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OBITUARY. David Bell, veteran ship builder of Buffalo, passed away at this home on Monday last. He was in his eighty-sixth year, "having been born at Dumfries, Scotland, on Dec. 7, 1817. He had lived in Buffalo since 1842. Mr. Bell was one of the pion- eers in the iron business at Buffalo. He established an iron business there and was one of the first builders of iron boats on the lakes. One of Mr. Bell's early feats was thd taking of an engine from the Erie road to his workshop one winter to ba repaired. The engine was placed on small sleighs and dragged by sixteen teams of horses to his shop. It took him several months to repair the engine and after it was finished there was much speculation as to how he would get it back again. 'This was accomplished by loading the engine on a scow, taking it to the Erie wharf and lifting it up upon the tracks by means of an immense crane. -In 1866 Mr. Bell built: four engines that were 'monsters for those days. - Each engine weighed 30 tons. 'T'wo were bought by the Lake Shore and two by the Erie. These engines would now be considered small: but they were sufficiently large at that time to attract the attention of the entire technical press of the country. Mr.'Bell also built a number of revenue 'cutters for the government. Among the merchant vessels which he built were the old steamer Idaho and the yacht Enquir- er. He was more than an ordinary man. He was known as the Peter Cooper of Buffalo: 'He was very much interested in the progress of young men and always made it a point to follow the career of anyone who had ever been in his employ. ~-- His . interestin them did not céase with their interest in his enterprise. <He'was 'very public spirited' and was one of the organizers of the old' Mechanics' Institute and was president of the first indus- 'ttial cexhibition. ever heldin Buffalo.» Mr. Bell is survived by obis'ewidow: and. three claidren. .co0 co eye con ie eS kee } i ~ 1s Death came very: suddenly last week to Mr..L. S. Dickey, "superintendent of the Macbeth Iron Co. of Cleveland. He was stricken down in the fulness::of manhood, for he was only thirty-eight years old. Arriving home from a business trip, dur- "ing which he had been exposed to the elements, he was attacked with pneumonia and died within four or five days. Mr. Dickey entered the employ of the Cleveland Ship Building Co. as time- keeper in 1887, and was gradually promoted until upon the forma- tion of the American Ship Building Co. he was made superinten- -dent: of foundries. -With his associates he was extremely popular as he was wont to go out of his way to be obliging. . Noting in IgoI the great development of the iron business he assisted inthe 'organization of the Macbeth Iron Co. and in August of that year became its superintendent. -This firm has been unusually 'successful. Notwithstanding its youth it has built up a consid- erable business as engineers, founders and machinists. Mr. Dickey demonstrated that he possessdd executive capacity of the highest order and his death removes a man of great promise. He is. survived by a widow and three children. 'The funeral was held last Saturday from:the family residence at No. 112. Muel- ler avenue and the interment was at Riverside cemetery. The "pall bearers were W. H.: Shepard, M. G. Tielke, J. G. Mesker, Thomas Macbeth, C. W. Kelly and C. J. Snow. Vessel owners and those associated with great lakes traffic will generally regret the death:of Martin Conners, which occurred at his home in Cleveland last week. He was one of the char- acters of the great lakes and was well known to thousands. He had charge of the unloading of the grain on all the boats coming to the Gommercial Milling Co., the Cleveland Grain Co. and the Union Elevator Co: and. was therefore constantly brought in contact with vessel men. He was born in Ireland in 1850 and came to this country in 1873, retaining undimmed, however, his fondness for his mother country. The dream of his life was realized two years ago when he returned to Ireland and spent a fair part of the year there. No man along the docks was better liked than Conners. His popularity and his native inclination carried him into politics. He was very -active in the councils of the Republican party and represented it at several state con- 'ventions as delegate, and in 1896 as delegate to the presidential convention at St. Louis. He never held political office, however, Mr. Conners was fifty-three years old and is survived by seven children. His wife died about a year ago. The remains were . "interred at Calvary cemetery, the funeral occurring from St. Malachi's church. _ Capt. A. Gilmore, the Toledo ship builder, died at his home in that city last Saturday evening. He had reached the extreme age of eighty-five years and eight months. Mr. Gilmore was born in the county of Kent, Oxford township, Ontario, Aug. 27, 1817. He worked on a farm until he was fourteen years old and then began sailing on the lakes. Later he sailed on salt water and visited nearly all the countries of the globe. In 1847 he settled in Toledo and engaged .in ship building. His first schooner was the Alvin Bronson. In 1851 he built a section dock for repairing vessels in connection with his ship yard. 'T'he early schooners built by him were the Rebecca, M. L,. Collins, Sebastapol and Miami Belle. In 1857 he engaged in the wreck- . ing business. In 1873 he, moved his plant to Tronville, estab- ishing a small dry dock and ship vard and had been continuously in. business there since. 'During the past few years he had not been personally active, leaving his sons to carry on the trade. MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. [Apr. 23, IMPORTANCE OF A CORRECT SHIP'S COMPASS.* © By Lieut. W. H. Faust, U. S. N., Branch Hydrographic Office, Buffalo, N. NX: By referring to the commercial statistics of the country it will be seen that the movement on the great lakes of freight- able goods in the shape of merchandise, grain, ore, and lumber, has increased enormously in recent years, with no sign in the future to warn us of a diminution. On the contrary we have every reason to believe that the annual increase will go on steadily 'for years to come; perhaps not with leaps and bounds as in the past but with a growth that is both normal and healthy. To move this increased freight, vessel owners and transporta- tion companies, with wise forethought, saw that the existing vessels of small tonnage and slow speed would soon be entirely inadequate for their needs. With this knowledge in mind their orders to the ship yards brought about a revolution in ship con- struction; iron and steel were substituted for wood; powerful engines for the masts and sails; the vessels themselves built to carry the greatest tonnage possible with the draught limited by the depth of water; and all with the end in view to reach the most economical rate per ton per mile where the time includes that expended at sea and at the terminals. Not only do these changes apply to freight carriers but to the passenger vessels as well, though, perhaps, not to such a marked degree. The masters and mates to command and officer the old ves- sels were seamen in the first place, pilots in the second place, and executive officers in the third place. There was very little need for the navigator; nor is there now in the broad sense of the term, but in its restricted sense, as applying to the compass, there is just as much need for the navigator here on the great lakes as on the salt waters. The seaman has almost entirely disappeared; nor have we longer any general need for him. But there is the need for navigators, pilots and executive officers more than ever before. 'he reasons for the last two are ob- vious enough, but for the first there seems to be a very decided opinion that they are unnecessary in the confined waters of the lakes. From a recent study of the situation I am-just as de- cidedly of the opinion that navigators are needed here and that in the near future transportation companies will require them. To see how this will be brought about and why, one has only to review 'the history of the subject in England and on the Atlantic coast of the United States for the past ten or fifteen years. The "how" will be due to necessity--to meet the requirements of the underwriters and the transportation companies in lessening the chances of disaster to their properties; the "why" is. to attain that one end--increased economy. Both the underwriters and transportation companies are mutually affected and should take an equal interest in a subject which is of such importance. No one can doubt of its importance if he remembers that during the navigation season of 1902 there were something like 166 disas- ters and mishaps to lake vessels involving the loss of 237 lives. Either alone 's appalling enough and would call for sober consid- eration in less strenuous times. The question now is, how can we gain increased safety and economy in the sailing of our vessels by requiring our masters and mates to be navigators as well as pilots, limiting the term navigator to a full knowledge of the compass. 'The primary object of the compass is to steer a known straight coursd; but unless the compass itself is a perfect instrument we have no means of determining exactly just what course a ship 1s on. nor can we determine the ship's- position accurately by "dead reckoning." A compass on shore free from all local magnetic infludnces will point towards the north magnetic pole; on a wooden ship with very little iron used in its construction, especially in the vicinity of the compass, the compass takes very approximately the same position as it would on shore; on an iron or steel vessel, however, or on a wooden vessel even, carry- ing a highly magnetic cargo, the compass becomes of little vuiue unless the influence upon it of the large masses of iron and steel composing thd ship itself or its cargo can be overcome by equal but contrary forces introduced near the compass. 'The error in the compass caused by these local disturbing forces is called its deviation. Deviation on any point therefore may be defined as the angle at the center of the compass included between the cantral line of the northern end of the freely moving needle and a line from the center of the compass directly toward the north magnetic pole; in other words, it is that angle between the com- pass as it points on the ship and as it would point if on shore and uninfluenced by local attraction. The natural aim of the navigator now is to relieve his com- pass, as far as possible, from the influence of all iron and steel in the ship herself or in her cargo or of all together. 'The process of doing this is called compensating or .adjusting the compass. For the purpose of this article I will take one of our modern steel vessels as an example for such adjustment. A vessel built of such material will have varying. effects upon the compass ac- cording to the direction of her head while building, the amount of steel and iron in her construction, and the proximity of the nearest of it to the compass. These influences are readily and easily reduced to subjection by a competent adjuster in two gen- *Reprinted from 1903 edition of Ship Masters directory.