SUGGESTIONS FOR REDUCING THE LOSS BY FIRE ON VESSELS. 211 



of passenger carrying steamers anywhere, that I will endeavor to procure from Mr. 

 Goodrich a complete description of what has been done in this line on his latest boat 

 and incorporate it in our proceedings when published. 



The Chief is a fine man and a first class fireman, but he is not a Naval Architect, 

 and when it comes to the question of making a vessel fireproof, I think he does not 

 at all realize what it means. 



It is a most difficult matter to make a buiding on land fireproof, and it cannot 

 be done by simply using metal construction— the metal must be covered in with 

 concrete or plaster to protect it, the great weight of such material being of course 

 no objection. A skyscraper can be built so that a fire can be confined to one or two 

 rooms, but that is largely because of the small size of the rooms, and a ship can not 

 be built that way. The question of weight is paramount on a ship; the question of 

 subdivision— of dividing the ship into compartments— must be taken into account, as 

 well as the draught of water, the speed, the amount of fuel necessary, and many other 

 tilings. 



Mr. a. W. Goodrich, Member (Communicated) :— At the request of Mr. W. I. 

 Babcock, I am glad to give the following description of the arrangements used in our 

 latest built steamer for guarding against fire. 



The S. S. Alabama of the Goodrich Transit Company, operating from Chicago, 

 on Lake Michigan, was built by the Manitowoc Dry-Dock Company of Manitowoc, 

 Wisconsin, and went into service in June 1910. She is a single screw steel steamer 

 250 feet keel, 271 feet 6 inches over all, 44 feet moulded beam, 17 feet deep to main 

 deck and 27 feet deep to spar deck, drawing 12 feet 6 inches loaded, and of 2626 gross 

 registered tonnage. She has five decks, orlop, main, spar, promenade and boat, and 

 the hull is divided by seven watertight bulkheads into eight compartments, and 

 the orlop deck is watertight in Nos. i, 2, 3, and 7 compartments. 



The machinery is amidships. There are three Scotch boilers in the hold and a 

 triple expansion engine of 2250 indicated horse-power. 



Cargo is carried in the hold below orlop deck forward and on portions of the 

 orlop deck both forward and aft, also on the main deck from the boiler room to with- 

 in about 60 feet of the bow. The remainder of the orlop and main decks, and all 

 of the other three decks are devoted entirely to passenger accomodations and crew's 

 quarters, there being altogether 129 staterooms for passengers. 



Orlop and main decks are of 15 pound steel plate on steel beams. The spar 

 deck is of No. 10 steel plate on steel channel beams and covered with a if inches 

 matched pine deck laid on battens. The remaining decks, houses and partitions 

 are of wood. All floors in quarters on main and orlop decks are of asbestos composi- 

 tion except in the galley, where it is brick, and all partitions are of steel. 



The lower freight space, or cargo hold, is divided into two holds, one under the 

 galley and crews mess rooms, and the other aft of bulkhead No. 3, extending to 

 the bulkhead at the forward end of the coal bunker, and below the orlop decki 



