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

VOL. 37. CLEVELAND, JANUARY 2, 1908. NEW YORK No. 1 SHIP BUILDING ON THE LAKES The ship yards of the great lakes have forty-two vessels under construction for 1908 delivery, including twenty-six bulk freighters, two passenger boats, two package freighters, two fireboats, two dredges, one car ferry, one fuel lighter, one lightship, one tug, one sandsucker and three hopper barges. Of this program the American Ship Building Co. is building twenty, the Great Lakes Engin- eering Works nine, the Toledo Ship Building Co. two, the Manitowoc Dry Dock Co. three, the Racine Boat Manufacturing Co. two, the Polson Iron Works three and the Colling- wood Ship Building Co. three. Of the twenty-six bulk freighters the American Ship Building Co. is building seventeen, the Great Lakes Engineering Works seven and the Toledo Ship Building Co.two. This list in- cludes the Caldera, which was launched on Saturday last at the Bay City yard of the American Ship Building Co., and the Kopp, which was launched a couple of weeks ago at the Ecorse yard of the Great Lakes Engin- eering Works. With the exception of the B. F. Berry, building at the Lorain yard of 3 the American Ship Building Co., and which will be launched in a week or two, the Caldera and Kopp are the only two vessels intended for 1907 delivery which are figured in the 1908 ship building table in this issue. The American Ship Building Co. of course is rebuilding the City of Cleveland, which would have been delivered in June, 1907, had it not been for the fire. The program of the Great Lakes Engineering Works includes the two package freighters building for the Rutland Transit Co., which figures in last year's program. Omitting the Caldera and the Kopp, whose carrying capacity is figured in the lake launchings of 1907, published elsewhere in this issue, the remaining twenty- four bulk freighters for 1908 delivery have a carrying capacity of 204,700 tons on a single trip, Or 4,094,000 tons in an average season of twenty trips. It will be observed in the launching table published elsewhere that forty bulk freighters were put overboard in 1907, having a carry- ing capacity of 368,000 gross tons on a single trip, or 7,220,000 tons in an average season of twenty trips. Inthe past six years vessels having a gross carrying capacity of 29,773,200 tons in a full season have been added to the lake fleet. The 1908 program will increase this to 33,867,200 tons, which is greater than the total movement of ore in any one year up to 1905. It is interesting to observe that with the exception of the Tonawanda Iron & Steel Co., none of the great ore-producing and steel-making companies figure in the 1908 program. The vessels are all building for independent interests. There is noted also a decided preference for the 8,o00 and g,000-ton ship, only six in the lot being larger than this. : In addition to this excellent program of new construction the ship yards have an un- usual variety of repair work on hand, much of it very extensive. The largest repair job is.on the steamer Wm. E, Reis, as described