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10031 MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. ae PACIFIC CABLE COMPLETED. The new Pacific cable has been officially opened for business. On Saturday last President Roosevelt sent the first message that has actually circumnavigated the globe. The cable building at Oyster Bay was decorated from top to bottom to celebrate the opening of the new cable. The entrance to the building was arched with an artistic arrangement of the national colors. To give an historic surrounding to the first message sent under the Pacific the officials of the Postal Telegraph Co. arranged that one section of the wire over which the president's message should travel would be made up of pieces of wire which are identified with the development of telegraphic, telephonic and power trans- mission from the time when Morse demonstrated the practica- bility of his invention. This historical section consisted of .por- tions of the wire over which Morse sent his first message, of the wire over which Bell transmitted his first telephone message, a section of the first cable used by Cyrus W. Field to communicate with Europe under the Atlantic, a strip of the wire used by Edi- son when he lighted his first incandescent lamp from an electrical lighting station, a section of the wire through which the current was sent to Richmond, Va., to provide motive power for the first trolley railroad, a strip of the wire through which the current of electricity was sent by President Cleveland when he opened the world's fair in Chicago, and a section of the cable used to carry the first current of electricity. from the power plant -at Niagara Falls. The message sent by President Roosevelt.is in fact. the first that has really gone around the world. In 1896, when he opened the National Electrical Exposition at the Grand Central Palace, Senator Chauncey M. Depew:sent a dispatch which was supposed. to have traveled around the globe. As a matter of fact, however, it went to San Francisco, came back through New York, to India, China and Japan, whence it was returned to New York. The time of transmission was 50 minutes, which was regarded then as a wonderful achievement. The course that was followed by the president's message was - a complete circumnavigation of the world. From.Oyster Bay the message sped to San. Francisco, then, by the new cable to Honolulu, then through the stations at Midway: island, Guam and Manila to Hong Kong. From Hong Kong it was'sent along wires and cables already established to the Azores, where,it was ae up again by the Commercial cables and forwarded, to New OMe, 2 The laying at Honolulu of the last section of the Pacific cable brought to a successful end a great and difficult enterprise in ocean telegraphy. Prior to the completion of the new cable a mes- sage from this country to Manila had to traverse a zig-zag course, which took in Portugal, Egypt, India and China, requiring fifteen separate transmissions and covering a distance of 14,000. miles. For this service to the Philippines the American government was paying about $400,000 a year. The need for a Pacific cable was dwelt upon by President McKinley in a message to congress in February, 1899. Congress hesitated to undertake the work, but in 1901 John W. Mackay offered to lay a cable without subsidy or guarantee. His proposal was accepted, and the new cable line was begun on Dec. 18 last year, when the steamship. Silverton began paying out the cable from San Francisco to Honolulu, , The new route, as mapped out, had four great ocean. stretches, the first 2,276 miles long, between. San Francisco and Hawaii; the second, 1,254 miles, from Hawaii to' Midway island; the third, a stretch of 2,593 miles, from Midway island. to. Guam,. while the fourth section was one of 1,490 miles from Guam to Luzon, Dif- ferent steamships were chartered. for the laying of the cable be- tween these four points, and with the arrival on Saturday last. of the steamship Anglia at Honolulu, after laying the Midway island- Hawaii section, was marked the completion of the task of sink- ing an 8,000-mile cable under the Pacific. While W. H. Baker, vice-president of the Commercial Cable Co., was waiting Saturday night for information of the splicing of the last strands of the new cable, which will permit the send- ing of a message around the world in about an hour's time, he pointed out the apparent paradox which this achievement will bring about. _"T have made out a table," he said, "showing the times at which a cable dispatch sent around the world by the new cable would pass the transmission stations. A message starting from New York at 5 o'clock.this morning would reach Honolulu at 11 p. m. yesterday; would get to Midway island at 10 p, m. yester- day, to Guam at 7 p. m. today, to Manila at 6 p. m. today; would reach India at 3 o'clock this afternoon and would get back to New York at about 6 o'clock this morning. Thus the message, although leaving New York today, would have made a trip into yesterday. Similarly, if a dispatch was sent eastward today, it would reach Guam tomorrow and yet be back in New York within an hour after it was sent away today." Christie & Lowe, of Chicago bid $2,175,896.60 and Charles Clark & Co. of Galveston bid $2,471,386.30 for the construction of jetties at the southwest pass of the Mississippi river. The congressional appropriation for this purpose was $2,750,000. Southwest pass is one of the outlets of the Mississippi river. It is about 15 miles in length. The work contemplated under the specifications is for the completion across the bar at southwest pass of an east jetty about 4 miles in length and a. west jetty about 3 miles in length, to be constructed of brush mattresses weighted with stone and concrete. The entire work is to be com- pleted within four years. -- SUEZ CANAL STATISTICS, According to a parliamentary return just issued in London the net tonnage passing through the Suez canal for the past year shows an increase of 424,573 tons as compared with that of 1901, and of 1,510,261 tons as compared with that of 1900. The transit receipts for 1902 amounted to 103,720,020 francs and were higher than in any previous year since the opening of the canal, show- ing an increase of 3,333,623 francs, as compared with those of | 1901. The British Suez canal directors remark that no special ~y; Yeason can be assigned for the increase in the trade through the ~»- canal except that the economical situation of India has recently improved, and that there has been an increased activity in the trade with the east. The number of vessels which passed through the canal was 3,441 in 1900, 3,699 in 1901, and 3,708 in 1902, of which 1,935 in 1900, 2,075 in 1901, and 2,165 in 1902, carried the British flag. There was an increase last year as compared with - 1901 in the tonnage of British vessels which amounted to 5,605,- 421 tons in 1900, 6,252,819 tons in 1901, and 6,772,911 tons in 1902. During the same period the tonnage of German vessels fluctuated from 1,466,391 tons in 1900 to 1,762,624 in 1901, and 1,707,322 tons .in 1902. Of 2,738 merchant vessels and vessels in ballast, of a net tonnage of 8,061,483 tons, passed through the canal in 1902, 1,906 ships of a net tonnage of 5,848,460 tons were British, being 67.7 per cent. of the number and fully 72.5 per cent. of the ton- nage; 332, or 12.2 per cent., were German vessels whose tonnage was 13.3 per cent. of the whole; France, Holland, Austria-Hun- gary and Russia, combined, furnishing a total of 13.2 per cent. of the vessels, and 11.5 per cent. of the tonnage of the carrying trade to the east througlr the Suez canal. In the ten years, 1801- 1900, the annual net tonnage ranged from 8,698,777 tons to 9,738,- 152 tons, and the transit receipts from 83,422,101 francs to 90,- 623,608 francs. The average of the net tonnage was 8,588,047 tons, and of the transit receipts 80,006,013 francs, while in 1902 the net tonnage amounted to 11,248,413 tons, and the transit re- ceipts to 103,720,020 francs. The mean net tonnage per vessel, which in 1881 was only 1,517 tons, rose from 2,067 tons in 1801 to 2,830 tons in 1900, to 2,926 tons in 1901, and to 3,034 tons in 1902. During last year the canal was used thirty-nine times by steamers exceeding 150 meters (492 ft.) in length, or more than 18 meters (59 ft.) in breadth. The number of troops carried through the canal during last year amounted to 89,946, as against 136,514 ine1go1, being a decrease of 51,568. There was an in- crease on 8,528 British, 272 American, and 130 Portuguese, against a decrease of 21,597 Russian, 17,677 German, 13,433 [urkish, 6,743 . French, 600 Italian, 245 Japanese, and 176 Dutch troops, as com- » pared with 1901. The number of civilian passengers amounted to 98,213 in 1902, as against 92,046 in the preceding year, being an increase of 6,167, while the number of pilgrims, emigrants and convicts was 40,499 in 1902, as compared with 41,661 in 1901, or a decrease of 1,162. In the year 1870, 26,758 civil and military pas- sengers ;were-carried through the canal; in 1880, the number rose. to 98,900; in 1890, to 161,352; and in 1902, to 223,775, as against 270,221 in IQOI. NEW EUROPEAN-MEXICAN STEAMSHIP SERVICE. W. W. Canada, consul to Vera Cruz, in a communication to the state department, says of the new European-Mexican steam- ship line: "The Hamburg-American line has inaugurated a special fast _. freight and passenger steamship service between Hamburg and Vera Cruz, via Havre, Corunna, Habana and Tampico. The ves- _ sels range in tonnage from 5,600 to 6,030 tons, are furnished with quadruple-expansion engines, and have an average speed of from 13% to 14%4 knots. They are provided with modern conveniences and have been specially fitted with a view to the comfort of the passengers in the tropical service. The largest vessel of the fleet of three will draw, when fully loaded, 24 ft. The service is monthly; a vessel leaves Hamburg on the 26th of the month, Havre on the 2oth, Corunna on the Ist of the following month and arrives at Habana on the 14th and at Vera Cruz on the 17th, where it will remain for about a week. It then proceeds to Tam- pico, arriving on the 25th. On the 20th the boat leaves Tam- pico on her return trip, leaving Vera Cruz the ist of the suc- ceeding month and Habana on the sth, arriving at Corunna on the 18th, at Havre on the 20th, and at Hamburg on the 24th, making the round trip in about two months. Another new steamship line, to be known as the Austro- American, has recently been established by the Austrian Lloyd of Triests, for service between Adriatic, Mediterranean and Mexi- ' can gulf ports. The Lloyd company, which operates a fleet of twenty steamers, intends to have a monthly service of steamers ranging from 3,550 to 6,400 gross tons each. No time-table has yet been issued, nor is it possible at present to obtain freight and passenger rates. : The first vessel to arrive at Vera Cruz -was the steamship Anna of 3,550 tons, which left Trieste March 10, calling at Genoa, Marseilles, Barcelona, Tampico and Vera Cruz; on the return voyage touching at Progreso. The company advertises to receive freight from Mexico for Trieste and Mediterranean ports; also -- cargo for ports on the continent, with transhipments to other vessels of the same line at Curacao. C. Christensen of Scranton, Miss., has just finished a tug for Lee Kimball of Mobile, Ala. The tug is 105 ft. long, 22% ft. wide and 11 ft. deep. The engine is a fore-and-aft compound with cylinders of 16 and 22 in. diameter by 22 in. stroke, supplied with steam from a cylindrical return-tubular boiler of 10 ft. diameter and 11 ft. length.