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

AROUND THE GREAT LAKES. a Madden & Donnelly of Saginaw have sold the steamer A. E. Shores to the Lake Shore Saw Mill & Lumber Co. of Cleveland. The Goodrich steamer Iowa passed through the Sturgeon bay canal on March 10. The opening is the earliest in twenty-seven years. , Ship carpenters and calkers at the works of James Davidson, West Bay City, are on strike. The men claim that their wages are lower than exist anywhere else on the lakes. The steel barge Australia of the Corrigan fleet, Cleveland, has been successfully docked in the new Ship Owners' dry dock at Chicago, where she will be converted into a steamer. The Craig Ship Builing Co., Toledo, is making an extension to its dry dock. When completed the dock will be 500 ft. long, 90 ft. wide and will have 16 ft. of water over the sill. Capt. Joseph Shackett died at his home in Port Huron last week. © He was well known and had been for many years captain of the steamer Wotan. He was sixty-three years old. The name of the Western Transit Co.'s steamer Milwaukee has been changed to Yonkers. It is thought that the steamer building at Chicago for the Western company will be named Milwaukee. The coal loading plant of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Ry. Co.'s docks at Toledo will be equipped with a McMyler car dumping machine, which is to be ready for operation by July 1. The Penberthy Injector Co. of Detroit has purchased five acres of land adjoining the Michigan Central tracks on Greenwood street, upon which it proposes to erect a new plant in the near future. Martin Lynch, superintendent for a number of years of the locks at the Sault, was killed a few days ago near Tuscaloosa, Ala., where he was superintending the construction of locks on the Warrior river. Simon Langell of St. Clair has sold the wooden steamer Oscar T. Flint to A. W. Comstock and Oscar Sinclair. The Flint will be converted into a lumber carrier at once. She will carry about 1,000,000 ft. of lumber. Two more steamers, the F. R. Buell and Wyoming, have been char- tered by the Port Huron & Duluth Steamship Co., to engage in regular service during the coming season between Port Huron and the head of Lake Superior. Barry Bros. of Chicago, who were said to have made preparations for competing with the Detroit & Cleveland Steam Navigation Co. between Cleveland and Detroit during the coming season, have definitely aban- doned their intention of doing so. The Electrical Service & Supply Co. has closed a deal with the De- troit & Cleveland Navigation Co. for the installation of wireless tele- graphic apparatus on board the steamer City of Detroit when she makes her first trip during the coming season. Iron mines of the Gogebic range are being pushed to the limit of production. It is reported that the amount of ore loosened and on the surface prior to the opening of navigation will aggregate 1,400,000 tons. More men have been employed on the range this. winter than ever before. Wharfage which the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co. and the new Detroit & Buffalo Transit Co. will have at Detroit, as soon as present improvements are completed, will be among the finest on the lakes. The docks and warehouses will have a water frontage of 1,000 ft. and a depth of 240 ft. ' A case growing out of a collision between the steamers Elphicke and Poe in the St. Clair river near Sarnia last season was tried and argued in the United States district court at Cleveland this week. The Elphicke was represented by Goulder, Holding & Masten, and the Poe by Hoyt, Dustin & Kelley. Capt. John Mitchell, manager of the Cleveland Steamship Go., "has decided to give the name James Gayley to one of the new 6,000-ton steamers that he will have in commission during the coming season. Mr. Gayley is in charge of the ore and.transportation business of the United States Steel Corporation on the lakes. ; The United States government has begun action at Duluth against Capt. James Davidson of Bay City to recover for damage done to the breakwater extension at Two Harbors last summer by the steamer Shen- andoah. The government alleges that the repair work for the damage d-ne the crib work amounted to $4,012.50. Charles Beyschlag of St. Clair, Mich., and Capt. Henry Leisk of Mil- waukee, who recently sold the steamer P. J. Ralph and barge Harold to the Calbick Transportation Co. of Chicago, have bought a one-third inter- est in the steel steamer America of the Drake & Maytham fleet, Buffalo, and Capt. Leisk will command the steamer hereafter. It is reported from Detroit that the Arnold Transportation Co. of Mackinaw has sold to F. W. Wheeler for $160,000 the fast passenger steamer Iroquois, which was built recently at the Craig works, Toledo. The Arnold is to be used on Lake Superior next season, buf information regarding the particular service in which she will be engaged is withheld for the present. Bateman, McDougal & Palmer, who have built up at Buffalo quite a large business in repairs to steel and wooden vessels, have been arranging of late to undertake the construction of new vessels. They are negotia-. ting with Toledo parties for the building of a passenger steamer, to run between Toledo, Put-in-Bay and Sandusky. The new vessel is to be of steel and about 175 ft. over all by 32 ft. beam. Capt. D. D. Gaillard, United States engineer at Duluth, has received the following proposals on a dredging job at Portage lake ship canals that involves the removal of about 360,000 yards of material: Buffalo Dredge Co., Buffalo, N. Y., $70,480; L. P. & J. A. Smith Co., Cleve- land, $73,050; James Pryor, Houghton, Mich., $45,470; Duluth Dredge & Dock Co., Duluth, Minn., $48,030; Samuel O. Dixon, Milwaukee, Wis., $71,750. Dispatches from Chicago have noted the success of vessel interests in the United States district court in three cases against the drainage canal trustees, all involving damages on account of obstructions or excessive current in the Chicago river, due to operations of the canal. management. The decisions of the district court are all very favorable tocthe vessels, MARINE REVIEW. ti but it is not at all probable that the drainage canal interests will stop with the district court. They have too much at stake. The cases will undoubt- edly be appealed. FP'. H. Clergue of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., was in the market some timo ago for three or. four 5,000-ton steamers, or steamers and consorts, to carry ore during the coming season from his mines at Michipicoten to Lake Erie ports. The negotiations contemplated either outright charter for a lump sum or purchase. Mr. Clergue's wants have been supplied, but there are conflicting rumors as to the vessels he secured. It was first said that he had chartered two of the Davidson wooden tow barges that are already in commission, together with the two steel steamers which the American Ship Building Co. is building for Edward Carter of Erie. Now it is reported that all four of the vessels are from the Davidson wooden fleet--two steamers, Rapahannock and Sacramento, and the two new barges nearing completion at West Bay City. Two more of the lake tow barges that went to the Atlantic seaboard three years ago--the John C. Fitzpatrick and Wadena--are in trouble. A dispatch from Chatham, Mass., announces that they are ashore with coal cargoes on what is known as Shovelful shoal; that there is hope of re- leasing the Fitzpatrick, but that the Wadena will probably prove a total loss. Cargoes are insured, but the vessels are not insured. The vessels were in tow of the tug Sweepstakes when they stranded. The Sweepstakes was released and put into Vineyard Haven, but is considerably damaged. The Sweepstakes, Wadena and Fitzpatrick, as well as the barges W. D. Becker and Annie M. Ash, two other lake-built vessels in the Atlantic coast coal trade, are owned by the Boutell Towing & Wrecking Co., in which W. H. Mack, W. D. Becker, Capt. John Mitchell and others are stockholders. SENATOR DEPEW ON THE SHIPPING BILL. Senator Depew addressed the senate on the shipping bill during the week. He*presented figures to show that the arguments of the opponents of the bill as: to the prosperity of American ship yards are not well founded. The coastwise trade and the foreign trade are confused to a surprising extent. The ships that are building in the seaboard ship yards are for the coastwise trade. He declared that vessels aggregating 85,000 tons had been constructed in American ship yards for the foreign trade during the past ten years, while in Great Britain during one year--the last year available in statistics--1,500,000 tons of ships had been con- structed. He suggested that the difference between these figures was so extraordinary that the opposition senators ought to post them up in their committee rooms as a constant reminder of the decline of the American merchant marine. : "Give us the means," said Mr, Depew, "by which American ships may be run under the American flag, and then we will build the ships in com- petition with foreign ship yards." The New York senator said he did not know whether Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan had purchased the Leyland line of ships or not, but if he had it was because the line could be operated at a profit. He did not know anything concerning the statement that Mr. Morgan had expressed no in- tention of bringing the vessels under the American flag and giving them an American register. Mr. Morgan and those whom he represented, said Mr. Depew, were acute business men. If they could afford to fly the American flag on their vessels they would do so, but they could not be expected to fly the American flag when by so doing they would be forced to run their ships ata loss. -- During the past decade, Mr. Depew said, $3,300,000,000 had been in- vested by American capitalists in manufacturing industries. Vast sums had been invested in railroads and mines. Similar immense sums had not gone into American shipping because figures could not be produced which would show the investor that he could get his money back, not to mention a fair return upon his investment. Mr. Depew referred to the subsidies paid by Great Britain, Germany and France as having contributed to the extension of the merchant marine of those nations. "One of the most en- lightened or progressive rulers of the old world," said he, "is the present emperor of Germany. Within the last ten years he has brought Germany to practically a unanimous support of subsidies by which the German merchant marine has rapidly overtaken that of Great Britain." In conclusion Mr. Depew said: "Within five years, if the expectations of this bill are realized, then for this comparatively small expenditure of $7,500,000, this reproach that American ships are scarcely seen in foreign ports, will be removed. Then, again, the American flag floating over American: steam and sailing vessels will be seen in every port of the world; then with the American flag and American skipper will come the American commercial agent and the American financial exchanges, and we can have the methods for the competition in which we believe we should be more successful than any other nation, but which is as yet only a dream and a hope." The freight situation in the Pittsburgh iron district shows very little improvement, and prominent railroad officials who have charge of the movement of the immense tonnage in that territory are not making any glowing promises to manufacturers as to what they will do when the weather moderates. The fact is that the railroads have not sufficient mo- tive power and cars to move the tonnage, and even if they had their poor track facilities would continue to be a barrier. Several of the traffic man- agers of the largest steel plants predict that the situation, so far as Pitts- 'burgh and the adjacent territory is concerned, will be worse than any thus far experienced, and with the diversion of cars into the grain trade during the summer and fall months little encouragement is offered. It was firmly believed that with the improvement in transportation facilities which usually comes in the spring months the operation of blast furnaces and steel plants would greatly improve and the strain on raw materials would be removed. It seems, however, that such is not to be the case.-- Tron Trade Review. In the' death of Mr. W. A. Boole, San Francisco has lost one of its prominent ship builders. Mr. Boole was the head of the firm of W. A. Boole & Son. He was a Nova Scotian, having been born at Shelbourne seventy years ago. He studied ship building in Boston and went to San Francisco fifty years.ago, where he started a ship yard. ,He developed 7 - quite an extensive enterprise, the firm now employing about 400 men.