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12 MARINE REVIEW. =I aes = ---- -- ----* ee eS = 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. Supnscriprion--$#2.00 per year in advance. Single copies 10 cents each. Convenient binders sent, post paid, $1.00. Advertising rates on application. Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second class Mail Matter. The books of the United States treasury department on June 30, 1896, contained the names of 3,333 vessels, of 1,324,067.58 gross tons register in the lake trade. 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 BrOEs tonnage 711,034.28; the number of vessels of this class owned in all other parts of the country on the same date was 315 and their tonnage 685,204.55, so that more than half of the best steamships in all the United States are owned onthe lakes. 'The classification of the entire lake fleet on June 30, 1896, was as follows: Gross ee he Steam vessels. ' 3000. Sailing vessels and barges..... 1,125 354,327.60 Canal boats. 416 45,109.47 MOtalere.ccecttcces bdesieneno0 sescueehestcssnee 8,333 1,324,067.58 The gross registered tonnage of the vessels built on the lakes during the past Bue P ae according to the reports of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows: Year ending June 30. 1891 204 111,856 45 " ee 1892 169 - 45,968.98 on i St 1893 175 99,271. bf ss oe 1894 106 41,984.61 a a a 1895, 93 36,352.70 #8 o s 1896 117 108,782.38 ING tialeerentr cece acasnconencennuasecteeeatevacnedeosss cescseets 864 444,216.36 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. (from Official fteports of Canal Officers.) St. Mary's Falls Canal. Suez Canal. 1895* | 1894 1893 1995 1894 1893 .No. vessel passageS,.....:...... 17,956 14,491 11,008 3,484 8,852 3,341 Tonnage, net registered...... 16,806,781) 13,110,366] 9,849,754|| 8,448,383) 8,039,175) 7,659,068 Days of navigation.............. 231 234 219 365 365 365 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. Probably $2,500,000 was paid during 1896 for transferring at Buffalo 170,000,900 bushels of grain delivered at that point by lake vessels for shipment east by rail and canal. This big item connected with the movement of export grain by lake is one cause of the con- stant increase in the quantity of grain that is being diverted from the lake route to more southern routes. It is admitted by everybody, ex- cepting the owners of Buffao elevators, that transfer charges on grain are too high. It is admitted also that these charges, if contin- ued, must eventually result in more serious loss of business than has as yet been encountered, both to vessel owners and the elevating inter- ests of Buffalo. It is well known that some of this grain, on which the transfer charges at Buffalo, all told, were nearly 14 cents a bushel, was carried in lake vessels from Chicago to Buffalo at rates as low as three-quarters of a cent a bushel. The argument that in the end these reduced charges are of advantage to none but the consumer is not well taken in this case, as all lake interests must be at a great loss on account of competition that diverts the grain to the southern routes above referred to. It is to be hoped, therefore, that new elevators now under way at Buffalo and other pointson Lake Erie will bring about a marked reduction in these charges. If such is not the case, the vessel owners of the lakes should make preparations, before the open- ing of another season, for active opposition to the Buffalo interests that are combined for the maintenance of these exorbitant charges. A Duluth newspaper correspondent says that Capt. Alex. McDou- gall first conceived the idea of building vessels of the whaleback type in 1873, fourteen years before his famous barge 101 was put together at the head of the lakes. According to this latest story, the inventor of the whalebacks had no thought of a vessel of that kind until he was sent to England and Scotland by the management of the Anchor line, for whom he had been sailing lake vessels, to obtain such new ideas regarding ship building as he might deem of interest to his em- ployers. While there he examined and studied details in the construc- tion of a cylindrical vessel which was built in Scotland and sent in sections to Alexandria for the purpose of taking the Egyptian obelisk to London. This vessel, it will be remembered, went adrift on the Bay of Biscay, but was finally secured and towed to the Thames. Capt. McDougall considered this vessel a failure, but his investigations led him to believe that it might be possible to construct a vessel in which the advantages sought to be obtained in the 'cigar' boat might be secured. On his return to this country, he worked diligently with a this end in view, and finally succeeded in interesting the Colbys, Col- gate Hoyt and other New York capitalists to the extent of building the fleet of whalebacks that are now afloat on the lakes. Prior to the war with China, Japan did not possess a single line- of-battleship, but at the close of that campaign she had a fleet of forty- three serviceable vessels, ten of which had been captured from China, as also twenty-six torpedo boats. She has now mapped out a plan of naval expenditure which is to be carried out during the next ten years. In that time she proposes to build four battleships of 15,000 tons each, four first-class cruisers of 7,500 tons each, three second- class and two third-class cruisers, three torpedo gunboats, eleven tor- pedo destroyers and eighty-nine torpedo boats. Nor are Japan's dreams of power confined to operations on the sea. At the close of the war her army had a peace footing strength of 70,000 and a war footing strength of 268,000, and the program is that by 1904 the strength of the army in peace shall be 145,000, and on a war footing 520,000. The vast expenditure necessary for this is to be had by -- using the entire Chinese war indemnity of $300,000,000 and floating a public loan of $120,000,000. John Wiley & Sons, New York, have recently published a book of nearly 400 pages and 142 illustrations on "Steam Boilers," by Cecil H. Peabody, professor of marine engineering and naval architecture, and Edward F. Miller, assistant professor of steam engineering, both at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The book deals with methods of designing, making, managing and caring for boilers, and although it is intended primarily for the use of students in technical schools and colleges, it will be found useful to engineers in general. There is given a description of various types of boilers in common use, Following this is a discussion of combustion, corrosion and incrusta- tion, with a statement of the most recent investigations and conclu- sions on these important subjects. A table of the compositions of American fuels is a feature of the work. A statement is given of the proper and of the customary sizes and form of furnaces, and of the methods of firing. Tables of grate-areas and heating surfaces, and of other proportions of furnaces and boilers, have been made up from the best current practice for stationary, locomotive, and marine boilers. A chapter on strength of boilers deals with methods and conditions for testing materials and for making boilers, and the properties which such materials should have. Other chapters deal with boiler accessories, shop practice, testing of boilers, ete. Mr. Gilbert Wilkes and other Detroit leaders of the Michigan naval reserve are still engaged in an effort to secure the well-known old Yantic from the navy department for practice purposes. In view of the possible detail of this vessel to the lakes, the secretary of the navy has asked the state department for a construction, in this regard, of the treaty between Great Britain and the United States prohibiting the presence of warships on the lakes. If there is nothing in the treaty prohibiting a vessel of the Yantic's character from entering the lakes, she will very probably be given to the Michigan reserves, provided she can get through the St. Lawrence canals. But in this there is another difficulty, as the Yantic is 180 feet over all, 30 feet beam and 12 feet depth. It is thought that she can not be lightened suffici- ently to admit of passage through the lower canals. She isa wooden vessel, built at Philadelphia in 1864. She is bark rigged and has en- gines of 225 horse power that drive a screw. It is understood that officials of the navy department favor the proposition to loan this ves- sel to the Michigan organization, but objection will certainly be raised by either Canada or the British government to a war vessel of any kind being moved through the Dominion canals to the lakes. The action of the management of the Duluth, Mesabi & Northern Ry. in ordering a suspension of all Sunday work at Duluth is com- mendable, and it is hoped that the time is not far off when there will be no Sunday work on any of the lake docks. Everybody would be benefited by such a rule, even from a business standpoint. Harland & Wolff of Belfast, who have built all of the White Star line steamers, now have in hand for that company new vessels aggre- gating 103,000 tons, which will bring the total tonnage of the line up to 259,000, involving an expediture of $27,500,000. Appointments of captains and engineers for 1897, vest pocket size, $1.00. Order from the Marine Review, Cleveland, Ohio. ; 3 . ' e piieptintii i being Re»