The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Sk | 2 : THE Marine REVIEW FREIGHT SITUATION The lake shipping season is now within five weeks of its close with everything pretty well in hand. One of the leading vessel owners reports having obtained a wild rate of $1 from the head of the lakes to Lake Erie ports, but none of the leading shippers are paying this. The ore | movement is sufficiently well covered by contract so that little wild chartering is being done. Of course, if there was considerable wild ore to be moved by the leading shippers, it would probably be at an advance over the contract rate, "owing to the disparity which now exists between the wild ore rate and the grain rate. The movement of freight is now being attended with the usual difficulties inseparable from fall months. Ore is beginning to freeze in the pockets and vessels are being delayed both loading and unloading. There is also considerable congestion at Buf- falo in the grain fleet. The coal rate to Lake Michigan ports has undergone a decided advance, fifty-five cents being paid on soft coal and sixty cents on hard coal. The contract movement has, however, taken care of the major- ity of the smaller ports on Lake Michigan. As far as is known, there is no change in the rate to the head of the lakes. eae TWO MORE STEAMER ORDERS During the week the American Ship Building Co. has . closed contracts for-two more freighters of the largest _ dimensions. Both contracts were placed by the Haw- goods, the first by W. A. and A. H. Hawgood, for a freighter to be 545 ft. over all, 525 ft. keel, 55 ft. beam and gi ft. deep; to. be equipped with triple expansion engines, 23%, 38 and 63 in. cylinder diameters by 42-in. stroke, supplied with steam from two Scotch boilers ag tt, 6. in., by it ft. 6 .in.,.. allowed: 180: 1b. pressure. "The second- order was placed by Henry A. Hawgood and tis. -son,; HH. -B.. Hawgood, ~for a | stéamer to be a duplicate in general dimensions of the James C. Wallace. The new steamer will therefore be 552 ft. over all, 532 ft. keel, 56 ft. beam and 31 ft. deep. She will differ-from the Wallace in that her engines will be triple instead of quadruple expansion. This makes twenty orders that the American Ship Building Co. has received for 1906 delivery. One of these steamers, the John Stanton, has already been delivered and it is expected that another, the Joseph G. Butler, Jr., will be delivered on _ Dec. 1. The Butler will be launched on Saturday next at the Lorain yard. GREAT LAKES ENGINEERING WORKS The annual meeting of the Great Lakes Engineering Works was held on Tuesday of this week at Detroit. The financial statement submitted shows the company to be in excellent condition. During the year the company constructed and delivered eight steel vessels and has under contract at present six steel freighters. The fol- 'lowing directors were elected: H.C. Potter Jr., Joseph Boyer, George H. Russel, Henry Ledyard, R. E. Plumb, Antonio C. Pessano and John R. Russel of Detroit; H. W. Hoyt 'of Chicago; O.°P. Letchworth; Buffalo. - Officers were elected as follows: Antonio C. Pessano, president and general manager; George H. Russel, vice president; John R. Russel, secretary and treasurer. The Babcock & Wilcox Co. has installed the boilers on the battleships Louisiana and Minnesota and the cruisers West Virginia, Maryland and:Charleston. It has the con- tract for furnishing boilers for the armored cruisers North Carolina and Montana. CHICAGO GRAIN REPORT. Chicago, Oct. 31--Shipping of last week via lake in the aggregate but slightly in excess of one million bush- els--thus establishing the lightest weekly record for the - 1905 season. The going lake rate situation has practically no bearing in the volume of hauling. Prices have been easily maintained @ 2%4c corn and 2¥%c to 234c wheat with good tendency to 3c wheat ere the close of present week, and Kingston and Ogdensburg nominally 4c to 4%4c corn and @ 6c through to Montreal. The movement, immediate and prospective, turns almost entirely with the dispatching situation of Eastern termi- nals for it will again be noted that for the same period grain handling out of Chicago via railroads is in excess of lake some upward of 1,000,000 bu. The cash grain market is in excellent shape as evidenced by the prosperous state of carrying charges both inland and ocean, and it rests with the interests in control of the handling termin- als to facilitate the situation. On the going basis of 13c per 100 lb. to New York, with prompt excess to the sea- board, railroads are competing for business out of Chicago and vicinity at about even prices with lake offerings. -- Shipments of the past week distributed about as follows: Via all rail lines of flour 88,534 bbls.; wheat 88,758 bu.; corn 654,600 bu.; and oats 1,471,227 bu. Via lake to Buffalo and other American ports of flour 134,000 bbls.; wheat 103,- 000 bu. and corn 501,000 bu. and via lake to Canada points © _ of flour 285 bbls.; corn 153,000 bu. and oats 104,050 bu. Lake and rail shipments. © Same week This week. Last week. last year. Wheat (0 4.6 oe. 191,818 201224, = 493.000 CORN ee ee 1,308,676 1,901,833 1,105,462 ate ea 1,575,277 1,580,525 1,211775 RVG 30a 17,935 33,850 * 48,182 Barliey ss a. 353,362 364,914 301,518 Olle 8 6 ioe ee 3,447,068 4,442,346 3,100,926 PlOUr oF eS BEA AAG 205007 119,378 Since Jan. 1, Same time 1905. last year. Wheat a 10,895,400 13,729,207 ODN ee 80,780,078 63,293,881 ate uk oe 49,517,718 39,539,060 TE ee 958,034 1,085,720 Batley oo. Coa. ae ee. 4,228,399 4,125,092 SL OtAL Se eG es fe 146,379,629 121,774,229 MlOGr e 5,735,335 (BDls. ) 6,066,980 Stocks of grain in elevators. Same week This week. Last week. last year. Wheat 5 one 6,450,000 6,604,000 4,510,000 Sot ek, 1,046,000 1,825,000 1,755,000 Rete ee ee a 13,034,000 12,712,000 9,805,000 ee 351,000 351,000 701,000 Peeves ee 329,000 150,714 233,000 PO ee 21,210,000 21,642,714 17,004,000 'Capt. George Stone, eighty-two years. old, and for sixty years one of the best known captains on the great lakes, died at his home, No. 4211 Euclid avenue, Cleveland, last week. Capt. Stone may be said to have been identified with lake commerce ever since it became a commercial pursuit on the lakes. At any rate, that statement is abso- lutely true in so far as Lake Superior is concerned. The annual report of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. shows. gross earnings of $5,775,783 for the fiscal. year just - ~closed. The total expenses were $4,480, 711, leaving a bal- ance of $1,205,012. There was given $496,000 for depreci- ation and repairs; $371,000. fot the lease of new piers, leaving a surplus amounting to $427,656. The company *s list includes sixteen steamships.