The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

MARINE REVIEW. | it Meeting Loss of Trade in Low Grade Ore. In building a steel steamer specially adapted to the trans- portation of pig iron, as well as in the project for new furnaces to make pig iron in the vicinity of Marquette, Mich., the Cleve- land-Cliffs Iron Company will to some extent counteract the loss sustained through being compelled this season to suspend opera- tions at its hard ore mine, on account of inability to market its entire ore product at present prices. The aim of the manage- ment of this company is evidently to reduce materially the cost of delivering at Lake Erie ports pig iron made in the vicinity of the mines. It is intended to load the steamboat, which is now nearing completion at Detroit in four hours and unload her in eight hours. 'This will be done by dropping the pig into the hold through chutes as ore is loaded,and taking it out by means of derricks with which the boats will be equipped. 'The advan- tage of such methods over the present work of handling one pig at a time in loading and unloading will be readily understood. Although the Pioneer, the new boat being fitted for this service, will not make two trips a week between Marquette and Cleve- land, as was claimed in a newspaper item lately, she will be a very fast boat. 'The builders are making no claims regarding her but it is about certain that she will make 18 miles an hour. Engineer Austin Farrell, who has visited Escanaba, Marquette and other upper Michigan peninsula towns preparatory to estab- lishing the new furnaces says it is intended to smelt on the ground the lean ores of the company for which a market can not now be secured. The furnace plant will be built with reference to using either coke or charcoal. If coke is used the coal will be coked at the furnace. 'The company already has an annual pro- duct of 25,000 tons or more of pig iron to be taken down the lakes, so that the boat will begin service with a business await- ing her. British Shipping in I89I. The returns regarding British shipping and navigation for the year 1891 show a slight decline in the number of vessels, but an increase in the tonnage as compared with either of the two preceding years. There were in 1891 17,243 vessels of 8,343,541 tons, and employing 240,480 persons reg- istered in the United Kingdom, as compared with 17,425 vessels of 7,916,336 tons, and employing 236,108 men in 1890. If the Isle of Man, channel islands and British possessions be includ- ed the total amounted to 36,085 vessels, of 9,961,574 tons in 1891, as against 36,214 vessels, of 9,688,088 tons in 1890, and 36,469 vessels, of 9,472,000 tons in 1889. Of the vessels of the United Kingdom in 1891 11,114 of 3, 026, 501 tons, employ- ing 81,189 men, were sailing vessels, and 6, 129 'of 5,317,040 tons, employing 159,291 hands were steam vessels, as compared with 11,570 sailing vessels of 2,893,572 tons, employing 94,218 per- sons, and 5,855 steamers of 5,024,764 tons, employing 151,890 hands in 1890. Full Reports of all Accidents. The following letter from Commissioner of Navigation O'Brien directs attention to a very important subject: Eprror Marine Revirw:--Due regard for the protection of life and property seems to require that an investigation should be made by the govern- ment as to the causes of marine disasters, collisions, accidents, etc., in the cases of all vessels of the United States, for the information and benefit of mariners, and especially with a view to prevent a repitition of similar mishaps. No official body besides the federal courts, is particularly charged with such inquiries, except to a certain extent in regard to steam vessels, and to cases in which reports are made for the use of the life-saving service. At present it does not appear that mariners generally, outside of the private persons espec- ially concerned, have any certain means of learning all the facts which may have led to collisions, or strandings, or other disasters to vessels. If a proper official body constituting a board, at the expense of the government, could have power to investigate the various accidents; to send for witnesses and papers; to administer oaths; and to make a thorough investigation, the facts in i f i iven to mariners gener- regard to all cases might be brought out and notice given g to them, and so that a knowledge of the causes ally, so as to be of material use ye-witnesses, of a disaster would not, as is now the case, be confined to the e underwriters, masters, and owners, directly interested. . Your views relative to the matter are requested. Treasury Department, Bureau of Navigation, Washington, D, C, June 25, 1892, EK. C. O'Brien, Commissioner. In General. The old whaling bark Progtess, sailed from Boston June 8 in tow of the tug Right Arm, her destination being Chicago, where she will be exhibited at the world's fair. She is fitted and rigged as a practical whaler, and in her cabin is a collection of curiosities and products of the whaling industry. Atits annual meeting in Buffalo recently the American Boiler Manufacturers' Association elected the following officers: President, Phillip Rohan of St.Louis; first vice-president, Richard Garstang of St. Louis; second vice-president, Charles Kroe- schell; third vice-president, Michael Geary; treasurer, Richard Hammond of Buffalo; secretary, EK. D. Meier of St. Louis. Resolutions were passed pointing out defects in the Frye bill, which demanded so much attention recently from steamboat and ship building interests. An error was made last week in saying that the steamer Pioneer now being built by the Detroit Dry Dock Company for the Cleveland-Cliffs Mining Company is the first boat on the lakes to be fitted with Howden's system of forced draft. This system was placed in the twin-screw steamship Virginia of the Goodrich line last winter andis giving satisfactory results, President A. W. Goodrich says, both in maintaining steady steam and reducing coal consumption. Two big ocean going steamers launched a few days ago,the El Norte at Newport News, Va.,and the Peru at San Francisco, are it is true not much larger than the modern type of lake steamer, but they will make a valuable addition to important work in seaboard ship yards of late. The Peru is of steel, 350 feet keel, and will be used in the China trade, while the El Norte is 380 feet keel and belongs to the Southern Pacific Company, operating the Cromwell Line between New York and New Orleans. 'The launch of the El Norte was attended with great ceremony, quite a number of distinguished Washington people being present. At the yards of Wm. R. Osborne & Son, boat builders, Peek- skill, N. Y., a few days ago, an exhibition of an engine made entirely of aluminum bronze was given by the Bliven Palace Steam- ship Company. A. Perry Bliven, of New York, the inventor of the Bliven rapid steam generator and engine, conducted the tests. He has built an engine weighing only 600 pounds. 'The engine, ~ though so light, will, he says, develop 105 horse power. His steam genorator, he says, is the most rapid in the world, In the test this afternoon he generated steam in exactly four min- utes from cold water. The engine was put in motion, and it ran smoothly and without accident. The Shipping World, London, reviews some recent disas- ters and says that next to bad navigation, bad design is a pro- lific cause of loss, adding the following: "This is the result of entrusting the design of vessels to men who, no matter how clever as draughtsmen they may be, are not always competent as designers. 'The old French frigates formed the models which we copied, and the French are still to the fore for really scien- tific and accurate design, but this largely results from the fact that the members of the Genie Maritime have to go to sea, and our designers do not. 'The British admiralty has, however, at length found it necessary to send constructors and designers to sea, so that they can obtain practical experience of the require- ments and behavior of ships.' On the modern steamer, according to Prof. J. H. Biles, of Glasgow, one man, with all the latest appliances at command, can produce as much work as was possible for 150 men on the old-time vessels propelled by manual power. Further improve- ment is still possible by the use of lighter machinery, boilers of the tubular type, and oil as fuel instead of coal. Hven with such improvements, however, it would take a vessel 1000 feet long and roo feet wide, with engines of 100,000 to 120,000 indi- cated horse power to cross the Atlantic from Queenstown to New York in four days. But as the propelling power of steam- ers has been multiplied by six in the last fifteen years, engines of 30,000 horse power being now known, it is not unreasonable to assume that in the next fifteen years the maximum horse power will be quadrupled.--American Shipbuilder. The schooner J. D. Sawyer, which was released from her stranded position at Avon point, Lake Erie, several weeks ago, is now in dry dock at Port Huron. Her bottom is found to be in a very bad condition. She will require nearly an entire new keel. It is estimated that her repair bill will amount to $9,000, and a month will be required to do the work,