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1 : MARINE REVIEW. Tips From the Man on the Dock. I have frequent talks with vessel owners now-a-days. 'These victims of the great panic of '93 are ever ready to air their mis- fortunes. 'They are all "in the same boat," and have come to the conclusion that, as prophets, they are notin it. They are like our soldiers of the late war who were shot through by min- nie balls--it was done so quickly they didn't know what hurt them. Vessel owners can scarcely realize the change that has taken place during the past four months. In March last I had a talk with a prominent vessel owner. It was a warm afternoon, and we were sitting ona spile down below Smith's tug office. He said, "I tell you we are going to havea big season, and I have just bought two more vessels on the strength of it. Look at the immense amount of stuff to move. Lumber more than ever was known, and a million tons more coal than last year, for the stocks of coal above are all consumed by the hard winter ; at least as much iron ore as last year, and as for grain, there is thirty-three million bushels in the elevators ready to move, with ten millions more in sight a little way back. Then the world's fair business will keep the railroads employed in carrying passen- gers, and leave all the grain for the vessels. I tell you we will have a big season." I saw this man again the other day, and asked him what about the '"' big season" he had prophesied. He said that on account of the panic he was unable to deliver it, and acknowledged that he had come to the conclusion that he was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet. It is said that McDougall's invention of '"'whale pigs," that have cut such a figure in our lake tonnage, was the result of a dream. 'The present condition of lake freights is not the result of a dream. No man foolish enough could have been found four months ago to imagine, much less to dream, that ore freights would, by mid-summer, fall off 50 per cent. from the contract rate for 1893. 'This contract rate was considered so low that no vessel owner filled up with it, and many rejected it in toto. Now it looks like a fair price to carry ore, and they are the for- tunate owners who have secured some of it. Had it not been for the panic that has restricted business through inability of the banks to furnish the needed funds, we would have, in my opin- ion, a good season's business. 'he prophecies of vessel owners, reasoning from experience and the evident facts of supply and demand, would have been fulfilled. But the unexpected has happened, and a new factor has been introduced into the account which hereafter, in forecasting the future, can not be lost sight of in the vessel business. All the vessels running at the present measly low rates are not paying expenses. 'They will be able to discover it, I think, when all their bills comein. To tie them to the dock is the best thing now to save loss, and for the benefit of business later on. : ci oe cc = Let me return again to the sectional wheel question. I was sunning myself one fine morning on the edge of a dock where a steamer was being unloaded. Presently appeared under her stern a float bearing a wheel blade, and a number of men in blue overalls with wrenches, hammers, etc., arrived later. Then I noticed that one blade was broken off the boat's wheel and I thought I would watch the method of replacing it. The wheel having been turned to a convenient point, the wrenches were applied and every nut, especially on the driving side, was found to be loose. 'This seemed to me conclusive evi- dence that that blade had struck something ; the more so when on turning the wheel again to permit the stub of the blade to come away, one of the other blades was tried but the nuts were tight and solid. However, the new blade was set in its place anc the nuts screwed, but it seemed to me that with large nuts of the kind in use not much could be done by two men simply pulling on the end of a 3-foot wrench. If it had been my job I should have-wanted to see the sledge used on the wrench, so that there would have been nothing left to get. But I was only a spectator and said nothing. I was not surprised to learn, how- ever, when next this boat appeared, that the same blade had become tired and dropped off. Early Lake Navigators. | Continued from Vol. 8, No. §.] "Capt. J. I. Pheatt came from the lower lakes. On the upper lakes he commanded the steamer Gen. Harrison, in 1840, (log cabin times) the steamer India in 1842, the Northern Indiana and Western Metropolis. Capt. John Stewart sailed, for the late Oliver Newberry, several vessels,commencing at an early period, the schooners Marengo, LaSalle, brig Manhatten and others. We also pay apassing tribute to the memory of other lake pioneers, ee aan were Capt. Sam. Vary, who died at She- boygan a few years since; 'Ould Ned Burke,' as he was widely known; Jerry Oliver, who commanded the steamer New England besides sail vessels at other periods; Captains Paine, Mann, Joe Sherwood, John Kline, also Capt. John W. Webster, who, with Capt. James Hackett, light-keeper at the mouth of Detroit river, are the two oldest vessel masters at present (1872) living. Capt. W. P. Stone, once of the steamer Keystone State, and favorably known, died at a hotel in New York city. Capt. Thomas Rich- ards died while in command of the steamer Niagara, at Milwaukee, in 1849. Capt. G. W. Floyd came from the seaboard and sailed the brig Indiana in 1837. Capt. C. H. Ludlow in 1849 com- manded the steamboat Baltic. Capt. Jacob Imson, of the Hen- drick Hudson, Diamond, Buckeye State and propeller St. Joseph, went to farming in Michigan. Capt. 5. Clement went into bus- iness in Chicago. He in 1839 sailed the schooner Philadelphia, besides the Atlantic and other of Ward's steamers. Capt. KE. B, Ward was also at an early date a vessel man, sailing, among others, the schooner Gen. Harrison. The first steamboat he commanded was the Huron, in 1840. Capt. Fred S. Wheeler commanded the propeller Hercules and the steamboat St. Louis. Capt. D. P. Nickerson came from the seaboard and has filled numerous important positions both on salt and fresh waters. Capt. Morris Hazard came from the east, having an experience on the rivers. He brought out the steamer Milwaukee, at Buf- falo, in 1838, and afterwards commanded the Constellation, and Empire State. Capt. D. H. McBride died at Milwaukee. The schooner Harve was the last vessel he commanded, in 1842, and the propeller Ironsides the last steamer. He was second mate of the steamer Erie, which was burned on Lake Erie in 1841, and narrowly escaped being counted among the lost. Capt. Wm. Hinton, for several years past pilot on the U. S. steamer Michigan, was first officer of the Erie when she burned, and also had a narrow escape. Capt. James M. Averill an old lake man, commanded the steamer Erie (the little) in '40 or '41 and subse- quently sailing vessels, the Barton and others. Previous to this the captain was several years at sea. Capt. Jacob Travers commanded the steamer Golden Gate. Capt. Benjamin A. Stan- nard commanded numerous sail crafts. Capt. John Caldwell, who died at Cleveland in 1864, commanded, in 1836, '37 and '38, the schooner Hudson, afterwards the Henry Crevolin and Tren- ton. Subsequently for several years he commanded steamers on Lake Superior, and in the Northern Transportation Line. Capt. B. G. Sweet's lake career dated back to 1831, sailing the schooner N. C. Baldwin in 1837-8. He commanded the propeller Phcenix in 1846, burned on Lake Michigan in November of that year. He also sailed the Northerner, North Star, propeller Iron city and others. Capt. D. Howe, in his day quite prominent on the lakes, was a lower lake man, and sailed at one time the schooner Saratoga. In 1837 he was in command of the steamer New York, which craft was bedecked with four pipes. In 1840, Capt Howe was in command of the Chespeake, and in 1844-5 the Empire, at that date the mammoth of the lakes. Capt. J. S. Benjamin died at Prairieville, Mich , in 1864. He sailed the steamboat Ben. Franklin in 1849, and previously sail vessels . out of Cleveland." Capt. W. H. Rounds, marine insurance broker of Chicago, is certainly entitled to mention among early navigators.. He was born at Sackett's Harbor in 1823 and commenced sailing in 1839 on board the schooner Genl. Brown. In 1841 he was in the schooner A. Wilcox, in 1842 the schooner Madison, and the following seven years were divided between the schooner Wilcox and propeller James Wood. In 1853 he went in the Delaware and in the Nile the next two years. He commanded the Free State and the Fountain City during the nine years before he went into the insurance business in Chicago, having sailed the pro- peller Milwankee two seasons since. He has been connected with the Aetna Insurance Company for twenty-five years. Toni Coe of the Cleveland City Forge and Iron Company can also be included among the "old timers," having been connected as engineer with a number of boats mentioned, and having been shipmate with some of the captains already spoken of. He mentions Capt. I. A. Pierce, who was in the Southerner and Nile in 1848-9, and several years later in the Forest City between Detroit and Cleveland, and who was really the origi- nator of the Detroit and Cleveland line. Among other boats of | these times he recalls the Sebastopol, Missouri and Vermillion, built at Vermillion, and the Rochester, Bunker Hill and Troy. During the winter of 1845-6 the old States navigated Lake Erie, notwithstanding the ice. Mr. Coe corrects the dates given in Capt. Hall's book in several instances.