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1901.] MARINE REVIEW. 17 CHANGE IN TUG MANAGEMENT, Within the past week the Great Lakes Towing Co., which controls all harbor tugs and much of the wrecking appliances throughout the lakes, has accepted the resignation of Capt. W. A. Collier, general manager, and has appointed as his successor Capt. Cyrus R. Sinclair of Chicago. Capt. Sinclair has already taken up his new duties and will make his headquarters in the Cleveland general offices; of the company. Although the newspapers have given considerable prominence to this change of management in the tug organization, intimating that the cause was mysterious, it has been made without friction and is due to a condition that often arises in the ordinary course of business. For a great many years past Capt. Collier has applied himself very closely to business--and that means a great deal in the manage- ment of tugs. He was successful to the extent that he was one of two or three men who brought into a single organiaztion all of the tug interests of the lakes No one else was spoken of for gen- eral manager of the new organiza- tion. The place fell to Mr. Col- lier by right of the progress he had made before the so-called trust was formed and by right also of the part he had taken in organ- izing the general company. But for various reasons the larger or- ganization has not made a great deal of money. It was the opinion of principals in the company that a general manager should spend probably one week of the month at home and the other three weeks following up local offices, wrecking jobs, etc. Alike to a great many men who feel comfortable in the business sense after years of hard work, Mr. Collier wanted a fair share of his time with his family and some of the home life that he had missed during the past fifteen years or more. This is the main reason why a change has occurred in tug management. Mr. Collier will rest for a few months. He has no special plans for the future, but will not be idle. He is too young for that. He certainly leaves a host of friends in quitting the tug business. He has the faculty of making friends, and for one of his opportunities has a broad disposition in business deal- ings that will always serve him to advantage. His successor, Capt. Cyrus Sinclair, is equally well liked and well known in every part of the lake region. He has had much to do with the handling of men all his life and knows the tug business. He is also thoroughly acquainted with every- thing pertaining to wrecking operations and undertakes his new duties under circumstances favorable to success. He was the unanimous choice of the directors of the tug company. THE NEW TUG MANAGER. COAL SHORTAGE AT LAKE MICHIGAN PORTS. C. W. Elphicke & Co., vessel agents of Chicago, have just issued a statement which shows an aggregate of 1,632,701 tons of coal, hard and soft, received at Lake Michigan ports to Sept. 1 of this year, compared with 2,055,881 tons on the same date a year ago. The statement follows: To Sept. 1, 1901. To Sept. 1, 1900. Tons. Tons. Chicago. 2.305003 Bites ica cues tala 451,833 666,260 Mamtowoe sveecci Pe SRS 114,708 166,139 WnIMaKEG = ee ea hee es 801,322 917,408 Sheboy.ean 2s. 260 ee .-.- 128,534 148,621 RRAGHG. ooo aces en ee ee ea 60,241 41,617 (REG BROW age be ee ee ee 76,063 115,836 1,632,701 2,055,881 ' "This shortage in round numbers of 425,000 tons," says the Chicago report, "would seem to indicate a heavy coal movement and higher freights to Lake Michigan for the balance of the season. Receipts during the month of September, to date, have been large, but not so large as to make up proportionately for the deficiency shown above. The Lake Mich- igan coal docks are in shape to give vessels good dispatch." "Stocks of grain in elevators at Chicago and South Chicago are thus reported: Sept.23, 1901. Sept 1,190). Sept. °4,1900. Bu. Bu. Bu. Wheat: Sete. i es . 8,685,000 6,856,000 19,987,000 Cor: o. o6si ae ee. 11,918,000 11,477,000 3,081,000 OAs eo hk EOE. 2,712,000 2,942,000 5,621,000 Other grains *..... A eee as 840,000 284,000 791,000 23,655,000 21,559,000 29,480,000 _ The circular says that improvement in Chicago grain freights, now based upon 1% cents on corn to Buffalo, is not looked for in the imme- diate future. : : A chart of the Detroit river in colors--the best chart of the river ever printed--has just 'been issued from the Detroit engineer office. It takes in everything from Windmill point to Bar point. All the changes re- sulting from extensive dredging, shifting of ranges, etc., are very clearly shown, and the corrections are, of course, up to date. This' chart may be had-from the Marine Review. A Boston correspondent, writing of the extensive business of the Chelsea Clock Co., says that that concern is now filling an order for 100 clocks' from-the United 'States navy department. Special makes of Chel- sea clocks for ships, yachts, etc., are sold by dealers in nautical instru- ments-and ship chandlers all over the country. P. H. FLEMING. Mr. P. H. Fleming of Chicago, who died in Denver, Col., on Friday last, was known to vessel men in all parts of the great lakes region. Although only in his forty-second year, he had been identified with Chicago shipping interests for twenty-five years. He began as a young man with Atkins & Beckwith, vessel agents, who were well known in the days of wooden ships. His advancement with this firm, which was later Beckwith & Fleming, was quite rapid. Still later in the firm of P. H. Fleming & Co., as it exists at present, Mr. Fleming developed an exten- sive marine insurance business, while representing also other important interests kindred to the vessel agency. From 1888 to 1891, inclusive, he was general western manager of the Lehigh Valley Transportation Co. and for the past twelve or fifteen years general agent of the Union Marine Insurance Co. As head of the firm of P. H. Fleming & Co. he was in touch with its affairs up to the time of his death, although his health did not admit of active attention to business for a long time past. The funeral took place in Chicago Tuesday. AROUND THE GREAT LAKES. Capt. C. C. Balfour'a few days ago resigned command of the steamer . Venus to take charge of the new steamer Frank H. Peavey. _ The Grand 'Erunk Elevator at Point Edward, opposite Port Huron, which has stoodfor orty years, was burned Monday. The loss is about $70,000. ae ae i $ ; The Menominee & Manistee Transit Co. of Menominee, Mich., has sold the freight and passenger steamer City of Marquette to the Hill steamboat line of Fish Creek, Wis. Consideration said to be $21,000. _ McCarthy Bros. & Co., Duluth and Minneapolis grain men, will build at Rice's point, near Duluth, during the coming winter, a steel elevator of 400,000: bushels capacity, with a steel tank annex, having a capacity of 1,600,000 bushels. The resignation of John A. Donaldson of Cleveland, who was in charge of ali of the Lake Erie dock property (car dumping machines, steamboat fuel plants, etc.), of the Pittsburg Coal Co., very probably means some new undertaking in the coal industry. Mr. Donaldson is thoroughly posted in everything pertaining to the shipment of coal by lake and is deservedly popular. In twenty-four hours ending Thursday evening of last week, 148 ves- sels passed up and down the Detroit river. Ona previous date this season 125 vessels passed Detroit in twenty-four "hours. Nearly three-fourths of the passing fleet Thursday were ships bound down from upper lake points, where they were held in shelter awaiting the abating of a gale that raged more or less furiously for three days. James A. Calbick has been elected president and George L. MicCurdy secretary and treasurer of the Great Lakes Sailors' Snug Harbor, which has established headquarters at Chicago. They will care for any sub- scriptions that may be made towards the founding and maintenance of a home for sailors of the great lakes, a matter that was discussed at the last annual meeting of the Lake Carriers' Association. The dissolution of the Menominee and Mutual transportation com- panies by court proceedings in Cleveland a few days ago was simply a formal legal proceeding. These companies owned two fleets of vessels that were managed in the office of M. A. Hanna & Co., and which included the Roman, Grecian; Corsica, Cambria, etc. The ships were sold more than two years ago to the National Steel Co. and iater taken over by the United States Steel Corporation, so that they are now numbered among vessels of the. Pittsburg Steamship Co. _., A Chicago. dispatch says that underwriters charge the loss of. the steamer Hudson, which foundered on Lake Superior a few days ago, to the 23,000 bushels of flaxseed which formed a part of her cargo. "Flax will run when a ship is in a seaway," said one insurance man, "like quick- silver. It is almost impossible to hold it in one place. I presume the Hudson became disabled from some cause and then the flaxseed all went over to one side, giving the ship a heavy list. The work of destruction by the seas was then rapid and easy.". Many lines dislike to take flaxseed at all. Some never load it on their steamers except when the rest of the compartment is filled tight with flour or other firm freight. =