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8 MARINE REVIEW. MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. JOHN M. MULROONEY, PROPRIETORS. F. M. BARTON, HOMER J. CARR, g iate Western Union Building, 110 LaSalle Street. Published every Thursday at No. 516 Perry-Payne Building, Cleveland, O. SUBSCRIPTION--$2.00 per year in advance. Convenient binders sent, post paid, 75 cents. Advertising rates on application. The books of the United States treasury department contain the names of 3,600 vessels, measuring 1,154,870.38 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 number of vessels of 1,000 to 2,500 tons on the lakes on June 30, 1891, was 310 and their aggregate gross tonnage 512,- 787.58; in all other parts of the country the number of this class of ves- sels was, on the same date, 213 and their gross tonnage 319,750.84. The classification of the entire lake fleet is-as follows: Class. Number. Tonnage. Stedid: VeSsel Guan sito tcsersentecsesceurcsase tes 1,592 756,751 -53 Sault -VESSEIS 23 esas dase slese) eee ededatecwclsticetes 1,243 325,131.06 Wana eDOAtS rs nadeersttes desmagcacseseaecetan 703 72,515-42 AG Pearman renee netics th oriacereeneamseecnenceands 62 20,472.37 SROPAI vanes c; supp eouon eo opestareneticere as 3,600 1,154,870.38 Tonnage built on the lakes during the past five years, according to the report of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows: No. of boats. Net Tonnage, MRA setenv sehtatiret ek. sA6t do svdadtiansescce 152 56,488.32 TOO aes ve eenicnanis os vic vest soins Case weecicac aa 222 IOI, 102.87 MOOD ue scdss aiosevectcedicdcortveseenesueoepeees 225 107,080.30 he 8) 0 coc ARO uanaadoba pasado Ure ancr ond ascmasecn 218 108,515.00 MEQU Rs ih crash voliev cess space ners essseyeoe 204 111,856.45 OB otialbisiose =. 2tass at pastek sn ceekeni ees 1,021 485,042.94 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 during 1890, full year, 3,389; tonnage, net registered, 6,890,014. Lintered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. A COMMITTEE of the Lake Carriers' Association was ap- pointed a short time ago to look into the practice governing the locking of vessels through the St. Mary's Falls canal, and to otherwise pursue an investigation bearing upon the losses suf- fered by vessel owners on acount of the low draft of water at that time permitted in the canal. The committee was empow- ered to call upon Gen. Poe at Detroit and also extend its in- quiry by a visit to the canal. Immediately upon this action being taken by the association, the canal draft began to in- crease materially--from natural causes, it is only fair to state, as the increase was marked in other channels--and the com- mittee has not as yet taken up the duties for which it was ap- pointed. Some comment has been made, however, on the failure of the committee to act, and although the Review is not em- powered to make any authorized statement in the matter, it may not be amiss, now that the sincerity of the vessel owners has been questioned, to refer to some matters leading up to the sub- ject. The committee may still go on with the inquiry, for all that is known of its intentions, as there was no special time set for the work and no immediate report demanded. Any intima- tion, however, that this action on the part of the association was not warranted will not be borne out by the facts. To begin with, the only chance of fair profit so far shown to the vessel interests this season has been in the movement of -wheat from the head of Lake Superior and in the season contracts on iron ore from Ashland and Two Harbors. It is not difficult for any- one acquainted with the lake business to understand the great importance of even a few inches of water in the canal draft to these branches of the Lake Superior trade, when governed by favorable rates in spurts in the case of grain and by contract rates on the ore that can not increase as a result of a limited canal capacity. Aggravated to the extreme by a low stage of water, owners found themselves confronted with annoying reports from masters of most exacting demands from Mr. Lynch when in Associate Editor and Manager Chicago Office, charge of the canal--steamers compelled to lighter and blow off boilers when only a slight fraction more than the required draft resulted in costly delays. How often it happens that a vessel loading on a swell or movable seaway is put into the water a trifle deeper than is intended, or in the case of a steamer bound down Lake Superior and falling in with a favorable northwest wind it is not uncommon to find her draft on reaching the canal a little deeper than was ex- pected, 'on account of a saving in fuel. It was these and other aspects of the question that the vessel owners intended to have talked over with Gen. Poe. 'There was no lack of confidence in his efforts to do all that is reasonable for the shipping interests while guarding the important works under his charge, but there was a desire to learn whether the direct management of the canal was in many ways acting against these interests. In the house on Monday Chairman Blanchard of the river and harbor committee secured the appointment of a committee of conference on the river and harbor bill. Messrs Blanchaard, Catchings and Henderson are house conferees. If the confer- ence committee will remove from the bill the appropriation for a survey for a ship canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio river and make the 20-foot lake channel appropriation $500,000, the origi- nal house figure, the lake shipping interest will feel that its work is well done. . SCARCELY a month passes of late without one or more of the leading magazines giving space to articles pertaining to lake commerce. In a series of papers on '"The Future World's Highway," published in the Engineering magazine, T. Graham Grible, C. E., dwells at great length in the June number of that publication on the subject of an outlet from the lakes to the seaboard by way of the proposed Ontario ship-railway and the St. Lawrence canals. CANADA seems to be going into the cruiser business on a big scale if the boats as it is claimed, are to be used only for the protection of fisheries and revenues. Cruiser No. 2, a duplicate of the Constance, is now nearing completion at the yard of the Polson Iron Works, Owen Sound, and the ship building com- pany has begun work on the engines fora third boat at its en- gine building plant in Toronto. Navigation of the Sault River by Night. Now that preparations have been made for the maintenance of range lights in the St. Mary's river, the question of the prac- ticability of navigating the river by night has been. taken up and it is intimated in some quarters that the underwriters have -- been discussing the advisability of stepping in and refusing to adjust losses occurring to vessels in the river while attempting to run the new lights. The claim is made that it would be exceedin g- ly dangerous to run vessels in the river by night when the present crowded condition of its narrow channels by day is taken into consideration. Collisions are predicted, and it must be admitted that many captains are decidedly adverse to the new order of things. Some of them say that two sets of ranges are necessary if navigation is to be carried on at all in the river at night, and in support of their claims they point to present dangers at the Lime-Kiln crossing and other similar places. Many cases will occur, they say, where the situation will be alike to that of two locomotives meeting on a single track. The captain bound in one direction and holding the ranges in a channel known to be dangerously narrow even in daylight will be adverse to giving any space to a vessel coming from the opposite direction. The subject is certainly worthy of most careful consideration from both owners and masters if a benefit instead of disaster is to be _ derived from the ranges for either day or night service. ae 75 cents to the Marine Review for a binder that will hold 52 et ar i |)