The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-10-13
WAR VESSELS DELAYED.
CONSTRUCTION IN THE NAVY NOT
PROCEEDING VERY RAPIDLY
But Admiral BowIes, Chief of the Blu.
reau, in Summarizing a Years Work
and Present Conditions, Finds a
Number of Encouraging Facts to
Mention.

WASHINGTON, D. c., Oct. 12.-
progress upon new vessels under con-
structlon during the past year has not
been satisfactory" says Rear Admiral
Bowles, chief of the naval bureau of
construction, in his annual report to
the secretary of the navy. All the
larger vessels, he says, have been de-
layed by non-delivery of structural
steel, while the vessels building at San
Francisco were set back by the ten
month strike, and the hold-out of the
Workmen at Seattle prevented any
actual progress on the structure of the
hull of the battleship Nebraska building
there.
The delay in the deliveries of armor
for the battleships Maine, Missouri and
Ohio, and the monitors Arkansas, Flor
ida, Nevada and Wyoming has retarded
the completion of those vessels, concur
rently with other causes. The inabil-
ity of shipbuilders to obtain a suffi- 4
cient force of skilled workers also has
been in many cases an important fac
tor in the slow progress of the vessels
Substantial and encouraging progress
is reported in the Standardization of
ship fittings, a scheme to secure uni
fornlity in the innumerable types of
ships parts, which has long been fos-
tered by the construction bureau. Pri-
Vate shipbuilders, having contracts for
naval vessels, from time to time dur
ing the year submitted plans for
standard" fittings, and now forty-four
types of ship fittings have been declar-
ed to be standard.
More Officers Needed.
Admiral Bowles says there continues
IN
crease in the number of officers of
the construction corps. He renewS-
his recommendation for an increase of
his corps from forty to sixty members.
The report says the advantages of spe-
cial instruction in naval architecture
and marine engineering in the United
States became more evident last year.
In contrast with the foreign techni-
cal schools to which students have
been previously assigned and the limit
ed opportunities for practical work and
observation of actual construction
which the position of the students as
foreigners naturally subjected them to,
the bureau of construction is now en-
abled, by cooperation with the faculty
of the Massachusetts institute of tech
nologY, to regulate the technical edu-
cation appropriately and to offer the
students and their instructors constant
opportunities for observation of the
building and repair Of all classes of
vessels, both at private shipyards and
at the navy yards of the government.
Experimental Model Basin.
An interesting portion of the report
is that in regard to the work of the
experimental basin, in which miniature
WarshipS are tried, and 1t is stated that
the basin has proven of great value
to the construction bureau.
A number of experiments have been
made in the basin during the past year
of the new battleships and armored
cruisers. 1t is due wholly to the ba-
sin facilities that the bureau has been
enabled to arrive at the very satisfac-
tory results that the new armored
cruisers Of the Tennessee class, dis
placing 14,500 tons, may be expected
to make a speed of twenty-five knots
with somewhat less power than the
preceding lot of armored cruisers of
the Pennsylvania class of the same
speed, which displaced 1850 tons.
Similarly, the two new 16,000-ton bat
tleships of the Connecticut class will
drive appreciably easier at eighteen
knots than the preceding battleships OF
1888 tons. Thus, an increase OF
Z per cent In size in the case of the
battleships and over per cent in size
in the case Of the armored cruisers has
been accompanied with an actual re-
duction of horsepower necessary to
drive them at a given speed in each
case