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MARINE & REVIE VoL. XV. CLEVELAND, O., APRIL 1, 1897. No. 14. Bitter Competition for Insurance. It is estimated that in two or three days of the past week $1,000 was expended on cablegrams between Cleveland and London, on account of the struggle for hull insurance between Johnson. &, Hig- gins of New York and the new syndicate headed by Charles E. & W. F'. Peck of New York and Chicago. The fight for insurance of big steel fleets in Cleveland, like those of the Bessemer Steamship Co., Pickands, Mather & Co., American Steel Barge Co. and others was very bitter. The Peck & Peck combination has taken a very large amount of insurance, including, it is said, the Lake Superior Iron © Co's fleet, as well as other vessels controlled by Messrs, W. D. Rees, Harvey H. Brown and others of Cleveland, and some of the Buffalo line boats, but it was announced yesterday on good authority that Johnson & Higgins had secured the Bessemer fleet. The struggle for the Rockefeller boats evidently caused a great deal of ill feeling, and it may be put down as certain that the rate made on them was very low. R. Bleecker Rathbone of the firm of I. C. Rathbone & Co., a strong New York insurance house, which has extensive dealings with the Standard Oil Co. and with leading capitalists connected with that corporation, came to Cleveland witha view to securing the Bessemer insurance for the new combination. The head-of the firm of Rathbone & Co. is president of the National Standard, one of the insuranee-companies that is in the new pool. insurance on a number of the large fleets, including those managed by Pickands, Mather & Co., has not as yet been placed. Weed & Ken- nedy, another large firm of New York brokers, have also had a rep- resentative looking into the lake business. Information regarding the rate made on steel steamers is carefully guarded, butit is thought to be little if anything below 3 per cent., excepting in special cases where the largest lines were involved. Thus far the general agents who have controlled lake business in the past seem to be unable to compete with the brokerage combinations, and local agents are very much dis- couraged over the loss of business. that has formed a large share of their profits each year. Buffalo Elevator Situation. Although it is quite certain that the big elevator interests of Chi- cago--especially Armour & Co. and Counselman & Co.--are pre- paring to extend, their operations to Buffalo and Erie, as well as New York and other sea ports, in order to reduce transfer charges and keep grain from going to southern routes, the full force of the changes contemplated by the Chicago interests will not be felt during the com- ing season. The Buffalo pool, known as the Western Elevating Aaso- ciation, has been holding meetings almost daily during the past week, but their immediate differences are of a kind that have been coming up every year of late. They relate to an apportionment of the shares of the pool for the coming season, and will probably be settled by the formation of an 1897 pool along the lines of past years, but another year will present an entirely different condition of affairs, and one which will probably result in the overthrow of the pool. -Two new elevators are now planned at Buffalo. One of them, the so-called Great Northern-Armour elevator, is well under way. The other is to be built by Kneeland & Co. of New York in conjunction with E. W. Eames of Buffalo. Plans for this latter elevator have been prepared, and although contracts have not been let it is more than probable that construction will be undertaken shortly. The location selected is above Ohio street bridge, where the draft of water is now limited, but it is expected that river improvement work to enable ves- sels to reach that point will be completed by the city about the time that the elevator is ready for business. These two elevators will add about 25 per cent. to Buffalo's present elevator capacity. The capacity of the Great Northern-Armour elevator will be fully 2,000,000 bushels while that of the Kneeland-Eames house will be about 800,000 bushels. The latter is to be of steel, also, and will be constructed on a principle of circular bins that is said to insure minimum cost of handling grain. Kneeland & Co. are large grain receivers in New York, and have It is understood that -- for a long time past held close business relations with E. W. Hames, who is also one of the best known grain men of Buffalo. 'There has been some talk also of the Erie Railway Co. building an elevator at Dunkirk, but there is nothinge tangible about this rumor, which is probably prompted by the idea that some advantage would be taken of the large harbor improvements that will soon be undertaken by the government at that point. : But after all, it must be understood that little if anything in the way of important changes on account of these elevator projects can be expected this year. The big elevator now under way at Buffalo can not be completed until the latter part of the season... Its construction will involve an outlay of nearly half a million dollars, and no small part of this will be on acount of the foundation, which is now being built. A space of about 120 by 400 feet is being filled with. piles, which will be driven torock at an average depth of about 70 feet. On top of this mass of piling there will be a masonry foundation for the: steel structure, which will be about 70 feet high and contain thirty tubular bins of 30 feet diameter and eighteen tubular bins of 15 feet 6 inches diameter. There will be three legs with a working Capa cue of about 25,000 bushels an hour. - Lake Freight Matters. Representatives of Lake Superior mining companies other haw those of the Mesabi range are still engaged in daily meetings at Cleveland, and it is said that their work of arranging details for a pool on old range ores will continue for a week or more to come. There is, accordingly, nothing to report regarding the ore sales market and no negotiations with vessel men regarding freight contracts. Not- withstanding the report that Mr. A. B. Wolvin of Duluth had entered into a contract for the transportaiton of about 425,000 tons of ore from Escanaba to Milwaukee, Chicago and South Chicago, it is now an- nounced from Chicago that the representatives of the Illinois Steel Co., who asked for bids on this ore, are not ready to make the con- tract. They claim that they can have the ore moved ata price a little below 25 cents. There are no unloading charges, and it is 'reitslite that the ore will be carried to a-large extent without trimming. It is quite evident that stocks of hard coal, both at the head.of rete Superior and in Chicago, are much larger than was expected. "From. the best information to be had among Buffalo dealers ,it is estimated ~ that there will be carried over at the opening of navigation this season about 900,000 tons of hard coal on docks at western lake ports, as against 400,000 tons a year ago, with no demand in the west for hard - coal, and the property on the docks taxable on May 1. From this it. would seem that there will be but little dispositon to ship coal before May. Chicago advices are to the effect that vessels have been offered_ for several days past at 14 cents on corn to Buffalo, but that there, is no demand for tonnage in either the Buffalo or Kingston trade. indibations of Higher Water. A letter from Mr. E. 8. Wheeler, general suprintendent of fis St. Mary's Falls canal, says that the present stage of water, both above 1 and below the locks, is almost exactly the same as it was last year at ~ this time. It is, of course, entirely uncertain as to whether the stage ~ of water will continue until the opening of navigation to ge eee with last year or not, but if such is the case the draft through the ,.. Sault river on the opening will be within a small fraction of 16 feet. The shallowest point now in St. Mary's river is in the Middle Neebish -- opposite the dike. Reports from Detroit river are to the effect. that the water in ihe : vicinity of Ballard's reef, where the shoalest spots are to be found,.. is about 9 inches ener than it was at this time a year ago. ss Col. Wm. Ludlow, corps of engineers, United States army, has succeeded Col. G. L. Gillespie in charge of harbor. work at New York. About $2,500 has been expended in putting a new deck, new rail; * ete., on the barge Kingfisher during the winter.