GROSS OF IRON AND STEEL SHIP BUILDING.

It may be useful to add that the gross tonnage of iron vessels classed
during 1882 by the three societies of Lloyd's, the Liverpool Registry,
and the Bureau Veritas was 1,142,000, and of steel 143,000 tons, and
that the proportion of steel to iron vessels is increasing from year
to year. I am informed by our colleague, Mr. Pearce, of Messrs.
Elder's firm, that the largest vessel built by them in 1869 was an
iron steamer, of 3,063 tons gross, with compound engines of 3,000
horse power, working at 60 lb. pressure; speed, 14 knots.


A GIGANTIC STEAMER.

The largest vessel now on the ways is the Oregon, of 7,400 tons gross,
and 13,000 horse power; estimated speed, 18 knots. The superficial
area of the largest plates in the former was 22½ square feet; that of
the largest plate in the latter is 206 square feet. The Oregon is an
iron vessel, but some of the largest vessels now being built by Mr.
Pearce's firm are of steel.

The information which I have obtained from Messrs. Thomson, of
Glasgow, is especially emphatic as to the supersession of iron by
steel in the construction of ships. They say that large steel plates
are as cheap as iron ones, and that they have never had one bad plate
or angle in steel. This is confirmed by Mr. Denny, who says: "Whenever
our shipwrights or smiths have to turn out anything particularly
difficult in shape, and on which much 'work' has to be put, they will