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12 MARINE REVIEW. MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. JOHN Me pene ey) poss ale Mec sae PROPRIETORS. HOMER J. CARR, " " Associate Editor and Manager Chicago Office, oe Western Union Building, 110 LaSalle Street. Published every Thursday at No. 516 Perry-Payne Building, Cleveland, O. SUBSCRIPTION--$z2.00 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. Stedinl Vessels 252. ..2s-ccecsosscsccscaesecsseeseess 1,592 756,751 -53 Satta VESSEL Sos cccpan entpesse ieccacitmaceqenee si 1,243 325,131.06 Canale Odi mee esnee dec scecin te onesscceicacies srrincmeet ss 703, 72,515 42 TRAGIC Stset cee aeaineoey sara seer apes t-Srmenessneec es 62 20,472.37 EL Gkal cececst hs coiteeec ee nden annanneny ieese 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. MGSO terest cerc cet cee astra wedaeteraseecs 152 56,488.32 TOSSae Sor bab tee pees esete mee Puce ceeet ete 222 IOI, 102.87 GQ u ters meete ase lesen tentnees Ceisee genes tees 225 107,080.30 TOO Greets crete cette saan eee tesanqeircens 218 108,515.00 TAO Mister nea e deere ssiseseeiscnamert eee acsisn = tae 204 TI1,856.45 APO bale st acter net cee soe denen eevee cae 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, Io,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. Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. As A result of a suggestion in our last issue, that on some given day a review of lake vessels be given in connection with the attractions attending the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, there is presented on another page an expression of opinion on the subject from some of the most prominent men connected with the lake marine. 'The letters are mainly from vessel owners, ship builders and others in lake cities other than Cleveland, as it was decided from a canvass of local opinion by interviews that before proposing any definite plan for an under- taking of such importance it would be necessary to first secure an expression of opinion from all interests. The result is a col- lection of letters that at least present very interesting reading matter on the subject. All agree that the scheme would, as Gen. O. M. Poe says, "go far towards educating the people of the country generally to the great importance of our lake marine, and carry conviction as to the policy of fostering it in every pos- sible way, particularly in regard to river and harbor improve- ments and ample aids to navigation." That such a display would also be a very interesting, enjoyable and instructive feat- ure of the fair, there is no question, but the great cost, together with the disadvantages resulting from a huddling of the lake fleet, which must of necessity be scattered in its movements throughout the season, seem to be matters of first consideration that are entirely against any plans for a creditable show of the kind proposed. The objections to the project are of importance in showing that the magnitude of interests involved is the great- est obstacle. The collection of opinions is, however, worthy of further attention, and they may yet result in some plan being devised for a lake exhibit worthy of the great tair. ° IN ADVANCE copies of his annual report just: submitted to the secretary of the treasury, E. C. O'Brien, commissioner of navigation, says that in ten years from 1882 to 1892 our lake tonnage increased from 771,269 tons to 1,183,182 tons. 'This lake fleet,'? says the report, "now embraces large steam vessels, models of beauty and nautical efficiency, which offer to shippers and passengers an \ unsurpassed transportation service."" The fact that lake shipping as a branch of the merchant marine of the country is, so far as it relates to the trade between American ports, absolutely protected against foreign competition 1s taken as a basis to show that while the tonnage of American-built vessels employed in the protected domestic trade of the country has advanced, the unprotected or foreign commerce branch of our merchant marine has declined from 75 per cent. of the total early in the century to 12 per cent. at present. The commiss- ioner also presents other statistics to show that the measures of relief already adopted are not adequate to the restoration of American shipping engaged in foreign commerce. DuLUTH newspapers. are NOW concentrating efforts to secure the construction of a tunnel between Minnesota point and the city, under the canal entrance to Duluth and Superior harbors. City authorities are again considering the question, and in view of the enterprise of the Zenith city it would not be surprising if this important project.is undertaken shortly. In accepting the decision of the war department, that a bridge over the canal entrance would be an obstruction to navigation, and in turning attention to a tunnel, Duluth citizens have shown good judgment. Even though a tunnel may not be built to Minnesota point for some time to come, it will be the best means of com- munication in the end, and the city will lose none of the lake commerce, which has had most to do with its great progress in the past. ; Tat the storm of last Friday and Saturday, especially on Lake Erie, was one of the most severe ever experienced on the lakes is shown in the action of such steamers as the Pontiac and Grecian, which left Cleveland in light trim just previous to the change of wind to the north. These boats are big steel ore car- riers of high power but all efforts to keep them head to the wind and sea resulted in failure. They were turned and forced back to Cleveland on account of insufficient power to keep the bows headed into the seas, and not on account of an intention on the part of the masters to put back to port, as such an undertaking was hazardous in the extreme, and it is a wonder that the loss of life and property in cases of this kind was not greater than was finally reported as a result of the storm. W. A. JELLICON, deputy collector of customs at Sault Ste. Marie under Collector E. B. Howard of Marquette, informs us that from Sept. 1 to Oct. 22 inclusive, there was collected in tolls at the St. Mary's Falls canal $17,840.44 as a result of the retalia- tory measures recently adopted by the United States government, on account of discrimination practiced by the Canadian govern- ment on the Welland and St. Lawrence canals. 'This amount is certainly not equal to the aggregate of extra tolls exacted on freight bound through the Welland to United States ports, but it will serve to partially equalize matters until a satisfactory settlement of the dispute can be had during the coming winter. Mr. H. Platt Stratton, chief engineer surveyor for the American Shipmasters' Association, publishers of the Record of American and Foreign Shipping, is probably as well posted as anyone in this country on matters pertaining to the construction of ships. Lake vessel owners who met him during his recent visit to the lakes, in connection with the work of surveying three steel steamers now under way at the yard of F. W. Wheeler & Co., were very much impressed by conversations had with him on matters pertaining to ship building in general. Mr. Stratton was a member of the government board of local in- spectors in New York for a number of years and was supervising inspector at the same port for two years.