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12 MARINE = ee a SS es 7 a Sa DEVOTED TO LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. Published 'every Thursday at No. 409 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, Ohlo, é by John M. Mulrooney and F. M. Barton. 'SUBSCRIPTION--$2.00 per year inadvance. Singlé copies 10 centseach. Convenient binders seut, post paid, $1.00. Advertising rates on application. _ ; ; Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second class Mail Matter. The books of the United States treasury department on June 30, 1896, contained the names of 3,333: vessels, of 1,324,067.58 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, 1896, was 383 and their aggregate gross tonnage 711,034.28; the number of vessels of this class owned in all other parts of the country on the same date was 316 and their tonnage 685,204.55, so that more than 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, 1896, was as follows: i Gross ' | i a Tou bst Steam vessels.....,..0..00+ : 630. Sailing vessels ANd DALZes...........ccccccccscecssssssercseese 1,125 354,327.60 ORM ASD OALS siececcsne hove ecco ssecventtoccsassscestsee aoa tasieveneien 416 45,109.47 MG tWlate iat aa tah ees les 3,333 1,324,067.58 The gross registered tonnage of the vessels built on the lakes during the past six years, according to the reports of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows: Year ending June 30. 1891 204 111,856 45 os ne re 1892 169 45,968.98 oe af cH 1893 175 99,271.24 oe " me 1894... 106 41,984.61 ie oe oe 1895... 93 36,352.70 se ie a 1896... 117 108,782.38 Raa loan eterna aera eS Sag RET oe cp Beat go's saved 864 414,216.36 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. (From Official Reports of Canal Officers.) Suez Canal. 1396 | 1895 | 1894 St.Mary's Falls Canals. 1896* 1895* | 1894 Number of vessel passages- 18,615 17,956 14,491 3,409 3,434 3,352 Tonnage, net registered...... 17,249,418) 16,806,781) 13,110,366'| 8,560,284) 8,448,383] 8,039,175 Days of navigation...... ...... 232 231 234 365 365 365 "1895 and 1896 figures include traffic of Canadian canal at Sault Ste. Marie. Attention is again directed in a report from Major T. W. Symons, United States engineer at Buffalo, to the disputed question as to the right of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Co. to occupy the pier- property at the entrance to 'Buffalo harbor where that company has been loading vessels with coal for a great number of years past. This is an old question which in time past led to conflict of authority between the goy- ernment and the railroad company, and which once threatened a disturb- ance in the Lake Carriers' Association. The right of the railroad com- pany to occupy the pier has never been submitted to judicial decision. Its occupancy of the property and the valuable water-front facilities which it affords has been permitted, after the several conflicts of authority referred to, by agreements as to temporary use, between the officers of the railroad and the government authorities. In directing attention to the question at this time Major Symons does not enter specially into the right of the railroad company to occupy the property from the standpoint of owner- ship, but refers more particularly to the crowded condition of the harbor entrance, due to the mooring of vessels at the pier, and he recommends that this blockading of the channel be prohibited. Major Symons is one of the brightest and most energetic of army officers in the engineer corps, and if he has made up his mind to push recommendations in this regard, the railroad company may now meet with more determined opposition than in the past. 'Senator Cullom and all of the northern Illinois congressmen have promised to join the marine interests of Chicago in urging congress to order improvement of the Chicago river on the basis of a 21-foot channel, and to make available as soon as possible $400,000 of the $700,000 author- ized for deepening and widening the river. In other words, the plan is to induce the general government to undertake the lowering of tunnels, widening of the river, etc., improvements which, at other places, are paid for by the municipalities. Chicago river is supposed to be under control of the war department and this is the argument offered in support of this special favor. Vessel owners of the lakes will probably not bother them- selves as to where the money comes from for these improvements, but it would seem that the Chicago delegation in congress will find difficulty in convincing the river and harbor committee of the justice of their claim for appropriations to lower street railway tunnels. C. H. Bradley & Co. of Duluth have prepared figures regarding ship- ments of lumber from the head of the lakes. It has been found that, in- cluding a few cargoes yet to be forwarded, the shipments of 1897 from Duluth and surrounding districts will exceed those of 1896 by 38,000,000 feet. The increase of shipments eastward was about 13,000,000 feet. The rail shipments this year are about 25,000,000 feet, a liberal and gratifying increase in that direction as compared with last year. The greatest en- couragement to be found perhaps is in the extensive preparations for a big cut in the woods the coming winter in anticipation of an even better year's business in 1898. The lumber cut by the Duluth-Superior mills for the season just ended, it is estimated, was 289,000,000 feet, or 106,000,000 feet in excess of the 1896 cut, but 4,000,000 feet short of the big cut of 1895. As had been expected, Secretary Long is very modest in his recom- mendations regarding new vessels, but he urges the construction of dry docks and 'mprovement of navy yards. He recommends that the author- REVIHW. ization of new ships by the coming congress be limited to one battleship for the Pacific coast, where, after the five now under construction are completed, there will be only two, while on the Atlantic there will be-seven; and also to a few torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers, both of which ate comparatively of little cost, and more of which are desirable in order to bring this swift, mobile and handily effective arm of the service up to" | its place in the general scheme for coast defense. George W. Aldridge, superintendent of public works in New York state, makes the following announcement regarding state canal improve- ments, for which $9,000,000 was appropriated some time ago: "There are now only two or three contracts of from $120,000 to $150,000 to be given out, when the amount raised by the sale of the state bonds will have been exhausted. It will take from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 to complete the job as originally contemplated. The work now is more than two-thirds com- pleted, but, to make the improvement lasting and beneficial, the depth of water in the Erie canal should be 9 feet, and in the Oswego and Cham- plain canals 7 feet." W. G. Wilmot, who died aboard the tug R. W. Wilmot near Nortolk, Va., a few days ago, while the vessel was bound to New Orleans from the ship yard of F. W. Wheeler & Co. of West Bay City, \Mich., was among the best known and most successful business men of New Orleans. The aew tug was the second one built by Wheeler & Co. for the firm of W. G. Wilmot & Co., which was composed of W. G: Wilmot.and- his son, R. W. Wilmot, and which controls a large business in coal at New Orleans and among sugar plantations along the Mississippi. Acting on the suggestion of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roose- velt, that the old Michigan should be replaced on the lakes by a modern gunboat, the Illinois Naval |Militia Association has petitioned congress to provide an appropriation for this purpose. -As the reserves of Ohio and Michigan are now provided with practice vessels, it is probably the hope of the Illinois organization that they would have no difficulty in securing the Michigan if a modern vessel should be built to represent Uncle Sam on the lakes. Railway passenger agents have made wonderful progress in advertis- ing methods of late years and the passenger department, of-.the Nickel Plate road seems to be keeping pace with the best of them. The idea of issuing a map of Alaska, in view of the gold discoveries in that region, has undoubtedly proved advantageous in directing attention to the Nickel Plate line. The map is lithographed in six colors and its particular value at this time will cause it to be retained for reference wherever it is received. Labor Commissioner Cox of Michigan has just issued a report in which the number of vessels built by the different ship building concerns in the state is given as follows: F. W. Wheeler & Co., West Bay Ci'y, 128; 'Detroit Dry Dock Co., Detroit, 125; James Davidson, (West Bay City, ninety; Abram Smith & Sons, Algonac, fifty; Langell & Sons, St. Clair, twenty-nine; Alex Anderson, Marine City, twelve; Marine Transit Co., Marine City, three. The total value of all manufactures of iron and steel, including ma- chinery, exported from the United States during nine months ending Sept. 30, was $45,693,384, as compared with $34,549,290 in the same period in 1896, a gain of $11,000,000 or 33 1-8 per cent. The imports of iron and steel in the nine-months period this year were $10,831,992, as compared with $16,361,429 for the corresponding nine months of 1896--a falling off of 33 1-3 per cent. Another record was broken by the new German steamer Kaiser Wil- helm der Grosse on her last eastward voyage. She made the run from New York to Southampton in 5 days 18 hours. 'On the day before arrival in New York on the previous westward voyage the Kaiser. Wilhelm der Grosse made 567 knots, beating her own record for a single day's run. Among papers to be read at the meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, now being held in New York, is one by Geo. W. Dickie of the Union Iron Works on "Auxiliary Engines and Transmission of Power on Naval Vessels," and another on the "Stevens' Valve Gear for Marine Engines," by Andrew Fletcher, Hoboken, N. J. A Duluth dispatch regarding ore shipments from the head of the lakes presents a forcible indication of the effect of big ships and deep water on the lake trade. At one of the ore docks the number of vessels loaded last season was 903, and they carried away 1,998,935 gross tons; from the same dock this season 617 vessels took 2,376,063 gross tons. There are now building for the United States navy five first-class -bat- tleships, one gunboat, sixteen torpedo boats and one submarine torpedo boat. These vessels should be completed during the coming year, except the five battleships, which will probably not be ready for service before the latter part of 1899. If Assistant Secretary Spaulding of the treasury department keeps on announcing in the newspapers the remission of fines assessed against ves- sels which he says himself were guilty of violation of the law, it will not be long until there will be little regard for navigation rules on the lakes. It is announced that the two big battleships, Kentucky and Kearsarge, now building at the Newport News ship yard, will be launched at the same time on the same day about the middle of January. "The Marine Review is the best American marine newspaper we get," says Mr. M. P. McElhinney, nautical adviser to the department of marine and fisheries, Dominion of Canada. One of the latest of the British torpedo boat destroyers. the Crane. attained an average speed of 32.49 knots on trial. la i a i at a i