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10 : MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED : INTERESTS. Published every Thursday at No. 516 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, O. SUBSCRIPTION--$2.00 per year in advance. Singlecopies Io cents 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 3,341 vessels, of 1,227,400.72 gross tons register in the lake trade. The number of steam vessels of 1,000 gross tons and over that amount on the lakes on June 30, 1894, was 359 and their aggregate gross tonnage 634,467.84; the number of vessels of this class owned in all other parts of the country on the same date was 316 and their tonnage 642,642.50, so that half of the best steamships in all the United States.are owned on the lakes. The classification of the entire lake fleet on June 30, 1894, was as follows: Gross Class. Number. Tonnage. Steam vessels.........000« Roniecnoscsbasseuc noone 1,731 843,239-65 Sailing VeSsels.......cccssecccsssereeesssescecceers 1,139 302,985-31 Canal boats....... Beeneeeh tases ciicceanescemces scien 386 41,961.25 BargeS......0.sscsercssccessess Eoeasesredtecectosses 85 39,214.51 tot aleeacssdacterstccresencescssesoses sss 3341 1,227,400.72 The gross registered tonnage of vessels built on the lakes during the past five years, according to the reports of the United States com- missioner of navigation, is as follows: Number. Net Tonnage. Year ending June 30, 18go...... Raciciaee ease 20S 108,515.00 os ss s [GO Misteveccececnecsoces 204 111,856.45 fe cs as 1892...0006 Soueeceas wa LOD 45,168.98 is ae s ESOZrccnccscderenccses 175 99,271.24 e eo g LOOAne ccseeevauuvences I 41,984.61 MOtalecasccssrscaeeessescsuwncrssessnss 872 406,976.28 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. St. Mary's Falls Canal. Suez Canal 1893. 1892. | 189'. 1893. 1892. 1891. No. vessel passages} 12,008 12,580} 10,191 3,341 3,559 4,207 Ton'ge, net regist'd]9,849,754| 10,647,203 8,400,685|| 7,659,068) 7,712,028/8,698,777 Days of Navigation 219 223 225 365 365 365 Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. THAT SHIP owners and ship builders are alive to the necessity of using the best of materials in hull construction is very evident, and with few exceptions all the more recent contracts for new vessels have specified open hearth steel for the plates, if not for other parts. Owners generally want the best material and they are willing to pay for it, several instances which have come to our notice very recently showing this most conclusively. It is certainly to the interest of ship builders to join in this effort to secure the best possible construction consistent with a reasonable cost. That open hearth steel is the best grade of steel that is made for this purpose is beyond doubt, as this process admits of more careful manipulation than the bessemer, and a more thorough control of its product, thus securing more uniform results, this being based on a comparison of the acid open- hearth and bessemer processes. The acid open-hearth process has until the past few years been the only process for the manufacture of open-hearth steel in use in this country and it has ruledin the output of the best boiler steel and other high grade soft steel. This process uses only the best grades of raw material--pig iron low in phosphorus, sulphur and other elements which are most likely to be injurious. The high reputation of open-hearth as compared with other grades of steel has been obtained from the uniformly high results produced by the acid process. Owing to the increased de- mand for open hearth steel for ship and other purposes where quality is required, an effort to produce open-hearth steel at a reduced cost has been made by anumber of manufacturers with the result that they are now making by the basic open-hearth process, steel which assumes to be equal to the older and more uniform acid,open-hearth. Manufacturers of basic steel do not use standard bessemer pig iron or other high grade raw materials, but assume to be able to produce from the cheaper grade of pig iron and other cheap raw materials an open-hearth steel equal to that made by the acid process. That their results can not be as uniform and reliable is reasonable, and numerous instances of peculiar defects resulting in frac- ture of steel, with apparently no sufficient causes, would indicate that their claim of quality equal to the acid open-hearth is not warranted by the facts and would show also that the inferior quality of raw material used in the basic process does not produce a quality of open-hearth steel equal to that produced by the acid process. Efforts to reduce the cost of steelare to be commended, but if the cost is reduced at the expense of quality, little ad- vantage is gained in lines like ship building, and the fact that many prom- inent engineers who have made the subject a study prefer to use good bessemer steel rather than basic open-hearth for railroad bridges and other similar work would indicate that makers of basic open-hearth steel must improve their methods before their steel can be accepted as equal to the best. . qhat the use of raw materials equal to those used in the acid-open- hearth process would secure this result with proper care is not questioned but with this the lower cost would disappear. That all steel is liable to defect is unfortunately true also, but the best is that which is least liable to be defective and no other steel has as yet been produced that has proven so uniformly reliable as the acid-open-hearth, and those who require the best, will, for the present be wiser to specify this grade and not accept as the best all steel called open-hearth, regardless of the methods by which it is produced. . Advantages of the Nicaragua Canal. The construction of the Nicaragua Canal would bring us as near to Hong Kong as Liverpool; it would give us an advantage over Liverpool of 1,200 miles in a voyage to the northern ports of China; it would place us 1,900 miles nearer to Japan, 1,000 miles nearer to Australia, and 2,700 miles nearer to the western ports,of South America than Liverpool. The short- ened route by the Nicaragua canal would bring the United States into su- perior and dominating contact with China, Japan, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Hawaii and the countries of South America. These countries have a population of 500,000,000 anda commerce valued at $1,200,000,000 annually. For interior use and development they need locomotives, cars, steel rails, many forms of iron, cotton goods and other supplies, and closer proximity would be of great value to our merchants in competing for these markets. The time between New York and San Francisco for freight by railis 25 to 30 days; by steamer, 45 to 50 days; by sail, from 110 to 120 days. When the canal is completed the length of the voyage between the same points by steam will be reduced to 18 or 20 days; by sail, to 30 or 4o days, with a reduction of about one-third on freight charges. San Fran- cisco, the mouth of the Columbia river and Puget Sound will be more than 10,coo miles nearer New York than now, 11,000 nearer our gulf ports, and that, too, by water, where the cost of freight carriage is about one-fifth that by rail. The cost of freighting lumber across the continent now by railis absolutely prohibitory, while on wheat, wool and canned goods it closely approaches confiscation. A ship loaded with the lumber of Oregon, bound for the shipyards of Maine, requires for the voyage 130 days and charges for freight $12 a thousand feet. By this canal the same vessel could make the voyage in 4o or 50 days, and net more than $8 per thous- and, while a steamer could pass over the route in 20 days. The agricul- tural department publishes a carefully prepared estimate of the timber in the Pacific northwest. It appears by this that there are 25,000,000 acres of timber lands, averaging 20,000 feet board measure to the acre; making an allowance of 20 per cent. for bad land, it shows an available aggregate of 400,000,000,000 of feet. In 1891 the Pacific coast shipped to Europe and the Atlantic ports 1,800,000 tons of wheat and flour. This canal would al- low a reduction in freight charges of $2 a ton.--Philadelphia Ledger. Around the Lakes. The Ann Arbor car ferries will discontinue service during the winter. There was not enough freight to make it necessary to make daily trips and less frequent trips would not keep the route free from ice. Business will be resumed in about two months. The widow of Capt. Thomas Hackett, of the steamer Volunteer, re- ceived a draft of $1,000 last week from the Ship Masters' Association, of which the captain was a member. Captains were not inclined to life insurance before this organization was formed, and the rates charged them on account of the risk of their business were very high. In addition to the death benefits the association has benefited the men by discussions and lectures, and provided them a place to spend their spare time in winter. Capt. Danl. F. Bone, and old-time lake navigator, died at his home in Buffalo this week. Heis one of the class of salt water sailors, who came to the lakes in the early days, who are. fast disappearing. He came to Buffalo in 1859, having just finished a voyage to West Indies. He went before the mast on a lake schooner, but soon rose to higher positions and was employed on some of the old-time fast passenger boats between Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit. He was born in St. John, New Brunswick. There is a stray dollar in the office of the MARINE REVIEW. Last spring it was left here by Capt. Frank Hackett for the purpose of paying Capt. Duncanson's dues as a member of the Ship Masters' Association. It was presented to the grand financial secrectary of that society,who said that Duncanson didn't owe anything. It was returned to Amherstburg last March, and was mislaid but it now comes back again to the REVIEW, and the association still says that Duncanson owes nothing. If Duncanson or some friend of his doesn't claim it pretty soon, his ownership will expire by statute of limitation and Duncanson's dollar will fall into the coffers of the best marine paper published in the United States. el