Bro. Spinney asked to be excused from further attendance upon the session.

Bro. Dow moved that the minutes for this Convention be approved as copies of them were in the possession of all and had been read so that they knew whether or not the minutes were correct. Seconded by Bro. Griffing and so ordered.

Bro. Tullett requested that our Secretary be instructed before the Log is printed to go over them carefully and see that any clerical errors be corrected.

Bro. Dow moved that your National Secretary be empowered to make arrangements with your official stenographer to go over these minutes and see that they are correct. Seconded by Bro. Terry and so ordered.

Bro. Dow moved that we proceed to adjourn sine die. Seconded by Bro. Griffing. So ordered.

The Convention adjourned in ritualistic form. PRESIDENT PRUETT: "We do now adjourn sine die at 12 o'clock midnight."

VERDON SHIP-BUILDING CO. CHANGES HANDS.

The old established business of the Frederick A. Verdon Company, on the north shore of West New Brighton, Staten Island, has been purchased by Messrs. George H. Waters, David H. Gildersleeve and Frederic L. Colver, and the business will shortly be re-incorporated under the name of the Waters-Gildersleeve-Colver Company.

In 1886, Mr. Verdon established his business as marine engineer and machinist in Jersey City, later removing to Hoboken, and six years ago to the north shore of Staten Island, there to obtain larger facilities for ship-building and repairing, marine engineering and machinist work, as well as dry-docking.

Mr. Waters, who has been the superintendent of the Verdon business during the past six years, had a previous experience of nearly twenty years in the Floating Equipment Department of the Pennsylvania Railroad, rising from an apprentice to the position of chief draftsman and assistant master mechanic. He is therefore a thoroughly practical man, and will continue as superintendent under the new company, of which he will also be president.

Mr. Gildersleeve, who is a well known mechanical engineer of ability, graduated from Stevens Institute in 1889. For nearly ten years Mr. Gildersleeve was active in gas engineering and in selling pumping and hydraulic machinery. He spent several years as first lieutenant in the U. S. Corps of Engineers in Cuba, during and following the Spanish-American War, and superintended the construction of the new sewerage system of the City of Havana. For the past five years he has been sales manager for the C. W. Hunt Company, manufacturers of coal-carrying machinery, and he comes to the Verdon business well equipped to hold the position as vice-president and sales manager of the company.

Mr. Colver, who is the secretary and treasurer of the company, has been a successful magazine publisher for more than twenty-five years, his work being chiefly with the financial, business and advertising departments of the

periodical publishing business. For many years he was the President and active head of the Frank Leslie publishing house, and later controlled the "American Magazine," which magazine he sold in 1906 to acquire an active interest in the "Success Magazine," and he was the founder and for some time president of the Periodical Publishers' Association of America. He will now give his entire time to the financial and business interests of the Waters-Gildersleeve-Colver Company.

The Verdon ship yards have always done a good business and in their present convenient location in the midst of New York Harbor transportation all sorts of harbor craft will find the new owners ready to meet their needs for construction and repairing, and the supplying of all marine machinery.

THE END OF A ONCE PROFITABLE SHIPPING

INDUSTRY.

The arrival of the barque Alkaline from Greenland, on November 30, 1908, at the port of Philadelphia, with a cargo of cryolite, finished what was once a profitable shipping industry. The mining of cryolite in Greenland dates back as far as 1800. It has been brought to this country since 1854 and business continued good until 1900. It was not that the cryolite got in any way exhausted, but it was found that mineral being found in Colorado called bauxite answers the same purpose with less expense. The crew of this vessel, bringing the last cargo, had a very trying experience. About the middle of October, 1907, while trying to get away from the Greenland coast, they were caught in the Arctic ice and had to remain there all winter, and winter in this latitude is not very pleasant for any one who wishes to be in communication with the outer world, for darkness, ice and snow rule supreme. All their families at home gave them up for lost, when they turned up looking nothing the worse after their trying experiences. For some time they had to live on seal meat and use seal oil for light.

The owners of this fleet of barques were two enterprising sea captains, the late Captain Mackay and the late Captain C. Dix, two men well versed in Arctic navigation. Captain Charles Dix designed and constructed Peary's Arctic ship, Roosevelt. These small barques were built twice as strong as any other vessel engaged in the merchant service. They were double planked with solid timbers, that is, they were planked first with five inches of spruce and then with five inches of white oak outside the spruce, so that if the outside planking gave way in the ice the inner planking still remained. Out of a fleet of fourteen vessels only two remain.

Cryolite is a mineral only found in Greenland. It was discovered by Danish geologists some time before 1800. The mine, which is called Ivigtut, is at the foot of one of Greenland's highest snow-crowned mountains. It took quite an expert in minerals to discover this mine, as the rock that covers the cryolite is thirty feet deep.

JAS. MACKENZIE,

Second Officer S.S. Persian.

Shipshape Steel COOKING RANGES

FOR

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Ranges for use on all kinds of craft, from the smallest Yacht to the largest Battleship afloat.

BRAMHALL DEANE CO.

262-266 Water Street

NEW YORK