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8 MARINE REVIF,W. MARINE 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. Convenient binders sent, post paid, 75 cents. Advertising rates on application. \ PROPRIETORS. The books of the United States treasury department contain the names of 3,600 vessels, measuring 1,154,870.38 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 number of vessels of 1,000 to 2,500 tons on the lakes on June 30, rgg1, was 310 and their aggregate gross tonnage 512,- 787.58; in all other parts of the country the number of this class of ves- sels was, on the same date, 213 and their gross tonnage 319,750.84. The classification of the entire lake fleet is as follows: Class. Number. . Tonnage. Reber OCS EG ade. cua Seite ssssseeGnnentendicnte +s 1,592 756,751 -53 PSALMS VESSEL Se ccc. cte rey Tenaie sebedesterragessces 1,243 325,131.06 anal WORES. A ctapidocssss cases ancedoctal iced 703 72,515 42 PSUR MES tract. tte oso saies ost istics couse emeles sah eee 62 20,472.37 ROBE eo diSaa tee sete ache n ac ctiexa dtc 3,600 -I,154,870.38 Tonnage built on the lakes during the past five years, according to the report of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows No. of boats. Net Tonnage, OSes cessamecvestLaretesiistishecmeimornaeras 152 56,488.32 MT Ghebae cs od tis paste patie was Sess wena ee tavinctilae 222 IOI, 102.87 OQ Megan setae eRe es deisen aie vlephe Sao ts 225 107,080.30 MOO nsocacccs seem ss edet ounce sieceese conse 218 108,515.00 TOOT siced eee See Sod od cd sls ceadtanseoet. 204 111,856.45 MO Pa eee P Ries coasin'schsrsesacercaenes 1,021 485,042.94 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. Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. ABOUT a year ago the organized vessel interests of the country were summoned to Washington to attend a conference of treasury officials relative to a proposed marine board. Asa result of that conference a bill was drawn up constituting a marine board, to be composed of the supervising inspector-general of steam vessels, the surgeon-general of the marine hospital service, the commissioner of navigation, the chairman of the light-house board, the general superintendent of the life-saving service, the superintendent of the coast and geodetic survey and the chief hydrographer of the navy, to act asa sort of sieve through which legislation relative to vessel interests must pass before it was enacted by Congress. The importance of the board to vessel owners lay in the fact that all bills relating to vessels would be referred by Congress to the board ; and the bill constituting the board provided that the board should have power to summon the vessel interests of the country before them, and to consult with them concerning the provisions of any proposed legislation. By filing an application with the board, the Lake Carriers' Association and other vessel-owning associations on the lakes, would always be notified of any matters pending before them affecting the interests of lake vessel owners. If such a board had been in existence, unquestionably it would have been asked by the secretary of the treasury to frame Senate bill 1,755, the famous Frye measure, instead of the board of officers from the revenue marine, who did in fact prepare this bill. Now, while many vessel owners of the lakes, as well as the REVIEW, have not been altogether in favor of the establisnment. of this board, and would much prefer to join a strong movement for the separation of the different officers of shipping departments from the treasury department, with a view to forming a separate department of commerce, it would seem that there is a probabili- ty of the passage of this bill fora marine board, and the lakes should be heard from with regard toit. The bill passed the Senate in the last session, but failed in the House. This year it has passed the Senate again, with an amendment which at first seems unimportant. This amendment provides for adding to the officers constituting the board, as named in the bill of last ses- sion, the chief of the revenue marine. The operation of this: amendment would be to add to the marine board Capt. lL. Go Sheppard of the revenue marine; and this Capt. Sheppard is the 4 father of Senate bill 1,755, he having been chairman of the com- _ mittee who prepared the bill. House should pass the.marine board bill in its original form, : without the Senate amendment? 'There can be little doubt that the Senate amendment was added through a desire on the part ot Capt. Sheppard to become a member of the board. Vessel interests all over the country should take the ground that the matter of the composition of the board was thoroughly discussed at the Washington conference; that it is extremely desirable that -- 4 the board should not be too large and cumbersome, and thatits composition-as originally fixed is best calculated to render it an efficient body. The great annoyance to lake vessel owners caused by the Frye bill and similar measures should prompt these interests to take up the bill for a marine board at' the proper time. It is now before the House committee on com- merce and the chairman and members of this committee should be petitioned, if the measure is to be passed, to report it in - its original form, without the Senate amendment. WE can not consistently object to the Lind bill, which pro- poses that lake vessels shall report to the customs officials every time they enter or leave port, whether taking on cargo or not. | The subject of securing accurate statistics of lake commerce has been prominently before the vessel owners for several years past, and they have shown little or no interest in preparing a law that would be acceptable to themselves as well as the government officials in charge of statistics. We have not favored the sys- tem proposed by the Lind bill, and have given upa great deal of space in air effort to impress the vessel owners with the fact that unless they proposed a system themselves, some such ~ measure as the one now under consideration would be passed. The vessel owners have only themselves to blame if they do not succeed now in passing a substitute for the bill. It has passed the Senate and has been reported favorably to the House by the committee on commerce. Senator Vilas and Mr. Lind of Minne- sota are earnest in their support of the bill and will poe se- cure its passage. ise Commander Ludlow, Chicago, gives notice that the pier- head range light at St. Joseph Mich. has been re-established, the channel having cut through the sand bar which formed in October last outside the north pier. 'There is now about 12:feet of water on the bar. The spar buoy recently carried away will be replaced as a red buoy on the northwest end of the shoal and on the south side of the channel over the bar. The Campbell & Zell Company of Baltimore, builders of the Zell water tube boiler, have secured the plant known as the Ramsey Engineering Works at Locust Point, Baltimore, and will operate this extensive concern in conjunction with their Huterprise Iron Works at Canton. This gives the Campbell & Zell company facilities for building and all kinds of repairs. An Improvement on the Original. EpitoR MARINE REvIEW: I take pleasure in acknowledging a marked copy of your valuable paper of the 17th inst. containing a perfect reproduction of the group of supervising inspectors of steam vessels, as photographed from life at the recevt meeting of the board in this city, the reproduction if anything being an improvement on the original pic- ture. JAMES A. DUMONT, Washington, D. C., March 21, 1892. Supervising Inspector General. Official Numbers and Tonnage. The bureau of navigation assigned official numbers to the following lake vessels during the week ending March 19: Steam--Calumet Mil- waukee, 62.55 tons gross, 31.28 net, No. 126,838; S. O. Dixon, Milwaukee, 29 24 tons gross, 14.80 net, No. 116,478. Sail--Ijena Hall, Grand Haven, 22.38 tons gross, 21.26 net, No. 141,190. Is it not important that the 4