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

10 | MARINE REVINW. 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 tocents 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 of the 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. : 'SL@AIM VESSEIS 0... vcnsensascrenosienssodenee vanes 1,631 763,063.32 ATU MECKEIS se tase neons otesrosies at ceaes sists 1,226 319,617.61 GaialBDOACS Cee cesses ioscnlonasarseiseddssecccteese 731 75,500 50 Barges.......seee Baeen eran ocean Ns Wan devon te cdetacee 69 25,321.12 POH ee cal ch csssvacmarnesheghe apes obxceh 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. POGOe pial vadcencDtcedeccwcesdeteiiecee erties 222 IOI, 102,87 MODG tion ieee corasews ce cteaeete daeoeren een sentcate 225 107,080.30 MOQ Ose scsiicy seeiccanictsnseuasnnades ce edadeisecess 218 108,515.00 TOOL eseseweseceessies Piecandacgsceensnesseeceeiss 204 111,856.45 TOO Qcatecececnss sass iconseareusctsscustsapecrave 169 45,168.98 otal inie Sins ce Oeste hse sabe ees 1,038 473,723.60 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAI, TRAFFIC. St. Mary's Falls Canal. Suez Canal. 1892. 1891. 1890. 1892. 1891. 1890. No. vessel passages 12,580] 10,191} 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|6,890,014 Days of navigation.. 223 225 228 365 365 365 Fintered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. A LETTER from Mr. E. C. O'Brien, commissioner of nav- igation, notifies members of the Lake Carriers' Association that a bill dealing with wrecked vessels, derelicts and other menaces to navigation in the navigable waters of the United States, will be offered at the opening of the next Congress, and that a draft of the same will be submitted to the association for its considera- tion and approval. This measure, when introduced, will be de- serving of earnest consideration from the association. Several instances of annoyance and danger from delay in removing aban- doned sunken wrecks, and from a want of funds to place lights over sunken vessels which owners were slow in removing, have occurred on the lakes within the past few years. 'The statutes now provide "that all wrecks of vessels and other obstructions to the navigation of any port, roadstead, harbor, or navigable river, or other navigable waters of the United States, which may have been permitted by the owners thereof or the parties by whom they were caused to remain to the injury of commerce and nay- igation for a longer period than two months, shall be subject to be broken up and removed by the secretary of war, without liability for any damage to the owners of the same."' In pursu- ance of work of this kind, however, the war department en- counters delay in advertising for bids from wrecking companies and in other red tape methods that should be overcome by a law that will permit of immediate action. In the case of wrecked vessels afloat and permanently abandoned, commonly designated derelicts, there is no provision of law authorizing any officer ot the government to destroy them. However it appears to be the practice of the navy department, when its attention is called to such wrecks or derelicts as being a menace to navigation, and on becoming satisfied that the government will not be liable for damages, to blow such wreck or derelict up. But in this regard also the absence of full authority of law is the cause of vexatious delays, and the commissioner of navigation will do the shipping interests a great favor if he can secure the passage of a bill that will overcome the present delay in removing obstructions from navigable waterways. ----<--$-------------------------------- AN international question has again arisen over the work of dredging one section of the 20-foot channel, Collector Gott of Amberstburg,. Ont., has refused to allow the contractors on the Bar point section, Messrs. L. P. & J. A. Smith of- Cleveland, to operate their dredges on a large part of the work contemplated in the vicinity of Bar point and Bois Blanc island, near the mouth of the Detroit river, threatening them with seizure if his orders are violated. It has been hinted that the contractors, who took the job at a low figure, prompted this action on the part of the Canadian collector, but Mr. L. P. Smith denies this charge and says that his firm is ready, notwithstanding the small mar- gin of profit, to push work on the contract, if Gen. Poe will make- arrangements that will permit of dredging in the disputed por- tion of the channel, and thus give steady employment to the dredges. Although it is generally admitted that a portion of the Lime-Kilns crossing in this same locality is in Canadian waters, no such question as that now brought up was heard while the improvements at the crossing were under way. Gen. Poe is fully informed on all matters pertaining to the present difficulty, but he has not answered the reports of the contractors regarding the action of the Canadian collector at Amherstburg, and it is not known whether the war department has considered the conditions of enough importance to take up the subject with the Canadian government. eas OwNneERsS and masters of vessels who depend largely upon newspaper reports in keeping a record of passages, arrivals, departures, etc. should render all possible assistance in having correct reports. 'The newspapers spend thousands of dollars in furnishing this information. Just now the only complaint from the Lake Marine News Association of Chicago, which has this work in charge, is in regard to passages at Mackinaw, where some masters render no assistance at all in having their boats reported. In most cases where vessels are missed at Mackinaw the fault is with the captains, who take the north passage and do not display burgees. Vessels running from the head of Lake Superior to Chicago gain a few miles in taking the north pas- sage, but there is no good reason for this course being followed by vessels in the Lake Michigan trade, and in all cases masters should run as close to the point as possible. FIFTEEN people who were injured at Cold Spring, Long is- land, in 1891, sued the Miners' Excursion Navigation Company for $200,000. 'The defendant claimed that the suits could not be maintained, as the barge upon which the injured ones were at the time of the accident was only worth $2,500, and that the statutes limit the sum they could recover to the worth of the ves- sel. The plaintiffs held that as this vessel was not seaworthy, and was propelled by another vessel, the case did not come un- der the statute. Judge Benedict of the United States district court, Brooklyn, N. Y., decided that this point was well taken, and ruled that the plaintiffs could recover also to the amount of the towing vessel, which was worth about $10,000. Mr. WATSON, editor of the Engineer of New York, makes passing reference to an item about excessive vibration in two or three lake steamers, which appeared recently in the REVIEW. "A very common cause of vibration," he says, "is unbalanced screws. Very little attention is paid to this by engine builders. As a rule not one screw in 100 is balanced in the shop; a run- ning balance, not a static balance, is what we refer to. Centrifu- gal force increases as the square of the velocity, and a wheel that is only 100 pounds out of balance develops a tremendous centri- fugal force at seventy-six revolutions per minute. We have known many instances where vibration was cured by balancing."