thirteen
feet in diameter, so large that each blado
is as long as a man is tall.
As already stated, the ST. Croix is to
be laun ched at noon today. Then Miss
Philena Winslow, the president of the
line, will christen the ship. The new
steamer will make her first plunge in the
presence of large number of Portland
people, the guests of the line, who will
go to Bath in a special train this fore
noon.