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8 MARINE REVIEW. (CONTINUED FROM FIFTH PAGE.) lakes that is equal to the finest transatlantic service, is a matter of only a few years, and readers of the REVIEW are fully acquainted with the de- tails of it. Itis a fact that while with the Northern company he became . interested in a competing line, the Union Traneit Co., and his attentions are now to be turned toward the development of that line. His successor in the Northern Steamship Co. is W. C. Farrington, a railway manager of high reputation, who has been associated with Mr. Hill in the past. Mr. Farrington will be assisted by Francis B. Clark of St, Paul, who will be manager of the steamship company, and who has already taken up his duties at Buffalo, F. P. Gordon will remain with Mr. Clark for a short time. Heis said to have another steamboat scheme of importance in view. For a Channel West of Stag Island. A little dredging to the westward of Stag island, St. Clair river, would provide a deep channel on the American side of the island, and this is one of the general river improvements which the officers of the Lake Carriers' Association have in mind at present. If a recommendation can be secured from the war department, an effort will be made to have an appropriation for the work included in the next river and harbor bill. At present nearly the entire lake fleet of freight vessels passing up and down the St. Clair river take the Canadian channel to the eastward of Stag island. Oc- casionally a vessel bound up light passes to the westward, where the channel is equally good, with the exception of three spots west of the lower end of the island. A few thousand dollars expended in dredging would remove these shoal spots, and in addition to providing achannel entirely in American waters, this slight expenditure would result in dividing up the commerce, as vessels bound up the lakes could pass to the westward of the island and those bound down could take the new channel, Lake Erie Grain Trade, Notwithstanding the active condition of grain freights at Duluth, there has as yet been little indication of the usual fall movement of wheat out of Toledo and Detroit. Grain shippers say that this short trade on Lake Erie will be of little importance this fall. Donovan & Finney, Detroit commission merchants, offer this explanation of the situation: "Owing to the failure of the winter wheat crop in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, territory that is tributary to this market, farmers appear to have very little wheat for sale. The price at which No.2 red wheat is now selling in Detroit offers country shippers better inducements to ship here than to Chicago, so that if the wheat was in this territory it would come to Detroit. It is not coming, however, and we look for light re- ceipts. On account of prices being higher in Detroit just now than in eastern markets, shipments to the seaboard at present are shut off almost entirely. Later on the eastern markets may adjust themselves to the situation, but in any event we look for light shipments from this point during the fall." Thomas Mudd of Hartlepool, well known to the marine engineering trade of England, is experimenting with ordinary marine boilers, which he considers preferential to water tube boilers for every day work, for economy and safety ; at the same time he considers that higher pressures are necessary to obtain economy, and boilers which he has now under construction at Hartlepool are designed for 260 pounds pressure. The engines also are designed with five cranks, giving ten impulses as against four in the compound and six in the tripleexpansion engines. With five cranks a perfect balance is almost attained, and the engines can be run as smoothly asadynamo. With these improvements and others Mr, Mudd hopes to obtain the much-coveted one-horse-power per pound of coal consumed per hour, which he considers quite within the range of possibility. He is of the opinion that water tube boilers have a mission of their own, but evidently he does not consider them to be so econom- ical or so safe for the merchant marine as the cylindrical boiler. The naval estimates now being prepared at the navy department will show a notable decrease in the amount necessary for continuing work on the newnavy. Last year congress appropriated about $13,000,000 in all for payments on new ships including armor and armament. It was the heaviest appropriation made since the work of rehabilitating the navy first commenced. This was due to the fact that the bulk of the obliga- tions with ship contractors and armor manufacturers fell due during the current year. The estimates for the coming year on account of the new navy will be at least $5,000,000 less than the current appropriation. It is not the intention of the department, however, to urge a cessation of work on the new navy. On the contrary, it is said that Secretary Herbert will ask for at least one or two more battleships and a number of torpedo boats, and the estimates which will soon go tothe treasury will include an amount sufficient to begin work on proposed new ships.--Army and Navy Journal. Preparing for the Waterways Convention. The Hollenden will be the headquarters for the executive board of the International Deep Waterways Association, which is to hold a con- vention in Cleveland beginning onthe 24thinst. About twenty members of the board are expected to assemble here on the Saturday preceding the convention. Upon request of Frank A. Flower, secretary of the ex- ecutive board, the secretary of the navy has issued an order detailing Capt. Geo. P. Plow, U.S. N., as a delegate to the convention with permis- sion to prepare a paper. Capt. Blow is in charge of the branch hydro- graphic office at Chicago. Convention meetings will be held in the rooms of the Cleveland chamber of commerce and will be looked after by the maritime board, recently organized within the chamber. Papers will be printed in advance to facilitate discussion. Gov. MacCorkle of West Virginia will attend with a delegation, and the Ontario contingent is arranging to charter a passenger boat and attend the convention in a body. Around the Lakes. Capt. Oscar Olson of the schooner Lizzie A. Law was drowned off a dock at Ashland on Friday last. Ore shipments from Ashland to August 1 aggregated 1,776,003 gross tons, of which 483,143 tons was shipped during August. The two upper gates of the new lock at Sault Ste Marie are in posi- tion and the contractors expect to have all the gates completed early in October. . : Wm. Truby, division superintendent of the Pittsburg & Western Railway, will succeed the late J. R. Irwin as superintendent of the docks at Fairport. Anchors and chains were about all that was recovered from the old lumber steamer Burlington, which burned recently at Manitoulin Island. The boat is a total loss.' Tonnage of the steel schooner Tyrone, recently built by the Globe company, Cleveland, is 2,117.72 gross and 1,862.01 net, and her official number 145,697. She was the only vessel registered last week in the office of the United States commissioner of navigation. W. J. Connors of Buffalo stevedore fame is said to have contracted with the Union Dry Dock Co. of that city for a steel steam yacht, to be 132 feet long, schooner rigged, and to be fitted with water tube boilers and engines of high power, so as to secure speed when it is required. Henry McMorran of Port Huron, who will attempt to raise the sunken steamer Britannic, is said to have agreed to float the boat for a stated sum, about $13,000, no cure no pay. McMorran will take out about two-thirds of the Britannic's ore cargo before he begins work on the wreck with his pontoons. Grain receipts at Buffalo, flour included as grain, from the opening of navigation to Sept. 1 aggregated 68,634,132 bushels, against 83,058,260 bushels on the same date a year ago. Shipments of hard coal to Sept. 1 aggregated 1,149,689 net tons, against 1,299,067 tons on the same date in 1894 and 1,440,074 tons in 1893. New vessels appearing in the September supplement of the Inland Lloyd's Vessel Register are the steel steamers Penobscot, Victory, Zenith City and Yale and steel schooner Tyrone. All are rated Al. The Victory and Zenith City are each valued at $220,000, Yale and Penobscot at $225,000 each and the schooner at $115,000. About the 15th inst. the structures from which the Pilot island range lights, St. Mary's river, are shown will be painted white and be moved about 500 feet tothe eastward of their present position. One set of the range lights at the "Dark Hole" will be discontinued and the position of the other set will be slightly changed, and the range lights at Point of Woods will be moved about 80 feet to the northward of their present po- sitions, so that these ranges will mark, in each case, as near as may be the axis of the newly dredged channel. The exact day that the changes will go into effect will be posted a day or two in advance in the canal office at Sault, Ste. Marie. It would seem that there was, after all, some cause for reports that negligence had caused injury to the United States cruiser Columbia while being docked at Southampton, England, on her return to fie country from the celebration at Kiel. Secretary Herbert has ordered a court-martial for the trial of Capt. Sumner of the Columbia, who is repre- sented to be solely to blame forthe damage sustained by the cruiser. Commodore Sincard is president of the court, which will convene at the New York navy yard this week. It is claimed that the docking of the vessel was accomplished without the exercise of due caution. Keel blocks that had been mashed and were unfit for receiving the Columbia's flat keel were used, and 120 feet of the forward part of the ship was without any support whatever. MASTERS OF LAKE VESSELS CAN NOT WELL AFFORD TO BE WITHOUT THE NEW CHARTS. EXAMINE THEM AT THE OFFICE OF THE REVIEW.