The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

MARINE REVIEW. 9 Fred. C, Smith. The most important work in the offices of the ore sales agents of Cleveland who handle the entire product of the Lake Superior mining region, which has now reached ten million tons annually, is that of providing for the transportation of this vast quantity of ore; for the storage of a large part of it on dock, and for its movement to furnaces direct during the summer and from dock during the winter. The work of chartering vessels for this service is in itself a very important task, but there are numerous other duties involved in the business that demand the attention of men who are known to vessel owners all over the lakes. All of them are young men, noted for shrewdness and a careful ap- plication to the great amount of detail that is involved in this work. Fred C. Smith, whose death was announced on Friday last, was one of these young men. He had been for thirteen years associated with Mr. E. C. Pope, who represents the Metropolitan Land and Iron Co., which controls the Norrie and other mining properties on the Gogebic range. The transportation of nearly a million tons of ore in a single year had been under his direction. Mr. Smith was thirty-six years of age. Hehad advanced from a moderate clerkship to a creditable standing among Cleveland business men, and with interests in several large vessels, as well as a remunerative position secured to him on account of his knowledge of the ore business, he was planning for a comfortable future when death came suddenly from an attack of pneumonia. It is, of course, well known that Capt. James Davidson of West Bay City is ready at any time to sell any of the fleet of wooden vessels that have been built or are now building at his ship yard. He is ask- ing $90,000 each for the big schooners and $20,000 each for the harbor tugs, but on a cash basis the schooners could probably be bought for $80,000 each and the tugs for $18,500 each. Several of the harbor tug companies are short of good boats, but the tug companies are not wealthy concerns as a rule, and they are not inclined to undertake additions to their fleets, in view of the prices asked for these tugs and the figures quoted by builders who might put up steel boats. Another big steel passenger and freight steamer, the Creole, built by the Newport News Ship Building & Dry Dock Co., has just been turned over to her owners, the Cromwell Line, and will ply between New York and New Orleans. The Creole was designed by Horace See of New York and is 375 by44 by 324 feet. Her triple expansion engine has cylinders 28, 44 and 74 inches dimameter with a common stroke of piston of 54 inches. There are three double-ended cylindr'cal boilers and the propeller is of manganese bronze. The ship has accommoda- tions for 75 first-class and 150 second-class passengers. Capacity per week, of all pig iron furnaces in blast throughout the country increased from 124,077 tons on Noy. 1 to 142,278 tons on Dec. 1, but the production is still very much behind the maximum of. Nov. 1, 1895, which was 217,306 tons. Progress of the Steel Ship Industry on the Lakes. A further examination of the report of the United States commis- -- sioner of navigation, which has just been received in book form, shows that unless some radical measures are undertaken to encourage the building of vessels for foreign trade, there will soon be no comparison between the number of big vessels Snel on the seaboard and those owned on the lakes. It has been shown on several occasions of late that the aggregate tonnage of steam vessels of the largest class owned on the lakes is greater than the combined tonnage of vessels of the same class owned in all other parts of the country. With each report from the commissioner of navigation the lakes are credited with a gain in this regard. Thus it isshown by the latest report that the number of ' steam vessels of 1,000 gross tons, and over that amount, on the lakes on June 30, 1896, was 383 and their aggregate gross tonnage 711,034.28; the number of vessels of this class owned in all other parts of the country on the same date was 815 and their tonnage 685,204.55, so that 51 per cent. of the best tonnage in all the United States is owned on the lakes. A summary proving this statement follows: STATEMENT SHOWING NUMBER AND TONNAGE OF STEAM VESSELS OF 1,000 TONS AND OVER OWNED IN THE UNITED STATES ON JUNE 30, 1896. Number ~~ 'Gross Districts. of vessels. tonnage. Atlantic and Gulf 'coasts:: as) ee 257 573,841.86 Pacific: coast... i221. 9. eee 45 92,466.77 Northern lakes; 2i:252 5. 5 ae ee 383 711,034.28 Westeriaivers; ::. Sc.0- sce © een 13 18,895.92 Total 698 I 396, 238.83 This prestige held by the lakes over other parts of the commie is due, of course, to thesteady progress in the building of steel ships, which are bene increased in size each year. Although the lakes had practically no steel vessels ten years ago, this report shows that on June 30 last 226 steel vessels of 380,987.49 gross tons were owned in lake ports, and the number has been increased since that date by a dozen or more that have gone into commission, with seventeen additional on the stocks to come out next spring. Of the 226 vessels owned here on June 30, 1896, 189 were steam vessels and their gross tonnage was 330,698.76, or an average of 1,749.73 tons. From the same source of information it is learned that the classification of the entire lake fleet on June 30, 1896, was as follows: Gross Number. Tonnage. Steam vessels 1,792 924,630.51 Sailing vessels and barges 1,125 354,327.60 Canal boats 416 45,109.47 Total 830 1,324,067.58 It is one thing to design and build machinery, but quite a differ- ent thing to keep it in sucha condition that it may be ready to respond to the calls that may be made upon it under all conditions, and naval machinery is of sucha character that it is only by the exercise of constant vigilance and the greatest care that it can be expected to be kept in readiness for such calls. If the number of trained men is not sufficient for this purpose, the efficiency of aship as a whole is lowered, and the money which has been expended on her construction to pro- duce the very qualities which were considered of paramount import- ance has been practically wasted.--Report of Engineer-in-Chief Mellvile, U. 8. N. In one of the new buildings of the Ludlow Valve Mnfg. Co. of Troy, N. Y., the Berlin Iron Bridge Co. of East Berlin, Conn.., is erect- ing a runway for a twenty-ton electric traveling crane. The crane has a clear span of 55 feet and the length of runway is 160 feet. The track on which the crane runs is supported by heavy columns and girders of steel. Admiral Walker of the United States sianitueded board, who is soon to retire from the navy, was when a young officer a great favorite with Farragut, who is said to have never written out orders for the young lieutenant, merely outlining them, and leaving the details to his discretion. The Nickel Plate road will discontinue trains 18, 19,20 and 21 be- tween Cleveland and Lorain on and after Dec. 14, 1896. 414 Dec. 17