i8o AN ELECTRICALLY PROPELLED 



vessel that Mr. Donnelly suggests, the expense of construction would be so great, 

 I do not know of any excursion steamboat company around the harbor of New York, 

 or in any other harbor of the United States that we have had business dealings with, 

 that would consider its construction for their service. 



There have been steel superstructures built. A boat was built that ran between 

 Norfolk and Washington, and had a superstructure entirely made of steel. I do 

 not think that boat has ever been duplicated. The Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 

 pany a few years ago had built for them a steel superstructure single-deck ferryboat 

 that now runs from Camden to Philadelphia, and which was built by the New York 

 Shipbuilding Company. It has given very good service, but in this latter case the 

 superstructure is infinitely less than it would be on an excursion steamer with its 

 numerous decks. While we should do everything that we possibly can to preserve 

 life and insure the safety of the traveUng public, the safety and lives of our women 

 and children, as Mr. Donnelly states, yet we must be practical in it, and I think 

 without doubt in the case of the steel superstructures, with the atmospheric con- 

 ditions that exist on salt water service, that the preservation of such a mass of 

 metal superstructure would be quite a problem to take care of, with the greater or 

 less amount of vibration, even though you used turbine or triple screws, as Mr. 

 Donnelly states. 



He makes reference here also in a general clause to the great loss of life. One 

 life lost is a frightful thing. I telephoned yesterday to the people who operate this 

 old excursion steamer Grand Republic, and also the greatest fleet of excursion boats 

 in the harbor, the Iron Steamboat Company, with boats running to Coney Island, 

 and asked if they had any data as to the amount of passengers carried, and the 

 percentage of lives lost. Mr. Bishop, the president of that company, sent me a 

 very long letter yesterday which is fuU of statistics, but I will only give you a few 

 of the interesting things he has compiled. These are facts he states, and are on 

 record with the Supervisor Inspector of Steam Vessels, and I do not doubt his state- 

 ments are correct. The following is from the annual report of the Supervisor 

 Inspector General of Steamboats, an absolute record. 



Going over a period from 1900 to 1910 inclusive, the records in the Supervisor 

 Inspector's office for the United States show that during the period mentioned 

 3,730,616,083 passengers were carried, and the loss of life, from all causes, of every 

 character, accidents, fire, collisions, everything else 



The President: — Suicides? 



Mr. Fletcher: — Everything imaginable, Mr. President — was one life in 

 735,822 passengers carried; and for the Second District, which comprises the harbors 

 of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New London, Albany, Portland, Providence, 

 Bangor, Maine, New Haven, Conn., for that period from 1900 to 1910 inclusive — 

 and this district and its report take in the frightful loss of life in the case of the Gen- 

 eral Slocum, and also the loss of life due to the sinking of the Larchmont in Long 



