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12 MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. Published every Thursday at No. 409 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, Ohlo, by John M. Mulrooney and F. M. Barton. Supscriprron--$2.00 per year inadyance. Single copies10 centseach. Convenient binders seut, post paid, $1.00. Advertising rates on application. : Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second class Mail Matter. The books of the United pee ee eaey department on June 30, 1895, paninined the names of the 3,342 vessels, of 1,241,459.14 gross tons registerin the lake trade. The number of steam vessels of 1,000 ae tons, and over that amount, on the lakes on June 30, 1895, was 360 and theiraggregate gross tonnage 643,260.40; the number of vessels of this class owned in all other parts of the country on the same date was 309 and their tonnage 652,598.72, sothat half of the best steamships in allthe United States are omrited! on the lakes. The classification of the entire lake fleet on June 30, 1895, was as ollows: Gross ; onnage Steam vessels 857,735.13 Sailing vessels .... . 1,100 (0,642.10 Unrigged 3,081 IO CRE eae vere case csottte cust vegteercosistcs 8,342 1,241,459.14 The gross registered tonnage of the vessels built on the Jakes during the past he COATS, according to the reports of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows: Year ending June 30, 1891..........cccsssccssssceserccsesssnsceeces 204 111, Be Bs se a se 1892 169 45.968 9 tae es sf 175 99,271. od ve = ee 106 41,984.61 fe 2 Bt 93 : 86,352.70 ENG Gale ee ae yee cranes ta oesecstedoatline 347 335,433,98 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. (/vom Official Keports of Canal Officers.) St. Mary's Falls Canal. Suez Canal. 1895* 1894 1893 1895 1894 1893 No. vessel passages,............ 17,956 14,491 11,008 3,434 8,352 3,341 Tonnage, net registered...... 16, 806, ie AED 110, 366} 9, 849; ee 8,448,383] 8, es ne G 659, 068 Days of navigation.............. 931 234 365 365 2 * 1895 figures include traffic of Canadian canal at Sault Ste. Marie, which was about ¥ per cent. of the whole, but largely in American vessels. ' Several times since the Chicayo drainage canal project has come into prominence it has been urged that an opinion should be had from the army engineers regarding the effect on lake levels that would be produced by drawing from Lake Michigan the immense quantity of water required for the canal. Leading engineers throughout the country who have no connection with government work said that the army engineers could not give an intelligent answer to this ques- tion, for the reason that they had been going ahead with all kinds of improvements on the lakes for a great many years past without having collected any reliable information as: regards the outflow of the lakes at different important points. As a result of a discussion of this subject, congress asked the war department for a report on the probable effect of the Chicago | canal. The report was rather vague, but the army engineers admitted, in part, that: data regarding the outflow of water from the lakes was desired. Now it would seem that the war department 'is urging congress to provide funds for the collection of this information, as the latest report from the secretary contains a paragraph directing special attention to the subject. The secretary says: "But little change has occurred in the water levels of the great lakes during the past year from corresponding levels of 1894, and as no water has yet been drawn for usin the Chicago' drainage canal nofurther facts can be given as to the probable effect of abstracting 10,000 cubic feet of 4 water per second from Lake Michigan. The arene. of inaugurat- ing a series of observations and gaugings which will provide reliable data concerning the lake levels and the the probable effect of the Chicago" drainage canal and the deepening of connecting channels was stated in my last annual report, but no action in the matter has yee. been taken by ae uf OTE is evidently the intention of Brig, Gen. Craighill of the army engineer corps to secure, if possible, some change in the law relating to the removal of wrecks. Serious delays have occurred on the lakes on seyeral occasions on account of red tape requirements in this re- gard. Gen. Craighill has now succeeded in having the secretary of war make a special request to congress for a change in the law.. The secretary says: be given to the owner of a sunken or wrecked vessel in any river and harbor of the United States before the secretary of war may direct. the removal of such obstruction to navigation. This interval of notice is if altogether too long to be consistent with safety to navigation, ' - and i is the cause | of frequent and well-founded complaint by those 'The law provides that a notice of thirty days shall interested in shipping. But little time is required for the preparations necessary to begin such remoyal of obstructions to navigation, and a change in the law to permit the more prompt exercise of the powers of this department, when individuals are tardy or negligent, is earn- estly recommended."' One of the best indications of activity in ship building throughout the country at this time is the scarcity of draftsmen'required for work on hulls. Several men from the lakes have of late drifted to govern- ment employment at Washington, New York and Philadelphia, and to the ship yards of Newport News, San Francisco and Philadelphia where big government contracts. are under way. As the foreigners who have sought this work here of late years are now finding employ- ment without difficulty on the Clyde and in Germany, where there is a boom in ship building, it would seem that our colleges are offered a rare opportunity to prepare young men for this important branch of naval architecture. The future of sau building in this country is certainly encouraging. The latest naval program in France provides for the construction of one. battleship, one first class cruiser, two first class cruisers for coast defence, one-third class cruiser for coast defense, one gunboat, one torpedo boat destroyer and two first class torpedo boats, nine vessels in all. The battleship will have a speed of 17 knots. . The first class cruiser will be of the triple screw type, of 11,270 tons displace- ment, 28,500 horse power and 23 knots speed. The coast defense cruisers. of the first class will also have triple screws. .They will each have a displacement of 5,500 tons, with 17,100 horse power, and they are also expected to-attain a speed of 23 knots. Referring to the report that 'he is to take an active part in trying to overcome treaty relations with Great Britain, under which lake ship builders are deprived of the right to build vessels of war of any kind, Governor-elect Pingree of Michigan says, in a letter to the Re- view, that outside of some advocacy of lake advantages for building war vessels nothing has veen done by him, and that at the present time nothing that might be called definite is contemplated, save to continue an interest in the subject. Professor Moore, chief of the United States weather bureau, states that the average percentage of verification of the bureau's forecasts during the year was 82.4 per cent. The average writer of newspaper squibs may make little of this statement, but the vessel master is always ready to overlook errors of judgment from men engaged in this work. He realizes, probably more than anyone else, the value of the service. He needs no statistics on the. subject. His experience is the best proof. The New York Tribune says: "The secret history of the Texas would make 'mighty interesting reading." Whether there was any serious scandal connected with her construction or not, there must have been a lot of blundering. It was a blunder at the outset to buy English plans for her. Further blundering was done in modifying them. The result is a ship that can not be reckoned a credit to the navy. It is a pity that the exact responsibility for it can not be fixed." At a meeting of the directors of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., held in New York recently, a semi-annual dividend of one per cent., payable Dec. 1, 1897, was declared, and authority was given to President C. P. Huntington to invite tenders for building a new ship of 6,000 or 7,000 tons, with a speed of 16 knots or more, to be used in the China trade. The editor of the Review of Reviews is convinced that the verdict against free silver pronounced on Noy. 3 was conclusive, that Mr. Bryan's cause can not survive defeat, that the south will never again cast so large a vote for it, and, in short, that as a proposition in practical politics free silver's prospects are utterly hopeless. During the first year of his presidency, President-elect McKinley will have at his disposal quite a number of important staff positions in the army, among them the appointment of a successor to Brig. Gen. Craighill, chief of army 'engineers, who will retire on July 1 next. Army and navy charts of the lakes are kept in stock by the 'Marine Review, Perry-Payne building.