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10 MARINE REVIEW. MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. HOMER J. CARR, ae Associate Editor and Manager Chicago Office, 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. Stes wyessele scsi e teh aonterseseteiecsesese rT 5 G2 756,751.53 Satlim@ Vessels cas acaguweb ans seapeetiorosiedenens 1,243 325,131.06 Canale boats cher cscs css daccotesGalc one ee sonore: 703 72,515.42 Bar eS eiae aeaidane en et ens Mimculos t oaesticmean nck shite 62 PLO} NGPA RG] SMObA re eocsccn ci ccesue piaeseace cacao es 3,600 1,154,870.38 Tonnage built on the lakes during the past five years, according to the reports of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows: No. of boats. Net Tonnage. MSS Te ccune Tine nat nce se secceeeveeos shes cness 152 56,488.32 LOGO ei ceeec the reece oo neon eae ae ies 222 IOI, 102.87 TO SO Pes veliho aa ne eie eee ns cas ohh Mare eeeS 225 107,080.30 TOGO she so satec sea ae sse LacG oes susan an coadeuncse 218 108,515.00 TOOMacovoinievensas sec tameces laeceereine an sees 204. 111,856.45 ° Potalemet cet ciout ak ove cantare & 1,021 485,042.94 St. Mary's Falls and Suez canal traffic: Number of boats through St. Mary's Falls canal in 1890, 228 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. Number of boats through St. Mary's Falls canal in 1891, 225 days of navigation, 10,191; ton- nage, net registered, 8,400,685. Number of boats through Suez canal dur- ing 1891, full year, 4,207; tonnage, net registered, 8,698,777. Lintered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. THE much discussed Frye bill--the senate measure in which the recommendations of the late International Marine Confer- ence are considered--contains a section, thirty-four, providing that no seaman whose visual power is below half normal, or who is red or green color blind, shall stand lookout on board any vessel of the United States. The board of supervising inspect- ors of steam vessels in its last annual report declares that the en- actment of this section of the bill intolaw would be exceedingly arbitrary, unnecessary, and unjust. The inspectors say that they can find "no excused whatever for attempting to deprive any of our people of employment as seamen simply and solely because of some physical defect which in no way will disqualify them for.service." Lake vessel owners have expressed their emphatic disapproval of many features of this senate bill 1755, and the protests of shipping interests succeeded in defeating it as a whole, but we fail to understand the position of the inspect- ors, some of whom are masters, on this particular section. 'The testimony ofa lookout often carries more weight than that ofa master before the courts, on account of the responsibility of the master, and it is found too often that there is conflicting evidence from lookouts regarding the color of lights. The current issue of the Maritime Register discusses at length the utterances of the inspectors on this subject and administers some very severe criticism to the board. The Registersays: "No one will at- tempt to put obstacles in the way of any young American from obtaining service on shipboard. But no sensible person will consent to having the safety of lives and property intrusted to the eyesight of one who is color blind. The eyes of the sailor are of as much importance as his hands on shipboard, and the nearer perfection his eyes the better for the safe navigation of the vessel. We fail to understand why this fact should be over- looked by people who ought to stand up for having the sailor a sound man physically. A rotten plank in the hull is no more dangerous than a color blind sailor."' Now it is said that vessel masters will be slow about run- ning the new Hay lake channel when it is completed. At the Neebish there is a cut in solid rock 300 feet wide and almost two miles in length, through which the current runs at the rate of about six miles an hour. It isclaimed that it will be necessary to crib this and other cuts, and the danger of obstructions from shifting quicksand in Hay lake is also held out as an obstacle to free navigation of the new channel. It will undoubtedly be found, however, that these disadvantages will be only tempo- rary when the big project is completed, and boats will run the new channel just as certain as they will eventually navigate the Sault river by night when a complete system of range lights is in operation. Tm whaleback steamer Joseph L,. Colby is now at Balti- more loading coal for Galveston, Tex., from which port she goes to Sigua, Cuba, to load iron ore for the Sigua Iron Company. She is to report at Sigua ready for loading not later than Oct.'1. This is an announcement of some importance, as it marks the beginning of operations by the American Steel Barge Company in a new and important Atlantic trade. All iron ore brought to this country from Cuba up to this time has been shipped by the Pennsylvania Steel Company and consumed by that company. The Sigua and the Spanish-American companies, in which leading stockholders of the barge company are interested, will both ship large quantities of the Cuban ore next year. Axsour $8,000,000 was the original costof the Hriecanal begun in 1817 and opened to navigation in 1825, but New York state has since spent $90,000,000 for its improvement and main- tenance. Notwithstanding this heavy expenditure, it is figured that the actual income derived from the canal amounts to over $123,000,000 leaving a clear profit of $25,000,000. But the canal, once the great thoroughfare for the shippers of the entire west, is no longer capable of competing with railway advance- ment. Its radical enlargement is demanded and its history of earnings should alone be enough to encourage promoters of the big project. One Indian Wasn't Enough. The best posted and most experienced captains find their boats aground occasionally. Sometimes itis the fault of the mate on watch or the wheelman, or sometimes it is a mistake ; cap- tains being human are liable to make mistakes. All captains know this and there are few that do not sympathize with. their fellows when they have bad luck. 'The following story is brought to mind by the grounding of a boat in the Sault river not long ago. The captain boasts of a drop of indian blood in his veins, just enough to enable him to be called a genuine American citizen. He was going up the Sault river one even- ng several years ago when an indian pilot hailed him from a canoe : "Want a pilot, sir?" The captain shook his head. "River getting dark, plenty rocks. Joe keep you off them oir? '"'No" came the short answer, "one indian on a pilot house is enough."' The captain has caused many a laugh with this story, and if that indian wasn't dead when the captain got on recently he certaily must have been more stolid than his tribe is accounted if he didn't drift down the river and again ask the captain if he wanted a pilot. During August 44,356,000 feet of lumber, 8,400,000 shin- gles, 1,770,000 lath and 4,867 barrels of salt were shipped by water from Saginaw river.