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10 MARINE REVIEW. MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. Published every Thursday at No. 516 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, O. Chicago office, (branch), No. 726 Phoenix building. SUBSCRIPTION--$2.00 per year in advance. Single copies tocents 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 3,761 vessels, of 1,261,067.22 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, 1893, was 318 and their aggregate gross tonnage 525,778.57 ; in all other parts of the country the number of this class of vessels was,on the same date, 211 and their gross tonnage 314,016.65. The classification of the entire lake fleet on June 30, 1893, was as follows: Gross. Class. Number. Tonnage. StSanl HVESSEIG). :i50s f.. .ecbiddisilebinds «sbeduealiti 1,731 828,702.29 Hl paVERSelB str es esis, sc Sa ee caned «3 1,205 317,789.37 BAN AIOAES ce: Sesser; sreh eit era siti vceasvhupecsners 743 76,843.57 BIANCO es renee cae ns «sttischeatdos-ctoesesie esters: 82 37;731-99 Otals sssco Satdeassseeryesd (sve qaceecsPe! 3,761 1,261,067.22 The gross registered tonnage of vessels built on the lakes during the past five years, according to the reports of the United States com- missioner of navigation, is as follows: . Number. Net Tonnage. TEGO Pareveccaenk Mie seets stevdenatobes swesccs tee 225 107,080.30 MEQ O cases cite Cason sd Seacoe cin nesseauaaeee 218 108,515.00 MSO Nie «ce ceveneaissiou'e (ess sila daesesdiseseysewoses 204 111,856.45 MOD erimec foe se cee ctce- cok cies aannis ies ueanst es' 169 45,168.98 MOO irarkan eid aha cto anh varies doce xatins vended decks 175 99,271.24 BUS CANON cine ss dc ccvenianchsuns ce isoneiss 991 471,891.97 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. St. Mary's Falls Canal. Suez Canal. 1892. 1891. 1890. || 1892. 1891. 1890. No. vessel passages 12,580] I0,IQ9I} 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. A WRITER in the current issue of the Nautical Magazine (London) writes very interestingly of the necessity of a nation keeping her merchant ships under her own flag in time of war. He argues that the war of the rebellion in this country had much to do with the depression in shipping that has since existed, for the reason that at the outbreak of the war, sooner than pay the very slightly advanced war premium, owners trans- ferred their vessels wholesale, mainly to the British flag as represented in the colonies of North America. "Ifthe same thing happens here," he says, "it is little use increasing our navy to protect a commerce which will from natural causes have ceased to exist, As long as we keep the ships, we can command the trade. It is a vital matter, and power should be given to Her Majesty to close the register of British shipping at any time that it might be considered expedient so to do, and on this being done, to make any collusive sale of a British vessel a highly penal offence. We should learn asa nation from the object lessons Providence has vouchsafed us, that without seamen we can not keep the sea and that without merchant ships we shall have lost all that is worth keeping. W. C. BAXTER and W. C, Porter of Minneapolis, lL. F. Lukens of Mil- waukee, C. A. Towne of Duluth, E. G. Amot of Brooklyn and D. F. Henry of Detroit have petitioned the Canadian parliament for incorporation of the St. Clair and Erie Ship Canal Company. Who knows of any of these names being connected with a business enterprise of importance in any of the lake cities given as their place of residence? And yet they would appear as the promoters of a project rivaling the proposed Nicaragua canal, while the newspapers go on giving space to their worthless claims. Where do the advocates of such schemes find any return for the time and money spent in their continual useless efforts with legislative bodies? Surely they can not hope in these enlightened times to gull anyone into taking the stock of companies that might be organized through such charters. IN A recent report to the national officers of the Seaman's Union, Secretary Elderkin of Chicago claims that the membership on the lakes is being quietly increased, but he says that the wage question will not be touched until organization is more complete. There are some men in the vessel business--and they are not alarmists--who are of the opinion that labor troubles will be quite general during the coming summer. Any difficulties of this kind would result to the disadvantage of vessels having season contracts for the carriage of freight, but a strike that would result in laying up of a large amount of tonnage would not be an unwelcome oc- currence to most vessel owners, if it is free of bloodshed or destruction of property. Enforced idleness in any form would tend to create improved freights. --------_--_--_-- LT In ALL the talk of low lake freights and poor prospects for the com- ing season, it may be well for owners to bear in mind that this is a great big country and that reaction following depression in the lake business in past has always been of a rapid and decided kind. In an article printed in THE REVIEW of March 1, one of the best-posted men in the iron ore busi- ness in Cleveland points to the fact that the production of ore in the Lake Superior region prior to 1878 amounted to 10,426,842 tons, while since that time the output has reached the enormous total of nearly 69,000,000 tons. The demand for iron and steel, which is characterized as the crowning glory of the present century, must soon assert itself in a way that will be felt in the ore business. Up To 1890, the appropriations for river and harbor improvements on Mississippi and Missouri rivers amounted to $76,000,000 in addition to $20,000,000 and over for the Gulf states. The civil sundry appropriation bill, now under consideration in congress, gives abotit $8,000,000 more to a half-dozen principal river and harbor items, and of this sum these same rivers get the lion's share, while the long list of aids to navigation author- ized by law for the lakes is cut down to eight or ten items involving an expenditure of only a few thousand dollars. Officers of the Lake Carriers Association will not be doing their full duty if they do not insist upon amendments in the senate that will increase the number of lights and fog signals for the lakes to be carried by this bill. _ IN ANOTHER part of this issue there is printed a copy of a letter from W. I. Babcock of the Chicago Ship Building Company to KE. T. Chamber- lain, United States commissioner of navigation, on the subject of legisla- tion which proposes to give general application to the law under which the steamer Paris and New York were admitted to American register. Mr. Babcock is a forcible writer and his letter will prove especially inter- esting to lake ship builders, who are all understood to agree with him that the act Americanizing the Paris and New York was an entering wedge in the movement for free ships. IN GREAT BRITAIN the life saving service is divided into two separate and distinct parts. The life boat stations are conducted by a voluntary service, which is at times starved from want of subscriptions, while the rocket apparatus for shore service is maintained by the government. Profiting by the example of superior achievements on the part of the life saving service in this country, a movement in England to abolish the vol- untary service and have the government take charge of the entire work is gaining strength. That Steering Gear. Editor MARINE REvIEW.--I notice in your valuable paper of the Sth inst. a cut of a steering gear, and in regard to this gear I beg leave to state that it was designed and patented in 1888 by the undersigned. 'The gear I first designed while in the employ of the Wm. Cramp & Sons Company, for the United States cruiser Baltimore, and it was adopted for the cruisers Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Columbia, Minneapolis, Massachu- setts, Indiana, Texas, Raleigh and Cincinnati, and also for one of the new steamers under construction for the new American line. The gear, as I understand, has given entire satisfaction. The engines used in connec- tion with it are of the celebrated Williamson Bros. type. H. KONITZky, Supt, Marine Dept., Neafie & Levy. Philadelphia, Pa.; March 12, 1893. Stocks of Grain at Lake Ports. The following table, prepared from reports of the Chicago board of trade, shows the stocks of wheat and corn in store at the principal points of accumulation on the lakes on March 17, 1894: Wheat, bu. Corn, bu. CHICA RO tim, Sieh Oat hd ache 20,528,0GO 5,726,000 qe us eh eis ceieae arg Sp os late 5s 10,092,000 250,000 NI yy AIS Ce stacence een tatcs5 sc: <.2. < (SloPA10 Oro). oem Detroltreuctemer cca eee 1,847,000 35,000 MOlEdO Tees aes Se it eet 3,098,000 1,309,000 Butta oss, SA CON ei sh) eon pees otra og 1,340,000 430,000 Gta ee ee 37,787,000 7)750,000 At the points named there is a net decrease for the week of 178,000 bushels of wheat and a net increase of 272,000 bushels of corn.