Evening star., 1898-05-21

cause of her halted blowers: her whole
body either feverish or chilled. as the
weather dictated. for want of circulation
or proper respiration and her complement
athirst for need of enough heat to trans
form that tantalizing sea water into drink.
Such a thls, is distinctly possible, and it
is against even the slightest approach to
a like condition that we have taken ample
| means to provide.
The modern, heavy fighting craft carries
between eighty and ninety engines of
| ious sorts aside from those directly occu-
pied in propelling the ship, and under nor
NAL circumstances it is quite safe to say
| that at least Is or 20 per cent of all steam
generated is taken up in their service.
Most of them are vital to the fighting eff
cheney of the vessel; but there are a few
o. them, such, for instance as the en-
gineer's workshop, the distillers and the re-
| fr;gerating plant, which may be termed
arxfliaries of secondary Importance; and it
is the purpose of the government to run
these acces sories on half-time, so to speak,
and to leave just that much more energy
for other more needful purposes. To this
end we have fitted up the repair ship, the
distiller ship and the refrigerator ship,
while to the colliers has been relegated the
common service of supplying coal to all
| craft distant from ready bases of supply,
and the engineer-in-ch chief has done his ut
most to make them capable
The Repair Ship.
The repair ship. fttingly named the
Chatham of the Merchant and Miners line
between Baltimore and Boston.
Into the ship has been placed something
like eighty tons Of tools and machinery,
and today the vessel is vertable floating
workshop.
There are plate bending rolls and punch
ing and shearing machines that can bite
right throught an inch Of solid steel. There
are lathes for turning castings of consider
able size, and planers, drills and milling
machines of compass enough to meet al
most any need short of that demanded in
the complete reconstruction of large en-
gine. There are pipe cutters, bolt cutters,
FORCES and grindstones; and there is
good-SiZed cupola for the melting of sufh-
cient metal to make a pretty heavy casting.
There are a number of blowers to supply
the several forges and to draw foul air
from between decks and to send 1t sky
ward through the red-mouthed ventilators
above. There are also t~aporators and dis
tilllers of capacity equal to a daily out
put of quite 10000 gallons Of potable water.
several times more than the needs of the
Vulcan could demand. supplemental
electric plant has given excellent lighting
facilities through the ship, but principally
in the workshops on what is termed the
third deck.
The purpose of this craft is manifest
She is to follow in the wake of a fleet
her great coal capacity giving her a wide
radius of action, and she is to supply fresh
water to the other vessels and to make
then and there all possible repairs which
might otherwise take the ships miles and
miles away to some naval station.
A broken spindle might render helpless
two great guns; but few hours work on
the Vulcan would remedy the trouble;
and even less time might place the. engines
of one of our torpedo boats In trim after
considerable break. At the close of an en-
gagement, the wounded vessels could has
ten to her. or she to them, and such work
then be done as to place them back in the
Bra fnfh ha fsryv do
ace to the foe.
The mission and the usefulness of such
craft cannot be overestimated, when every
pound of coal must tell it's tale of work
well done in our defense. 1t is a very mod
ern adaptation of that wise saw, "A stitch
in time saves nine," and typical instance
of the great value of a travelling base of re-
pair.
The DistiIler Ship.
The distiller ship. now named the Iris,
was the British steamer Menemsha. I'm
like the Vulcan. the Iris will make no re-
pairs, but win be devoted solely to con-
yerting the oceans brine into drinking
water; and to this end. she will carry a
very large supply Of coal and win have
four up-to-date distillers of considerable
capacity.
These disttllers, or eyaporatorz, win each