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Mos Bo Ff nN Oe this week by the collector of customs to the Craig Ship Build- ing Co., Toledo, for $1,000. The island covers three acres and lies in Lake Erie 12 miles from Toledo. The Anchor Line steamer, building at the Cleveland yard of the American Ship Building Co., will be launched on Dec. 17 and the 500-ft. Tomlinson freighter, building at the Lorain yard, will be launched on Dec. 15. The keels for these ves- sels were not laid until nearly the last week in October. The schooner Spademan owned by M. Sicken, Marine City, Mich., became fastened in the ice in Lake St. Clair while trying to make the mouth of the Thames river en route to Chatham. She grounded later in an endeavor to break through. She had a cargo of 17,000 bushels of wheat con- signed to the Canadian Milling Co., Chatham, Ont. .ae items for river and harbor improvements and aids to navigation included in the estimates sent to congress by the treasury department this week are as follows: Improving Detroit river from Detroit to Lake Erie, $450,000; improving 'middle and west Nebish channels, St. Mary's river, $500,000; enlarging dwelling Wind Mill Point, $5,000; protecting founda- tions of lights along Detroit river, $5,000; dwelling at Grosse Isle light, $5,000; establishing range lights at Rock Harbor, $21,000; survey for station at Rock of Ages, $25,000; moving station at Portage Lake, $55,000; moving light station from Eagle river to Sand Hills, $38,000; dwelling Portage Lake station, $3,500; establishing light station Little Gull island, $20,000; light station Point Aux Barques, $32,000; additional land adjoining Old Mackinaw light station, $400; double dwelling Frankfort Pierhead light stations, $6,500; enlarging 20-ft. channel, Isle Aux Peches range, $18,000; dwelling Point Iroquoise, $5,000; dwelling Tawas light station, $5,000; lens for Detour light station, $4,500. PERSONAL In a thoroughly practical way no man is better appreciated along the whole chain of great lakes than Mr. Edward Smith, president and general manager of the Great Lakes Towing Co., and there is no position dealing with the practical affairs of lake commerce that Mr. Smith could not fill with rare avility. Mr. Harry Coulby, now president and general man- ager of the Pittsburg Steamship Co., appreciated Mr. Smith's counsel greatly when he was managing the towing company and Mr. Smith was on the board of directors. They prac- tically worked hand in hand at all times and brought the affairs of the company from a state of chaos into harmony and from a crippled financial state into one of power. The results are quite apparent from the fact that dividends are being resumed by the company. OBITUARY John Bertram of the Bertram Ship Building & Engine Works, Toronto, Canada, died recently. He had been identi- fied with Canadian interests for the past 44 years. For six years he represented Peterboro in the house of commons. He was also a member of the Ontario Forestry Commission and was very conscientious in the performance of public duties. MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS It is reported that the Toyo Kisen Kaisha will build two 15,000-ton freight and passenger steamers at Nagasaki for its San Francisco and oriental trade. It is believed that the Mitsu Bishi Co. will do the work. At the annual meeting of the board of directors of the Navy League of the United States, held Nov. 17, 1904, the following general officers were elected: Benjamin F. Tracy, president; William McAdoo, vice-president; Allen S. Apgar, R E V | E Ww 25 treasurer; Robert S. Sloan, secretary; George H. Owen, as- sistant secretary; Herbert L. Satterlee, general counsel. The steamer Zepora was launched last week from the ship yard of Crawford & Reid, Tacoma, Wash. The new steamer is about the same size as the Mainlander, recently wrecked, and is being constructed for the International Fisheries Co. Miss Ethel Chaplin, niece of President H. E. Poole of the fisheries company, named the vessel. The steamer Venture of Victoria, B. C., has been pur- chased by the owners of wrecked steamer Boscountz, to take the place of that steamer on the run between Victoria and northern B. C. ports. The Venture was built at Victoria in 1902, is a screw steamer, and has engines of 19 H. P. Her dimensions are: length, 153.4 ft; breadth, 36.2 ft.; depth, 9.5 ft.; tonnage--gross, 655 tons; register, 409 tons. The Canadian Pacific railroad, it is reported, is consider- ing the advisability of building a steamer in the United States to run between Seattle, or some other United States port on Puget Sound, and Alaskan ports, in order to enable the company to compete with United States steamers, which are now enabled to call at Victoria and Vancouver, B. C., on their way to and from Alaska. The six-masted schooner Ruth E. Merrill was launched last week from the yard of Percy & Small, Bath, Me., in the pres- etice of a large audience. The Merrill was built for J. S. Winslow & Co., Portland, Me., and is the second largest six- master in existence:: She is:g10; tt, lone, 48 it. beam and 23 ft. deep. The schooner was named in honor of Miss Ruth E. Merrill, who also christened the vessel. It is announced that the Monongahela Consolidated Coal & Coke Co..of Pittsburg has purchased from the St. Louis. & Mississippi Valley Transportation Co. the steamers S. H. Clarke, Hoxie and Lowrie and over thirty barges. Two of the steamers and about twenty of the barges will continue in the grain carrying service between St. Louis and New Orleans. The remainder of the vessels will be utilized for the increasing river traffic and steel and wire products. The occasion of the deal was largely the closing of a contract with the American Steel & Wire Co. to handle the supplies sent from the Pitts- burg mills of the company to its warehouses at St. Louis. It is reported that the Eastern Steamship Co. of Bangor, Me., intends to put two new steamers equipped with turbines on its Bangor & Boston division and on the Boston & East- port line. The new steamers will be practically duplicates in outward appearance of the steamer Calvin Austin. It is un- derstood that Mr. Charles Hanscom of the Eastern Ship Building Co., New London, Conn., is preparing the plans. Mr. J. T. Morse, the treasurer of the Eastern Steamship Co., made an inspection several months ago of the turbine steamers _ now operating on the Clyde and in the English channel and was favorably impressed with them. It is not known what make of turbine will be installed, but probably the Parsons will be used. During the calendar year of 1904 the construction depart- ment of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad has changed 29.35 miles of track, built 55.4 miles of new road, and 86.35 miles of second track. This work includes the construction of the Point rleasant, Buckhannon & Tygart's Valley railroad, from Lem- ley Junction to Buckhannon, W. Va., a distance of 12.6 miles; the second track between New Castle Junction and Struthers, O., a distance of 14.2 miles; double track from Haselton to Niles, O., a distance of 8.5 miles; from Niles to Cuyahoga Falls, an entirely new double track line has been built, a distance of 42.8 miles, and changes of alignment and grades have been made and second track constructed from Flushing, O., to Fairport, O., 4 distance of 11.27 miles, and from Barton to Bridgeport, O., a distance of 9.15 miles. All of this work is practically completed, although some of it will not be in use before Jan. tr. It has not as yet been decided what construc- tion work will be done during the next year.