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6 MARINE REVIEW. CHICAGO LAKE INTERESTS. WESTERN OFFICE, MARINE REVIEW, No. 210 So. Water Street. CHICAGO, Il., Mar. 31. t Government control of Chicago river has agitated marine men greatly this week. The House committee on rivers and harbors has been flooded with protests and petitions. A week ago Chairman Blanchard announced that the sub-committee had decided to give the control of Chicago river back into the hands of the city authorities. Monday-he said the sub- committee would hear from lake interests before taking action. The sub- committee has been hearing from marine men all the week. The resolu- tions of the Cleveland Vessel Owners' Association were both strong and direct to the point. The Shipmasters' Excelsior Marine Benevolent Association has spoken in no uncertain terms. The members of the sub- committee ought to have sufficient light by this time to show them that the lake interests are thoroughly aroused over the proposed outrage on lake, commerce in turning Chicago river over to a municipality,which has done absolutely nothing for its water commerce, not even taking care of its own sewerage, which is emptied into the navigable channel. The end isaoL yet =~ The towing companies have agreed on a tariff,and there will be sweet peace and no cutting of rates this year--perhaps. Vesselmen predict that 31% and 334 cents will remain the Buffalo corn and wheat rates until the very opening. 'hey seem in no hurry to put in their boats, nor are shippers especially anxious. W. C. Coup, the veteran circus man, is figuring on taking his trained horses and a circus around the lakes this summer. If he does, he will charter a small steamer for the season, and will show at all the towns along the Michigan and Wisconsin shores. 'T'wo years ago he made the same tour, and pocketed a round profit of $30,000. He was at the office of the Graham & Morton line the other day, making inquiries about boats. _ Then he got to talking about his trip twenty years before. He could not recall the name of the steamer. Capt. Stines dropped in just then, and - the two were introduced. Mr. Coup explained his quest, and then said, "T made the trip twenty-two years ago on the--I have forgotten the name _ of the boat." 'The Benton," put in Capt. Stines. "Yes ; that's it. How did you remember." "T ought to, for I was wheelsman for your circus all summer. We had a mighty good time." . : Mr. Coup will take about twenty horses and fifty people if he goes. His horses are engaged in winter at the theatres, and he wants an easy time for them during the summer. Coal Transports for Lake Michigan. Special Correspondence to the MARINE REVIEW. TOLEDO, O., March 31--The Craig Ship Building Company has laid the keel for another large wooden steamer and will also build a tow barge. The officers of the company refuse to give out the names of the parties for whom the boats will be built, but it is as well as settled that they are to be car transports to engage in the coal trade between Frank- fort and Kewaunee, Lake Michigan. These are the boats for which Mr. J. M. Ashley, who is largely interested in Hocking Valley coal, has been figuring for some time past. Some transfers of vessel property have been made during the week. Messrs. Maclaren and Sprague, owners of the lumber barge Myron But- man, have purchased an interest in the steamer Baldwin and tow barge A. A. Carpenter. The Baldwin will tow the Butman. A Gilmore & Sons have purchased an interest in the steamer Huron City. She will be commanded by Capt. Thos. Curry of Port Huron and will tow the barge Saginaw, Capt. Samuel Gilmore, in the lumber trade between Duncan City and Tonawanda. E.G. Ashley has purchased the tug Alice. Washington Authorities and the Canadian Cruisers. Special Correspondence to the MARINE REVIEW. WASHINGTON, D.C., March 31.--The question has arisen here whether the building of the Constance by the Polson Iron Works of Toronto and Owen Sound, is in contravention of the international arrangements made between the United States and Great Britain in 1817, by Mr. Rush and Minister Bagot, relative to the naval forces to be respectively maintained on the American lakes. The constructors claim that the new boat comes within the agreed limit,and the position will probably be taken that she is not a naval vessel in the understood sense of the treaty ; yet, from the description given of her, she would prove quite as effective in war as in peace, and capable of giving American commerce on the lakes a good deal of trouble. This cruiser, which is to be armed and employed "for the protection of the fisheries on Georgian bay and Jake Huron," is said to be a fine specimen of marine architecture and Canadian enterprise. Other cruisers of a similar type are also in course of construction by the same company, but they are intended for use on the St. Lawrence and Nova Scotia waters. The Rush-Bagot arrangement limits the naval force to one ~ and common sense. ee vessel on Lake Ontario not exceeding too tons burden, "armed > v it] eighteen pound cannon," and two vessels of light tonnage and arn on the upper lakes. The Constance is by no means a vessel of tonnage and armament. It is safe to say that she will carry no eig pound cannon of the ancient fashion. In place of that she is to be art with three Nordenfeldt guns, which as compared with the efficie the old time ordinance, are much more than its equivalent an seem to exceed the limit prescribed by a large majority. -- jeg It is not regarded here as of any serious consequence whether any vi tion of the treaty is involved or not,and if there is no objection on th of the United States to the Dominion government going into the cruiser business on the lakes, the Dominion can certainly interpo objection to the United States doing the same thing. In the mean it would not be a bad idea for the competent authorities in the c declare the inadequate treaty of 1817 outlawed by the statute of limi Appointments of Masters and Engineers. ELPHICKE, C. W. & Co., CHicaco, InL.: Steamers--Josephine, ¢ John Massey, Engineer H. Coba,; Ohio, Capt. S. O. Marsh, Engine George Van Every. Schooners--C. P. Minch, Capt. Hoffman; Thom Parker, Capt. eee ie ee LACKAWANNA TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, BUFFALO, N. Y.: © Stear ers--Iackawanna, Capt. Joseph Hulligan, Engineer W. B. Davis; Scrant Capt. James Green, Engineer C. Van Evry; Grand Traverse, Capt Murphy, Engineer E. A. Carter; Russia, Capt. Frank Weinheimer n- gineer W. Brown; Florida, Capt. P. J. Kenney, Engineer George Wis Wyoming, Capt. Robert Drury, Engineer J. Hess; Newburg, Capt. I Bain, Engineer F. A. Baker. fo ae DRAKE, M. M., BuFFALO, N. Y.: Steamers--Brazil, Capt. A. B. America, Capt. Gibson. he BRADLEY, C. H., Bay City, MicH.: Steamer C. H. Bradley Cc. H. Marsden, Engineer Edgar Arnold. Schooners--Mary Wo Capt. Wallace Allen; Brightie, Capt. James Brines ; Goshawk, Michael Nagle. x a Gas Lighted Buoys. A buoy that could be lighted and left to itself without any connec with the main-land and remain lighted from two to three mouths w be the acme of perfection in aids to navigation. These anda few of advantages are embodied in the Pintsch buoy, adopted by the Engl French, Russian and German governments and in practical and success ful use by the light-house department of this country. They have beet in general use by foreign governments for many years, and recently t Canadian government has adopted the Pintsch buoy for lighting the Lawrence river. The river Clyde is almost entirely lighted by this s of buoy, while forty of them light the channel between Kronstadt and Petersburg. They are extremely valuable and available for ligh shoals and turning points in channels where fixed lights are unneces or too costly, but judging from the following from "Modern Light-Hou: Service" prepared for the International American Congress by the ligh house board, it would seem that used as beacons they answer all the: poses of light-houses and cost about one-fourth as much: "The lighted beacon on the Dry Romer Shoal, New York harbor, cc sists of an iron pier, 30 feet in diameter and 16 feet high, surmounte D a skeleton iron tower 25 feet high, from which is. shown a fixed white fif order light, the focal plane of which is 41 feet above mean low water, a1 which should be seen some 11 miles. It was first lighted on the night of. 15, 1886. It is lighted with compressed gas from a tank which holds about ninety days' supply. It cost to build the pier and tower $10,586; the ¢ 1 pressed gas apparatus of the Pintsch system cost $3,750, making the | of the whole station but $14,336, much less than the cost of a light-ho and its cost for maintenance has been much less, as no keeper is need ie ex One of the buoys has been in use on the coast of Massachusetts A several years, giving perfect satisfaction and two of them are kept- the depot of the third light-house district Staten island, to mark wreck One of them burned continuously from Aug. 6 to Oct. 14 over the wrec of the Advance in New York hay. 'The form is that of an ordinary buoy which is mounted with a storm-proof lantern in which are Fresi lenses. A buoy of the usual size has capacity for 168 cubic feet, and gas is compressed ten atmospheres, so that the buoy contains 1,680 cu feet of gas. By means ofa regulator the amount of gas fed to the flam the same when first filled as when nearly empty, amounting to about cubic feet every twenty-four hours, thus the light would continue J days without attention. The cost of the light is from six to twelve cen! aday. Buoys can be filled to twelve atmospheres if it is done befo mooring, in which case the buoys would last 168 days. Buoys are at ti refilled while moored by passing gas from tanks in the tender compre twelve atmospheres through a rubber tube to the buoy. While te this buoy the Trinity House, comprising the English light-house bo