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= Py : o F ; a MARINE A New Ferry Steamer. The ferry business between Detroit and Windsor is the most extensive of the kind on the lakes. When passenger and _ car ferries on the river at this point are plying back and forth, and the big steel steamers and the steam-barges with tows are passing up and down the river, it doesn't requirea great stretch of imagination to compare the sight to the busy scene on East River, New York.- With this issue the Revirw "presents an illustration of the Promise, the latest addition to this ferry fleet. The ferry Promise was steamer No. 108, built by the Detroit Dry Dock Company, for the Detroit, Belle Isle and Windsor Ferry Company. It is a wooden steamer, 130 feet long, 118 feet on the water line, 38 feet beam, 34% feet beam on the water line, and 50 feet over guards; moulded depth 13 feet 714 inches, and draft about 11 feet. The hull was constructed at the Clark dry dock, and the joiner work, cabins, etc. at the Orleans street yard of the dry dock company. 'The cabins are finished very handsomely, the men's cabin in oak, and the women's in ma- hogany, with toilet rooms for each, marble washstands, etc. of the very latest pattern. On the promenade deck is built a cabin finished in oak. It affords protection from the wind and weath- er, as well as protecting the stairs. The machinery, built by the Dry Dock Engine Works, consists of a three-cylinder, non- condensing engine, which can be used with the high steam in all three cylinders, or compounded by using high pressure in one cylinder and exhausting in the other two. There are two boil- ers, 9% feet in diameter and 12% feet long, with a working pressure of 125 pounds. A complete electric plant of 125 lights supplying the illumination, was installed by the Detroit Elec- trical Works, Detroit. 'The steamer has a capacity of 1,200 passengers, and that number can be very comfortably accommo- dated. Kitchen, dining room, etc. are situated under the main deck aft, and sleeping berths for the firemen are forward. Boats of this style would do excellent work in transporting passengers from Chicago to Jackson Park during the world's fair. Lake Freight Matters. The fact that iron ore shipments to August 1 are known to to be close to the four million mark, or only 300,000 or 400,000 tons less than they were on the corresponding date in 1890 when a little more than 9,000,000 tons of ore was shipped from the Lake Superior district. has caused some dealers to look for a restriction in the movement for the latter half of the season, but like all other predictions in iron matters of late this opinion can be said to have little more foundation than hopes of opposite in- terests for early improvement in the demand for ore. It is true that large shipments of unsold ore have been made and that a few mines, notably the Champion, have quit work altogether, but it is also true that the mines producing desirable grades of ore, that were sold up almost to the limit of production during the winter, are only meeting the requirements of these sales in shipments already made, and any sign of the long-delayed im- provement in iron would warrant a continuance of the present active movement in ore. 'he shipments are, of course, a little more than 1,000,000 tons ahead of last year, but this is more than discounted by the delay of nearly two months in beginning the ore shipping season of 1891. With the shutting down of iron mills in different sections of the country stocks of manufactured iron and steel have have been reduced so that dealers find great difficulty in supplying the demand. A re- newal of operations in this line must help a reduction in pig iron CLEVELAND, O., anp CHICAGO; ILL., AGUS. 4, 1892. REVIEW. No. 5. stocks but the extent of assistance on this account would again be only a guess regarding the market. With the exception of scarcity of coal cargoes for the head of Lake Superior, vessels are all finding employment at <xates that show some improvements over the opening figures, and that are altogethrr fairly profitable. The ore freight market has settled at 75 cents from Escanaba, $1 from Marquette and $1.1 5 from Ashland and Two Harbors to Ohio ports. Stocks of corn in Chicago show a marked increase and it would be moving more freely but for some fear as to its quality. Duluth grain shippers have asked vessel owners for bids on large quantities of wheat to be moved during the fall months, but the losses suf- fered by vessels for which such contracts were made last fall have caused a wide difference in the opinions of owners and shippers as to the rates that should be paid on the grain, and no contracts have been made as yet. More than 30,000 Net Registered Tons. Here is an indication of the manner in which lake ship- _ builders are surpassing the builders of the coast in turning out merchant vessels of steel and iron: 'The United States Standard Steamship Owners' Builders' and Underwriters' Association of New York publishes a register of iron and steel vessels for in- surance purposes. A supplement of this register just issued gives a rating, valuation,etc.to steel vessels launched on the lakes dur- ing the years 1891 and 1892. Although all steel vessels built on the lakes during these years are not recorded by the association, the supplement contains alist of twenty-one such vessels on the lakes as against sixteen on the entire American coast. 'The twenty-one lake vessels have a combined net registered tonnage of 30,613, and are as follows: Andaste, Cadillac, Choctaw, Co- dorus, Comanche, James B. Colgate, W. H. Gilbert, John B. Ketchum, Mahoning,. Mariposa, Maritana, Pathfinder, Pillsbury, Pioneer, Sagamore, Samuel Mather, Samuel Mitchell, Schuyl- kill, Thomas Wilson, Vigna and Washburn. Detroit River Lights. One of the items in the light-house approprtations carried by the civil sundry appropriation bill provides $8,600 for the . construction or purchase, equipment and maintenance of three small light vessels for use in the Detroit river. The bill says nothing about where these vessels are to be located and the item seems to be a strange one, as in all previous measures pertaining to lake lights the only light-ship provided for in the Detroit river; outside of the Lime-Kilns floats and the Bar point light- vessel, was the light at Ballard's. It is a consolation, however, that as regards the Detroit river the bill provides for even more -- than was asked, and if the rulings of the treasury department will permit of it this appropriation can undoubtedly be used: fe advantage. Some of the stockholders of the Detroit Dry Dock Company favor the removal of their steel shipbuilding plant from Wyan- dotte to Detroit, where the company recently completed one of the finest dry docks on the lakes. Repairs to steel vessels al- ready involve a large expenditure of money annually and this work will increase largely in the future. The Detroit company 'owns a large tract of land adjacent to the new dock, offices and engine works where wooden vessels have been built in the past, and for various reasons the proposed change would seem ad- vantageous.