FIREPROOF PASSENGER STEAMER. i93 



Fletcher referred to as to the Hfe of his concern, I can, of course, substantiate 

 anything he says in support of the claims of these steamers. 



Mr. J. Rogers Maxwell, at that time President of the Central Railroad of 

 New Jersey, and Commodore Van Sant Voord, the owner of the Hudson River 

 Day Line, were both very good friends of mine, and I tried to persuade Mr. Maxwell 

 to build a boat like the New York for the Sandy Hook route, but he was always 

 progressive and he naturally felt that triple-expansion engines and twin-screw 

 propellers were the best to adopt. I happened to say to him one day — "I would -■ 

 like to take the New York down the bay and run her on your route, and show you 

 what she can do." He responded by saying, "Perhaps we had better race the 

 boats down there." I told Mr. Maxwell I would try to do that, though, really, I 

 had no faith I could induce the most conservative man I ever knew, so far as the 

 safety of life and property is concerned, Commodore Van Santvoord, to indulge 

 in a race of this character, but my sporting blood was up, and I took the matter 

 up with him. As Mr. Fletcher has said, to the surprise of everybody he consented 

 to race the steamer New York against either the Monmouth or the Sandy Hook, 

 though the Monmouth at that time was a favorite. Back I went to Mr. Maxwell 

 and tried to arrange what would have been a most interesting race. Mr. Maxwell 

 smiled and said: "As it is now, we both have the fastest boat. If we had a race, 

 one of us would be beaten. I guess we will not have the race." (Laughter.) 



As to the relative economy of the two boats for their purpose, bear in mind 

 these things must be considered and determined on the basis of the purpose for 

 which the boats were designed and constructed. In these boats we had two 

 examples, the twin-screw fast-running boat, used for a short period in the summer 

 time, on one side, and our good old familiar friend, whom I will not stand to see 

 abused, the beam-engined steamer New York, on the other side, running about 

 the same length of time, and the figures then showed that at the end of the 

 year, when everything was considered, the New York was the more economical 

 boat. 



The difficulty with the paper which Mr. Donnelly has presented is simply 

 this: He has made a number of statements that seem to me to be unwise. If he 

 had kept strictly to his subject, without indulging in certain comparisons, this 

 discussion would have been avoided ; but then you would have lost the experiences 

 you have gained. Perhaps, after all, it is better so. 



Mr. Donnelly presents only a combination of details, every one of which has 

 been used before or suggested. 



He refers to the steel structure of hulls, to the double bottom and double sides, 

 examples of which are numerous. Incidentally, the construction of a boat on the 

 plan suggested by him, in my opinion, could not be taken care of and would have 

 to be modified very much. The steel structure surrounding the boiler and engines 

 is not new; we have done that for years on certain boats. The centrifugal feed 

 pump that he mentions as though new is now being built and installed by a com- 

 pany in this city. The Favorite, built about 1882, was a triple-screw excursion 



