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

TAE Marine REVIEW : 21 be certain passages in every lesson which a master here and there would like to have elaborated. Every master must feel free to express his wish for more detailed information. made far more efficient by the active participation of the masters in it through a question and answer depart- ment. They are invited to make the columns of the MARINE REVIEW a correspondence school at the Ma- RINE REVIEW'S expense. No matter how much research the question may require, it will be carefully gone into and answered through the columns of the Review. Every master who asks a question must understand that in obtaining enlightenment for himself, he is also bestowing it upon every other master. FREIGHT SITUATION. Since navigation opened an unusual number of acci- dents have taken place in the rivers owing to the low .stage of water. During the past two years vessel owners have been favored with high water, but this year: opens with an unusually low stage of water. Nearly all the strandings that have occurred so far are directly attribut- able to the fact that the water is less than was supposed. For the present vessels had better not load deeper than 18 ft. 6 in. for the Lime kilns. 'Every effort is -being made to rush ore to Lake Erie docks though the physical obstacles to overcome are great. Ore is not moving freely to upper lake docks and as even contract vessels have to wait for cargoes there is absolutely no demand-as yet for wild tonnage. As the season, however, opened a few days earlier this year than last, it is expected that ore shipments will now be greater for April than they were last year. What is being re- ceived is doing directly aboard cars and efforts are being made to clear Lake Erie docks of ore, so that by May 1 it is expected that they will be fairly bare. The lake fleet in its initial movement took considerable coal to up- per lake ports, but since that time it has not been coming freely forward so that shippers are having no difficulty in getting all of the coal tonnage they want at present. Regarding labor. conditions, it must be admitted that. things are looking somewhat squally, but everyone hopes that an amicable adjustment may be perfected. Labor would not gain anything by a cessation of work at pres- ent as furnaces are pretty well supplied with raw ma- terial. The present contract between the dock managers and the Longshoremen's Association at Lake Erie ports expires on May 1. No date has been set for a renewal of this contract: since the termination. of the recent confer- ence. The present agreement provides that the men shall work eleven hours a day. One of the demands at the "recent conference was that ten hours should constitute a day's work and during the present week the men have bten working only ten hours and will work only ten hours from 'now on until May 1. Jt will Be remembered that the conference between the Longshoremen and the dock managers was terminated because the Longshore- men demanded, as a condition of further negotiation, that the Lake Carriers' Association recognize the mates' union. As the dock managers have absolutely nothing to' do with the Lake Carriers' Association they could not make that a condition of the settlement. The longshoremen there- upon withdrew and the matter stands as it was left at that time. The only union with which the executive com- mittee of the Lake Carriers' Association has yet to deal is that of the firemen and grain scoopers. They will It will be fully given by Mr. Long upon request. The course of instruction can be' probably meet next week. Labor on the great lakes is paid better than it is in any other part of the world and it will bea pity if the traffic of the great lakes is" inter- rupted through trifling, unnecessary or unreasonable de- mands. ee RUSSIAN NAVAL CONSTRUCTION. Details are published by the Neue Freie Presse of the construction program which was sanctioned recently for the Russian navy by the Czar, and which is to be spread © over a term of nine years. The program,comprises 12 battleships, 15 cruisers, 46 torpedo-boat destroyers, 18 torpedo-boats, 10 submarines, 7 gun-boats, 9 monitors, and 1 mining ship--a total of 118 vessels. The distribu- tion of the navy thus to be created is as' follows:--For the Baltic Sea Fleet:--Nine turret-ships, each of 16,000 to 17,000 tons displacement, with four heavy, fourteen medium, and fifty-six quick-firing guns, armored. with nickel steel, 230 millimeters (6 in.) thick, and with a speed of 185 knots; four first-class cruisers of 12,000 tons, having a comple belt and protection to the central battery of 135 millimetres (514 in.) thick, and carrying forty quick-firing guns--a novel armament owing to the absence of heavy guns; eighteen deep-sea torpedo-boats of 250 to 300 tons, a mining ship of the Yenissei type, and ten submarines. For the Black Sea fleet:--Three squad- ron armored ships of 12,500 tons, to replace the old- fashioned turret-ships Sinope, Ekaterina II., and Tches- Ma, which date from 1886 and 1887, to be armed and pro-: tected in the same way as the other modern armored vessels of the Black Sea fleet, with four guns of 30.5 centimeters (12 in.), four. of 20 centimeters (734 in.), twelve of 15 centimeters (6 in.), thirty-two small-bore quick-fires, and with 229-millimeter (9 in.) armor, and a maximum speed of 16 knots; seven first-class cruisers, of 12,750 tons; four second-class cruisers of the Kagul and Otchakoff type, hitherto denominated first-class, each of 6,700 tons displacement, and a speed of from 22 to 24 knots; and 28 torpedo-boat destroyers of the Zwonki type, of 350 tons, and a speed of 26 knots. For the Far East:--Six: coast gun-boats, of 800 to 1,000 tons, armed with one heavy, two medium, and twelve light guns, and a speed of 14 knots; and nine shallow-draught gun-boats, of 250 tons, for the rivers of northern Siberia. For the Persian Gulf:--One stationary gun-boat. Cost:--The total cost is calculated' at 380,000,000 roubles~ (£38,000,000), be divided into nine installments, to be added each year ~ to the 117,000,000 roubles (£11,700,000), required annually for the normal expenses of the navy. The total naval budget for the next nine years will therefore be 159.2 million roubles (£15,920,000), in which sum is_ included the cost of equipping and consitiette arsenals and docks. The new yard for building iron ships and the new floating dock at Frederikshaven, on the northern part of the east coast of Jutland, will be ready to commence work in the course of the present summer. The floating dock will be capable of receiving ships up to 3,000 tons, and the ship yard will be able to build vessels and lighters of 1,000 tons. The name of the company is the Frederiks- haven Floating Dock and Shipyard. The Upper Delaware River Navigation Co., owners of the steamboats Columbia, Twilight, Bristol sae Burling- ton, has been sold to New York parties. Capt. Daniel David Van Cleff, general manager of the Montauk Steam- ship Co., has assumed charge of the line. i