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United States shipping board attend- ed the meeting as a guest of the Lake Carriers. The meeting ad- journed for lunch, after which the Great Lakes Protective association held its annual meeting. Protective Association HE Great Lakes Protective asso- Tics is distinct from the Lake Carriers’ association. It is composed entirely of members of that body. Hither in person or by proxy 100 -per cent of the membership at- tended. Members of the advisory committee were re-elected with the exception that George H. War- ner was elected in place of A. F. Harvey, resigned. The advisory committee in a later meeting will elect the officers of the as- sociation and it is expected that no change will be made in the present roster. J. S. Ashley as chairman, presented a brief summing up of the annual report, copies of which were distributed to the advisory commit- tee and a little later will be sent to all members. The year 1931 was the twenty- third year since the inception of the association and the third year dur- ing which 50 per cent has been re- served from conventional insurance. The opening of the season was much earlier than is usually experienced on the lakes. Though due to economic conditions only a few vessels started operations when navigation opened. A few cargoes of coal were moved from Toledo to Detroit in March, but no general start was made until the latter part of April. Out of the 96 vessels in the association, 27 started in April, 23 in May, 7 in June, 8 in July, 5 in August, 2 in September and 1 in October. Water levels in 1931 were consid- erably lower than in the previous year, averaging one foot five inches less in the St. Marys river and about one foot nine inches less in Lake St. Clair, which curtailed the cargo ton- nage carried per trip. Weather condi- tions were better than normal throughout the year. The only gale of destructive force occurred on Nov. 5-6 when one vessel while proceed- ing from Lansing shoal to Milwaukee was damaged. Losses for the year were some- what below normal. Only 49 acci- dents were reported that will result in claims. On the whole there has been a marked reduction in disasters and from computations made when the annual report was in prepara- tion there will be a return to sub- scribers of $250,279.76. The losses paid and estimated are computed at $120,488.71. This would make the rate of the association, including losses and expenses, under one per cent or to be specific 82.7 cents per $100. This rate includes not only the navigating risk, but the pre-sea- 18 son sailing risk, post-season and light lay-up trips, extra cost for mooring behind the Buffalo break wall and all risks that are subject to an ad- ditional rate. These returns do not include pre-season cover under which the association’s vessels are sailing, but if there are no further losses during the final week still to be worked out under the 1931 certifi- cates, these figures indicate quite accurately results of the year’s oper- ation. The chairman urged the impor- tance of extreme caution to avoid all Officers Lake Carriers’ Association President JOSEPH S. WOOD Vice President L. C. SABIN Vice President Secretary and Treasurer GEORGE A. MARR General Counsel NEWTON D. BAKER Executive Committee A. E. Cornelius, A. F. Harvey, C.L. Hutchin- son, H. K. Oakes, A. E. R. Schneider, W. G. Stewart, G. A. Tomlinson, George H. Warner, H. S. Wilkinson, W. J. Conners Jr. Alternates J. Burton Ayres, J. J. Boland, H. G. Dalton, A. H. Ferbert, Warren C. Jones, John T. Kelly, F. I. Kennedy, Walton H. McGean, W. P. Schaufele, A. C. Sullivan. Directors Cleveland J. S. Ashley, J. Burton Ayers, Newton D. Baker: 8. By Cady: Ce Cc. -€ . Kennedy, Geo. A. Marr, Walton H. McGean, H. K. : Paisley, C. J. Peck, L. C. Sabin, W. P. Schau- fele, A. E. R. Schneider, Geo. M. Stein- brenner, W. G. Stewart, H. C. Strom, Baird Tewksbury, G. A. Tomlinson, R. B. Wallace, Geo. H. Warner, Joseph S. Wood. From Other Cities J. J. Boland, A. E. Cornelius, W. J. Conners Jr.and J. E. McAlpine of Buffalo; H. F. Hughes a A. C. Sullivan of Chicago; J. G. Munson : Rogers City; W. P. Snyder, Jr. of Pittsburgh and H. §. Wilkinson of New York. damages in the present season and pointed out that if proper precau- tion is exercised the season of 1932 will show even better results than the very’ satisfactory conclusion reached in the 1931 account. Several members expressed their opinion that due to what seemed to be some unnecessary overlapping, the expenses of inspection and surveys were larger than they should be and in the final analysis this was paid for by the vessel owner in the form of insurance. It was suggested that some way might be worked out whereby this duplication could be eliminated, thus reducing the cost. It is likely that a committee will be MARINE REvVIEw—May, 1932 appointed to go fully and carefully into this matter. ‘The annual banquet of the Lake Carriers’ association was held at the Hotel Cleveland on the evening of April 21. Capt. Joscph S. Wood, president of the Lake Carriers’ as- sociation introduced Newton D. Bak- er, general counsel of the association who made the principal address and acted as toastmaster. Mr. Baker pointed out that since our civiliza- tion was founded on iron and steel, that the lake carriers could reason- ably expect demands for their service to be among the very first to show improvement when the revival of business came. Though emphasizing the effect and counter-effect of eco- nomic relations among all nations, Mr. Baker was of the opinion that there was every reason to expect the United States to be the first, with perhaps a single exception, to recov- er. Chairman T. V. O’Connor of the United States shipping board read a short and lifeless prepared address and then proceeded extemporaneous- ly in a very effective manner to out- line the progress made in building up a modern American merchant marine, pointing out that we are now the second maritime power in the world. He also touched upon the economies which the shipping board has put into effect so that for 1932 not only will the board not need to eall for any appropriation, but that it is in a position to return to the federal treasury a sum of $3,000,000. He called attention to the effort which he thinks will be successful of having congress declare a mora- torium on moneys owed the shipping board by shipping lines in order to save these lines from bankruptcy and the complete dislocation of the whole plan of encouragement to private ownership of a modern American merchant marine. New Lighthouse Completed With the lighting of the new light- house at Cape Decision, Alaska, on March 15, the construction of which required many months, navigators were provided with a powerful light and fog signal at an important turn- ing point. The lighthouse is on the southern extremity of Kuiu island. Because of the prevalence of fog and the necessity for very careful navigation upon this rocky coast, the lighthouse has been equipped with both a fog signal and radiobeacon. The fog signal is an air tyfon sound- ing a group of two blasts every 30 seconds and is synchronized with the radio-beacon. The radio-beacon is an intermediate power station. In clear weather it will operate for two 10- minute periods each hour, and in fog it will broadcast for 60 seconds every third minute.