The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-07


land miles from the ocean, to spend her
last years as a summer hotel, 1 felt a
sense OF personal grievance. But 1 fore
saw that all which had been done in the
way of metal warships would soon be dis
tanced
How the Dolphin Was Built.
In March, 'SS. Congress authorized our
hrst steel warships, the dispatch boat Dol
phln, OF j, POP net tons, and the projected
cruisers Boston and Atlanta of 2,296 tons,
and the Chicago, of 1901. The contracts for
their construction were awarded to John
Roach, the lowest bidder. The building of
Warship of steel-a metal then so little
known in practical working-was a task
that might wen tempt the most ardent am
bltion. But already in December. 80. we
had taken contract. fraught with almost
equal possibilities, for the construction of
the first metal sailing ship built in the
Unated states and one of the very first in
the world. This was the Title E. Starbuck,
full-rgged iron ship, launched April
T. 1888
The Starbuck went into commission June
u, 1888, and she is to-day trading around
the world, one of the most picturesque and
profitable vessels of her class in existence.
sailing from New York to San Francisco
and from San Francisco to Calcutta as
readily as though steam had never been
discovered. She was built for William H
Slarbuck of New York and named by him
after his wife, Miss Title T. Irving. a
Chester girl. This vessel was of 2.038 ions.
cost $l5O,00O, which was considered a great
deal of money to put into a sailing ship.
was H3 feet long, 1913 feet beam. 26.3 feet
depth of hold and IT'S feet from her main
truck 10 the water. She was the first sail
Ing vessel in the world to carry metal
masts, hers being of three-eighths ines
IRON plates. But the Starbuck's superiority
TO many tramp steamers did not depend
entirely on her speed
In building this vessel interesting new
problems had presented themselves.
Comparing wooden ship with an iron
ship the original cost of the latter would
De, say, Gu per cent. more than that of the
former. But the wooden ship would have
to be practically rebuilt in fifteen years.
while the cost of maintaining the iron shin
for the period would be ordinarily less
than 10 per cent. Of the original cost. The
seaworthiness of the iron sailing shin
was splendidly shown by the behavior of
the Starbuck in terrific gale around the
Falkland Islands; her iron masts, which
were purely experimental, neither broke
nor strained, although she went through
test which proved fatal to many wood
en- vessels of the highest class, which hap
pened TO be in the Southern seas at that
time
The Starbuck was an iron ship. The
first steel side-wheel merchant steamer
in the United States was the Alaskan.
launched in the Roach yards In 'S3 for the
oregon Railway and Navigation Com
pany- Her length over all was 1854 feet
her beam 1866 ana her depth 1873. It was
from the successful achievement of tasks
like these that we turned to the con-
struction of the Dolphin. And it was only
fitting that these great departures in this
most ancient of trades. now become an
art as well as a science, should be made
on the Delaware river. On that stream
shipbuilding had recorded other notable
achievements before my day. John Mills,
our boat-yard foreman, who had charge
as foreman of the Starbuck, occupied the
same relation to the Dolphin While he
was learning the trade at Wilmington in
1852, forty-seven years ago, an iron steam
boat of $50 tons was successfully launched
from the shipyards of Harlan & Hollings-
worth, still one of the best known plants
in the country. That very steamer. built
of iron, and ironically called tin boat
by the wooden shipbuilders of that day,
who alleged that she would break in two
if she should strand on bar is now still
in actual service. running from Philadel-
phia to Salem, N. ]. She is, of course, a
sde-wheeler of low freeboard, called after
her t1rst owner, the Maj. Reybold, and l
can see her daily from my office win
dows plying her way along the very
stream into which she was first launched
almost half century ago.
The inaccuracy of the charge of "struc-
tural weakness made by a partisan ex-
aiming board against the Dolphin, which
was launched April IL, 1884, was made APP
parent in more ways than one. No ship
ever made without repairs such a voyage
as the Dolphin's famous cruise around
the world She Is now in actual service,
as is the Boston, which was in Dewey's
gallant fleet in the battle of Manila bay
and is still in the Asatic station dealing
with the resalcitrant Filipinos. The Dol
phin is like the Boston, a remarkably in
teresting type
Nowadays we use by preference open
hearth steel for our ships. We can weld
steel as easily as iron. and work it cold
bending il as iron never would bend. If
not bent at right angles to the grain, iron
splits like board, whereas steel has no
grain But in those early days the days
of experiment, we knew comparatively
little about working steel The substitu-
ton even of angles of iron for straight
iron beams, to which the outer plates were
to be riveted, was then of comparatively
recent date. The angles fit into the keel
or backbone of the ship, the plates are
riveted to the angles, and the result is a
marvel of strength, as far superior TO the
straight beams used before as an iron ship
was to wooden ship. Yet the very first
angle frame put up on the Delaware was
In 1854. And so the magnificent steel ship
of 1899, with her internal machines num-
bered by the score and adapted 10 all the
varying uses of her complement of hun
dreds of men, a thing of buaty and utility
perfectly conjoined. is the creation of less
than a half century of human skill, and
industry, perseverance and daring.
John =. Roach.