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MARINE REVIEW. NOL. Vaal. Clearing Up the List of New Freighters. New freight vessels are still leaving the stocks but it is. needless to say that no keels are being put down to take their places. The launch of the George J. Gould at Buffalo a few days ago, leaves in course of construction only six or seven freighters in the different lake yards. There are two at F. W. Wheeler & Co's yard, West Bay City, the steel steamer Centur- ian and a big wooden consort; one wooden steamer, the Carnage, at Davidson's yard, West Bay City, and three wooden vessels at Marine City, with one or possibly two whalebacks at West Superior. It has been understood since the organization of the Cleve- land and Buffalo Transit Company last winter that if the bus- iness of the company this season would warrant such a move, a larger and faster passenger and freight steamer than the side- wheeler State of New York would be built totake the place of that boat, which is the smaller of the two owned by the company, on the line between Cleveland and Buffalo. It is now given out unofficially that the company has had a very good business so far this season in both freight and passenger traffic, and there is some talk of the new boat. If the boat is built, the contract will probably goto the Cleveland Ship Building Company, as. some of the stock holders in the transportation company are also interested in the ship building company. 'There is no cer- tainty of the boat being built, however, as thereis the disadvan- tage of the new line having its business cut up somewhat through the competition from the big Northern line steamers - that will take a share of the traffic between Cleveland and -Buff- -alo next season, and the present condition of the money market is against building operations of any kind. - _ The George J. Gould, which has just been put into the water by the Union Dry Dock Company, Buffalo, isa steel steam- er built for the Lake Erie Transportation Company, and will run in the Telodo-Buffalo line with the Russell Sage, S. C. Rey- nolds and J.C. Gault. She has a length of 277 feet over all, with a keel of 259 feet, her moulded depth being 36 feet and her beam 40 feet. She is furnished with a 42-inch bottom, in. eight compartments, and -six -water-tight bulkheads. Her power is furnished by two Scotch boilers from the Lake Erie Boiler' Works, each 114 feet in diameter and twelve feet long, carrying 160 pounds pressure. The engines are Trout triple expansion, -with cylinder 18, 30 and 48 inches by 42-inch stroke. Features of Depression in Freights. Tt would be difficult to imagine a more depressed condition of lake freights than the situation with which vessel owners are confronted at the present time. Without a ray of hope in the neat future, and in view of the unfortunate tangle of finances in which Ferdinand Schlesinger has been a central figure, discus- sion in vessel circles has drifted to the question of the several ore agencies standing up to the freight contracts made early in the spring, and which are now profitable assets in the hands ofa few fortunate owners, although considered very slim at the time of attaching signatures to them. Itis gratifying to note that there is not the slightest lack of confidence on this score, and there are in fact one or two instances where owners, in extraor- dinary cases, found occasion to cancel a few trips under such contracts and were paid about the full difference in freight. There are also a few cases where shippers have asked vessel ee CLEVELAND, O., ann CHICAGO, ILL., JULY 27, 1893. eG As Owners to carry in August some ore that should have been brought down in July, but there is little importance to be attached on either side to these transactions, and there is every assurance of the contract business in ore being all right. Aside from the business of the package freight boats, the boats owned by the ore companies and the boats sharing some part of ore freight contracts, there is an outlook more gloomy than at any time since the present depression set in. 'There is every reason to believe that ore dealers have reached the limit of their ability to move ore even at the advantageous rates of freight at which tonnage has gone begging for two or three weeks past, and the vessels already in ordinary will be joined by a big fleet within the coming ten days, as there is little hope for any revival in grain shipments. The movement of soft coal, especially to Lake Micnigan, has also shown a marked falling off, notwithstanding the short- age, and without coal to be carried up the lakes at some price it is not possible to keep the present fleet in commission. One wealthy coal concern, the Northwestern Fuel Company, has done a great deal toward upholding the movement to Lake Superior, by its ability to ship to its full capacity. Indispensible Aids to Navigation. One of the greatest struggles that the officers of the Lake Carriers' Association will have in the next Congress will be in the work of securing appropriations for numerous lights and fog signals that are needed in different parts of the lakes. Prepara- tions are already being made, however, for a strong effort in this direction, and the subjects of tariff and finance will not deter the executive members of the association from uniting lake in- fluences on a systematic plan of action. -- As the last Congress authorized the establishment of about forty different aids to navigation, the work this fall will be confined mainly with the light-house board and the committee on appropriations, and will not be as extensive as it was a year ago, but will be equally dif- ficult, on account of the certainty of a policy of retrenchment in Washington. The necessity of all the lights and fog-signals authorized on the lakes will, however, be urged by the represen- tatives of the vessel owners. At least ten items in the list of about forty authorized are absolutely indispensible, and they in- volve an expenditure of $128,600. They are as follows: Moving range lights, Maumee river, Lake Erie, so as to properly light the new channel, $8,000. Forty-Mile point, Lake Huron, light and fog-signal, $25,000. Death's Door passage, Lake Michigan, range lights and fog- signal, $21,000. Moving main Chequamegon light, Lake Superior, and es- tablishing fog signal, $7,500; harbor light and bell, Chequamegon, $2,500. Portage lake ship-canal, Lake Superior, fog signal, $5,500. Seul Choix point, Lake Michigan, fog signal, $5,500. South-east end of North Manitou island, Lake Michigan, light and fog signal, $20,000. Squaw point, Little Bay De Noquette, Lake Michigan, light, $5,000. Fourteen-Mile point, Lake Superior, light and fog signal, $20,000. Southerly end of South Bass island, Lake Erie, light to range with Green island light and Marblehead light, $8,600,