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REVIEW. MARINE en XIV. No. 11. All Records Broken in the Freight Movement. Figures now at hand regarding the amount of freight moved on the lakes to Sept. 1 prove conclusively that the boom of last fall, which resulted in $1.75 a ton being paid on ore from the head of Lake Superior to Ohio ports, was a bad thing for the vessel interests. It was prompted by a combination of circumstances that caused _ vessel owners to lose sight of conditions which have now changed every thing. Reports from all upper lake shipping ports to the Cleveland association of ore sales agents show a total movement of 7,104,092 gross tons of ore to Sept.1, as compared with 6,672,051 tons on Sept. 1 a year ago, or an increase of 432,041 tons. This movement of ore is at the rate of eleven million tons annually. Eleven million tons is about the maximum capacity, when in full blast, of all furnaces using Lake Superior ores. There was no let-up in the amount of freight moved on the lakes during August. In addition to this maximum move- - ment of ore, the grain shipments are unprecedented. From Lake Su- perior alone the shipments of grain of all kinds aggregated to the first of September 45,765,257 bushels, against only 11,671,987 bushels on the same date a year ago. Soft coal shipments to Lake Superior during August footed up 425,275 tons and the total inovement to Sept. 1 is 1,727,07 1 tons, or nearly three-quarters of a million tons more than had been moved at this time a year ago. The hard coal move- ment to Lake Superior is also greater than it was a year ago, the ex- cess amounting to 28,250 tons. These figures are all accurate, as they are made up from the monthly statements issued by the canal author- ities. The freight movement as a whole is best understood from the statement of aggregate tonnage through the canals, which shows that on Sept. 1 Lake Superior business, which aggregated 10,678,859 tons, was 2,000,000 tons greater than on the same date a year ago and nearly 4,000,000 tons greater than on the same date in any year previous to 1895. In considering these figures due regard must be given to the dis- turbed condition of business throughout the country on account of polities, but still we have handled a volume of freight that is, with Lake Michigan traffic added to that of Lake Superior, full 3,000,000 tons greater than in any previous year, and yet the range of lake freights is about the lowest ever known. This situation warrants a careful study of all plans. not only for the balance of the present season but also for next year. The influence of larger vessels and deeper channels has been underestimated.. What will it be next season with even 18 feet of water afforded by the so-called 20-foot channels? A race in New York harbor, recently, between the steamer Mon- mouth and M. C. D. Borden's yacht Sovereign, has attracted a great deal of attention. Barring the sound steamer City of Lowell, the Monmouth is reputed to be the fastest steamer in the vicinity of New York, but she was beaten by the Sovereign over a course of about an hour's steaming. The Sovereign was designed by J Beavor Webb of New York and built by the,J. N. Robbins Co. of South Brooklyn. She is 212 feet-long on the water line, 250 feet 6 inches over all, and 28 feet breadth of beam. There are two triple expansion engines with cylinders 15,24 and 39 inches diameter and 21 inches stroke of piston, built by the W. & A. Fletcher Co. of Hoboken, N. J. These engines will, it is claimed, develop 2,500 indicated horse power. They are supplied with steam at 225 pounds pressure by two boilers of the Babeock & Wilcox type. The grate surface of each boiler is 72 Square feet. and the heating surface of each 3,500 square feet, giving a ratio of 48 to 1. Sir W. G. Armstrong & Co., leading British ship builders, are how employing about 19,000 men and _ boys. About $7,500,000 was paid in wages by this firm during the past year. There are 1,300 guns in course of manufacture at its works and fourteen big war ships, to say nothing of orders for merchant vessels. The war ships range from 3,000 to 12,000 tons and include one armor-clad battleship, four first-class armored cruisers, six fast protected cruisers, two umor-clads and one third-class cruiser. CLEVELAND, O., SEPTEMBER to, 1896. Supreme Court Decision on the Harter Bill. The United States supreme court, in the case of the Delaware, 161 U.S., page 459, has put an end to all controversy as to the applicas bility of the Harter bill, so-called, to relations other than of carrier and shipper. It was a collision case in which the defense was sought to be made that the act of Feb. 18, 1893, (Harter bill) absolved the vessel at fault from liability. The case went to the supreme court on certificate, and it was there decided that that act did not and was not intended to cover such case. The court holds that "it is entirely clear that the whole object of the act is to modify the relations pre= viously existing between the vessel and her cargo." The court re- views the act generally and the causes leading to its adoption. Itisa matter of common knowledge that vessel owners were want to insert in bills of lading stipulations against liability for damages arising from a variety of causes, and this was kept up, meeting the decisions of the courts, until the common law liability of the carrier was little more than a name. In the opinion is set out a petition addressed to the Marquis of Salisbury by the Glasgow Commercial Trade Association, and subse- quently embodied in a report of the committee on interstate and for- eign commerce of the House of Representatives. The petition states that this exemption from liability, under which they were obliged to ship, had been carried to such an extent as to be 'unreasonable and unjust," and to exempt the carrier "from almost every conceivable risk and responsibility.' As a "striking illustration"' of this is men- tioned a bill of lading used by some lines, "actually giving the ship owners a right to sell the goods entrusted to them for carriage, not only for the freight upon the goods themselves, but for all debts due, either by the shippers or the consignees of such goods, to the carriers or their agents, though these debts may have arisen on contracts un- connected with the carriage of such goods." To meet these and simi- lar difficulties, the act of Feb. 18, 1893, was passed, the first and sec- and sections of which make it unlawful to insert in any bill of lading a stipulation against liability "for loss or damage arising from negli- gence, fault or failure in proper loading, stowage, custody, care or pro- per delivery," or to relieve against the obligation to exercise due dili- gence to properly equip, man, pro vision and outfit the vessel, make her seaworthy, carefully handle and stow her cargo. Section three then provides: ; "That if the owner of any vessel transporting merchandise or pro- perty to or from any port in the United States of America shall exer- cise due diligence ta make the said vessel in all respects seaworthy and properly manned, equipped and supplied, neither the vessel, her owner er owners, agent or charterers, shall become or be held responsible for damage or loss resulting from faults or errors in navigation or in the management of said vessel, nor shall the vessel, her owner or. owners, charterers, agent or master, be held liable for losses arising from dangers of the sea or other navigable waters, acts of God, or other public enemies, or the inherent defect, quality or vice of the thing carried, or from insufficiency of package, or seizure under legal process, or from loss resulting from any act or omission of the ship- per or owner of the goods, his agent or representative, or from saving or attempting to save life or property at sea, or from any deviation in rendering such service."' Taking the whole act the court says: 'These provisions have no possible application to the relations of one vessel to another, and are only a re-enactment of certain well-known provisions of the common law applicable to the duties and liabilities of vessels to their cargoes."' Lieut. J. B. Cavanaugh, corps of engineers, U. 8. A., who made many friends while temporarily in charge of the Detroit office made vacant by the death of Gen. Poe,has been transferred to Mobile, Ala., under Major Rossell. He will be succeeded by Lieut. J. F. McIndoe, who has been with Capt. Kingman. A. U. Sheldon, naval architect with the Globe Iron Works Co; is in Europe. His trip will be an extended one.