The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

id MARINE REVIEW. MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. Chicago Office, Western Union Building, 706 Phoenix Building. Published every Thursday at No. 516 Perry-Payne Building, Cleveland, O. SUBSCRIPTION--$2.00 per year in advance. Single copies rocents each. Convenient binders sent, post paid, 75 cents. Advertising rates on appli- cation. The books of the United States treasury department contain the names of 3,657 vessels, of1,183,582.55 gross tons register in the lake trade. The lakes have more steam vessels of 1,000 to 2,500 tons than the com- bined ownership of this class of vessels in all other sections ofthe country. The number of steam vessels of 1,000 to 2,500 tons on the lakes on June 30, 1892, was 321 and their aggregate gross tonnage 534,490.27; in all other parts of the country the number of this class of vessels was,on the same date, 217 and their gross tonnage 321,784.6. The classification of the entire lake fleet is as follows: Gross. Class. ' Number. Tonnage. SLEAMIVESSEIS. 7-54 cesta cicsdsonvecsss staneteeenle 1,631 763,063.32 MAUIEM OAV CSE Sonasecats s-smsires ives ba vessncates oat 1,226 319,617.61 CAN AI DORUS ee seenieen see dsstoshccatcctwasereuscsedd 731 75,580.50 BALGESH tis cehcadects Shenk flea weeds deieel eetas deb 69 25,321.12 PROTA tacsce cots nde deca die deenilene desta 3,657 1,183,582.55 Tonnage built on the lakes during the past five years, according to the reports of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows : Number. Net Tonnage. MBSSe crete: vcd ance Mee eve tities ado 222 IOI,102.87 MOG adie daac iho Adee cisdssehatecsepedecenbocsiade 225 107,080.30 MOO ge pacers ces deh creates vaaueeua deuce caused' 218 108,515.00 TOG ticceceserets Stan ecaveeueccese these tats 204 111,856.45 MOG Dy staves recto erecce sai oe aun eee etieecees 169 45,168.98 OLA thts ckedcbontddclebed ta dddondes 1,038 473,723.60 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL, TRAFFIC. - St. Mary's Falls Canal. 1892. 1891. 1890. 1892. 1891. 1890. No. vessel passages 12,580] IO,IQI} 10,557 3,559 4,207 3,389 Ton'ge, net regist'd|10,647,203|8,400,685|8,454,435||7,712,028) 8,698,777|6,89°,014 225 228 365 365]. 365 Days of navigation.. 223 Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. Suez Canal. It is more than three years since the engineer corps of the war department finished work on the Lime-Kilns cut, a channel near the mouth of the Detroit river that was dredged out of solid rock at an immense cost, and yet the light-house board is to-day dallying with the vessel owners of the lakes over an expense of a few hundred dollars a year required for lighting this important highway. It is claimed, of course, that appropriations made for light-house purposes are insufficient for the requirements of the service, but it does seem as though the exegencies of this case should have prompted the board, which in the end has more in- fluence in the matter of appropriations than any other interest, to have fully provided for the lights long ago. After having maintained the crossing lights and a small light at Ballard's reef just above the crossing for several years at their own expense, the vessel owners, through the Lake Carriers Association, made a contract a year ago with the board, whereby they were to be relieved of this expense for a year by the board paying $1,800 for the service. This contract expires next week, and new light- ships for the places mentioned, which the board had expected to have in setvice by the time of expiration of the contract, will probably not be finished for several weeks to come, and the of- ficers of the board have as yet given no answer as to whether they will look after the lighting of the river after the expiration of the cotttract. Itis hardly probable that the board, after lighting this dangerous locality for a year, will give it up alto- gether in the interim before the new light-ships are completed, but the vessel owners have nevertheless been called upon, in the absence of any information as to the board's intention, to hold a meetitig this week, as it is out of the question to allow the ser- vice to be dropped for a single day. How OFTEN after the sinking of a vessel attended with loss of life has it been found that the small boat or boats which she carried wefe unseaworthy from not having received proper at- pees ste -- we tention? On the lakes this is especially true of sailing vessels, whose masters are responsible to no government authorities for the care of yawls, life rafts or other appliances aboard their ships, and who, in some cases, have been known to allow wooden life boats to go for the greater part of a season without examination. In England seamless steel boats are of late replacing wooden boats aboard many ships. The first cost of these boats 1s some- what greater than that of the wooden boats, but they are more economical in the end and appear to serve the purpose much better than wooden boats. Now ruar the highest court of admiralty jurisdiction in the United States, the circuit court of appeals, has decided that Frederick W. Vanderbilt's yacht Conqueror was not dutiable and that her detention by the government was unlawful, it might as well be admitted that at no time during the progress of legal action attending the question of admitting the yacht to free entry at American ports did the friends of shipping in this coun- try have very much hope of winning their case under present laws governing the admission of yachts. They managed, how- ever, to stir up a good deal of feeling against Mr. Vanderbilt and others, who, after becoming rich under American protection, go to England to spend their money when an occasion presents it- self. Av least two vessels built on the lakes recently, the Mari- tana and the Christopher Columbus, have been given to excessive vibration. Before the causes of this defect in the Maritana was located, some very silly stories were circulated about her. There are numerous cases right along in England and other ship build- . ing centers of steel steamers showing excessive vibration, and the subject has for several years been given a great deal of at- tention by scientific men engaged in the ship building industry. Tur American Shipbuilder of New York is of the opinion that the Campania will cross:the Atlantic in less than 5 days 12 hours before the summer is over, and so is everybody else who gave close attention to the performances of the Paris and New York after their first trials of speed. The MARINE REVIEW will be pleased to mail to any address on receipt of a postal card request a copy of a pocket map, show- ing an excellent outline of the world's fair grounds and a map of Chicago. If you are going tothe fair it will save you many useless steps. The Pope-Pelican Salvage Case. During the past week a settlement was made by the under- writers with the owners of the schooner Pelican, which was sunk off Ashtabula this spring, and the incident brings to mind an odd claim that has been hanging over the boat since she was picked up on Lake Superior last season in a dismantled condition by the Eddy Transportation Company's steamer E. C. Pope. The Pelican was then owned by the Winslow estate of Cleveland, but she was sold during the past winter to Capt. William Mack and others, also of Cleveland, for $12,000. When picked up by the Pope she was helpless, as she had lost all her canvas in a storm after being adrift from her steamer. The Pope towed her about sixty miles to the Sault, and for this service the owners of the big steamer put in a bill for $r2,000, an amount greater than the valuation given her afterward in appraisal and equal to the price at which she was sold during the winter. T'he big salvage claim was demanded, however, and trial of a suit brought in Detroit was had several months ago, but notwithstanding the loss of the vessel in the meantime, no decision in the case has been rendered and there has been no settlement of it. Wessel men are very much interested in the outcome of the case on account of the big claim demanded for a little service, as it was not shown that the Pope encountered great danger in picking up the schooner, and itis the general opinion that a few hundred dollars ought to cover the charges.