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24 steamer meet with approval in one district only to find that when she went into another district the inspec- tor would make a different ruling. He also thought that some of the changes in fittings insisted upon by the su- pervising inspectors at their last an- nual meeting was putting the vessel owners to expense without any cor- responding benefit in security to life and property. The complete report of the fleet engineers will be published in the Marine Review later. "Harry Coulby, president of the Pittsburg Steamship Co., said ithat the new rules were full of technicalities, many of them impractical, and for lake vessels, impossible of application. He believed there should be special rules to meet special cases. He thought it also unfortunate that on the lakes there was no practical en- gineer on the board of supervising inspectors. This was not intended as any reflection upon Captains Stone and Westcott, whose bringing up has been on the forward end of the ship and who are for that reason not practical men when it comes to the consideration of machinery. The board of supervising inspectors will meet in Washington in a few days and it was decided to appoint a special committee of six from among the fleet engineers to. meet with them. This committee consists of F. B. Smith, James Mitchell iand Thomas Durkin, of Cleveland, C. J. Fox, of Buffalo, Joseph F. Hayes, of Duluth, and A. Arnold, of Marine Ciity. Mr. Coulby thought that the auxil- lary committee of captains should be a permanent Jlorganization, reporting annually ito the organization, and moved that such a committee be cre- ated. J. H. Sheadle seconded it with the amendment that the members of the committee be appointed for three- year periods, a third expiring each year, so that two-thirds would al- ways hold over and be continually familiar with the business on hand. This was carried, Major Judson, government engineer at Milwaukee, asked President Liv- ingstone to submit to the association the question of the endorsement of his application for a dredge for the western shore of Lake Michigan. His argument was that a 'sea-going har- bor dredge could go from port to port in any weather and would be immediately available for the instant removal of any bar that might form. Mr. Coulby called attention to the fact that every spring bars formed in the harbors of Fairport, Ashtabula and Lorain and 'that it was difficult THE Marine REVIEW to get them promptly removed until a government dredge was established on Lake Erie. He thought that the Lake Carriers as an association should see that the government engineers get 'the 'tools tto work with, saying that he was well aware that his point of view would not be favorably received by private dredging interests. A mo- tion was accordingly carried that the sentiment of the association was to the effect that ia government dredge shiould be established on the western shore of Lake Michigan. Capt. Edward Smith, Capt. C. W. El phicke and Capt. John Mitchell were ap- pointed as a nominating 'committee to nominate a board of directors. They nominated the old board with ithe ex- Ceprlon tate on bm Cranages ot Bay City, was elected in place of Charles A. Eddy, of that port, and Capt. Ed- ward Morton, of Cleveland, in place of J. E. Upson, of Cleveland. The board of directors therefore stands as follows: Wm. Livingstone, Detroit; C, W. Elphicke, Chicago; Dennis Sul- livan, Chicago; F. W. Smith, Mil- waukee; Edward Smith, Buffalo; T. T. Morford, Buffalo; S. P. Cranage, Bay Chine ce 5 ee olwin. lulu ea je Ce Gilchrist, Cleveland; Harry Coulby, Cleveland; James Corrigan, Cleveland; W. H. Becker, Cleveland; G. A. Tom- linson, Duluth; J. H. Sheadle, Cleve- land; John Mitchell, Cleveland; H. D. Goulder, Cleveland; Capt. Edward Morton, Cleveland; G. L. Douglass, Buffalo; H. S. Wilkinson, Syracuse; Jj; "©. Evans, Buttalo; W. A. Haw- good, Cleveland; John E. Payne, Philadelphia, John Craig, Toledo. The board of directors immediately re-elected the 'old officers and the executive committee without the for- mality of leaving the room as _fol- lows: Wm. Livingstone, president; J. H. Sheadle, vice president; George P. McKay, treasurer; George A. Marr, secretary; Harvey D. Goulder, counsel. The executive committee is as fol- lows: Member. Alternate, T. T. Morford J. C. Evans Edward Smith E. T. Douglass Harry Coulby Dennis Sullivan G. A. Tomlinson W. A. Hawgood James Corrigan John Mitchell J. H. Sheadle A. B. Wolvin J. C. Gilchrist J. A. Gilchrist Colm Chiagiess 4. L. Be Davis, gov- ernment engineer, addressed the as- sociation upon the practicability of creating a straight channel in the lower Detroit river that will do away with five turning points, abolishing the Grassy Island and Mamajuda ranges, making a straight channel 800 ft. wide and five miles long below Wyandotte. He recommended it, not as a press- ing necessity but-as a desirable im- provement to be borne in mind. The Marine Review will later publish a chart of this new straight channel which can be constructed at the mod- est expense of $350,000. Col. Davis was desirous of putting the matter in practical shape for subsequent action before his retirement next month. President Livingstone paid a fine tribute to the life saving service which he regarded as extremely hazardous and most inadequately compensated for by the general government. He believed 'that action should be taken to provide for age retirement with pay in order, that an adequate person- nel can be at all times maintained. At present the service is steadily run- ning down for lack of inducement to attract competent men to it. Mr. Goulder supplemented President Liv- ingstone's remarks and a _ resolution was adopted asking congress to put the life saving service upon the pen- sion roll. This will undoubtedly be done some time, but the quicker, it is accomplished the better it will be all around. ° Mr. Coulby then introduced a sub- ject which he said that not all of his masters agreed with but which he nevertheless regarded as a desirable thing. That is the abolition of the center ranges. He thought the mas- ters should be content to be guided by the buoys and shore lights and that navigation is actually made more haz- ardous by having center ranges in the wide channels of the rivers. There is a tendency, doubtless natural, on the part of the masters, to get the range and then hug the center of the channel. As they are all doing the same thing, practically navigating along that one line to the exclusion of the rest of the channel, they are mul- _ tiplying the chances of collision. In- quiry developed that quite a number of vessel owners felt precisely as Mr. Coulby did and that concerted action may be taken to eliminate the center range lights. It was the sense of the association that the lighthouse board should adopt the acetylene gas buoy which has been used with signal success in the lower Detroit river. THE BANQUET IN THE EVENING. The annual dinner on Thursday evening was the finest occasion that has yet marked the annual gatherings of the association. Letters of regret were read from Gen. Alexander Mackenzie, chief of engineers; Co. W. H. Bixby, Eugene Tyler Chamberlain, Col. W. P. Anderson, Col. F. Gour-