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= equitable settlement of claims submitted to him. MARINE REVIEW. Wot. Ve CLEVELAND, OHIO, THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1892. No. a Prominent Men of the Lakes. - Buffalo has always been the headquarters of marine insur- ance companies operating on the great lakes, and for the last quarter of a century the general agency firm of that city, which has been known as Smith & Davis, Smith, Davis & Clark, vand since 1885 as Smith, Davis & Co., sucessively, is admittedly the Jeading office. During this time, when the various lake com- _ panies have pooled their business, this firm's office has acted as a __ clearing house for the entire lake insurance interests. Townsend ~ Davis, oe of the original founders of the firm, and who has been ~ for ten years the senior member and active director of this firm's _ affairs, which have during that period attained a magnitude never | before reached by any other insurance house on the great lakes, is the subject of this sketch. If one were asked what were the distinguishing traits ofthis successful man's character, the reply would truthfully be his per- TOWNSEND fect fair mindedness and courtesy to all, and the tact and skill, with which the large and sometimes conflicting interests in- trusted to his care are managed. Mr. Davis abhors dwelling up- on the technicalities that in this complicated branch of insurance 'are sometimes resorted to in order to befog claimants, and has a way of overleaping logical preliminaries, brushing away fine legal distinctions and arriving directly at a common sense and perfectly That this characteristic liberality towards patrons of his house is not in- consistent with a jealous watchfulness for the interests directly confided to his care is shown by the continuous record of hand- -some profits realized by his general agency in this precarious branch of marine insurance, during a long period of years, for the insurance companies represented, among which may be mentioned the Western Assurance Company of Toronto, the British & Foreign Marine Insurance Company of Liverpool, England, Standard Marine Insurance Company of the same place, and the © _ Security Insurance Company, of New Haven, Conn., whose en- tire lake interests are managed by the firm, of which Mr. Davis: is the head. : Lake Freight Outlook. Complete returns, official, from all upper lake ports make - the total iron ore shipments by lake 6 .443,896 gross tons 'This is 46,309 tons less than the aggregate reported a short time ago when figures from Marquette were not available. Although there is nothing in the present outlook to indicate, with any degree of certainty, what freight rates on ore will be next season, there is a great deal in the situation to interest vessel owners. A great effort is being made to brace up the pig iron market on asmall advance already obtained. Until this is done,--it is the general opinion that the market will go up--nothing may be expected in the way of sales of ore for next season's delivery, and consequently. no dealings in the lake freight market. According to present indi- cations ore producers will hold out until spring in their efforts to secure an improvement on last years prices, which the pig iron market does not warrent as yet. Vessel owners who con- vs VLE WL DAVIS. tract to carry large blocks of ore each season are of the opinion that contract rates of 1890, which were based on $1.35 from Ash- land, should prevall, but the strength of this view will not be known until such tlme as the ore sales agents bid for tonnage in an actual market or seek options on which to make sales. Most of the ore dealers think that when this time comes they will find contract tonnage at about $1.25 from the head of Lake Superior. The amount of unsold ore, although several times more than 60, ooo tons, the figure given out sometime ago, will be of no particular importance. Vessel owners as well as shippers who base their estimates of freight rates for 1892 on the business of 1890, would do well to bear in mind two important and opposite factors--the increase in tonnage available in the ore trade and the decrease in draft of water at St. Mary's Falls canal. Vessels now on the stocks together with those launched last year number ninety-three and their aggregate capacity in gross tons iS 153,950. At an average of twenty trips for the season these boats will carly 3,079,000 tons.. On the other hand Gen. Poe proves con- clusively that the reduced draft of water in the Sault canal last season made a difference in Lake Superior traffic alone of 1,500,- 000, and the commerce of other connecting channels was affected proportionately.