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ARRINE REVIEW. Vou, IX. CLEVELAND, O., anv CHICAGO, ILL, JAN: 11, 1804. 2 oNA First Twenty-foot Channel Boat. 'Tt is more than probable that the price at which the Globe Iron Works Company of Cleveland has contracted for steel for the new freight steamer to be laid down shortly is the lowest ever secured on ship material in this country. And yet the steel is to be of the best, and Gen. Manager Pankhurst says the boat's | scantlings will be the heaviest ever used on the lakes. The low price of material is, of course, due to the great efforts being made by manufacturers to secure business, and is in part due also to what seems to be a determination on the part of the Car- negie company to secure orders at any price. But for the con-. ditions that have brought about low prices the boat would not be built. It can certainly be said that this keel is laid solely for the purpose of keeping a ship. yard organization together. On the other hand, however, the boat will be built at a cost lower than anything previously known on the lakes, and if a buyer is not found for her the builders, through connection with the ship- owning firm of M. A. Hanna & Co., can operate her to the best advantage offered in general business. The steamer will be 304 feet keel, 324 feet over all, 42 feet - beam and 28 feet deep, and will be equipped with gangways and - machinery for handling flour and other package freight, so as to be adapted tothe Buffalo trade as wellas the ore business. With increased depth and corresponding strength she is in- tended to carry a full load drawing 18 or 19 feet of water, and may thus be styled the first 20-foot channel boat, as it is pretty generally admitted that few if any of the boats now in commis- sion can take full advantage of the increased draft of water to be obtained by this big improvement now. being made by the gov- ernment. 'The inspection will be under the rules of the United States Standard Register. The engines will be triple expansion but details have not as yet been decided upon, as the question of speed is unsettled. The Globe company. will also build for L. P. and J. A. Smith of Cleveland, as soon as plans can be completed, three | steel tug hulls, the largest of which will be 80 feet long, 18 feet wide and 12 feet depth. Machinery and boilers now in the tugs Ida Sims, L. P. Smith and one other of the older wooden tugs of the Smith line will be used in these new steel hulls. - Wreck Charts for the Pacific and the Lakes. If appropriations can be secured, the hydrographic office, navy department, proposes to extend to the Pacific coast and the lakes the work of issuing monthly wreck charts, which has met with great success on the Atlantic. In addition to the regular North Atlantic chart the Washington office of the service sends out this month an advance chart of the North Pacific, which will be published regularly if the recommendation of the secre- tary of the navy for an appropriation of $10,000 is favorably con- sidered by congress. Of the proposed chart for the lakes, George P. Blount, the officer in charge of the Chicago branch office, No. 1621 Masonic Temple building, says: 'Tt is the intention of the hydrographer to issue a some- what similar chart of the great lakes, if the necessary appropria- tion can be secured. This chart will not contain the meteoro- logical data contained in the other pilot charts, as it is already given by the weather bureau; but only such information ofa nautical character as may be useful and interesting to lake sailors, such as curves of equal magnetic variation, wrecks, buoys out of place, changes in lights, use of oil, new shoals discovered, etc., etc. Information or suggestions on this subject will be gratefully received at any time, as it is the earnest wish of the hydrographer to assist all who navigate the lakes. It is believed that such a monthly chart will be appreciated by both business men and lake sailors." New Charts of the Lakes and Connecting Waterways. Under appropriations, during the past five years, aggregat- ing $55,000, re-examinations have been made of various locali- ties around the lakes, and importaut changes are being made in a large number of the charts. An appropriation of $25,000, made by the last congress, and which is included in the above total, will result in improvements in some of the charts that will be especially pleasing to vessel masters. Under this appropria- tion, the men in charge of the work on the St. Mary's river, who are acting under the direction of Gen. Poe, have finished enough field work to enable them to make the drawing for chart No. 3. of the adopted series for new charts of the river, with the excep- tion of the hydrographic work, which it is expected to be able to obtain most economically and accurately by sounding through . the ice this winter. In addition, a great deal of work has been accomplished, such as triangulation, astronomical determinations, a etc., which will be available for the other charts, and there i is AS now an excellent organization for continuing the work. Outfits, e instruments, etc., have been obtained and are in working order. It is understood also, that the first and most important of the new charts--that of Lake Superior on one sheet--is making good progress in the hands of the draftsman, and ought to be available for issue before very long, and the other charts of ) equal importance, such as Lake Michigan on one sheet and ~ coast charts of Lakes Superior and Huron, ought to follow i in due course. To give the organization in charge of this work its greatest efficiency as an aid to lake commerce, the vessel interests should see that the appropriation of $50,000 recommended by the chief of army engineers is secured at the present session of congress. The work in St. Mary's river so far has shown very clearly the necessity for new surveys, the changes being the natural results of the forty years that have elapsed since the former survey was made. The appropriation should not, however, be confined to work on the St. Mary's river. It sbould be made in lump and subsequently allotted by the chief of engineers in accordance with the immediate interests of lake commerce. Stocks of Grain at Lake Ports. The following table, prepared from reports of the Chicago board of trade, shows the stocks of wheat and corn in store at the principal points of accumulation on the lakes on Jan. 6, 1894: : Wheat, bu. Corn, bu. CPhicagos. -c<cd.s.-0014220¢0 eost- | L9,908,000, 2,994,000 Duluth: sores... tess «ts (0) 300,000 e = Mara ear samen Milwaukee 808; 000 5a ieee WEULOR Users ctcscdee vean oetaes s+. 1,605,000 15,000 TE GIEGO Rete vacde cvtensteoeees 2,616,000 421,000 Bitttalo users cst ok ieee scss 2,754,000 711,000 Total ia has 37,205,000 4,141,000 At the points named there is a net increase for the week of 109,000 bushels of wheat and 226,000 bushels of corn, *