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MARINE 7S Bale x as te The Term "Close of Navigation." In, passing upon a contract made between the Northern Steamship Company and the owners of the steamer Selwyn Eddy, Judge Swan of the United States district court, Detroit, has defined the term close of navigation. He is of the opinion that by common acceptance and by custom prevailing in insurance circles the season of navigation on the lakes ends not later than Nov. 30, and that any navigation after that date is "extraordinary navigation," often requiring tugs to break ice, and always uncertain by reason of storms, sudden cold or unexpected delays of many kinds. No doubt the vessel owners who are several thousand dollars out of pocket on account of their boats being frzoen in at Port Arthur this winter will agree with Judge Swan, especially as it is known that some of the vessels now wintering at the head of the lakes passed through the Sault canal, bound up, as early as Nov. 26 and 27. The case that has brought out this decision is interesting. In the fall of. 1894 the owners of the Eddy entered into a contract with the Northern Steamship Co. to carry package freight, head of Lake Superior to Buffalo, from Oct. 16 until the "close of navigation." The term quoted is that which was used in the contract. There was nothing in the contract about a closing date. The vessel was to be paid $2,700, free of handling or damage, for each east bound cargo. The contract permitted her to take return cargoes, but the charterers had nothing to do with west-bound business. The Eddy carried sev- eral cargoes nnder the contract, arriving in Buffalo with the last one on Nov. 24. - The steamship company demanded another trip, but the managing owuer of the Eddy, the late John Shaw, insisted that he could not possibiy get out of Buffalo with a west-bound cargo, which was necessary so late in the fall, until Nov. 27 or later. He refused to make the trip and instead sent his vessel for a short trip to Gladstone. In doing this he arranged to get a load of soft coal in Cleveland and incurred the ill-will of the soft coal shipper also, by ordering the ves- sel out with only part of a cargo. The Northern Steamship Co. held. back freight money on the last cargo which the Eddy delivered, and when the matter got into court they presented a counter claim of $6,- 000, which they had paid to the steamer Globe for carrying the cargo which the Eddy's manager had refused to carry. But Judge Swan decided in favor of the Eddy as noted above. The. case was. heard about a year ago but the decision has just been rendered. No Change in Speed. It is now more than probable that, notwithstanding the effort made at the annal meeting of the Lake Carriers' Association in Detroit to increase the speed of vessels navigating the Sault river from seven to nine or ten miles an hour in certain parts of the river, the speed limit of seven miles an hour, which prevailed last season, will again be in force during 1897. Although a vote on the question of speed was avoided at the general meeting, it was quite evident that a full expression on the part of the convention would have resulted in endorsement of the original seven-mile rule. Such was evidently the opinion of the executive committee of the association, to which the whole matter was referred, as that committee, upon meeting in Cleveland two days after adjournment of the convention, again voted against any change in the speed. The object of a meeting of this committee so soon after the convention was to give members of the Ship Masters' Association, who are now in Washington, a definite answer as to the position of the vessel owners, in order that they might deal intelligently with the commissioner of navigation and officials of the revenue marine service, who are charged with enforce- ment of the rules. The committee agreed to a few less-important changes in the rules. One of these.was a recommendation in favor of repeal of that feature of the regulations which provides for confiscation of property involved in violations. It was agreed also that Rule 6 should be changed to read in this way: "Steamers bound in opposite directions shall slow down to a speed not to exceed five miles an hour when within half a mile of each other and shall run under such reduced speed until they pass." Another change favorably acted upon is in the interest of small vessels. It is recommended by the committee that all yachts, tugs and vessels of less than 100 tons burthen be exempt from the rules. It will be necessary, of course, to have the treasury depart- ment pass finally upon these regulations, and it may be that the ex- ecutive committee of the association will again take up the question of speed, on account of the desire of some owners to increase the speed, but it would seem that the majority are against any increase over last year's speed. It is expected also that the treasury department will agree with the majority of the vessel owners, notwithstanding the recommendations of Capt. Davis of the revenue cutter service. The interest which Capt. Davis has shown in the regulations is appreciated by the vessel owners, and they accorded him a vote of thanks, but they were at the same time desirous of having him understand that their great object in opposing any increase in speed is to be entirely within the limits of safety in navigating the river. Japanese Battleships. The illustrations herewith show general plans of the Japanese bat- tleships Fuji and Yoshima, now being completed at the Thames Iron Works and Armstrong, Mitchell & Co.'s yardsin England. Their dimensions are: Length, 372 feet between perpendiculars; beam, 73.5 feet; depth, 45.6 feet; mean draught, 26.3 feet; displacement, 12,320 tons. The boats consist of two '56-foot torpedo vedette boats, one 42- FUJI. foot launch for countermining, one 30-foot steam launch, and a number of smaller ones. There are 181 water-tight compartments. Two sets of triple expansion engines, to develop 13,500 I. H. P. under forced and 10,000 I. H. P. under natural draft, give speeds of 18.25 and 16. 75 knots, respectively. There are ten single-ended cylindrical boilers with four furnaces each, The total coal supply is 1,200 tons and the normal supply 700 tons. Each has armor belts 226 feet long cover- ing the hull 3 feet below and 5 feet above the water line, ranging from 14 to 18 inches thick. Inman Again in the Tug Business. If the Barry brothers of Chicago, who have been arranging with ie Capt. James Davidson for tugs with which to estublish a line at Duluth, go ahead with their plans there will be three harbor tug lines at the head of the lakes next season--Singer, Barry brothers and Inman. Capt. Inman seems to have some very staunch friends, among them A. B.Wolvin and several of the line boat managers, who will give him their towing business. On the strength of this business, and in view also of the claim that Inman's failure was due not to his tug affairs but to other vessel business in which he became interested, the Duluth bankers who now hold the tugs have concluded to organize a new -- company, putting Inman at the head of it, but exercising supervision over his management. The new line will not, of course, include the tug Thomson, as that vessel is now the property of Hawgood & Avery, who owned the machinery taken from the Belle Cross and who have since secured the hull.. It is understood, however, that the tug in which Port Huron parties are interested will be included in the new line. Capt. Inman has been in Cleveland and Buffalo -- during the past few days requesting vessel owners with whom he has been doing business to hold off arrangements for next season's towing until such time as he may be able to deal with them through the new company.