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12 MARINE _ 2 3: ----_ DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. Published every Thursday at No. 516 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, O SUBSCRIPTION--$2.00 per yearin advance. Singlecopies Io cents each- Convenient binders sent, post paid, 75 cents. Advertising rates on appli. cation. The books of the United States treasury department on June 30, 1895, contained the names of 3,342 vessels, of 1,241,459.14 gross tons register in the lake trade. The number of steam vessels of 1,000 gross tons, and over that amount, on the lakes on June 30, 1894, was 359 and their aggregate gross tonnage 634,467.84; the number of vessels of this class owned in all other parts of the country on the same date was 316 and their tonnage 642,- 642.50, so that half of the best steamships in all the United States are owned on the lakes. The classification of the entire lake fleet on June 30, 1895, was as follows: Gross Class. Number. Tonnage. Steam vessels.....s.s..sescscsccscscossccsssescccoee' 1,755 857,735.00 Date VESSCISts...0.ss>cccenes dep wicsardeseccesssci. 1,100 300,642.00 UMTS OCU. ansccccesssescenssoss Feu Semana sa cGKoA et a 487 83,082.00 otal Scr. ccosvscccress Rachels cece eeerren 36d "1,241,459.00 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. Year ending June 30, 1891...........0008 ses «204 111,856.45 ge §§ sf T8Q2..00cc000 seseesee . 169 45,168.98 Cora Ce ss TSOG ieee desoerereceecay 75 99,271.24 g oe sf TSQAccvcsescsccsssases) + LOO 41,984.61 e ¢ Ws 1895 ..s000 Metcaesecec 93 36,353.00 Otel secs. cceusesseecsstdcssiesitcecce OMFAT, 334,634.28 - ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. (From Official Reports of Oanal Officers.) - St. Mary's Falls Canal. 1895.* 1894. 1893. 1895. 1804. 1893. ; No.vessel pass'ges| = 17,956 14,491] 12,008 3,434 3,352 3,341 T'n'ge,net registd|16,806,78 1/13, 110,366|9,849,754||8 448,3%3|8,039,175/7,659,068 Days of Navigat'n 231 234 219 365 365 365 * 1895 figures include traffic of Canadian canal at Sault Ste. Marie, which was about 414 per Cent. of the whole, but largely in American vessels. Suez Canal. Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. REAR ADMIRAL, AMMEN, who has all along been known to be greatly displeased with the action of the bureau of construction, navy depart- ment, for making numerous changes in the design of the Ammen ram Katahdin, has awaited the acceptance of the vessel by the goverment before entering protest. He has now written a forcible letter to the sec- retary of the navy, wherein he denounces the methods on which the ram was built, and as she stands repudiates her entirely. "With an adroitness beyond comprehension," reads the admiral's letter, "I find that the so-called 'Ammen ram,' which was required to be built under a special law, has been so changed that she is no lon ger the 'Ammen ram,' as designed by me, and is a positive discredit to my reputation as a naval officer." The Ammen ram, on account of great novelty of design and apparent merit, was ordered built by act of congress against the wishes of the naval bureau of construction. The bow of the vessel as it now stands, and the manner in which it was strengthened by the bureau of construction, ostensibly to take the impact of a collision with a hos- tile ship, are what is said to grieve the admiral most, The Katahdin's bluntness of stem was never contemplated by the admiral, and to this he charges her failure to make her contract speed. The original design contemplated a more slender bow, which while less strong, was so planned that a portion of the ram bow could be carried away in a ram- ming engagement without damage to the vessel and could be replaced with spare parts to be carried along on board. ae eee If THE Detroit river bridge scheme is not defeated in the present congress it will not be the fault of Counsel Harvey D. Goulder of the Lake Carriers' Association, who has put in practically the entire winter in working up opposition to the bridge. If the present measure is defeated, it may be reasonably expected that no bridge will cross the river while Mr. Goulder lives. Senator McMillan's shrewdness is visible in the quiet report from the commerce committee of the senate favorable to the bridge. But the report of the senate committee is no ofthe bill. It has along road to travel through th . the senate it will be fought with the vigor that h opposition for thirty years past. assurance of passage e house, and even in as characterized the The fact that not a single senator from REVIEW. alake state, except Mr. McMillan, voted on the commerce Committee report is worth noting. SoH INITIAL number of the Journal of the Western Society of En. gineers contains an excellent likeness of the late Gen. Poe and a memoir very carefully written. Itis said that with his first month's pay, earned on a farm in Stark county, Ohio, Gen. Poe purchased three books--a grammar, an arithmetic and a book on literature, and from these he secured the beginning of his education. He was twenty years of age when appointed to a cadetship at West Point. NOTWITHSTANDING all the war talk now going on in Washington, the house naval committee hesitates about recommending to congress ' naval bill providing for six battleships and fifteen torpedo boats, while in Eugland the admiralty has just submitted a program Involving the construction of forty-six new ships of war--five battleships, four firs, class cruisers, three second-class cruisers, six third-clsss cruisers anq twenty-eight torpedo boat destroyers. AN ARTICLE by J. W. Russell in the Review of Reviews for March deals with Canadian affairs bearing upon the expiration of the term of the present dominion parliament on April 25. Next to the tariff ang the Manitoba school question, Mr. Russell refers to the problem of deep waterways as of highest importance. Electric Drills for Ship Construction. The use of electric motor drilling machines for drilling holes in the shell and deck plating of ships has been considerably developed within the past six months in the British dock yards, and the application of the system to the exigencies of war ship construction is likely to affect, ing very material degree, the rate of speed at which vessels may be com. pleted. Electric drillers have also, of course, been employed for some considerable time in private yards on the Clyde and elsewhere. An elec. tro-magnetic drill was introduced into some of the larger Clyde yards several years ago, by means of which holes could be drilled through plates fitted in position on the ship in a mere tithe of the time taken by the old clumsy system of drilling with the ordinary brace and ratchet drill. By the force of magnetism this tool was made to cling to the side of the vessel while doing its work. For some reason or the other, hoy- ever, its use has not been extended, but rather curtailed of late, and machine tools adopted which require to be " held up" to their work, the requisite purchase to press the drill home being obtained from fixed staging or other erections alongside. The difficulty in regard to purchase has been satisfactorily overcome by one of the dock yard electricians, who has availed himself anew of the electro-magnetic principle. A por- tion of the electric current from the generating dynamo is diverted to powerful electro-magnets attached to the electric motor, and, by making the body of the vessel itself earth, the motor is made to cling to the deck or ship's side with such tenacity that the drilling tool works away just as though it hada tightening screw at its back, only much more steadily. The magnets are short stumpy legs, three in number, each leg being an independent magnet having a positive and negative pole. Until re. cently only two magnet legs were employed, one being positive and the other negative. It was found that with only two magnet legs the pur- chase secured was unsteady, the electric motor vibrating and wobbling a good deal and the drilling in consequence being unsatisfactory. The adoption of the three legs, each having the two poles complete in itself, gives a perfectly steady working tool. When re quired to work, a small handleis turned which switches on the current, making the magnets adhere to the plate required to be pierced. Another small handle switches the current onto the drill, which starts at once. The drill is stopped andthe motor detached with similar ease. For drillin g holes in the vertical wall of a ship outside, the motor, with magnets, is suspended from a pole alongside, a rope being merely passed over the pole to sup- portit. The motor is pulled along the pole with a pulley and another rope as the work advances. Electric drills of this, or it may be some still more improved type, have undoubtedly a most important future. With the adoption of the tripod electro-magnetic contact, not only drill- ing but slotting and planing may yet be accomplished on the plates 48 fitted in position in the hull of ships. Orders for new freight ships now being let throughout Great Britain seem to drift to vessels of the largest class. The Peninsular & Oriental Co., the largest ship-owning concern in the world, placed orders recently with the Palmers company of Jarrow, and Caird & Co., of Greenock, for two twin-screw cargo steamers capable of carrying 9,000 tons eacht The vessels will each have engines capable of developing 4,000 horse power. eee TS Congressman Boutelle of Maine, chairman of the house committee on naval affairs, is a practical navigator. He was chief officer of the American steamer Conqueror in the years of 1856-57.