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8 MARINE REVIEW. MarRINE REVIEW. - DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. JOHN M. MuLROONEY, F. M. Barton, HoMER J. CARR, - - - Associate Editor and Manager Chicago Office, 210 South Water Street. Published every Thursday at No. 510 Perry-Payne Building, Cleveland, O. SUBSCRIPTION—$2.00 per year in advance. Advertising rates on applica- tion. — SSF Te —-—--_”vTVn-—-”— The books of the United States treasury department contain the names of 3,510 vessels, measuring 1,063,063.90 tons in the lake trade. In classification of this fleet the lakes have more steamboats of 1,000 to 2,500 tons than the combined ownership of this class of vessels in all other sections of the country. The classification is as follows: ee, \ Proprietors. Class. Number. Tonnage. POUBHIL VCRSCID cksuie asic thalssscessiaveessssisvsees 1,527 652,922.25 SEITE VOBBEIBS ay atserstssocasscdece vests ivbedesss 1,272 328,655.96 RSEIIAL TG ATS ais sie ccssssakeiabs Sees ENS vas eb dOS ode 657 67,574.90 MS HEM CDi. suka si ran cede sbwe ose cde lesvelsdieieciessds seeds 54 13,910.09 MUG UM ociotc accsiissusscivuiseievsseueiseves 3,510 1,063,063.90 According to the report of William W. Bates, United States com- missioner of navigation, 46 per cent. of the new tonnage of the country was built on the lakes during 1889. This is a percentage greater than the work of the Atlantic coast and western rivers combined, and almost equal to the whole work on the Atlantic and Pacific coast. In 1890 the tonnage built on the lakes is but very little less than that built on the Atlantic and . coasts. Tonnage built on the lakes during the past five years was as ollows : No. of boats. Net Tonnage. LEO Sets os coy sanheensscuesssevansusessdeesiceesos 5 20,400.54 ROSS G civonsabibanhcksess sedan does sAueusseeseucas’ 152 56,488.32 [LS EGS STEERS 6 RAPE ART Re DSS mR 222 101,102.87 RE Niece oacseesceceb cs cn siensssnsccvsmieesos ses 225 107,080.30 MPN pao sents cree iescanetasdeipiensesscess 218 108,515.00 MOL ANG sespos eb ct. Gos... +cceccuccos ness 902 393,597.03 St. Mary’s Falls and Suez canal traffic: Number of boats through St. Mary’s Falls canal in 1890, 234 days of navigation, 10,557; tonnage, net registered, 8,454,435. Number of boats through Suez canal during 1890, full year, 3,389; tonnage, net registered, 6,890,014. Annual tonnage entries and clearances of the great seaports of the world, for 1889: New York, 11,051,236 tons; all seaports in the United States, 26,983,315 tons; Liverpool, 14,175,200 tons; London, 19,245,417 tons. _ Tonnage passing through Detroit river during 234 days of naviga- tion in 1889, amounted to 36,203,606 tous. Ten million tons more than the entries and clearances of all the seaports in the United States, and three million tons more than the combined foreign and coastwise shipping _ of Liverpool and London. Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. MR. J. M. Goopwin of Sharpsville, Pa., one of the engineers connected with the Pennsylvania ship canal scheme, attempts in a recent issue of the Iron Trade Review to refute some state- ments made by this journal regarding the uselessness of such a canal as that proposed by the Pennsylvania interests in event of it being built. The MARINE REvIEW has been forced into an- swering in a general way some claims made in support of this scheme, but the whole matter has not at any time been consid- ered of sufficient importance to give space or time to detail in connection with it, when first principles that render it un- worthy of attention are so well understood by practical men on the lakes. Mr. Goodwin has been to Cleveland and other lake ports and has met and talked with such representative men as Mr. George H. Ely, members of the firm of M. A. Hanna & Co. and others who are thoroughly competent to explain at first thou ght the reasons why such a canal would be unserviceable. He has been told by these judges that he is working in a lost cause. He did not find in all the lake region a single vessel owner or shipper whose views differed from those advanced by the REvIEw. He was told that his canal would not be built large enough to accommodate vessels of the modern type, that the delay to a craft worth $100,000 to $200,000 in navigating an artificial channel would be enormous and that in any event the waterway which he proposes has no end. It is doubtful if even the furnace owners of Pittsburgh can be found to indorse the sce ann Sa SLSCO ON Ns ASSASSIN SDT NEEL aed ertainly do not appear in connection with it. ny discussion regarding itis tot ders of this journal, who have ho scheme and they c It is enough to say now that a considered of interest, to the rea thought of the canal even being built. SS eee sea In the Iron Age, issue of June 25, the Cleveland corres- pondent gives out this startling information: ‘The ore unsold this spring amounted to only about 100,000 OF 150,000 while-the initial purchase in May, given exclusively in this paper, aggre- gated 650,000 tons. It is not thought that the total sales for this season will greatly exceed 600,000 tons.’’ ‘The Iron Trade Review reprints the absurd statement, claiming that the Iron Age is presenting ‘‘news’’ of an ancient history character and re- ferring the New York publication to the Iron Trade Review of May 28 for the same information. Surely our esteemed Cleve- land contemporary must have overlooked the figures in the cor- respondence to Iron Age. Everybody in the ore business in Cleveland knows that there was over 1,000,000 tons of unsold ore when the sales of 1891 began, and the statement that the total sales of the season would not exceed 600,000 tons is so ridiculous as to require no comment. ‘“ SHIPBUILDING on the lakes will amount to nothing for three to five years to come’’ is an expression heard in many quarters. ‘This is undoubtedly true as far as wooden vessels is concerned, and may be practically for all time. At Capt. James Davidson’s West Bay City yard there is $100,000 worth of oak timber and it represents a very large portion of all the timber of that kind in the Michigan country. But it is not on account of the scarcity of oak in the lake section that the wooden vessel may be said to have seen its best day. ‘The transportation busi- ness of the lakes is gradually falling into big hands and large, powerful steel ships will be in demand when the present period of depression blows over and there is a call for more floating property. . Barges for Transportation of Oil. The Standard Oil Company ships large quantities of oil to the northwest by lake but it is all in barrels. T'ank boats have not been used to carry the oil in bulk, for the reason that the boats would be greatly delayed in getting return cargoes on the lakes and would be put to extra expensé in being cleaned every trip before taking on cargo other than oil. Some of the tank boats engaged in the foreign trade for the Standard are said to return to this country with crude oil to be refined, while the condition of freights in the coasting trade on the Atlantic admits of the employment of the tank boats in carrying the oil only one way, returning light in most cases. On the lakes it is different as the freight on cargo bound up, especially oil in barrels, is always so low as to act against bulk shipments. ‘The establish- ment of an immense works at Whiting, Ind., will also prove detrimental -to the lake trade in oil, as the Standard will supply a large portion of its northwestern trade through this refinery. It is not probable therefore, that the American Steel Barge Com- pany, builders of the whales in which Mr. John D. Rockefeller is interested, will build any of the tank boats for service on the lakes. One of these boats for the Standard company, now about ready for launching at West Superior, will be used in the Atlantic coastwise trade and will be known as S. O. No. 55 The barge is 125 feet long and 10 feet deep, with 30 feet beam. When art she will resemble one of the old-style,low-deck lake steamers. me ae Caan dome measuring two-thirds of the deck in wee niet © spars will be carried. The boat contains three ene extend the full depth and beam of the boat, and at wither aad ree 66 feet in the center of the barge. The spaces vessel. ‘There ee a ae a poe ert Sete eee og air compartments as in the whaleback barges. The three tanks wi : gallons of oil. s will contain five hundred thousand