Steel hulls are still uncommon in Mississippi River boats, but there are a few of this kind in use, as in the S. S. Brown, running to Vicksburg, and the Ferd. Herold, now owned by the Lee Line and operated between Memphis and New Orleans.

Little change has been made in the stern-wheel, light-draft steamers on the western rivers in the past twenty years, but within a few years a new type of light-draft steamer has been developed, with screw propeller built in a tunnel in the after part of the vessel. A number of these boats have been built in England since 1901 for use on shallow rivers in Africa and South America. A somewhat similar "screwin-tunnel" steamer is the A. M. Scott, a towboat built at Charleston, W. Va., for the Ohio River trade. This vessel has a steel hull, is 150 feet long and 26 feet beam, and has a draft of 3 feet, with twin screws 5 feet in diameter, built in tunnels. There are rudders both forward and aft of the propellers, giving wheel water on the rudders when the boat is either backing or going ahead.

The screw-in-tunnel steamer can carry a much larger propeller than is possible in vessels of the usual form. It has the advantages of light draft of the stern-wheel type; it is also more efficient in the application of power, and the machinery is lighter and more economical. This type can also be used where the stern-wheel vessel would not be admissible, as where a considerable speed is wanted or when shallow draft must be combined with seaworthiness. If successful, this new style may replace the old-fashioned stern wheeler to a large extent.

GASOLINE BOATS.-The invention of the gasoline engine has led to the development during the last decade of small gasoline boats in considerable number. The advantages of these boats are not only the small space required for the equipment and the greater cleanliness, but also the low cost of installation, cheapness of fuel, and the small expenses for employees to operate them. In 1906 the Census reports 3,154 gasoline boats, in the total of 9,927 self-propelled boats, listed under the general head of "steam" vessels. The total tonnage of these, however, was but 50,998 tons, about 14 per cent of the total steam tonnage, and the horsepower about 2 per cent of the horsepower in steam vessels. These gasoline boats are found most largely on the Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico, but they are also in use on the Pacific coast, the Great Lakes, and on the western rivers; and it is in the latter district that the stern-wheel gasoline boat is most in evidence as an active competitor for freight traffic.

These boats do not compete with the packet lines on through traffic, but they are taking over the local business to a considerable extent. They are active on detached sections of the Ohio from Sistersville as far as Paducah, Ky., and especially on the Little Kanawha, Great Kanawha, and Muskingum rivers, and other tributaries of the Ohio. One gasoline boat does not attempt to cover more

than 15 or 20 miles; but a series of boats on connecting sections will furnish competition over a considerable distance. Some of the gasoline boats are "tramps," having no regular route, but go wherever they find business.

These gasoline boats are adapted to carry a little freight on deck in the bow, but for the greater part of their length they are housed over to furnish quarters for the captain and one or two assistants. This inclosed portion contains also the gasoline engine and tank. These boats are propelled by a stern wheel of the same type as the western river steamboat, but smaller. Freight is generally carried on small barges or flats, one (or sometimes two) of which constitute a tow. These flats carry from 5 to 60 tons, averaging about 25 tons, and their maximum draft when loaded is about 3 feet. With the engines a gasoline boat costs from $500 to $3,500, the average being about $1,500. The operating expenses of these gasoline boats are less than those of the steamboat, due in part to restrictions placed upon the steamboat by the Government. An ordinary steamer is required to have a certain number of licensed men, usually at least four or possibly many more, according to the size of the boat, while a gasoline boat under 15 tons is required to have only one or two, and these only in case she carries passengers for hire. The cost of operating a small river steamboat on the Ohio is about $45 per day, and that of a gasoline boat about $5 per day. They will tow a barge in at any point on the river where the farmer or planter has anything to ship, and take it to market or its destination at a rate under the steamboat rate. Competition of the gasoline boats has been going on for several years and is increasing every year.

Steamboat men accuse owners of gasoline boats of doing everything in their power to have their boats measure under 15 tons to escape the United States inspection rules. In computing tonnage, only the inclosed portions of the boats are measured, excluding the engine room. Taking advantage of this, so it is claimed, gasoline boats have their engine rooms large, although they may carry passengers and freight therein, and in some cases certain parts of the sides are made adjustable, to be lowered when the inspectors are aboard, to secure this space from computation. As soon as the inspectors are out of sight these sides are raised again.

The gasoline boat under 15 tons is subject to no United States or other official inspection, except that if she carries passengers for hire she must be operated by a licensed man and have a life-preserver for each person carried; and even when of a tonnage of 15 tons or over the United States regulations require only a licensed pilot and one licensed man. Many complaints have been received by the Bureau asking, for example, "Why should these boats be allowed to be propelled by gasoline, practically without restriction, when the steam

boat, subject to the most rigid rules of inspection and fitted with safety appliances, is not allowed to carry any gasoline, not even an empty barrel that contained it?"

Small boats propelled by gasoline power are also in common use on Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries; and a number of these vessels perform freight service, both as carriers and as towboats. The latter can tow scows holding several times as much freight as the gasoline boat itself.

There are about 30 gasoline boats plying the San Joaquin River and its tributaries in California, carrying a considerable movement of merchandise to the farmers on the islands and the main shore. The freight is moved in barges towed by the gasoline boats. It is said to be the general practice for the gasoline boats to cut under the rates of the steamboat companies. Gasoline boats are also used in the rivers tributary to Puget Sound.

Only a few small yachts use electricity as a means of propulsion, but there is an extensive and increasing use of electricity on shipboard for lighting and as a subsidiary power.

Electricity has been successfully used in Europe for hauling boats on canals, and several methods have been tried on canals in this country, but although some of these methods have apparently proved successful none has been installed for permanent operation.

Section 4. Sailing vessels.

Until the middle of the nineteenth century sailing vessels were the principal vessels used in commerce. These are of two main types, the "square-rigged" and the "fore-and-aft" rig. The square-rigged is the older type, and for a long time maintained its position for longdistance deep-sea voyages; and on long coasting voyages, such as those from Charleston to New England, barks were often employed. From about 1815 regular "packet lines" of sailing vessels became common, but steam vessels have absorbed the regular-line business, and in the coasting trade square-rigged vessels have been almost supplanted by schooners, although brigs, or rather brigantines, have not entirely disappeared. But it is five years since a square-rigged vessel was launched in the United States.

The fore-and-aft schooner is a distinctively American type of vessel, invented by an American sea captain and peculiarly adapted to the requirements of early navigation. By reason of sharply built lines and comparatively small size, it was capable of navigating the narrow rivers which in former years provided the main avenues of commerce among the settlements on the Atlantic coast. Down to the early years of the nineteenth century schooners ranged in size from 20 to 200 tons; a 150-ton schooner was considered a large one.

Vessels of this kind extended their range of operations along the coast, and large fleets came to be employed in the coal trade from Pennsylvania to New England, and in carrying cotton, sugar, and lumber from the South and return cargoes of northern manufactures, ice, and coal to Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine, Pensacola, and New Orleans.

INCREASE IN SIZE OF SCHOONERS.-By 1860 two-masted schooners had been built up to 250 and 300 tons, which proved to be almost the maximum of which this rig was capable. The gear of a 300-ton schooner was difficult for a crew to handle by manual labor. Yet the steady increase of the volume of the coasting trade demanded larger vessels.

The three-masted schooner was not unknown on either side of the Atlantic even in the first decades of the nineteenth century, but the type was unusual. Three-masted schooners of 150 tons were built in eastern Maine as early as 1835, but this type was of no special advantage in vessels of less than 250 tons. When vessels of 300 to 400 tons were built, the three masts became indispensable. In the threemaster the necessary canvas was provided in more but smaller sails, lighter and easier to handle, and the spars were not so heavy as those of a two-master of the same tonnage. It was also found that the increased size and carrying capacity did not involve any corresponding increase in the cost of building and maintenance, and in consequence freight rates became lower as these vessels came into common use after 1870. Such schooners proved much better than the square-rigged vessels for sounds, bays, and harbors.

With the development of ocean steam navigation, schooners and other sailing vessels became more handicapped by the length and uncertainty of their voyages, and rapidly lost traffic where prompt and certain delivery was an element of importance. But even after steam vessels had established their predominance for certain traffic, schooners and other sailing vessels continued to carry the entire coastwise movement of coal, and also much of the lumber and other bulk commodities. The competition with steam and the increase of traffic led to a further increase in the size of sailing vessels. The three-masted schooner grew to 500, 600, and even 700 tons, culminating in the Bradford C. French, of 968 tons. But when the threemasted schooner reached 600 or 700 tons it was as heavy and difficult to manage as the two-master of 300 or 400 tons. This difficulty was met, however, by the introduction of machinery for hoisting and lowering sails and anchors, permitting a reduction of the crew and quicker manipulation. Later came the construction of four, five, and six masted schooners. These are said to be able competitors of steam-driven craft for the carriage of coal and lumber. In this latest development a number of iron and steel sailing vessels have

been constructed, but as yet these provide but a small fraction of the sailing-vessel tonnage.

In the eighties experiments were conducted with schooners of four masts. The Francis C. Yarnale, of 495 tons, was launched at Wilmington in 1881. She was none too large for a three-master; but the Elliott B. Church, built in 1882, was of 1,000 tons. This increase in size and carrying capacity involved no corresponding increase in the cost of building or of maintenance. The larger the vessel the smaller was the price per ton for which she could afford to carry cargo.

The first five-masted seagoing schooner was built in 1888, the Governor Ames, of 1,778 tons, designed for the trade between the southern coal ports and New England. Five-masted schooners had, however, been used on the Great Lakes prior to that date. The fivemasted schooner Jane Palmer, of 3,138 tons, was built in 1904.

The first six-masted schooners, the Eleanor A. Percy, of Bath, 3,401 tons, and the George W. Wells, of Boston, 2,970 tons, came in 1900. These schooners were capable of carrying about 5,000 tons of coal, and it is said by experienced operators can carry freight much more cheaply than a barge line.

The climax of fore-and-aft vessel was reached in 1902, when the Thomas W. Lawson was launched. This vessel was a seven-masted, double-bottom, steel schocner of 5,218 tons gross and 4,914 tons net register; carrying capacity about 8,000 tons of coal, draft of 26 feet, fully laden; manned by a crew of 18, while a square-rigged ship of the same size would require a crew of 40. The seven lower masts and the bowsprit of the Lawson were constructed of steel tubes. About 43,000 square feet of canvas were carried on this vessel. Originally she was employed in the Atlantic coast trade, principally between Norfolk and New England ports. She was, however, too large for the average trade, and because of her deep draft unable to load her full cargo of coal either at Philadelphia or Baltimore without grounding. On one trip out of Philadelphia the Lawson grounded twice in the Delaware River with 7,347 tons aboard. At Baltimore the schooner loaded less than 8,000 tons, but touched bottom going out.

In the summer of 1906 she was equipped with huge tanks for carrying oil in bulk, and transported oil until December, 1907, when she was wrecked.

Exhibit V, compiled from the Code List of American Vessels, shows the number and tonnage of schooners of four masts and upward documented June 30, 1907, the totals of which are as follows: Fourmasted schooners, 323; five-masted, 42; six-masted, 6; seven-masted, 1. The above vessels aggregate about half of the total documented sailing-vessel tonnage on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

Changes which have taken place with respect to the size of sailing vessels of the Atlantic coastwise trade are illustrated by the following

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