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MARINE REVIEW. 9 Around the Lakes. Toledo tug owners have pooled their interests with Sullivan & Hubbard as managers. The propeller Cuba willrun in the Lackawanna line this season, with Capt. Robert Young still in command. Sunol is the name ofa large wooden harbor tug launched at Ashtabula Harbor Tuesday for Kunkie Brothers. Orders have again been given this season to keep the Wel- land canal closed all day on Sundays and allow no boats to pass through. q Capt. William Carver, who sailed the Canadian steamer Tilley lastseason,isto sail one of thenew whalebacks in the Glad- stone-Buffalo line. EK. D. Cummings of Chicago, who bought the barge Michi- gan will probably purchase the steamer Nebraska also, under an understanding that he is to have her for $50,000. Between the hours of 6 a. m., and noon on Sunday sixty- three large boats passed Detroit, an average of one every five. minutes. 'Their aggregate capacity was about 75,000 tons. Messrs. Pridgeon, Parker and others of Detroit, owners of the rebuilt steamer Kasota have incorporated their interests in that boat under the name Pridgeon Transportation Company, capital $150,000. Capt. M. Madden of Saginaw and Capt. W. H. Strong of Tonawanda have purchase the barge T'. H. Cahoon. She will be sailed by Capt. Strong and will be towed with the Middlesex by the steamer J. H. Prentice. The Chicago Drydock Company has sold its site near Har- rison street for $90,000 and the affairs of the company will be closed up. The new owners, the Edison Lighting Company, will take possession May 1. The Green Bay, Winona and St. Paul Railway Company has purchased the steamer City of Marquette from the Milwau- kee & Eastern Transit Company for $25,000. She will run be- tween Kewaunee and Frankfort. A. T.. Thatcher, one of the best known dealers in hatd coal at Chicago, met death last week in a railway accident while on his way to New York to attend a meeting of coal dealers. Mr. Thatcher's coal receiving dock was at South Chicago. Alex Anderson of Marine City last week launched the lum- ber steamer which he has been building in the Holland yard at that place for Mills & Co. of Marysville, Mich. 'The boat is 140 feet keel. She will be sailed by Capt. Henry Kendall. The Detroit Dry Dock Company on Saturday launched the new Detroit river ferry boat Promise, and Wheeler & Co. of West Bay City launched one of the coast light-house tenders. Boats on the stocks in the different yards around the lakes will now be floated at the rate of two or three a week until June. Owners of the big Menominee line steamer German were very fortunate in securing her release So readily from Poverty island reef. Although she went onto the rocks light and was out about two feet, she is not leaking and will come down with a full load of ore from Escanaba. She will be docked for exam- ination. . Sy Capt. Sweeney, veteran master in the Goodrich line, has re- tired to a comfortable country home near Manitowoc. It-was expected up to a short time ago that Capt. Sweeney, who has seen forty years of service aboard ship, would again take the twin-screw passenger steamer Virginia this season but his retire- ment is final. In Detroit'on Monday last the owners of the. barge Wah- napitae, which was wrecked off Cleveland piers in November, 1890, libeled the steamer John M. Nicol for loss on boat, cargo, etc., aggregating $61,037.67. .The Nicol towed the barge down the lakes and it is claimed whistled for a tug and dropped her without warning off Cleveland just previous to the accident. Wheeler & Co. of West Bay City, the Sheriffs Manufactur- ing Company of Milwaukee, Union Dry Dock Company of Buf- falo, Detroit Dry Dock Company, Detroit Boat Works, Cleveland Ship Building Company, Globe Iron Works Company, City Forge and Iron Company and Brown Hoisting and Conveying Company, all of Cleveland, are expected to prepare. exhibits for the World's Columbian Exposition. Affairs in Admiralty., Owners of the steamer Chenango, which burned a year ago on Lake Erie, brought suit in the United States circuit court at Detroit to recover on an insurance claim. 'The result of the suit, which was heard only a few days ago before a jury, will prove interesting to vessel owners who allow custom to govern their actions ina great many matters pertaining to insurance. On April 10, the day before the boat started and while she was lying at the wharf loading, her owners went to Capt. Eber Ward, in- surance agent at Detroit, and made an agreement with one of his clerks for insurance against her loss by any marine calamity, in- cluding fire. It was to take effect immediately, although it was well known that the policy could not be secured for a number of days. When the vessel burned the Greenwich Insurance Com- pany, in which the insurance was placed, refused to pay, claim- ing first that Capt. Ward was not empowered to make sucha contract and second that the fire insurance was not to commence until April 20, ten days later. In the second contention they were borne out by Capt. Ward's clerk, who testified that the Chenango's owners did not ask to have the fire insurance com- mence immediately. This was denied, however, by the owners, who claimed that the clerk's last words in closing the conversa- tion were, "Now you are insured.' The principal importance of the case arose from the claim made by the insurance company that Capt. Ward was not authorized to contract that the insur- ance should commence immediately. According to the printed blanks of the company its policies were not to be considered valid until signed by the officers of the company. 'The common custom among vessel men, however, is to do just as the owners of the Chenango did, and then consider themselves insured. In his charge to the jury Judge Swan said: "If the company held out Capt. Ward to the public as an agent with authority to take business in accordance with the usual custom and if it furnished to him a list of vessels with their class and rate noted, in which the Chenango was given as a desirable risk, then the company would not have the right to refuse arbitrarily and without reason to issue the policy after the apphication had been taken by Capt. Ward." The jury was instructed to bring in a verdict for the plaintiffs in case it believed that there was a verbal contract be- tween them and Capt. Ward that the entire insurance should commence to run on April ro. After being out half an hour the jury brought in a verdict for $5,475 for the plaintiff, the full amount claimed. Serve Ribbed Tubes in Practice. The Caledonia Steamship Company, Liverpool, says ina letter to John Brown & Co., concerning the Serve tubes placed in the new steamer Ratho running from Liverpool to Bombay: 'The tubes have given no trouble during the first voyage, just completed,in keeping clean, and as best we can judge will realize the advantages guaranteed." The tubes in this steamer are 3.4% in- ches outside diameter. Nothing but natural draft is used. The smoke-stack is longer than usual and this gives sufficient dratt to clean the tubes. In order to determine the most suitable conditions for using Serve ribbed tubes in boilers, Messrs. John Brown & Co. of Sheffield have fitted up a complete testing plant, by means of which comparative figures can be obtained for the Serve tube and for the plain tube, under a wide range ofworking conditions. Thus experiments have been made with natural draft, with forced draft and with induced draft, both when the air is sup- plied to the furnace cold and when it is previously heated, and much informrtion of a valuable character has' been gained. It has been found that for each variety of coal a certain degree of draft is required if Serve tubes are to be successfully used. Thus when very smoky coal is used with low natural draft, the tubes choke up, and hence in future Messrs. Brown will not of- fer to supply tubes for such conditions of working. Such un- favorable conditions occur with small steamships having low funnels; but with high funnels, or with forced draft, no trouble is experienced even when smoky coal is burnt. When the draft is such that thirty pounds of coal are burnt per square foot of grate area, the tubes can be relied upon tokeep clean. As the result of their experiments Messrs. Brown recommend that with natural draft the height of a steamship's funnel should, if Serve tubes be used in the boiler, be 65 feet above the grate for Welsh coal, and 75 feet if smoky coal is used. Under such conditions the firm are prepared to guarantee with the serve tubes a min1- mum saving of 10 percent. when cold air is supplied to the fur- naces, and somewhat less when the air is previously heated. ye 2 Mi