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~ vessel, MARINE REVIEW. : 7 Feeling in Detroit Regarding Freights. SpecialCorrespondence to the MARINE REVIEW. DrrRort, MicH, Jan. 1.—The lake freight situation at this writing presents a very decided contrast to what it did one year ago. So far as Detroit shipping is concerned, I have not,as yet, learned 0. a single charter having been made. The figures published in last week’s REVIEW, giving _the quantity of iron ore on dock at Lake Erie ports,are fairly stunning in their magnitude,and naturally intensify the gloomy forebodings which so generally prevail among owners of lake tonnage. Some of our Detroit ship owners, however, take a philosophical view of the prospective, con- soling themselves with the belief that things cannot turn out any worse than the present outlook indicates, and that any decided improvement in the financial condition of the great money centers will be quickly felt in all lines of business, and in none more so than the iron steel industies. The suit of the owners of the barge Keweenaw against the propeller City of Cleveland, came to an end a day or two since, in the United States district court before Judge Brown, who decided in favor of the latter Mr. Harvey Goulder was, it is said, altogether too smart for some - of the plaintiff's witnesses. Capt. James Reid’s many friends sympathize with him in his losses and financial troubles of the season now closing. His latest undertaking was the successful feat of towing the huge new car ferry, for the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, from Bay City tothis port. The job was performed with his big tug Sea Gull. She pulled the ferry boat through twenty-five miles of heavy solid ice in Lake St. Clair. On her arrival here the tug was taken in charge by the United States marshal, on a libel procured by Thomas Murphy in the sum of $12,221.93, the claim being for use of tools, chains and wrecking appliances used by Capt. Reid in raising the Armour. It is said that Capt. Reid intends to contest the claim. : The damage by fire to the little steambarge John E. Potts foots up quite heavily. The survey just completed figures the loss at $16,353. The boat’s machinery is badly injured. The United States marshal sold the barge William Raynor at Detroit for $215. The schooner Grace Murray sold to E. W. Hudson, of this city, for $750. Capt. J. M. Jones is a veteran in marine circles here. In appreciation of his kind and genial disposition, the vessel captains of Detroit presented him one day last week with a chair worth $45. ~ - The New Channels at Duluth. Special Correspondence to the MARINE REVIEW. DuLuTH, MINN., Jan. 1.—The new channels being cleared in this vicinity will be a great aid to navigation next season. Vessels will no longer be compelled to follow the old roundabout course between Du- luth and West Superior. Several deep laden vessels went through the new canal just before the close of navigation last fall, and all will be free to do soin the spring. During the ensueing summer the new canal be- tween Rice’s point and Grassey point, along the north shore of St. Louis bay, will be rendered passable for vessels of the largest size at present en- gaged in lake traffic. The practical effect resulting from the construction of this channel is not only to give access to the manufacturing establish- ments at West Duluth but to extend the available dockage limits a dis- tance of nearly five miles from the harbor of Duluth proper. In the prose- cution of the various works of harbor improvement at Duluth the govern- ment has appropriated $652,399.20, and the completion of the channels in Superior bay and St. Louis bay on the Duluth side, as proposed, will re- quire the appropriation of $224,526 more. William Sooy Smith, the celebrated tunnel and bridge engineer, recently held a conference with the Duluth council, at which he explained that a tunnel under the ship canal was entirely practicable, with a grade to the approaches of Io per cent, and a length of from 1,100 to 1,200 feet. The council ordered Mr. Smith to go ahead and prepare his plans for the tunnel opposite the foot of St. Croix avenue. Mr. Smith would not estimate the cost, but in all probability it will be about $1,000,000 for a tunnel to accommodate railway and street railway tracks and a roadway and sidewalks. It would require about two years to construct it. Mr. Smith stated that such a tunnel was the sole solution of the Duluth rail- way problem, and that had Chicago such a solution for her railway diffi- culties it would be worth untold millions to her. The New Milwaukee Ships. Special Correspondence to the MARINE REVIEW, MILWAUKEE, WIs., Jan. 1.—The Pueblo will be the next vessel launched here. She is planked and a full force of men are pushing the work rapidly. She will be similar to the Denver, which was also built by the Milwaukee Shipbuilding Co, In talking with her managing owner some very hopeful phases of next season’s freights were presented. The probability that shippers will be slow to make contracts, combined with a late opening and other side features will, he thinks, drive away the clouds that float across the owners’ sky. _ sailors from the merchant marine—two from England, two from_ Strange as it may seem, a shipbuilder, no less a personage than Mr. Wolf, has put himself on record as saying that the McDougall “pigs” have turned out to be better bred than he ever imagined they would. The ves- sel building at the Wolf yard will be called the Schlesinger, and Ferdi- . nand will be the front name. She will be the second wooden vessel on the lakes that will have a water bottom. The Pabst is the other one, and both are insured for one-quarter per cent. less by reason thereof. The following was told me about a little tift between two partners in the building business. One partner decided that a new boat should have some features of improvement above decks and, looking over the boat one day, he mentioned them. The other thought a fewminutes and then said that the last boat had given satisfaction and he saw no reason for the change. His lack of progressiveness riled the white whiskered Marmion and he shook with ire as he said: “Yes, you want everything the same as it was acentury ago. According to your ideas you ought to be back in Scotland tending goats,” Fifty of the sixty-six steamers laid up at Milwaukee will be over- hauled or repaired at the Sheriffs works. They have turned out 100 wheels during the past season. The International Marine Conference. WHO REPRESENTED THE MERCHANT MARINE? In scanning the reports and proceedings of the International Marine Conference we find, that all in all there were sixty-one delegates from twenty- eight governments. Their positions in life were as follows: Twen- ty-six officers of the navy among whom eight were admirals; twenty-five diplomatists, etc.; six captains from the merchant marine and four law- yers, The merchant marine of the whole world for which the rules were made, comprising a fleet of 32,298 vessels, hadin all six representatives, all others being outsiders; for we can not include the twenty-six officers of the navy, whose avocation is entirely different from that of the met- chant marine. Being the representatives of annihilation, not of preserva- tion; of destruction, not of construction; they cannot be considered to be representatives of the merchant marine. Yes, there were allin all six United States, one from Norway, and one from the Netherlands. © A big show indeed! What the people belonging to the diplomatic corps and — kindred occupations knew of preventing collisions at sea is hard to tell, ‘but it is a fact that twenty-five of them were present, constituting nearly half the number of delegates. England, Germany, France and the United States furnished the four lawyers, but it does not appear from the records that the French lawyer ever took any active part in the proceedings. Thus, the other three lawyers had things all to themselves, and were the acknowledged leaders in the conference, no question being settled with- out their taking the most active part in it. Of the six sailors not much is reported, for whenever they attempted to oper their mouth there was somebody with a silvery tongue who made them shut up. Such was the composition of that iilustrious body framing the international rules of the road for the merchant marine. How THE RULES WERE DEALT WITH.—Article 27 reads: “In obeying and constructing the rules due regard shall be had to all dangers of navi- gation and collision and to any special circumstances which may render a departure from the above rules necessary in order to avoid immediate danger.” After a prolonged discussion Dr. Sieveking (Germany) made the final declaration: ‘The law says to the sailors we give you certain rules. We have given you these certain rules, but of course there may arise circumstances where these rules are not applicable, as unforeseen dangers of navigation or other circumstances, and in case of such circum- stances you are to depart from the rule. You must not stick to the rule. Your principal object is always to avoid immediate danger and, of course, that means to avoid immediate danger of collisions. That is quite clear. If we say to avoid immediate danger of collision it 1s superfluous.” Here we have an official acknowledgement of the imperfection of the Interna- tional rules by one of the principal framers and expounders; and it is needless to say, that under the American rules no circumstances can arise where they are not applicable, and that shows their perfection. In view of which it would be folly to exchange the American rules for the International rules. DISTRIBUTION OF THF VOTING POWER —Every state, small or large, owning a single boat or thousands of vessels, was entitled to one vote. Thus Costa Rica, with three vessels and Great Britain with 12,000 vessels were on the same footing. . And why not? The lives of the men who framed the rules were not at stake; it was only the life of poor Jack tar having no voice in the matter. If the voting power had been divided ac- cording to the number of vessels, as so many individuals in each state, and one vote been. accorded to every thousand vessels the following list would give the number of votes for each state: Great Britain and colonies, 12; United States, 3; Norway, 3; Germany, 2; Italy, 2; France, Spain, Sweden, Russia, Netherlands, Greece and Denmark, each I vote. The rest, with Austria as leader, would have heen entitled to three votes, In all thirty-two yotes, JOHN MAURICE,