The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-19
MARINE INTELLIGENCE.
LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS OF
SHIPS AND SHIPPING.

NOtts Oh interest 10 Bur1ners anu
Others-SeveraI Vessels Ready 80
Sail, But Delayed ON Account of
the Weather-Foreign Exports OF
Naval StOres-ArrivnIs and De-
paFIures of Vessels.
About a dozen vessels have cleared and
are ready to go to sea, but are detained
on account of the threatening weather.
The British steamship Aeolus has been
chartered by W. W. Wilson to load cot
ton at this port for Bremen and Harburg.
She is due to arrive Oct. 2.
Capt. P. B. Finney has been engaged
to command the steamer Doretta, which
plies daily between Savannah and Bluff
ton. The many friends of Capt. Finney
at Button welcome him back on the
line.
Broadly speaking, the essential differ
ence between merchant ships and war
ships is that the former are designed to
carry their loads or principal portions
thereof low down in the hold, whereas
warships have to carry their heavy bur
dens of armor and armament high up on
their sides. The ceuters of gravity Of the
laden warships are consequently much
higher relatively TO the depth of the YES
sci than the centers of gravity of mer-
chant ships, and this fact has an impor-
tant bearing on initial stability or stiff
ness and range of stability.
Warships were originally distinguished
from merchantmen by their greater size.
Now this distinction does not obtain. and
the war vessel is of a totally different
construction.
The French cruiser Jeanne d'Arc is esti-
mated to have cost about 100000, of
which perhaps $4,000 was for auxiliary
fittings, such as Grmor, gun mountings
and mechanism, torpedo gear and special
fitting.
AT one time the impression prevailed
that the use of torpedo boats was a
cowardy method of attacking an enemy.
The first launch designed especially for
a torpedo boat was built in 1873 and was
fitted with pole for carrying a torpedo
at its forward extremity. Torpedoes are
now shot from tubes either by compress
ed air or gunpowder. In dischargfng the
tube, the torpedo boat runs past the ene-
my, and when within a few hundred
yards. stops and discharges the torpedo
from her side.
The excessive vibration of some of the
first large vessels has been almost COM
pletely overcome by balancing the recip-
found to be its cause. 1t is also a we'll
known fact that certain parts of the hull
are subject to vibration and other parts
are not, so that the vessel behaves ex-
actly like an elastic rod.
The torpedo boat brought into exist
ence another class of vessel, the torpedo
boat destroyer. which differes from it in
being larger and faster. The torpedo
boat Sokol, built for thesRussian govern
ment in England was the first vessel to
pass through the water at 30 knots an
hour. This speed has since been exceeded
by a couple of knots by the Turbinia, a
steam turbine driven vessel 100 feet in
length.
Much of the speed of modern vessels is
due to the light weight, economy of
space and great power of the water tube
boiler which may be defined as an appa-
ratus for generating steam in which the
whole or almost all of the heating surface
consists on tuDes Oh relatively small OIL
ameter which contain the water or water
and steam, the hot gases passing around
the tubes. Thus the water is inside and
the gases outside the tube, while in
the cylindrical or she'll boiler the condi-
tons are just reversed. In addition, the
latter has a relatively thick shell to con-
tain the water and steam, while the water
tube boilers require only light casing TO
contain the gases and conduct them to
the chimney or funnel
Vineyard Haven, Mass, Oct. 16.-The
schooner James NJ. Seaman of New Ha-
ven, Capt. T. Pendleton, from Apalachi-
COLA Fla, Oct 2, for Boston, passed this
port to-day and reported that the engi-
neer was lost overheard and drowned dur
ing heavy westerly winds Saturday The
Seaman did not report the name of the
engineer.