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CHICAGO LAKE INTERESTS. WESTERN OFFICE, MARINE REVIEW, 5, t No. 13 Western Union Building, CHICAGO, II., Oct. 20. There is a good deal of talk among marine men here over the new lift bridge to be erected at South Halstead street. As the bridge is to be raised above passing vessels, the height of masts is an important point. Tt is to be 140 feet above the water or above city datum, which is about a foot lower than the average stage of water. Masts of nearly all the larger schooners are over 140 feet high. The following is the height of a number of boats taken at random: American Union......... 154 feet. Bertha Barnes............ 150 feet. EG PO BIAINC: cahtes ers coos 160° = GOT aA ae re eee eataes Ae DD. LCase... s.cveresceeee- 160 <" City of Chicago.......... Agee Ee Damtonpne seesascsr: ee Charles Foster......-.-++ ile 20 idl aeleerthivseees ate cusaces oe ile J. Kelderhouse........-+ AI Sas ape AS Ms awancvaesecneessecss silane W. O. Goodman........- Aces Dre EL ay eS iesssecswere-ss 146° "* Halstead.....5:..-.--..+++++ lege James Mowatt.............148 '° North Cape.......... ++ A Ore Thomas L. Parker....... WG-26 A.M. Peterson.........+- 1 Ones MWe SPaver. ccccce =. <r: 165 '* Minnie Slauson.......... 146" Shhuahitts(Sheasanssosponacbocnate eyes John B. Wilber.........- Aas Cia Vice Nat Otis. sase-- tS coeur Oalkewleealtinnerscccrcne in: 140. * By, Be Maxwell... ila¥s} = 66 While marine men are almost unanimously in favor of Capt. Harmon's folding or jack-knife bridge at South Halstead street, there is a manifest indis- position on the part of many to enter into an active fight against the hydraulic lift bridge. They say that the city has given them what they asked--the cen- ter of the river for the passage of vessels--and if they now engage in another fight, it will be claimed that it has all been in the interest of one particular style of bridge. The amount of business done at South Halstead street bridge by these tall masted schooners is but a meagre fraction of that of steamers, steam barges, and towing schooners and barges. It is stated by those who have taken the most earnest part in the struggles of the past two seasons for the govern- ment control of Chicago river, that they cannot afford to enter into another contest for the saving of the high topmasts. On the other hand, the adherents of the topmasts are not disposed to give them up, and may make a fight for themselves before the war department. The intimation, which started from somewhere, that Capt. W. L. Mar- shall, United States engineer here, will be sent to other fields at the expira- tion of his detail next February, will be generally regretted by marine men, if it be well founded. Capt. Marshall is probably better fitted for the duties of _ the position than any other officer who might be sent here. The questions connected with government control of Chicago river, which are likely to arise at any time, are complex, and it will take another officer fully six months to fully grasp the ins and outs of the situation. Capt. Marshall has as many friends among Chicago marine men as Col. Ludlow gained among marine men generally during his service for the light-house board. They know him as a man of no foolishness, who goes straight to the point in every issue and who is entirely without prejudice for or against the marine. His assignment to another detail would be a most serious loss. The Island Transportation Company has recently added to its vessel prop- erty the passenger steamer Algomah, purchased from the Michigan Central Railroad Company. During the summer months she will be kept on the route between Mackinaw City, St. Ignace and Mackinaw island, being the only passenger steamer between those points. On this route is an immense passen- ger traffic. During the fall and spring months she will be fitted out as a wrecker and kept in readiness to assist any vessels that may be in trouble in the vicinity of the Straits. The members of this company are Capt. T. Boyn- ton and J. F. Keightley of St. Ignace and D. T. Arnold of Mackinaw island. Mr. William L. Brown, of Chicago, has been elected president of the Chicago Ship Building Company, succeeding the late Emmons Blaine. Lake Freight Matters. Grain moving from Duluth, Superior and Fort William at the head of Lake Superior to Buffalo is the main support of the lake freight market. At this writing, Chicago shippers, although crowded with stocks beyond expectation, claim to be unable to make sales at present prices of cereals and are doing little in the lake freight market, but this has not lessened the demand for vessels on Lake Superior, and 4 cents is freely offered from Duluth, with the latest Fort William charters reported at 4% cents. The Chicago slump has been the means however, of holding down the rate on ore trom Escanaba, Gilicre shipments are pretty well up to requirements for the season, and Escanaba ore shippers secured on Wednesday a very large amount of tonnage, sufficient to run them far into next week. They were fortunate in finding a large coal fleet bound to Lake Michigan without return charters. With the advance in rates on grain from the head of Lake Superior, Ashland ore shippers have been compelled to pay $1.30 on a number of charters and MARINE REVIEW. ~-- a it has been reported that in one or two cases an advance of 5 cents over this rate was paid quietly. However this may be it is certain that, on account of the grain movement, ore shippers have not been getting as much tonnage as they stili require from the head of the lakes. The delay in moving grain out of Chicago is a factor of weakness in the general freight market, but the demand for coal riers has improved all around at increased rates and iron ore shippers are prompted to a somewhat larger output, on account of decreasing pig iron stocks and a slight improvement in the iron market. These conditions, together with the fact that elevators at the head of Lake Superior and Chicago are so crowded that grain must move to some extent irrespective of the present light demand for it abroad, cause most shippers as well as vessel owners to incline to the belief that, although there will be no great boom during the remainder of the season, the freight market will rule fairly high to the end. car Like Ocean Going Ships. Owners and builders of the new passenger boats under way in Cleveland for the Great Northern Railway Company, have considered in an indefinite way the advisability of using water tube boilers. Some consideration has been given to boilers of the Belleville and Cowles types, but the matter has yet been talked of only in an informal way. If boilers of this type are adopted, it would be a radical departure from the present practice in the construction of large boats, such as these are, in this country. The United States government is giving the Ward water tube boiler a trial in one of the vessels of war built in San Francisco some time ago, but outside of this they have not as yet been placed in any very large vessels, either passenger or freight. Their adoption in a few large steamers built in Eng- land is understood, however, to have resulted satisfactorily. This subject, as well as others pertaining to the machinery of these big passenger boats, is still in a preliminary stage. Mr. John F. Pankhurst, of the Globe Company, has been in Buffalo this week consulting with Mr. John Gordon regarding the ma- chinery of the boats, and every effort is being made to hurry this work, which is more important than that of the hulls. It is settled that the steamers will have twin engines, and the double rows of state rooms, together with promenade deck, and other departures from lake customs in the construction of hull and cabins, will give them in every way the appearance of ocean--- going ships. Notices to Mariners. Now it is the establishment of the Round Island light, St. Mary's river, to which the lighthouse board directs attention. A white lens-lantern light was exhibited at this point on Sept. 20, but the notice regarding it did not appear until Oct. 11. Thus all of the lights originally recommended for the river have been adopted by the board. On or about Oct. 25, a light of the fourth order, showing a red flash every 10 seconds will be exhibited from the structure recently erected on the site adjoining the fog signal on Old Mackinac point, south side of the Straits of Mackinac, Mich. 'The focal plane of the light is 60 feet above lake level and the light may be seen in clear weather, the observer's eye 15) teet above the lake level, 15% miles. Bearings and distances of prominent objects are: Cheboygan light-house, S. E. by E. % H., 1678 miles; McGulpin point light-house, W. % S$ 214 miles; St. Helena light-house, N. W. 7% W., 8 miles. Z Wrecks and Heavy Losses. The Canadian harbor tug Inter-Ocean, valued at $7,000, caught fire and was totally destroyed on the St. Clair river Thursday. At Port Huron Tuesday the steamer Canada caught fire and is practically a total loss. She was valued at by John Nesbit of Sarnia. ed at $6,000 and! owned The schooner, J. K. Gilmore, driv J. H. : en ashore at Garrett's ba near Death's Door, will be abandoned. She was owned by Capt. ohn Gerlacl ete ch, Cleveland, was valued at $3500, and was not *