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392 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
THOUSANDS OF THESE VESSELS ARE BUILDING TODAY IN AMERICAN SHIPYARDS. THEY
WILL BE OUR SUBMARINE CHASERS IN CASE THE UNITED STATES GETS INTO WAR
where intended for fresh water uses each
of these boats carries in addition salt
water chemical equipment.
Galvanized by the conditions of the
day the motor boat game has become a
naval adjunct almost overnight. Who
are guarding English and Russian channels
and harbors ? English and Russian
yachtsmen, trained by rigorous pleasure
sailing have spread their yachts under
naval commanders in fan shaped units
capable not only of scouting but of destruction
of any submarine yet built and
of many a larger and more powerful
boat. These are the reasons for the warlike
exhibits which were the center of
attraction at the New York Motor Boat
Show early in 1917.
Racing has slipped into the background
because of the naval aspirations.
For the first time in history a hydroplane
passed the sixty-mile-an-hour point in a
race, yet Miss Minneapolis, the heroine
jbf this achievement, scarred by her
'furious battles for the Gold Cup, stood
almost unnoticed in the Grand Central
Palace while the crowds climbed all over
patrol boat number 10. Chingacligook,
and the other military cruisers that were
on exhibition.
There have been no new ideas in
racing craft but the much desired sixty
miles was achieved with old design,
lighter construction and lighter, more
powerful engines. After winning the
Gold Cup, Miss Minneapolis ran a series
of one mile tests at an average speed of
sixty-six miles an hour.
The Chingacligook, patrol boat number
10 of the power boat squadron,
painted a Russian gray, was decorated
with a quick firer both fore and aft,
wireless apparatus, armored pilot house,
signal flags and speed cones. She is sixty
feet long, V-bottomed, capable of thirty
miles an hour, able to keep to sea with a
crew of eight men for a week or more at
a time.
She is a privately owned pleasure craft
on the lines of the Russian submarine
swatters, ready at a moment's notice for
service in the United States Navy. From
the viewpoint of the Navy department
she is one of the hundreds which would
be built for the uses described in the
event of hostilities, and for which the