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

24 | MARINE REVIEW [Feb SIZE OF AVERAGE CARGOES—IRON ORE OUTLOOK. Duluth, Feb. 10—Average cargoes of vessels loaded last year at the ore docks of the Duluth, Missabe & Northern road at Du- luth, were almost precisely 6,000 gross tons. ‘This is 2,000 tons greater than the average four years ago. Average cargoes loaded at the docks of the Great Northern and Duluth & Iron Range roads were several hundred tons smaller, but above any previous year’s record. It looks as though the bulk of Minnesota ore ship- ments for the coming years would be from the Duluth, Missabe & Northern docks, as that road controls the United States Steel Corporation’s traffic from the stupendous Hibbing district, and of other Mesabi range mines as far east as Eveleth. The Great Northern road, shipping to independent furnaces chiefly, is some- what handicapped during periods of dullness, but controls an enormous tonnage and may in time equal the best records of any other road. The Duluth & Iron Range is the only line to the Vermillion range, whose shipments may be figured as averaging 2,000,000 tons per annum for a long term of coming years, and all the eastern Mesabi mines, both of the Steel Corporation and others. Its three largest mines on the latter range are Fayal, Bi- wabik and Stephens, the latter having enormous undeveloped pos- _ sibilities. The Great Northern has been surveying for a line along the western Mesabi to the Mississippi river, running through sev- eral townships where some lean ore has been found, but where no mining has been undertaken yet these engineers have been called off the past week and the construction of this proposed line is in- definitely postponed. The company has completed a cut-off around the Hibbing ore basin. The Duluth & Iron Range is doing no new construction this winter and is buying nothing in the way of rolling stock or equipment; the Duluth, Missabe & Northern is relaying with 80-lb. steel all its main branches, and is constructing spurs to the Higgins, at Virginia, and the Clark, Chisholm, Mor- ris, Monroe and Niles mines in the eastern section of the Hib- bing district. These all, but Clark & Chisholm, are properties now under initial development. Affairs connected with the Lake Superior mining regions are. very quiet, no mines are showing signs of resumption, though it was expected by some that after the first of the year there would be a change for the better. Taking the entire lake country’as a whole, far less than half full forces are employed. The ranges that have been most severely affected have been the Mesabi and Menominee, the former on account of the fact that its mines can be readily reopened and that a suspension of operations can be more complete without injuring the mines, the latter because there is slight demand for the general classes of ore the Menominee pro- duces. Most of the mines of the Gogebic, Vermillion and Mar- quette ranges are running day shifts, some of them day and night, and the Vermillion is less affected by present conditions than any other region. The general feeling is that shipments will com- mence very late and will be considerably less than last year. FINANCES FOR SHIP NOT SUFFICIENT. Duluth, Feb. 10.—The project of financing a steel ship at Su- perior in order to keep the yard of the Superior Ship Building Co. in operation during the winter is abandoned, at least for the time being. The people of Superior subscribed about $40,000, in ad- dition to $30,000 that the employes of the yard agreed to raise, and when these amounts were reached they could do no more. They then secured about $35,000 from Duluth and had the prom- ise of all additional necessary from G. A. Tomlinson and associ- ates, but when Mr. Tomlinson began figuring with the ship build- ing company he found their price so much higher than he had an- ticipated that he dropped the matter from consideration. The yard will be closed as soon as some repairs are completed. The closing of this yard is due, in some measure at least, to the policy pur- sued by its employes during the past two or three years. Had they been reasonable in their demands and met the company half way, it is possible that work to maintain these yards at least par- tially busy would have bees struggled for more ardently. But the company found no incentive to send work to a naturally high priced yard with labor in the same frame of mind as it had been there. A year ago 1,500 men were employed in these yards and four ships were under way. _ Monday, Feb. 8, there were in store at the head of Lake Su- perior 11,000,000 bu. of all grains, including 5.960,000 bu. flax. This amount will increase slowly from now on. It looks as though the export grain business of Duluth would languish at least till the crop of 1904 is in elevators. All wheat now at the head of the lakes will be used by American mills. Efforts will be made to induce congress to provide for the construction of additional breakwaters at Duluth. With the building of the new canal there wider than the old and with its piers bell shaped at the inner ends, storms have been felt far more inside the harbor than in preceding years. Waves have been s9 high at points some distance inside the harbor that vessels could not lie comfortably, and bars have been formed south of the ca- nal. It is proposed by Capt. Alex McDougall and others that a V-shaped protection be built about a mile out from the outer ends of the present piers, breaking waves before they reach the canal. This work would be costly as the water is pretty deep at that point, about 65 feet. It seems to have been an error that the canal piers were shaped flaring outwardly at the inner ends, though the reas- oning that caused this shape was apparently correct. There are 15 in. of ice across the canal at Duluth, something not known for the last seventeen years. People are regularly crossing on the ice. The city has just closed a contract with the Waukesha Aerial Bridge Co., a concern organized for the pur- , pose, for the construction of the overhead bridge across the cana which has been planned for some time. This bridge will be two high piers carrying a stiff truss, and on the truss wiil be suspended a car to run back and forth across the canal. The truss will be sufficiently high to clear any topmasts, but the car will be swung — on the street level and will carry passengers, freight and electric cars. The price of the bridge is $100,000, ‘ USE OF STEEL FOR SCHOONERS. The dominion of steel in ship construction is gradualiy re- placing wood even in the construction of schooners. It is, of course, not yet pronounced but it is growing. A steel-built ship has itnmense advantages over its wooden prototype. In discussing the matter naval architects have said that as soon as ship owners realize the economy of the steel ship they will have nothing but steel. : “Time and experience have amply demonstrated,” said one of them, “that for carrying freight by sea for distances of 250 miles and upward the fore-and-aft rigged schooner of 1,000 tons and over is the most economical of all methods. Take the coal-car- rying trade from Delaware and Chesapeake bays over Nantucket shoals to Providence, New Bedford, and Boston, for instance. Every expedient that human ingenuity can suggest has been tried to find a cheaper way of bringing coal between these points, but neither steam colliers nor fleets of tow barges have succeeded in reducing freight rates to the point where the schooner fleet could not meet the competition and still make a good profit: and the same holds good for all kinds of coastwise trade in nonperish- able cargo. If then the wooden-hulled and wooden-sparred schooner has gained for herself such a pre-eminent position in this line of traffic, it seems not unreasonable to predict that her steel- built successor will prove even more efficient when one considers her manifest points of superiority. One great difficulty which builders of wooden schooners have met with is the practical im- possibility of.safeguarding the masts against breakage in a heavy seaway. It has been found undesirable to secure the masts too rig- idly, as the taut standing rigging is liable to draw the chain plates in the fastenings, especially if the shrouds are set up tight when the vessel is loaded, as they become too tight when the cargo is . removed, and the risk of dismasting is thereby greatly increased. This is one reason why schooners of this type are seldom sent on deep-sea voyages. The steel masts and wire rigging of the steel schooner do away with this risk. ee “Then, too, a steel vessel is about 27 per cent. lighter than a wooden one of like size, which means that she can carry 27 per © cent. more of dead weight on a like draught. Naturally the car- rying capacity of any ship is a very important item to be consid- ered. In the shape of her hull some very radical changes can be © made, all of which are improvements over the type most com- — mon in the present wooden schooner. She can be built with a Hat plate keel not. extending below the bottom plating, which re- duces her draught from 6 to 10 in., and still provides an opportuni- ty for using a steel centerboard if desired. The necessity of a — square forefgot and a long deep keel, which all wooden schooners have, is obviated, the result being that the steel vessel is quicker and more reliable in stays. The steel schooner also offers the ad- vantage incident to the use of bilge keels, which prevent excessive rolling and are an efficient help against leeway. _ “Perhaps the chief advantage embodied in the use of steel is. the facility it affords for a double bottom construction for the carriage of water-ballast whenever necessary to increase or de- © crease the displacement of the vessels, according as the exigencies — of wind and sea demand. The initial cost of a steel.schooner is — of course greater than that of a wooden one, and this is more than compensated for by the greater lasting qualities of the for- mer, and the smaller cost of maintenance. “The most noted example of the new steel type is the seven- masted Thomas W. Lawson, built in 1901, at the Fore River Ship yard. Her net freight capacity is 7,000 tons, and she carries a crew of only sixteen men, or about half as many as would be required in a square-rigged vessel of the same size and tonnage. The introduction of steam capstans and windlasses and stockless — anchors has made it possible for two or three men to work such a vessel’s ground tackle, and as the sails are hoisted and the pumps worked by steam power she can put to sea with a much smaller crew than would formerly have been considered safe. I under- stand that the net profit she paid her owners the first year was — something like 24 per cent., so there can be no question as to the success of the new departure from the financial standpoint. “Although this building of steel schooners is in its experimen- — tal stage, and we have but little data as yet to judge of their real value, it seems safe to predict a great future for them, not only for coastwise trade, but for over-sea voyages as well. Arthur Sewall & Co., Bath, Me., are now using steel entirely, instead of wood, in the construction of their new schooners, and other build- ers are following their example. Already some half a dozen steé schooners have been launched. Combining as these ships do, the maximum of carrying capacity with the minimum of operati expenses, they form a class which for either coastwise or over-Se trade have never been equalled heretofore in this or any othe country.” : Sa EP AS sine aa The Fisher’s Island Navigation Co. was incorporated las week for $30,000. The company is having built at Palmer’s ship yard, New London, Conn., a steamer for service between N London and Fisher’s island. ; reece