xxxvi INTRODUCTORY PROCEEDINGS. 



Our merchant service is doing as well as it can ; our shipyards are fairly busy, 

 though it remains to be desired that there shall be so much greater demand for new 

 ships that many new yards will be necessary. 



The progress in the development of power for ships has been especially inter- 

 esting during the past year. It is reported that at present there are thirty-four 

 ships under construction abroad with Diesel oil engines, twenty-three of which 

 range from two thousand to ten thousand tons. 



High-speed turbines with comparatively low-speed efficient propellers driven 

 by intermediate gearing are being used under several different methods of 

 combination; and we are now awaiting with great interest the trial of the latest 

 development, namely, the combination of turbines and electric motors which will 

 soon be driving one of the large colUers of the United States Navy. 



All of these schemes have advantages, while our aged friend, the reciprocating 

 engine, is still doing business at the old stand, though sometimes in combination 

 with its rival, the turbine. It will be interesting for you to study the relative 

 advantages and disadvantages that you may determine which combination will 

 best answer the particular purpose for which you are called upon to design ships. 

 It seems quite clear at present that no one scheme is best for all purposes. 



Some of the papers of this meeting and the discussion thereof will add to your 

 fund of knowledge. 



Important matters that have been under consideration by your Council and 

 those that have been referred to certain committees are as follows: — The raising 

 of an endowment fund, the income of which may be used for awarding annually 

 medals or prizes to the younger members for professional papers of special merit 

 and for paying extraordinary expenses that occasionally occur without using the 

 regular income, which only now about enables us to pubUsh our proceedings in the 

 present high standard manner; and the advisability of changing the date of our 

 annual meeting to nearly one month later in the year in order to enable our mem- 

 bers from the west and Great Lakes to attend the meetings, the present time 

 happening to be very inconvenient for them on account of business conditions 

 existing between November 15 and December 15 each year. The committees will 

 appreciate suggestions from the members on these matters. 



It is not unusual in this address to mention those who have been taken from 

 us by death during the year. A tribute to all of these is given by the Society in 

 another way. During the past year, however, the Reaper has cut deep into our 

 list of officials, and it seems fitting to call your especial attention to the memory of 

 Melville, Post, and Griscom. 



George Wallace Melville, Rear-Admiral U. S. Navy, retired, Vice-President 

 of this Society, died March 17, 1912, seventy-one years of age. Born in the city 

 of New York, at twenty-one he entered the service of the United States in which 

 he remained until his death. As a subordinate during almost the entire Civil War, 

 as chief engineer and commander in the Arctic region for several years, and as 

 engineer-in-chief of the United States Navy from 1887 to his retirement in 1903, 



