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ozs e id MARINE REVIEW Marine REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. Chicago Office, Western Union Building, 706 Phoenix Building. Published every Thursday at No. 516 Perry-Payne Building, Cleveland, O. SUBSCRIPTION--$2.00 per year in advance. Single copies 1ocents each. Convenient binders sent, post paid, 75 cents. Advertising rates on appli- cation. The books of the United States treasury department contain the names of 3,657 vessels, of1,183,582.55 gross tons register in the lake trade. The lakes have more steam vessels of 1,000 to 2,500 tons than the com- bined ownership of this class of vessels in all other sections of the country. The number of steam vessels of 1,000 to 2,500 tons on the lakes on June 30, 1892, was 321 and their aggregate gross tonnage 534,490.27; in all other parts of the country the number of this class of vessels was,on the same date, 217 and their gross tonnage 321,784.6. The classification of the entire lake fleet is as follows: Gross. Class. Number. Tonnage. SS LEAII VESSCISI.. nos cto vcicscssceacnersccsessisesee? 1,631 763,063.32 Sailing vessels 1,226 319,617.61 (CAT alDOAtS treetros occ lec tincste cekees at 731 75,590.50 BAG RCStaceseeteecaiirecesensieonseessscted secs ceoete ce 69 25,321.12 MiOtaliss.codicseicctdssacscctciwsaessatines 3,657 1,183,582.55 Tonnage built on the lakes during the past five years, according to the reports of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows : Number. Net Tonnage. TOGS tetonete lactones sssdsccecicdcsceiseseo cee 222 IOI,102.87 SSO teomoeeeesoenesemancdsenencenscesreseses 225 107,080.30 TOGO sc recscnces se csinccrcnssceetinsseccsccetice sess 218 108,515.00 MSG Mires acccseetes cece cece hee e eee suet reaes 204 T11,856.45 MOQ Deere vc cis se coc dvesetervccaueesdeeseseeses 169 45,168.98 PR OGAL Serves tossoccts Goaserseveresevete 1,038 473,723-60 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. St. Mary's Falls Canal. Suez Canal. 1890. 1892. 1891. 1890. 1892. 1891. No. vessel passages 12,580] I0,I9I| 10,557 3,559 4,207 3,389 Ton'ge, net regist'd|10,647,203/8,400,685|8,454,435||7,712,028|8,698,777|6,890,014 Days of navigation.. 223 225 228 365 365 365 Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. COMMANDER RoBLEY D. Evans, naval secretary of the light-house board, spent a day or two on the St. Mary's river, vand upon returning to Washington announced--if the dispatches quote him correctly--" that he would not recommend the ex- penditure of money for more lights on the river, as he deems navigation by night impracticable, on account of the swift cur- rent and narrow, crooked channel." He adds that the Hay lake channel, which is a cut-off of nine miles on the river, will be completed within two years, and will afford safe and sufficient navigation. With all due respect to Commander Evans' reputa- tion as an efficient naval officer, it may not be out of place to call attention to the fact that in a single trip up the lakes, after less than a year of service on the light-house board, he could hardly be expected to master the question of navigation of the Sault river by night, which has demanded the attention of mas- ters and owners of vessels for several years past. [he statement that the river cannot be navigated by night, on account of its crooked, narrow channels, will not be accepted as argument when it is known that it has been and is now being run, largely on up trips, by a large number of vessels engaged in Lake Superior trade, and the practice would certainly be more general if a few more inexpensive crib lights were established at points where the present system is inefficient. 'Thisis all that is required, and the cost would be very light. Vessel owners have never asked for the elaborate system of lighting proposed by the board after the trouble of last season. The very low margin of profit in freights and the immense business of this river demand that, even for the two years intervening before the completion of the Hay lake channel, the present system of lights should be im- proved so as to at least meet the original plans, and adinit of mofe getieral use of the river by night. But the present chan- nel can not, by any means, be abandoned when the Hay lake work is completed. It has always been expected that when the new route is in readiness, there will be a channel for up-bound as well as down-bound boats. It would seem that Commander Evans should have given consideration to these points before be- ing interviewed. In a paper on " Ocean Passenger Steamships," read at the International Maritime Congress in London a few days ago, Professor J. H. Biles expressed the opinion that the present progress with details would not bring about a large increase in speed. Radical changes in design will probably become a uec- essity. "Theincrease of power and size of ocean passenger ships, he said, made it more difficult to construct them so as to fulfill their principal requirement--that of safety. In order to insure safety, consideration must be given to strength, subdivis- ion and stability. Generally it might be said that the strength of passenger ships was the element of safety which could most certainly be provided. As the desire for higher speed grew there would have to be an attempt made to insure as strong a structure as in the present ships with reduced weight, due to improved arrangements of material. Custom has stereotyped the present system, and though improvements in detail are con- stantly being effected, there will probably come a time when structures radically different from those at present in use will have to be adopted." For the first time since the organization of the Lake Carriers' Association that body, at a meeting of its managers in Cleveland on Tuesday last, gave approval to plans for a bridge over an im- portant navigable waterway. 'The structure is a combined rail- road, street railway and foot bridge, which is proposed for erec- tion between Rice's point in Duluth and Connor's point in West Superior. According to the plans, the proposed bridge seems free from reasonable objection, but in consideration of the deter- mined position taken by the vessel interests of the lakes against obstructions of any kind in navigable highways, it should be the duty of the officers of the association to see that legislation per- taining to the erection of this bridge is surrounded by necessary safeguards. In any event it would seem that the precedent established at last Tuesday's meeting is somewhat dangerous. SECRETARY FOSTER contemplates a radical reorganization of the coast survey, but will, it is reported, retain Prof. Menden- hall in his purely scientific capacity, placing some one in charge of financial and executive matters. The secretary couldn't make a better move, and while he has the change in hand, he will be render- ing the vessel interests of the lakes a great favor if he will at the same time relieve Prof. Mendenhall of his duties in connection with the light-house board, where he showed, with other mem- bers of that body, a woeful lack of executive ability, in connec- tion with the St. Mary's river lighting matter. Prof. Menden- hall may be a man of great scientific ability, but in the practical relations existing between the merchant shipping interests and the light-house board, the vessel owners of the lakes have found him a very poor executive officer. ON A large number of lake vessels second mates have been dispensed with and crews otherwise reduced since depression set in. In no case, however, have economical methods been carried to extremes that would endanger life or property, and owners have considered their rights under the law. It is hardly neces- sary, then, to remind them that they are violatIng no law or custom in running vessels without second mates in dull times like the present. Still, itis to be hoped that improvement in freights will bring an early return of full crews and increased wages. STATISTICS regarding the pig iron industry reflect most forci- bly the enormous restriction in business generally. 'The latest Statements indicate that the country is not producing much above 100,000 tons of pig iron a week, against 180,000 or 185,000 tons in active times, and in certain other lines of iron manufac- ture the decline is even greater,