The San Francisco call., 1898-01-31
NEWS OF FOREIGN NAMES.

The keel for the Queens yacht was laid at Portsmouth backyard December Is. Its construction is not to be hurried, but the vessel will be completed early next year. The speed is to be 22 knots, with n,000 horsepower driving twin screws. Each engine has cylinders of 261s inches, 441s inches, and the two low pressure 53 inches, with a. common stroke of 39 inches. Steam of 300 pounds pressure will be sup piled by IS Belleville boilers with an ag- gregate heating surface of 12,000 square feet and $40 square feet of grate.
 The oldest navy-yard in the. world is the Matsusaki yard. named after the owner, who established 1t at Ominat, Japan, 1860 years ago. The vessels built there became very popular among the warlilxe class, and the Empress lingo had a number of junks built there for her great expedition to Korea. The yard has been in constant use, and since 1874 has turned out many vessels, steam and sail, from foreign models. While it is no longer a navy-yard in the actual sense of the meaning, it is fully prepared to do modern navy building. During the last ten years 1t has built 19 steamers, 59 sailing vessels and 232 junks. A school of naval architecture was started in the dis trict in July, 1896, and bids fair to prove a success.
 The German battle-ship Koenig Will helm, to replace an old vessel by the same
 name, is being built by Krupp at the Germania yard, Kiel, and is to be ready by 1901. The length Is BIT feet inches, | beam 7 feet, draught aft 25 feet inches. and displacement II ,000 tons. The belt is of 11& inch Harveyized steel, and her two turrets are of the same material 924 inches thick. The protective deck is three inches thick The armament is light as compared with American and British battle-ships, the main battery consisting of four 9.4-inch and eighteen 5.9-fnch guns.
 all quick-hring. Her speed with 1300O horsepower is calculated at eighteen
 knots and the normal coal supply is 75O
 tons. The estimated cost, exclusive of armament, is s 3SS ,S00 An alarming accident happened to the British belted cruiser Narcissus at Che mulpo, Korea, on November F One of
 her drains became choked and burst, starting a skin plate and permitting. the
 water to rush in at an alarming rate. In ! less than three minutes there was a foot | of water underneath the engine room | floor, and before the pumps could be | started 1t had risen to six feet. Boats
 were cleared to abandon the apparently
 doomed ship, but the pumps finally began 1 to decrease the rising flood and finally gained enough to enable temporary re- pairs of the leak to be made. U. S. s. Boston lay near by. and sent two officers on board the Narcissus to be of whatever assistance they could render. After a day and night of hard labor the leak was got under control sufficiently to risk the run to Japan, where she was docked at Kow- loon and repaired
 The Russian naval estimates providing S9, ,030, ,4S3 for new ships is to be doubled and building will be carried on more rapidly as a consequence. At St. Peters burg an armored cruiser of the Rossia type is building, of 900 tons, to have
 triple screws, horsepower of IS 600 and
 a speed of twenty-one knots. At the
 same place two torpedo-boat destroyers,
 on the Sokol pattern, are being con-
 structed. Their hulls are of nickel steel.
 and the engines will be of about 400 horsepower. Two similar boats are being
 built at Aabo by contract, and at the Admiralty works at flora twenty-four boats of like kind are building besides a. battleship of 12674 tons of the Orlabya type. At Nicolaieff, in the Black Sea,
 there is also great activity in navy build ing, and three of the battleships, three torpedo gunboats. three training ships and one transport, all belonging to the Black Sea fleet, have been ordered to be ready. for service at short notice.