The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

s MARINE REVIEW. Improvement of Vessels' Hulls. The illustration represents an improvement in the hulls of vessels designed to afford the maximum of speed and safety, while the construction is such that drift to leeward will be in a great measure avoided. Canada and Great Britain, as well as in this country, by P. O'Brien of St. Patrick's Deanery, St. John's, Newfoundland. The bottom of the vessel is curved in convex form from the stem to the stern, and hasaconcave face from the keel to the sharp-edged bilge, while from the bilge to the top of the hull the sides are curved, presenting an outer convexed surtace at the stern. The small figures represent bow and stern views. In every case where a cross section is taken through the bilge the sides and the bottom of the hull meet at an obtuse angle, and the outward inclination of the sides pre!erably increases from the ends of the hull. The steering qualities of vessels built afier this plan are, it is claimed, greatly improved, espe- cially in high winds, which throw the hull over upon its side, as the bilge sections then serve as a side keel to hold the vessel to its course.--Scientific American. Around the Lakes. M. A. Bradley has gone south on a pleasure trip. Lumber dock laborers of Cleveland have again refused to re- turn to the contract system of unloading vessels. Through an error in copying the list of ten vice-presidents elected at the annual meeting of the Lake Carriers' Association, the name of Mr. A. B. Wolvin of Duluth was omitted. Leatham & Smith of Sturgeon Bay have begun suit against the owners of the steel steamer Arthur Orr for the loss of the steamer Smith in collision with the Orr near Racine last fall. Curtis & Brainard's steamer Santa Maria, recently built at Marine City, hasa gross tonnage, customs measurement, of 982.79 tons. The net tonnage is 790.89 and the official number, 116,606. : Capt. Alex. R. Sinclair, whose last command was the steamer Simon Langell, has formed a partnership with Mitchell & Co. of Cleveland and will open up an office in Ashland to du a gen- eral brokerage and insurance business. Frank W. Hawley of Albany, N. Y., who had charge of the canal electric experiments near Rochester in December last, will ask permission ot the state superintendent of public works to operate on the state waterways next season a boat of special de- sign which he propos<s to propel with a storage battery. The three steamers anda schooner, wooden freight vessels, under construction at James Davidson's ship yard, West Bay City, Mich., will all be in commission early in the spring. The last of these vessels to be put down is numbered sixty-four. They will have a combined capacity of about 9,000 tons. Through a disagreement with Engineer Overman, who was removed from the Cleveland office of the army corps of engineers, Mr. J. R. Irwin of Fairport is forced to go before congress to se- cure the passage of an enabling act, inorder to obtain payment for dredging done at Fair, ort two years ago.. It is the general opinion on the lakes that the war department would do well to assist in settling legitimate claims of this kind, as well as any The invention has been patented in. eS other matters that may bein dispute and in which Engineer Overman has had a hand. . It is very probable that the six steel steamers of the Me- nominee Transportation Company will run between Duluth and Lake Erie ports next season, carrying the ore of the Oliver mine. Missabe range. M.A. Hanna & Co. are sales agents for this mine and also control the Menominee boats. The Mutual line steamers, controlled within the same firm, will continue to run to Escanaba. Capt. Robert McD well, who has sailed the steamer Aurora for several seasons, will command the big steamer Selwyn Eddy next season. Capt. Marion Tinney will not return to the com- mand of the steamer F:ank L. Vance in the spring; neither will Capt. Patrick O'Neill be returned to the steamer Wee Wolf. Their successors have been selected but their names are with- held by the owners of the steamers. Capt. W. H. Campau, who is slated to sail the big Northern Line passenger ship North West was at the Cadillac in Detroit during one of the sessions of the Lake Carriers' Association last week. Campau is a good story teller and is always interesting in conversation. Upona friend offering congratulations upon his new appointment he answered that he had zeceived : ongrat- ulations on that score from everybody excepting John Gordon. Sandusky citizens have been aroused from their slumbers. A delegation: made up of the mayor and half a dozen leaders in local affairs went to Washington Jast week and in company with Congressman Harter sought an appropriation from the river and harbor committee. A little medicine of the kind administercd by the "Man on the Dock" in the REVIEW a few weeks ago would do good occasionally in Sandusky. Since the days of "Visionary" Crane the town has depended largely, from a lake shipping standpoint, upon building numerous air castles. Officers of the Dry Dock Association of the Great Lakes, elected at Milwaukee a few days ago, are as follows: President, George L. Quayle, Cleveland; vice-president, W. E. Fitzgerald, Milwaukee ; secretary and treasurer, H. J. Mills, Buffalo. The principal business of the meeting was the adoption of last year's schedule of charges for docking vessels. The next regular meeting of the association, in January, 1895. will be held in Buf- falo. If the vessel owners, who have ap, ointed a committee to secure a reduction in dry dock charges, are at all successful in their efforts, it will probably be necessary to hold another meet- of the dry dock organization. The Buffalo Express claims to have good authority for the statement that hull premiums on the lakes last season amounted to about $1,500,000 and cargo premiums to about $500,000. Against this total of $2,000,000 in prem.ums, it is claimed that there were losses of about $2.500,000, of which $100,000 was on uninsured interests. Thus it is argued that although a little 'money was made on hulls, there was no profit in the cargo busi- ness, and the underwriters suffered an actual loss of $400,000. Of course these estimates are given out by the insurance agents, and as there is nothing specific about them they are of little im- portance. Trade Notes. About a year ago the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company ot Jersey City, issued a pamphlet on lubricating graphite. It em- bodied an elaborate scientific opinion by Prof. R. H. Thurston on the value of graphite as a lubricant, and much interesting information on the subject from practical men. 'The pamphlet has had a large circulation, and the company has been en- abled to obtain from well known men a vast amount of additional knowledge on the uses of graphite. Another pamphlet, twice the size of the former, will be issued early in February, anda copy will be sent free of charge to all interested in the subject of friction and lubrication. On Jan. I, 1894, sixty eight well known ships, including representative vessels of the Cunird, White Star and American lines, were fitted with Serve's ribbed steel boiler tubes. It would seem that lake builders and owrers are in some cases a little backward in matters of this kind representing advanced practice. The experimental period with these tubes has passed. C. W. Whitney of Nos. 8r and 83 Fulton street, New York, the agent in this country for Serve's tubes, is also agent for the Ellis & Raves' patent suction draft,which has been applied to the new American line steamer South i ; } wark, and the operation o which will be watched with interest. :