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10 , MARINE REVIEW.-- CHICAGO LAKE INTERESTS. WESTERN OFFICE, MARINE REVIEW, : t No. 13 Western Union Building, CH1CAGO, IIL, Oct. 6. The fight between the tug men and the Society for the Prevention ef Smoke hascome to anend by the tugs all being forced to burn hard coal Wednesday morning. There are fifty of them engaged in general towing here, and the increase in bills for fuel is very heavy. It is likely that the tugs will lose money on the balance of the season's business. If tlhe smoke society would but show the same energy in prosecuting the numberless other offenders something might really be done in ending the smoke nuisance. ~The justice of the peace before whom the suits were tried fined the smoking locomotives $9, but nothing less than $50 would do in a tug ease. The locomotives are just as bad as they ever were, but no one believes that the society will do anything 'with them. The railroad men have a bigger pull with the society than the _ tug men, und will be letdown easy. As it now is, the river interest is the only one in all Chicago which is making a serious move to stop smoke. Although there is not a vessel owner around the Jakes but would prefer having their boats loaded at South Chicago instead of in the crowded south branch of Chicago river, vessel agents hold steadily against any difference in rates between South Chicago and here. here is at least a natural difference of an eighth of a cent a bushel, and on some cargoes a quarter. Agents state that it would be unwise to make different figures between the two ports. Counselman & Co., owners of the South Chicago elevator, are leaving nothing undone to get lower freights, and in the end vesselmen may be compelled to grant their demands. It now seems likely that the city will build a hydraulic lift bridge at South Halstead street. The council virtually ordered it last Monday night. This bridge acts on the principle of an elevator, and is lifted on supports placed on each side of he river, above the top of the highest boat. The esti- mates are for a cost of $145,000, Capt. Wiley M. Eagan has been attending the session of the Grand Lodge of Masons here this week. It was in 1856 that Capt. Egan attended his first grand lodge, aud he has been going to its sessions ever since. John Gordon, the general manager of the Northern Steamship and Lehigh Valley lines, was in the city Monday on his way home from St. Paul. Mr. Gordon had a very cordial greeting from his associates of the time when he was Chicago agent of the Anchor Line. He seemed satisfied with the way things were going in Chicago, and intimated that E. J. Henry would continue' to be the Lehigh Valley's agent here. He will be back again on a short trip in about a week. A Qualifying Statement Needed. Epiror Marine Review:--A copy of your influential and widely circu- lated journal of the 29th ult. has reached me in this city, and I note that in its leading editorial article, under the head of " Demanding Standard Systems of Inspection", the following "broad"' statement is attributed to me, Viz: '¢ That there is not another steel vessel on the lakes, under construction or in commission, that would be given in present condition, a classification under the rules of the American Shipmaster's Association." The gentlemen who attempted to quote me in this statement undoubtedly intended to be correct, but failed to add the qualifying clause, viz: '" Without a careful examination of the proportions and survey of the scantlings of which such vessels are composed."' I therefore respectfully submit that, wanting this qualifying clause your article does me an injustice, in that I am made to ap- pear as believing that there are many weak and light vessels engaged in lake commerce, and that I am willing to speak with asperity of other people's prop. erty. Such a conclusion and statement on my part is not justified by any actual knowledge of the facts. That there are many excellent steam vessels of iron, steel and wood engaged in the lake service, is without question; and to have them all reflected upon by the " broad' statement referred to, would be flagrant injustice to their owners, as well as to the American Shipmasters' Association, which I have the honor to represent. While the appalling loss of life and property in the Western Reserve case should not pass without the gravest consideration, it should be borne in mind that with increased skill among marine architects, engineers and ship builders, there is no great or insurmountable difficulty in adequately strengthening any metallic ship by the addition of comparatively a few tons of material; espe- cially, if the same is distributed with proper consideration and with reference to the proportion of the vessel and the cords of strain exerted in each particu- . lar case. Believing that the publication of this will meet with your approval, as well as with your known spirit of fairness, I am with great respect, E. Puatr &rrarron, The Richelieu, Michigan Avenue Boulevard, Chicago, October 3, 1892. Millions of Logs--Lake Rafting Business. With the opening of the next session of Congress the vessel ownels of the lakes will try to secure a settlement of the vexed log towing question. They will meet with decided opposition from the lumber interests, but it is more than probable that a bill of some kind regulating raft towing will be passed. On the Atlantic coast a few large rafts have been moved long distances -- with more or less success of late years, but nowhere in this country has the business reached such proportions as on the lakes. About 160,000,000. feet of logs have been rafted from the Georgian bay district across Lake Huron to Michigan saw mills this season, and Mr. Roys, of the Michigan Log Towing Asso- ciation, who is a competent authority on the subject, says ina recent interview in the Northwestern Lumberman, that next year Alpena will receive from Canada nearly 100,000,000 teet of logs, and that mills on the Saginaw river will receive 200,000, 000 feet. These logs will be made up into probably 100 rafts, or a raft for almost every day of the season favorable to the business, which runs from June to October. ; The value of one of these rafts varies from $30,000 to $50,- 000, and the value of the timber thus rafted during the season would amount to between $6,000,000 and $8,000,000. An aver- age of 100 to 200 vessels traverse this course every day, and the value of boats and cargoes passing through Lake Huron in one day would amount to as much as the value of the timber rafted across the lake during the. entire season. ach one of these vessels has to be built and equipped according to government requirements for safe navigation to the craft itself, as well as for safety of other vessels. Certain lights have to be carried, and watchmen have to be employed, in order that collision may be prevented. On the other hand, there are practically no regulations gov- erning the rafting business. Mr. Roys, the Lumberman referred to above, makes a very strange statement in this connection. In speaking of the new system of double booms, he declares that "if a reckless captain of a steamer plying up and down the lakes, should chance to run into such a raft, his vessel would be the sufferer in the encounter." No captain will run into a raft properly lighted. 'That rafts can be constructed like a ram, and can possibly sink a cargo steamer worth four or five times as much as the raft, ora passenger steamer with several hundred passengers, would seem, from the statement just quoted, to be a matter of pleasant contemplation for lumbermen. But it is not the absence of lights alone that isa menace to navigation. Rafts are not built to withstand a heavy storm, and therefore are mainly towed in summer, when fair weather is expected. Good weather can not always be counted upon, however, and _ in all seasons there are numerous accounts of these rafts breaking up. The loose logs are not all recovered, and float around the lakes half-submerged, until driven ashore. A $235,000 steel steamer recently had every bucket knocked off her wheel by one of these logs. She was towed into Sand Beach, where she waited several days for repairs. A water soaked log, struck end on, would puncture a steel steamer. In the interview referred to above Mr. Roys says of the history of rafting business on the great lakes: "T'wenty years ago a Chicago firm tried the experiment of bringing logs across Lake Michigan, and lost them because the quantity was so small that the force of the gale carried them over and under the boom sticks, and the enterprise was abandoned, and nine out of ten of the men familiar with the storms that sweep over the great lakes said it never could be done asa regular business, but now the most timid business man will risk his logs along with the boldest. Long booms stretched across the waves let the logs slip out beneath them, so that shorter boom sticks of large size were used, which followed the undulations of the water. Chains were used, larger and larger, until now the mas- sive 14 inch chains that bind the booms together will hold fast, though the tempest rages, provided the raft is in open water. For the first few years no one thought of putting a double boom around a raft, but it was discovered that if a raft got ashore the single string of booms was liabie to get kinked and break apart, while a double boom, properly fastened and looked after would scarcely ever break up and scatter the logs. In the tall of 1886 the tug Mocking Bird started from French river with the first log boom raft that was ever towed from Georgian bay. She ex- perienced stormy weather, and was obliged to leave her raft in a sheltered cove on Strawberry island until the following spring, when she picked it up and towed it to its destination. 'This was the forerunner of the long procession of great rafts that now fol- low each other in quick succession from the northern rivers out across Lake Huron and into the Saginaw river."' eats 1