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MARINE REVIEW. VoL. X. CLEVELAND, O., SEPTEMBER 27, 1894. No. 13. Coal Frelght Agreement--Fall Rates. With the close of the thirty-day agreement among vessel owners and brokers in Cleveland, providing for a 50-cent rate on all soft coal carried to Lake Superior, it was understood that a renewal of the contract, if such it may be called, was to be made. On the last day, one broker placed three boats at 45 cents, and the result was a stormy meeting of the owners, who had been sending many of their boats up light and were disturbed by in- dications of a break in the ranks after they had held out for a full month in support of the fixed rate. A new and more stringent agreement was drawn up, and with the exception of the boats put in on the last day, there have been no further reports of the rate being cut. Telegrams from sev- eral leading owners in ports other than Cleveland announced a willingness to continue the agreement, and committees have since been working with the managers of ore companies, with a view to having them join the indi- vidual owners and refrain from taking any moreof the coal for their boats at 45 cents. When the indications of a break occurred, leading owners who have been most active in support of the. 5(-cent rate, threatened to put boats in at 20 or even 10 cents a ton if any more cutting occurred, and the very firm stand taken by a few of the leaders had most to do with the continuation of the agreement. : The combination works hardest with the brokers, who are losing com- missions, and who are also fearful in a few instances of not fully satisfy- ing outside customers, but there are some very important points at stake, as one owner putsit. "Let us suppose," he says, "that we failin the movement, and that coal is carried during October, or at any time this fall, below the rate fixed by the owners. What will be the result? Coal shippers will go ahead next winter making sales on the low estimates of lake freight that prevailed during the low-priced sales of last winter, and they will come into the freight market with only a low freight for con- tracts and a still lower basis of wild freights. They will feel satisfied that a failure in the present movement will prevent any possibility of organi- zation among vessel owners during another season, and in that regard they are entirely right. On the other hand, success with the present agreement will cause every coal shipper on the lakes to go slow in making sales at low prices and give the matter of lake freight the consideration that is due to it. Letit be admitted that shipments this fall are to be re- stricted on account of the 50-cent freight, and the vessel owner has the best side of the question anyhow. If supplies forwarded this fall are short, the business of next season will be increased by additional ship- ments, on which allowance will be made for a better lake freight." Notwithstanding a very limited demand as yet for vessels to take grain from either Duluth or Chicago to Buffalo, the ore movement con- tinues sufficiently large to absorb all tonnage offered at the advanced rates established early in the month. At this writing there is a fair demand for ore carriers at 85 cents from the head of the lakes, 70 cents from Marquette and 50 cents from Escanaba, bnt it is admitted that these rates will not hold without a more active grain movement from Duluth as ore shippers have had ample opportunity to fulfill their contracts with the furnaces. Neither will higher freights be paid on any great quantity of ore, in event of grain freights improving, as there is enough ore down now to meet all requirements in the iron ore trade until the opening of another season. Duluth vessel brokers claim that railways in the northwest are only now completing the work of clearing tracks and repairing bridges, which was begun after the forest fires, and that there will be some grain to move next week. There is practically no grain in Buffalo, and it is to be expected, of course, that there will at least be shipments during October for the filling up of elevators there and for stor- age in vessels later on, but the outlook as regards grain is very uncertain and not very encouraging to the vessel owner. Some comment has been heard regarding blocks of ore taken for the balance of the season at 85 cents from the head of the lakes, but the total of business of this kind is probably not more than 50,000 tons. Lumber freights have been im- proving, and the rate from the head of Lake Superior to Buffalo, is now quoted at $2. The full text of the soft coal freight agreement signed in Cleveland this week follows: "We, the undersigned, hereby solemnly agree to and with each other and each with all of the other subscribers hereto and each pledges him- self that for thirty days from date we will not make or be a party to any charter for ourselves or for others as brokers or otherwise, directly or indirectly, of any tonnage whatever and will not permit to be chartered any tonnage, we own or control, directly or indirectly, to carry soft coal from any Lake Erie port to any port on Lake Superior, either shore or the head of the lake, at a less freight than 50 cents per net ton, and we each agree to submit to the secretary of this meeting a list of our con- tract coal and to report daily hereafter vessels put in on contract." Northern Line Passenger Boats. Mr. F. P. Gordon, who was aboard the North West on her last trip down the lakes, says there is no doubt of the second boat, the North Land, being completed in time for the passenger trade next season. The second boat is now as well advanced, he says, as was the North West on Dec. 1 a year ago, and work on her will be resumed shortly. Mr. Gordon says the North West's passenger business on each of her sixteen trips has shown a balance on the right side, and on the whole the traffic has been fully up to expectations. Sensational newspaper reports regarding the slight delay caused by the boat drifting into shoal water at Bar point caused a cancellation of some business for late trips, and this was partly the cause of the boat being laid up a trip or two earlier than was expected. On the last trip one of the new boiler feed pumps designed by Mr. Peck was used, and Mr. Gordon says that as the only difficulty encountered with the Belleville boilers has been confined to the peculiar feed ar- rangement, and as this seems to have been fully overcome with the new pumps, the tubulous boilers will certainly be installed in the second boat also. Even under difficulties with the feed pumps, he says, the boat has made good time, her delays being caused by fog and time lost in locking through St. Mary's Falls canal. On the last trip from Detroit to Cleveland several representatives of the Detroit city government, the Detroit Dry Dock Company and Detroit and Cleveland Steam Navigation Company were aboard by invitation of Mr. Gordon. Among them were Messrs. Frank E. and F. A, Kirby of the Dry Dock company, E. B. Whitcomb of the Detroit and Cleveland Steam Navigation Company and T, F. Newman of the Cleveland and Buffalo Transit Company. Night Clearances at Escanaba. Mr. H. A. Barr, agent of the Chicago & North Western Railway Com- pany in charge of the iron ore docks at Escanaba, writes Cleveland vessel owners about a difficulty at that point in regard to vessel masters secur- ing clearance papers at night. He says: : : "Our deputy collector at this port, Mr. B. D. Winnegar, has been taken to task by the customs department for letting clearance blanks go out of his office. It has been the practice at this port to let blanks go up to the docks, where captains would obtain them, fill them out, and return them tothe deputy collector's office here--this only during the night time. But his instructions now are thatif masters want clearance papers they must goto the collector's office after them. Ofcourse, Mr. Winne- gar is at the office during the day, but at night noone is there; and as boats often come here in the night, and get away again before morning, unless there can be some arrangement made they will have to wait for their clearance pnpers. I write so you may know how it is, and if any- thing can be done in the matter, take such steps as may seem advisable." Of course this is a serious matter with the large number of big ore - carriers trading to Escanaba, and it will be given attention by officers of the Lake Carrier's Association. L. P. &J. A. Smith of Cleveland will not be at a very great loss if they fail to again float the worn-out hull of the old schooner Col. Cook, and if for nothing more than peace of mind among the thousands of readers of newspapers on the lakes, who have been tempted to swear every time they have seen reference to the old hulk, anditis to be hoped that her bones will be allowed to rest on the shore of Lake Erie near Cleveland, ~ where she was abandoned by her crew in a blow last week. For nearly half acentury the story of the Lady Elgin disaster has been rehearsed in all parts of the lakes almost every time the Col. Cook entered port. Mr. Richard Peck, expert in marine engine trials, who has been on the passenger steamer North West since her machinery was first turned over, leaves this week for the coast to take out the cruiser Maine. Capt. Campau and Engineer Frasier of the North West will very probably put in the balance ofthe season looking after the steamer launched by the 'Globe Iron Works Company several days ago, and which is to make a few trips this fall in the Northern Line.