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MARINE REVIEW. II --_-- Who Stands the Loss ? "In nine cases out of ten," says a Cleveland vessel owner who is known'to be very careful in keeping up his fleet, "fires on lake ships are due to cheap old lamps and to carelessness in handling oil. Every fall I go aboard my vessels and throw the lamps overboard. New ones, and good ones at that, are bought in the spring. Ii there is any oil or other dangerous stuff lying about in the fall it goes overboard, too, This may seem like an extravagant policy, but it pays in the long run, if for noth- ing more than the impression it leaves with the men regarding their duties in guarding against fire. Still, I get my insurance no cheaper than the fellow who goes along on the principle that it is the insurance com- pany that pays losses and that he should work underwriters for all he can get out of them. But a change is bound to come soon. We will some day be dealing with underwriters on the sound business principles that are working into other lines of trade, and the vessel owner who is always trying to avoid losses because he knows that the ship pays for them in premiums in the end, will be credited with good judgment. "And I want to make another prediction with reference to the matter of repairs following accidents. The dry dock company or ship building company that first takes steps to collect information that will permit of bids being made on repair work will be proceeding in the right direction. It may take some time and considerable expense to gather information of this kind, so as to have an advantage over competitors, but in the long run the company that does it will be repaid for its labors. There is no use saying that it can not be done, as it is done elsewhere, and certain ship owners as well as the underwriters are getting ready to demand it. Only the other day I read a lengthy correspondence between certain underwriters, and one of the big ship-owning firms of Cleveland on this subject. It was based on a conversation which the ship owner had with a dry dock manager. The latter declared that the insurance companies were paying the losses, and the question of price was not one in which the vessel was interested. Of course, the ship owner could not see it in that light, and as a result he is stirring the whole subject up with his underwriters. To Do Away with Lead and Line. A New York vessel captain, Capt. Ferdinand Foster, has a machine that is designed to make a back number of one of the oldest of the sailor's implements--the cord and weight used from time immemorial to test the depth of water in which a ship is sailing by means of the process known as Baie the lead. The device is thus described in the New York erald: - "Tt consists of an oblong piece of metal, fitted with fins at the top and bottom and sides. The fins are fitted to enable the contrivance to sink to the deepest depths of water. The great superiority of this idea over the old method consists in the fact that instead of having to be thrown overboard at intervals, the new device can be suspended at the exact depth of water that a vessel must draw to be perfectly safe, and left in that position while the ship is moving through the water. The floating piece of metal is connected with the ship by means of an electric wire, which not only registers the depth of the water on the dial in the pilot house, but if the implement strikes any obstruction or touches the bottom _ instantly announces the fact, so that the pilot is enabled to act accordingly. In addition to this it is possible by means of this device to tell exactly the kind of material of which the bed of the ocean or channel beneath the ship is composed. The method is extremely simple. An ordinary telephone receiver is connected with the wire that runs to the depth tester, and when the latter touches bottom the pilot is enabled to tell the nature of the bottom by the sound that he hears on the receiver. If the metal touches a clay bottom on a sandy soil the sound will be smooth, without jar or friction; but if the ship is traveling over a rocky bed the sound that comes to the receiver will be harsh and grating as the metal device bumps over it. The device will sink to almost any depth, its action in the water being like that of a kite in the air. The greater the speed 10f the vessel the swifter and deeper the metal will sink, the angle at which the fins are arranged carrying it down as the water strikes them during the progress of the vessel. The sinker weighs ten pounds, and 1s 45 inches in length. Right Kind of Recruits from the Lakes.. Officials of the navy department are said to be especially pleased with the work of Lieut. Comdr. John M. Hawley in securing recruits on the akes. More than 200 enlistments have been made during the past three months at Duluth, Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit, where stations were established for the purpose. Lieut. Hawley, with the officers who are assisting him, is now in Bay City and will visit Cleveland, Buffalo and Probably other places before leaving the lakes. The department is pleased ee the large number of intelligent mechanics picked up on the lakes. the the Atlantic coast the mechancs who can be secured for the navy fe, as a rule, lacking in sea experience, but the men enlisted from lake Ports have had experience on board ship as assistant engineers, oilers, Temen, etc., and are just the men needed on modern men of war. aden all fifty-eight persons were enlisted at the Detroit station, which ane Bos a. few days ago. Of this number, seventeen were boys be- ae ourteen and sixteen years of age, who go as apprentices. The ey orty-one men enlisted were sixteen ordinary seamen, four seamen, Fae eecsmen, nine machinists of the second class, two machinists of the aad Class, two firemen of the first class, two firemen of the second class, Nd one coal passer. Petroleum on Passenger Steamers. ee er to an inquiry made recently by S. L. Moore of St. Paul, fe Teight agent of the Northern Pacific Railroad, the United States asury department says: OU are informed that, if the Canadian passenger steamers Empire Onarch, referred to in your letters, run direct from Sarnia to Du- without touching at any intermediate United States ports to take on €ngers from such ports, the question of those ships carrying petro- a and M uth Pass leum oils is a question wholly to be determined by the Dominion govern- ment. If, however, the steamers referred to desire to take on passengers from United States ports en route between Sarnia and Duluth, collectors of customs at such ports can not clear the steamers with a full or partial cargo of petroleum oils on board, for the reason that there are other practical routes for the carriage of such oils, unless it can be shown that the additional cost for such other practicable routes of carriage amounts to a prohibition.of the-traffic ip petroeum oils between the ports named. In previous decisions of the department, on the subject of the carriage of petroleum oils (8795, April 23, 1888), it was held, in the case of United States passenger steamers running from Detroit to Mackinac island and St. Ignace, that if there are sailing vessel or freight steamers running regularly between the ports named, 'it would be illegal for passenger steamers to carry refined petroleum;' but if there were no freight steamers on the route named, then 'the carriage of petroleum on passenger steam- ers would depend (as heretofore stated) upon whether the tariff of freight' by rail route was so high 'as to amount to a prohibition of the traffic in refined petroleum.' In conclusion, you are informed that it is the opinion of the department that the tariff on other existing practical routes for the carriage of petroleum oils between Sarnia and Duluth, via United States ports, is not prohibitory." Old Range Lake Superior Mines In a paper pertaining' to the iron ore supply of the United States, presented by John Birkinbine of Philadelphia at the recent meeting, of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, several tables of statistics are used to prove that the older ranges in the Lake Superior region have not been crowded out of business by the later additions, but rather that the increased demand 'has been met by the newer ranges. The competi- tion which followed the opening of new mines has demanded that econ- omies be practiced by all, and much of the ore which has been supplied from the younger ranges could have been furnished by mines opened before these districts came into notice. Each range is now making the most of its natural advantages and endeavoring to discount its drawbacks, whether these are in the character or quality of ore, the distance of rail and water transportation, the method of mining, or the charges for interest on capital invested or for royalties. Some of the old-range mines that were important producers show signs of depletion, but in a number of cases new finds have increased the apparent reserves, and we may therefore consider, Mr. Birkinbine says, that each of the five ranges now embraced in the Lake Superior region will continue to supply ore, even if as great surprises await the future explorer as have startled the metal- lurgical world in the past. It may be concluded also that while the contest for local supremacy has been severe, the results have affected mines in other sections of the country even more seriously than on the several ranges. Peg But the most interesting feature of Mr. Birkinbine's paper is his reference to the fact that athough the average transportation by rail and water between mines and the furnaces exceeds 800 miles, the efforts of the mining engineer, the mechanical engineer, the civil engineer and the marine engineer have brought about the present marvelous development of the Lake Superior region. "Forty years ago," he says, "when the first shipments of iron ore were made from the Lake Superior region, the supply for the blast furnaces active at that date was in most cases a local consideration, the majority of the smelting plants being close to the ore mines. Of those which depended in whole or in part upon ores brought from distances greater than an economical wagon haul, few. obtained supplies by canal or railroad from points removed fifty miles.. At the present time the ore supply isa local consideration for only a smail num- ber of American blast furnaces, and 1,000 miles or more separate a greater number from the mines producing the ore in 1897 than was supplied in 1857 with ore carried fifty miles. It is not necessary to detail the wide distribution of ores from the Lake Superior region, which now contributes five-eighths of the annual production of domestic iron ore, but it will suffice to state that, taking into account all of the ore mined in this district, the average transportation by rail and water exceeds 800 miles between mine and furnace, and probably three-fourths of the ore mined is subjected to three and sometimes four transfers between the time' the loaded cars leave the mine and other cars deliver the ore at the furnaces. That is, a large proportion of the ore mined in the Lake Superior region is loaded on cars, which, after covering fifteen to 100 miles of railroad haul, are discharged into the pockets of ore docks; these pockets hold the ore until vessels are ready for cargoes; when the re- ceiving docks of the lower lakes are reached the ore is removed from vessels on to cars or placed in stock piles, from which cars are loaded subsequently as the consumers require the ore and unloaded at the fur- naces. If in addition we consider the loading of ore below ground in mine trams and skips, the hoisting of the same to the surface, the dump- ~ ing of skips into shipping pockets or stock piles (in some cases sorting the ore) and the subsequent loading of railroad cars at the mines, the number of tranfers of much of the ore obtained in the Lake Superior region is from five to ten. Where steam shovels are employed in open cuttings the handlings may be reduced, but notwithstanding this apparent economy ores can only be mined and carried for the distances above named by the employment of efficient machinery, appliances and man- agement when the basis price of Bessemer ore (yielding, when dried at 212 degrees F., 63 per cent. of iron, and phosphorous 0.045 per cent.) at the receiving docks at the lower lake ports is $2.40 per long ton." I. O. F. excursion to Conneaut and return, $1.25, Tuesday, Sept. 21 via Nickel Plate road. Special train leaving Cleveland 8 a.m. 320-Sept. 2% Collectors of marine photographs can secure a bargain from the Marine Review on two sets of representative lake steamers. There is a dozen in each set, consisting of the following lake steamers: Republic, Commodore, Frontenac, Fred Pabst, Spokane, Gladstone, Pontiac, Ed- wards and Golden Age, W. R. Stafford, Majestic, Tom Adams and W. F. Sauber. These photographs are 11 by 14 inches, picture size, taken at the mouth of the Detroit river. They have sold for $1.25 each, but © in whole sets the price is now $6, considerably less than cost.