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MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. Published every Thursday at No. 516 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, O. Chicago office, (branch), No. 706 Phoenix building. SUBSCRIPTION--$2.00 per year in advance. Single copies 10 cents sen 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. WHLEATITEVESSEISS pcccnssbctucdssvacsciseeeusecedeers 1,631 763,063.32 IUERVERSELS oSetere foe ce een oenectotedereuteecs 1,226 - 319,617.61 WAN AIEDOALS oli- cide' sclesnew'ch's Sodoas secede sivesescs 731 75,580.50 IBALGES te tcsseaa se veek as ococesestese ast noch ressss caseus 69 25,321.12 PE OL AL ccocck 8. Syed recudateacdtyvessan dvieaisd 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. 222 IOI, 102.87 225 107,080.30 218 108,515.00 204 I11,856.45 169 45,168.98 1,038 473,723.60 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL, TRAFFIC. St. Mary's Falls Canal. Suez Canal. 1892. 1891. 1890. 1892. 1891. 1890. No. vessel passages 12,580] 10,19I| ~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 Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. IN a paper on "The Waterway from the Lakes to Tide- Water," read before the recent Water Commerce Congress at Chicago, George Y. Wisner, M. Am. Soc. C. E., says: "The government is now practically committed to securing a 20-foot channel through the connecting waterways of the lake system, and although the plans now being carried out for this purpose will not give any such depth, there is no doubt but that such _ modifications will have to be made in the near future as will pro- duce such aresult." Although Mr. Wisner's paper is otherwise very clear, and is altogether a very able argument in favor of an outlet for lake commerce to the seaboard by way of the present Eerie canal route, he fails to go into detail regarding the charge _ that the plans now being carried out by the war department for a 20-foot channel throughout the lakes will not give such depth. Mr. Wisner, who lives at Detroit, is very close to the scene ot operations under the direction of Gen. Poe, andif he is hinting at anything radically wrong it might be well for the vessel in- terests to listen to what he has tosay. He has been in charge of important works on 'he Mississippi, but is known to be Op- posed to the methods of the army engineer corps. It is not ex- pected that the new deep channel when completed will permit of vessels loading to full 20 feet, any more than a channel of 16 feet will at present warrant the vessel owner in loading to the depth Shown by sounding, but Mr. Wisner seems to hint at something more important than this condition, which is generally accepted. LAKE vessel owners have every reason to be satisfied with committees in the House of Representatives, as announced a few days ago by Speaker Crisp. Mr. Blanchard of Louisiana retains the chairmanship of the committee on rivers and harbors. The changes are Stewart of Texas, Haynes of Ohio, Byrnes of Missouri and Quackenbush of New York, not re-elected, and Weadock of Michigan and Stone of Pennsylvania, dropped from the committee. The new members are Barnes of Wisconsin, McCulloch of Arkansas, Caminetti of California, Causey of Dela- ware and Alderson of West Virginia, Democrats, and Grosvenor of Ohio, Reyburn of Pennsylvania and Hooker of New York, Republicans. Mr. Weadock of Michigan, one of the members dropped from a lake district, was not in favor of the 20-foot channel work. The committee on commerce, which will pass upon aids to navigation, is practically unchanged, Messrs, Brickner of Wisconsin and Houk of Ohio being among the active members who worked hard in the last Congress for an increase in the number of lights and fog signals on the lakes. As a result of having made no season contracts for its very large fleet of whaleback vessels 6n the lakes, the American Steel 'Barge Company has been forced to tie up some of these craft and suffer long delays in port with such of the fleet as are not tied up, just as owners of other vessels have been doing for several weeks past. On account of the general depression in finances, the Messabi iron mines controlled by the owners of the whale- backs have shipped only a few thousand tons of ore, and there is a big loss through this source, from which the barge company had expected an extensive business. Still, the English builders of the same type of vessel are pushing the work of constructing - several ships,on the score of economy in first cost, increase of capacity and low operating charges. At the yard of William - Doxford & Sons, Sunderland, where a second turret ship, which is similar to the whaleback, was launched a short time ago for Messrs. Peterson, Tate & Co. of Newcastle-on-Tyne, there is also nearing completion a whaleback of exactly the same type as those in commission on the lakes. This latter vessel, for the construction of which a royalty is paid to the American owners of the patents, is the first of several whaleback cargo steamers to be run in the Johnson line between Baltimore and other Atlantic ports and Liverpool. Ir lake underwriters are responsible for some of the state- ments appearing in the newspapers these days, they are certainly following a very bad policy. A short time ago they prompted vessel owners to give expression to their feelings in very strong language by intimating that there was a general fear of insur- ance notes not being paid when they came due, on account of -- the depression in business, and now, as a result of a few small fire losses, it is said that the rate for fire risks will undoubtedly be increased next spring. No matter how heavy losses from all causes may be this season, the underwriters will fare better than "most people in lake business. They seem to be crying before they are hit, and it might be well for them to remember that, as margins must come down in everything pertaining to lake commerce in the future, andas new classification societies are working their way into lake insurance business, they may find in maintaining rates in the future more trouble than they have _ experienced in the past. THE local inspectors of steam vessels in the Duluth district will not be doing their full duty if they do not investigate very thoroughly the disgraceful performance, a few days ago, of the competing tugs Fiske and Carrington, while trying to secure a tow. The spectacle of harbor tugs deliberately running into each other is an open defiance of the steamboat laws that would Seem to indicate little fear of these laws being enforced. SECRETARY KxEp of the Lake Carriers' Association is right in the conclusion that the present depression in lake traffic is due largely to over-production of vessel tonnage. How could it be otherwise when it is known that since 1886 the new tonnage has not fallen below 50,000 tons a year and has exceeded 100,000 tons. s The Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Company will run a new line of steamers between Montreal, Hamilton and interme- diate points, The new steamer Magnet, now building at Sorel, Que., will be put on the route when finished, on or about Sept. I. ' 7 We 2 OT es arate alia cee Pe