The San Francisco call., 1904-02-29
SWIFT WORK
IN BUILDING
OF WARSHIPS

For rapid Shlp-bu1lding the firms OF
Armstrong & Co. at EIswick and
Maxim, Vickers & Sons at Barrow have
esta ablished a record in the construction
of the two Chilean battleships Consti-
tucion and Libertad, which were pur-
chased last December by Great Brit
ain and renamed Triumph and Swift
sure. Sir Edward Reed arrived in Eng
land February 5, 1902. with orders from
Chile for these two ships, and during
the succeeding twenty-one days pre-
pared the plans and specifications suf-
| ficiently TO make contracts February
% with the Elswick and Barrow firms.
The ships were to be completed and
ready for sea by August %. 1908, d
period OF eighteen months. The keel
OF the Libertad was laid April Z, 1902,
and on January 10 following the ship
was launched, weighing no less than
500 tons, representing the amount of
material put in during its nine months
on the stocks. Equally rapid progress
had been made on the other ship, and
both have easily been completed within
contract requirements; but as Chile
and the Argentine republic had come
/ to a peaceful understanding, no need
existed for hurried delivery of the ships
and they were placed on the market.
| The pending troubles in the Orient in
duced Great Britain to bid higher than
Russia for the two ships, which were
practically completed, and are now fit
ting for service on the Asiatic station
The period of construction of these
ships was therefore we'll within two
years. a feat in ship building which
has only been accomplished in the bat
tleships Magnificent and Majestic.
built in the drydocks of Chatham and
Portsmouth in 1885
NEW RATIONS SCHEDULE.
The new rations schedule went into
effect October ! in the British navy, but
except where specific rules are laid
down commanding officers still stick to
the old custom, and 'haTdtack' is still
dealt out to the crews. There is only
one ship in commission on which soft
/ tack" is baked. This exceptional ship is
the cruiser Gibraltar. and during her
three years commission the crew has
had fresh bread. A lower deck hand
makes the bread. the canteen furnish
ing the flour, which is worked into two
pound lOaveS, which are sold for 4
pence a loaf. of which the baker gets l
penny and the canteen the remaining 8
pence.
The old royal paddle yacht Victoria
and Albert has been taken to Ports
mouth dockyard to be broken up. Some
of its fittings will be utilized, but no
part of this historical vessel will be
sold and thus find its way TO the gen
eral public, and relic hunters viii be
disappointed The Victoria and Albert
was built at Pembroke in 1855 at cost
of 1884, 100 and her repairs UP to two
years ago. when replaced by the new
vessel of the same name. footed up TO
81, ,3SS. .4g5. The new Victoria and Albert,
laid down at Pembroke December 10,
1897. was calculated to cost S1,f6S, ,185
and TO be completed in two years; but
owing to errors made in the design,
which necessitated considerable addi-
tionaI work. the completed cost ran up
to S2,173,OO0 and nearly five years time.
Nelson's flagship the Victory, is once
more out of dock and doing duty as
flagship al Portsmouth. The ship was
run into by the Neptune last October
and barely escaped sinking. Her re-
pairs were quite extensive, but she is
now good for many years and is likely
TO be retained until the end of time,
when the British fleet will cease to
exist.
The British torpedo boat Eden,
built by Hawthorn & Leslie, has
made its trials and easily exceeded the
contract speed of % p knots under ex-
ceptionally severe conditions of
four-hours' continuous run. With
load of 125 tons, the boat made 26-699
knots during the first nouT and aver
aged 26.229 knots during the next
three hours, giving a mean speed of
26.1965 knots for the entire run. The
Eden is fitted with three turbine en-
gines and Yarrow boilers, and the ma
chinery is arranged as to obtain low or
high speed with the most efficient and
economical results. Thirty-four
boats of this type, of about $50 tons,
have been laid down during the past
year. Two of these, the Eden and
Velox. have turbines, the others ordi-
nary engines, and a variety of boilers
are being used by the several build
ers The dimensions of these boats
range from 22O feet to 225 feet in
length, % feet to 231z feet breadth
and 10 feet inches draught and the
horsepower varies from 1000 TO 1900
in conformity to the speed required of
25 TO 26 knots.