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8 MARINE REVIEW. MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE.AND KINDRED INTERESTS. JOHN M. MuLROoNEY, F. M. BARTON, HoMER J.CarR, - - - Associate Editor and Manager Chicago Office, | 210 South Water Street. Published every Thursday at No. 510 Perry-Payne Building, SMeveland, O. SUBSCRIPTION--$2.00 per year in advance. Convenient binders sent, post paid, 75 cents. Advertising rates on application. \ PROPRIETORS. The books of the United States treasury department contain the names of 3,510 vessels, measuring 1,063,063.90 tons in the lake trade. In classification of this fleet the lakes have more steamboats of 1,000 to 2,500 tons than the combined ownership of this class of vessels in all other sections of the country. The classification is as follows: Class. Number. 'Tonnage. Steam vesselsises casiei sic vss s: «. veceee oe 1,527 652,922.25 Sailitie: VEssele cise: dcickt wie waves seees Secon 1,272: 328,655.96 Cattal DOatsee Gren se ene ton ates tc cae cio 657 67,574.90 Bar Qesss:cussutcntser tetas dase nar iae as emea tar wern : 54 13,910.09 iat alls, eet sses SA aes hoc oes eens 3,510 1,063,063.90 According to the report of William W. Bates, United States com- missioner of navigation, 46 per cent. of the new tonnage of the country was built on the lakes during 1889. This is a percentage greater than the work of the Atlantic coast and western rivers combined, and almost equal to the whole work on the Atlantic and Pacific coast. In 1890 the tonnage built on the lakes is but very little less than that built on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Tonnage built on the lakes during the past five yeas was as follows : No. of boats. Net Tonnage, TSO. eat cen sea tee tne renee wie eeteaen : 85 20,400.54 TOO [eevee rats Meee ieee aeh ac croe eee 152 56,488.32 -- US OOs cee. Se oe East dee eke rat bee cate. beat 222 101,102.87 WEOQs siicGu ake seven Nek bs renee coblge ears vemnanct ore 225 107,080.30 TSQO fins ites tetainn secu te han gute aac tous 218 108,515.00 BOtale con ere ee eee rake 902 393,597.03 St. Mary's Falls and Suez canal traffic: Number of boats through St. Mary's Falls canal in 1890, 234 days of navigation, 10,557; tonnage, net registered, 8,454,435. Number of boats through Suez canal duritig 1890, full year, 3,389; tonnage, net registered, 6,890,014. Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. In a letter printed elsewhere, William W. Bates, United States commission of navigation, calls attention to the interest- ing statistics of Gen. Poe on the St. Mary's Fall's canal traffic for the season of 1891, and suggests that such data regarding lake commerce should show the earnings of vessels engaged in the trade along with that of producers,etc. Another communication received recently from Congressman Vincent A. Taylor, of Ohio, says: " There has been published from time to time a state- ment that in the year 1889 the freight traffic tonnage passing through the Detroit river amounted 36,203,606 tons: while the superintendent of census, bulletin No. 28, Jan. 31,1891 on trans- portation, freight traffic on the great lakes, says on page 21 that the total freight tonnage passing through the Detroit river for the season of 1889 was 19,717,860 tons. I can not understand the discrepancy between these two different statements. Will you please enlighten me on the subject?" 'T'o these and all such communications the only answer is that it is absolutely impossible to secure, under the present laws governing the arrival and departure of vessels at different ports on the lakes,an accurate statement of the total commerce of the lakes or even the com- merce of any single port. The statements of commerce passing through the St. Mary's Falls canal, prepared by the canal officials, are thoroughly reliable, as are also the reports of the commissioner of navigation, covering tonnage owned and built in the different ports throughout the country, but the laws governing the dealings of collectors of customs with vessels arriving and departing in the coastwise trade do not permit of these officers making correct reports of the commerce in their several districts, and consequently there is no way of learning the aggregate of shipping business on the Detroit river or any other central point. If such was not the case there might be _ bituminous. announces Wednesday the 13th inst., as the date of the annual man Taylor, the answer is to a great extent the same. Ti figures which he quotes from the census are largely made u estimates, as Mr. C. H. Keep of Buffalo, who prepared the admits while defending the data, that a great deal of it was secured from collectors of customs. The aggregate of 36,203,606 tons, quoted by the REVIEW as the commerce pas- sing the City of Detroit in 1889 and referred to by Mr. Taylor, is also an estimate, prepared by Mr. Geo. H. Ely of Cleveland. On two occasions the shipping interests of the lakes tried to agree upon a bill regulating the arrival and departure of vessels, where- by accurate statistics of the commerce might be secured, but a proper interest in the matter was wanting. With the demand for a statistical branch of the government and the great advance made in statistical matter, within the past few years, it would . seem time that the great lake interests should be no longer 3 wanting in this important regard. Ir is evident that the railway managers and shipping firms. -- engaged in handling bituminous coal on the lakes intend to give a great deal of attention during the coming season to increasing dock facilities,and it would not be surprising to find methods en- tirely new in the business within a very short time. According to the United States census the coal production in 1890 was over 14,000,000 tons, or more than two tons for every man, woman and child in the country. To be exact the product was 140,049,- 970 tons, of which 94,495,000 tons, or about 68 per. cent., was Shipments of bituminous from Ohio and. Pennsyl- vania by lake to the northwest in 1890 were above 3,000,- ooo tons, and although the figures for 1891 are not at hand it is about certain that they will show an in- crease. Progress in this branch of the lake trade has attracted special attention during the past two seasons, but the methods of handling the coal are crude in comparison with those employed in the oretrade. 'The loss from breakage in any system in which dump cars might be used has been the greatest drawback, but several dock equipment companies are now work- ing on new devices from which great results may be expected. Ir 1s unfortunate that the Lake Erie--Ohio river ship canal scheme as well as several other impracticable measures thatare __ being crowded upon congress, were not allowed to come before the recent Detroit waterways convention for discussion. The | convention could not, of course, permit of its time being taken up by these schemes, but it is certain that if they had come up for discussion the proposed Pennsylvania canal would be the'first to be declared entirely impracticable, and there would be little need of preparing opposition in Congress to Senator Quay' s bill for a survey of the canal route. e Cnucen of Army Engineers. | In the January number of the Engineering Magazine, a tech- -- nical publication that has made wonderful progress since first _ issued, less than a year ago, George Y, Wisner, a civil engigeer -- of some note, presents an article of criticism entitled '"Worthless Government Enginecring." The author is now in charge of (a harbor work at the mouth of the Mississippi and in- Texas, ard was at one time engaged with the United States engineer corps" on surveys and river and harbor work. He complains of the methods followed by the engineer corps and tries to prove from a number of cases cited that improvements are unnecessarily ex- - pensive whether done by contract or otherwise. The manner of awarding contracts is also criticised. None of the works in con- nection with which poor methods are charged are on the lakes. Mr. H. J. Mills, secretary of the Dry Dock Association, meeting, to be held at the Sherman House, Chicago.