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1902.] MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD.. LAKE SHIP YARD MATTERS. It is understood that the Dunkley-Williams Co., which has just contracted with the Craig Ship Building Co. of Toledo for a 20-mile screw passenger steamer to run between Chicago and South Haven, Mich., is to have competition in this special fruit and passenger trade. Capt. Pereue of South Haven is figuring with the Jenks Ship Building Co. of Port Huron for a steamer somewhat larger than the one that is to be built at Toledo for the Dunkley-Williams Uo. 'sue steamer to be built at Port Huron is to be of the twin-screw type and also of 20 knots speed. 'he Dunkley-Williams steamer is not yet fully designed as to de- tail. She will be in a general way similar to the Puritan, which the Craigs recently built for the Graham & Morton Transporta- tion Co. of Chicago, but will be a little larger and will have more staterooms. She is to be christened City of South Haven and is promised for June 1, 1903. She will be first-class in every re- spect. ane ShipsOwners Dry Dock Co. of Chicago, made some very quick repairs on the City of Rome. They estimate that they have saved one week in time over that usually required on such a job, by means of the compressed air tools and other methods of work employed. They put in a new stern, new forefoot, part of her keel, new garboards and several new planks, beside calking ' all over. The garboards were 8x22 in. by so ft. In order to bend them quickly the steam box was moved into the bottom of the dry dock, so that the boards would not cool off before they could be bent. _ The old fastenings were of 11%-in. iron and these were cut off and the new holes bored and the garboards fastened with the air tools. The steamer Neshoto was. also in dock for 50 ft. of new keel, garboards and bottom planking. 'The owners estimated it as a ten days' job, but it was done in five. The City of Kalamazoo is now at the yards getting new steel side arches 7/16x20 in. by 130 ft., and cther general repairs. The company is more than pleased with the dispatch obtained with the new air tools, as it enables vessel owners to get their repairs done in much less time than is usual with wooden vessels, and the point is one that will be generally appreciated as soon as it is known. It is reported that the Merchants Line of Montreal, operating between Tcledo and Montreal, has decided to build two screw steamers of Canadian canal dimensions. Although the boats of this line have for several years been too old for the service in which they are engaged, and in many respects inadequate, they have been well patronized and have probably made money. New steamers could not be built on the lakes for next season, on account of the crowded condition of the ship yards, but it is said that the Montreal company proposes to go to England for the vessels. The American Ship Building Co. has applied to the board of control of the city of Cleveland for the privilege'of purchasing four acres of land at the foot of Waverly avenue adjacent to its _dry docks. The company offered $10,000 for the land and de- sires it for the purposes of extending its works. The land is a part of that reserved for park purposes, but, owing to the en- croachment of business and its undesirability for purposes of pleasure, it has never been incorporated into Edgewater park. The matter was referred to the city engineer. It is practically assured that the land will be sold to the ship building company. Detroit is not to have all of the money that will be spent within the coming year in improvements at works of the American Ship Building Co. An enlargement of the South dry dock at Mil- waukee was authorized at a meeting of officials of the company held in Chicago a few days ago. 'The dock is to be made very large --6oo ft. long and 7o ft. wide--with 16 ft. of water over miter sill. The work of enlargement will begin as soon as possible. Supt. Nevins of the Buffalo works of the American. Ship Building Co. says that 'steel is beginning to arrive for the two new.steamers to be built for the Wolvin Canadian fleet and that the prospects are bright for laying the keels soon. Three hun- dred tons of material is already on hand and 250 tons are in transit. Keels for both steamers will be put down simultaneously. Extensive improvements are now under way to put the plant in the best. possible condition. ERIE CANAL ENLARGEMENT SEEMS ASSURED. Buffalo, Oct. 21.--The canal men are taking a new step in their campaign now. from the confidence born of their success in forcing both parties to put strong canal planks into their plat- forms. At first the Republican action was not satisfactory, but Gov. Odell settled that by two very significant utterances. In his acceptance of a renomination he declared that he had no hesita- tion in advocating the 1,000-ton barge canal and in his first ad- dress of the campaign he said that a political promise should be kept just as sacredly as one made to an individual. As the Dem- ocrats had already declared for the 1,000-ton barge canal in their platform it left really nothing for the canal men to do but to go - on and outline the work leading up to the actual enlargement. It is not often that a special movement is carried to success before the rest of the campaign is fairly opened, especially one of this sort, and one that is known to have a great cloud of enemies trying to drive it out. The railroad and farmer element is sti!l pretty strongly opposed to canal improvement, but the movement "siast over 35 has shown its strength in such an unmistakable way that it can- not be beaten now. Woe to the party in office that tries such a policy hereafter. Poa, : So the new canal is accepted as a fact, though the routine work to be done will still be large. It will not need to be said ~ that the work will be attended to. Two years ago, or even -- one, the canal cause was such a doubtful one that not a few of its old adherents had given up hope. They thought it was impos- sible to convince the people of the importance of maintaining the canal. They know now that there were people who had the cour- age of their convictions and they have all returned to the side of the majority. The canal is on both tickets in large letters. Much dignity to the campaign for the canal has been lent by the enlightened advocacy of the enlargement by Maj. Symons, the resident government engineer. What he said was felt to be without any possible bias cr self-interest. It was a dispassionate opinion of a trained engineer and student of such subjects as had to do with commerce by land and water. It is a matter of special congratulation, then, to the canal advocates to find that he has written an article since the state conventions, giving his reasons for the course he had taken. The great point made is that the canal will connect forever, beyond the reach of rail- road interference, not only the lakes and the ocean, but the two cities of this state that are to be, as he predicts, the commercial and the manufacturing centers of the country. In this connec- tion let me turn aside from the primary point of my subject a moment and .note that within a day or two I have been told that one of the later electrical companies at Niagara Falls, one of four that are engaged in a race to develop power, on account of the de- mand for it, is preparing to put $30,000,000 more into its equip- ment before long. '1 nis is a side remark, but it shows what thé certainties are, while it outlines the possibilities much farther. It seems too bad that either of the opponents of the canal should fail to see in it the advantages to himself as well as to others, the farmer in great home markets and the railroad owner the carrying trade, urged forward and built up by concentrated energies that are already springing into commercial and manu- facturing activity such as have not. hitherto been' known. It would be very strange if these two opposing elements would not benefit now just as they did when the canal was first built. Although the Champlain canal was not included in the orig- inal scheme of enlargement it is felt that it is needed almost as much as the main line and it is at once to be taken up and in- cluded in the general scheme of establishing water connection of the larger dimensions to the St. Lawrence and Montreal. They tell us that it will cost a matter of $100,000,000 to en- large the Erie canal system as it demands and they add that New York can pay this cost in fifty years and not know it. We believe that in a small part of that period the wisdom of the step will be quite as apparent to everybody as the advantage of the original building of the canal is now. JoHN CHAMBERLIN. MR. CLERGUE ON DETROIT'S OPPORTUNITIES. Secretary Walter H. Campbell of the Merchants & Man- ufacturers' Exchange of Detroit lately sent a letter to Mr. Francis H. Clergue inviting him to speak at a coming meeting of the exchange upon the subject, "Detroit and its Opportunities." In his reply regretting his inability to be present Mr. Clergue said:. "I this morning received your invitation to address the Merchants & Manufacturers' Exchange at their banquet during the last week of October. I regret I have been obliged to wire you that serious duties here will prevent my leaving my work for the next two months. We are now making every effort to _conclude the most of our construction before winter, and so much of my personal attention is necessary that I am obliged to de- cline your very kind invitation. I have always been an enthu- Detroit's opportunities and when I _ recentiy learned that the people of Detroit had allowed non-residents to become responsible for the inauguration of a_ blast furnace I felt obliged to inform them that in my judgment they had given over to others a most profitable business opportu- nity. A steel and iron industry on a large scale established at Detroit would, in my judgment, be one of the most successful in the United States, and in a few years would return to its shareholders its entire capital stock. I think every citizen of Detroit with $100 uninvested should take advantage of an oppor- 'tunity to invest it in this industry, if organized under a sufficient scale. Ten million invested in this industry, under good man- agement with the modern devices that could be secured, would earn as much as three times the amount of thefr capital invested in the United States Steel Corporation, while affording employ- ment to a small army of new citizens. I would be very glad to talk of Detroit and its opportunities as viewed from the standpoint of an observing outsider, but cannot take advantage of this chance, much to my regret." All ore loading records were broken at Ashland this week when 5,202 tons of ore were loaded into the James H. Hoyt at the Chicago & Northwestern docks in 1 hour and 8 minutes, an average of 80 tons a minute. In fact the cargo was let into the hold and the lines cast off almost before the engineer had found time to get the water ballast out of the vessel.