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

ee 6 MARINE REVIEW. Preparing for the Next Session of Congress. As a result of conferences between Capt. George P. McKay, chairman of the Lake Carriers' committee on aids to navigation, and Mr. Keep, sec- retary of the association, a petition to the light-house board, setting forth new aids to navigation, for which appropriations will be sought from the next congress, has been prepared, and will within the coming week be presented to vessel owners and vessel masters in all parts of the lakes for signatures. The petition, which follows, embodies only such light- houses, light-ships and fog signals as are most needed and will serve to aid lake commerce in general: To the Light-House Board, Washington, D. C.:--The Lake Carriers' Association, and the undersigned managers and owners of lake vessels, representing the tonnage set opposite their names, respectfully petition the light-house board in favor of the following aids to navigation on the great lakes: 1. Light-house and fog signal on the southeast point of North Manitou island.--Provision was made for this lightin the last sundry civil bill, but was struck out in conference. The light is indispensable to the safe navigation of Lake Michigan and most urgently needed. Every season serious disasters result from the absence of a proper aid to navi- gation at this point. 2. Range light at Death's Door passage, Green bay, Lake Michigan.-- This is an aid to navigation long recommended by your board, but not yet provided for. The heavy tonnage moving iron ore from Escanaba to Chicago is in constant need of these lights, and they have been urged for many years. ; 8. Grassy island, south and north end, ranges, Detroit river, Michigan.--These lights were recommended by the board in its report for the year ending June 30, 1898, but no appropriations have been made therefor. The small expense involved in erecting these range lights and their great usefulness to the enormous tonnage which passes through the river ought to secure their immediate construction, They will fully complete the lighting of the Detroit river. 4. Fog signal at Eagle Harbor, Lake Superior.--Vessel masters have for some time been strenuous in urging a fog signal in connection with the light-house at Eagle Harbor. Within a few weeks the steamer H. W. Sibley struck heavily in thick weather while close to the light house at this point, and narrowly escaped avery serious loss. This is but one of several incidents which have proved the necessity of a fog signal as an adjunct to this important light station. Kagle Harbor isa turning point for vessels bound both east and west on Lake Superior. The light is one of the most important on the entire chain of lakes, as at this point vessels fall in with the land, and a fog signal would be of special advantage to the heavier commerce bound eastward, as the nearest fog signal in the direction of the head of the lakes is at Outer island, Apostle group, while to the east there is no fog signal until Manitou island is reached. 5. Light-house and fog signal at Crisp's point, Lake Superior.--A petition signed by the owners of all the largest fleets on the lakes is now on file with the light-house board, asking for alight at this point. We respectfully refer the board to the reasons given in that petition. 6. Light-house and fog signal on Middle island, Lake Huron.--Off Middle island is the point where vessels bound north on Lake Huron shape their courses for Detour and Lake Superior, or for the Straits of Mackinaw, as the case may be. It isan important turning point, and, though there are other light houses not far distant on each side of Middle island, a new station is none theless necessary at this point. Many vessels have brought up at Middle island and severe losses have been sustained there. 7. Light-ship and fog signal near Gravelly island, Poverty passage, Lake Michigan.--Poverty passage is the most important passage between Green bay and Lake Michigan, and it is the one generally used by ore vessels trading between Escanaba and the lower lakes. 'his is one of the most important routes of the lake commerce, and this light ship and the one next mentioned are needed to complete its lighting. Nearly all of the commerce of Green bay, which includes the great movement of iron ore from Escanaba, amounting in one year (1892) to more than 3,000,000 tons, passes at this point between two shoals that are only a little more than a mile apart. 8. Light-ship and fog-signal where the can buoy is now located north of Squaw island, lake Michigan.--Foul and dangerous water ex- tends fora long distance north of the light-house on Squaw island. Vessels fearing such obstruction have to keepa considerable distance north from the light. When so doing on dark nights they run serious risk of disasters on the rocky shoal where the can buoy is now located, During the season of navigation numerous vessels pass close to this shoal every night with no means of locating it satisfactorily. Ifa gas buoy would be placed there it would answer the purpose perfectly, but your board will know whether such a solution of the difficulty is practical. If it is not, a proper light-ship should be put in service. ---- 9, Fog signal, Cat Head point.--Cat Head point is one of the most important lights between Chicago and the Straits of Mackinaw. It is also the only light at the entrance of Grand Traverse bay, where there is a very considerable local traffic. A fog signal in connection with this important light is very urgently required. . 10. Lighting entrance to Grand Marais harbor of refuge, Lake Superior, Michigan.--The government has expended a large amount of money for a harbor of refuge at this point, and nothing has been done towards making this expenditure useful by providing a proper light and signal there. The great usefulness of this light would be in connec- nection with the harbor of refuge, but there is also an important lumber traffic developing at this point, which is an additional argument for the early establishment of the light. The light has been recommended by the light-house board and authorized by congress, but no appropriation has yet been made. In petitioning your board at this time for the above mentioned aids to navigation, your petitioners, representing the entire body of vessel owners on the great lakes, have had chiefly in mind the desirability of informing the light-house board fully as to what new lights and signals they deem most necessary for the safety of life and property. We think the light-house board would be glad to know what the wishes of vessel owners and vessel masters are in this respect, and to what conclusions they have come as the result of practical experience. We are aware that some of these aids to navigation have been heretofore recommended by your board, and that others havé not; but even in the case of those recom- mended, we know that on the board depends, ina large measure, our success in obtaining the necessary appropriations from congress. We shall ask congress at its coming session to make appropriations for these aids to navigation, and we know that with the hearty support of the light- house board we can obtain provision for all, or nearly all, of them. We know also that without such snpport we may in a great measure, if not altogether, fail. We believe that each of these aids to navigation will save many times its cost in property, to say nothing of the increased safety which they will give to human life, and we think that they are all indispensable to safe navigation. We earnestly request your board to ask the district officers of the various districts, where these proposed lights and signals are, to make a special inquiry into the need for them. Masters of lake vessels, if consulted by the local light-house officers, will be happy to furnish them with the details of their experience at these points, and with the reasons why they deem new lights and signals so necessary. Believing the proposed additions to aids to navigation on the lakes to be in each case indispensable, we respectfully petition your board that they may be classed as such, and that we may have the hearty support of the light-house boardin obtaining provision for them from congress. <As owners of the property for which the light-house establishment on the lakes exists, we have chosen this particular time to submit our petition, because we know that your board must have under consideration the estimates to be submitted to the next congress by the secretary of the treasury for light-house construction, and that upon the result of such consideration our success at the next session of congress largely depends. It is unnecessary for us to dwell upon the extent of the interests represented on this petition, or to direct your attention again to the peculiar character of lake navigation. The narrow and shallow channels, the constant proximity of vessels to dangerous shores, the great pre- valence of smoke and fog, and the great and increasing size, number and value of the vessels, are all well known to the district officers and to your board. These conditions make lake navigation peculiarly dependent upon the light-house establishment, and give us, as we think, a special claim to favorable consideration. The New Mitchell Steamer. The steamer to be built by F. W. Wheeler & Co., of West Bay City for Capt. John Mitchell of Cleveland, W. H. Gratwick and others of Buffalo, and for which material is now being purchased, will be of the following dimensions: Length over all, 370 feet 6 inches; length between perpen- diculars, 352 feet; beam, moulded 44 feet 6 inches; beam extreme, 44 feet 8 inches; depth moulded, 26 feet 3inches. 'The engines will be of the build- ers' make, triple expansion, cylinders 20, 3214 and 55 by 42 inch stroke. Steam will be supplied by two return tubular boilers, 13 feet 6 inches di- ameter by 12 feet long, at a pressure of 170 pounds per square inch. The main frames will be ofangle bulbs. Sheer strake and upper deck string- ers will be very heavy, double butt strapped and treble riveted with l-inch steel rivets. The water bottom will be constructed on the cell- ular system with four longitudinal girders on each side of center vertical keelson. This water bottom will be 54 inches deep witha capacity of 1,500 tons water ballast. She will have ten hatches, 30 feet wide by 8 feet long. Intermediate frames will be fitted forward of collision bulkhead as a pro- tection against ice. The cabins will be of the usual steambarge type. She will be supplied with steam steerer, steam capstan and windlass, patent stockless anchor, etc. ieee