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MARINE REVIEW. , HI Pioneer of Lake Vessel Owners. ' H. J. Webb of the firm of H. J. Webb & Co., vessel and insur- ance agents, who died at his home in Cleveland, Tuesday, was the first vessel broker on the lakes. He originated a business that is now followed on a broad scale by large concerns in all of the principal lake cities. The story of his early life in this connection is interest- ing. He was a young man engaged in a dry goods store in Cleveland in the early fifties. Pratt & Apley, a firm dealing in stone, had large contracts for structural material to be delivered at Buffalo. They em- H. J. WEBB, FIRST VESSEL BROKER ON THE LAKES. ployed Mr. Webb to engage vessels and look after their shipments of stone and other material. While thus employed he met other busi- ness men who had material to moye by water, and many vessel cap- tains, who in those days managed everything pertaining to their ships. He concluded that a vessel brokerage office, if rightly handled, could be made of such use to shippers and vessel owners that it would return a profit. He accordingly decided to open an office in Cleveland and did so in 1856. He was on the river, with others who came into the business later on, until 1873, when a general growth of trade caused all of the leading concerns to move to larger office buildings in the central part of the city. Since that time he has been known in all parts of the lakes as one of the shrewdest of the vessel brokers. Capt. W. C. Richardson, who has for two years or more managed entirely the business of the firm, and who is still in charge of it, joined him about fifteen years ago. Mr. Webb made a couple of fortunes in the vessel business. He met with reverses but proved himself capable of overcoming business difficulties that might have weighed harder on other shoulders. Un- fortunately he was taken sick--with Bright's disease, it was understood ~--Just following a period of prosperity, when he might have enjoyed the results of a life of more than forty hard years spent in one line of industry, He was sixty-four years of age. Pottsdam, St. Lawrence Co., New York, was his birthplace. He was a diplomatist among ves- Sel men, but possessed also a companionable, whole-souled disposition. Resolutions of respect to his memory were adopted by vessel owners of Detroit, Cleyeland and other lake cities. Capt. Allen M. Kirby, one of the lake captains of early days, died at Wyandotte on Saturday last. Of late years he has been connected with the ship yard of the Detroit Dry Dock Co. at Wyandotte. He Was an uncle of Frank E. Kirby. His first sailing on the lakes was on vessels trading out of Oswego, as early as 1840. He was seventy- four years of age, é After Old Wrecks. Some of the smaller wrecking concerns on the lakes have spent several thousand dollars during the past season trying to release stranded or sunken vessels that have been almost entirely given up by the underwriters. There is always a temptation among tug owners who have a few wrecking appliances to engage in work of this kind, although their efforts are seldom rewarded by even a moderate profit. Capt. James Reid is not alone in his failure with the Cayuga. Murphy of Detroit has spent the greater part of the summer endeavoring to raise the schooner Adams, sunk in Lake Erie, near the mouth of the Detroit river, and it was thought that he was already to lift the boat when the announcement was made that he had abandoned her on ac- count of bad weather coming on. Another wreck on which $4,000 or $5,000 has been spent, during the past season, is that of the schooner Mattie C. Bell, ashore on Sum- mer island. The tug Albert Wright and schooner L. B. Shepard from Sturgeon Bay spent seventy-two days without success on this weeck. They were assisted at times in pulling on the boat by the steamer Joseph L. Hurd. The Bell lies in the bay on the east side of Summer island, heading about 8. by E., starboard side to the beach, and rests upon a rocky bottom about 200 feet from shore in 9 and 11 feet of water, the former being on the starboard side and the latter on the port side. About 100 tons of coal was lightered from the stranded schooner to the Shepard and several unavailing efforts made to pump her out and pull her off. This failing, eight hydraulic jacks, two 100 tons each and six 60 tons each, were placed near her knuckle on the port side which heeled her over to the starboard. A diver then went down and pulled all the loose boulders out of her bottom, after which a canvass jacket was put on. The vessel's main and mizzen and staysails were used for this purpose, besides several thousand feet of lumber which was nailed on over the canvas. Four steam pumps suc- ceeded in lowering the water in her hold down to 2 feet from 9 feet, and she was then given another pull. She was heeled over a second time with the jacks and raised about 5 feet, and eleven stone butments built under her, most of the stone being picked up from the bottom of the lake in proximity to the wreck. Some of the larger stones the diver had to roll along the bottom for a distance of 50 feet. The wreck worked off this underpinning partly by being pulled around by the tug, and partly by the action of the waves, as she lies exposed to easterly winds. During all this time the Bell was not moved ahead or astern, her Lottom amidships deing punctured by a cluster of boulders that held her in position, and she worked around as though on a pivot. It was almost an impossibility to get at the leak from the hold, as she has three floors; the first a false one, running athwartships and the other two fore-and-aft, it being about three feet from the first floor to her ceiling. The 100 tons of coal taken out of the wreck and put into the Shepard was afterwards used for fuel by the tugs. In leaving the boat the wreckers took with them everything they could release, in- cluding two anchors, one 2,200 pounds and the other 1,700 pounds, 120 fathoms of cable, yawl, light spars, steering gear, windlasses, etc. Harvey D. Goulder of Cleveland, representing a large number of vessels that have thus far been fined for violating Sault river regula- tions, met officials of the treasury department in Washington on Satur- day last, and it is understood that, as a result of the conference, only nominal sums, probably about $10 each, will be demanded in settle- ments to be made immediately with owners, excepting where it appears that there has been wilful and persistent violation. Vessel masters fined in future need not, however, expect such lenient treatment as has been accorded in these cases, as it is now fully understood that the rules are to be enforced rigidly for the balance of the season. Since May 1 there has been a decline in the weekly rate of pig iron production from 189,400 tons per week to 130,500 tons per week on Sept. 1. The high water mark was reached on Noy. 1, with a weekly product of 217,300 tons. Although there has been some addi- tion to stocks in August, the production has now fallen off so heavily that it must be within even the present light demand. At Buffalo a few days ago Hingston & Woods secured a Niagara river dredging contract involving about $50,000 worth of work. Their bid was $76 a day for drill boat, $74 for dredge and $18 for tug. An- other contract let in Detroit was for $4,500 worth of dredging, to be done at St. Clair, Mich. Carkin & Stickney of Detroit secured this work at 82 cents per cubic yard. Bee