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o 12 MARINE REVIEW. al a - -- -- ln © 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. Supscription--$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 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 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 Number. Tonnage. Siam Ree esa Bac tab Aduacetneeshaes vecobeesaasasveesenoces Wie ; Cea en Sailing VESSCIS ANG DALZES.........csecrccersscnarsrsceseveeeees i sO27. Cea Lise ies less cnesecb stadsevetsedevssUsenatbesetivevscess 416 - 45,109.47 Motalecci teins FAdgataaractuatniecsuaceteatee 8,333 1,324,067.58 The gross registered tonnage of the vessels built on the lakes during the past six years, according to the reports of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows: Year ending June 30. 1891 204 111,856 45 ig et 1892 169 45,968.98 - ss ' 1893... 175 99,271.24 eS i cs 1894... 106 : 41,984.61 os s oS 1895 as 9; 36,352.70 ss es 1896...... as eee 117 108,782.38 POLE Le ratetrcest saccetinccaces eretcvace savscheecedsccas stcceress 864 414,216.36 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. (vom Oficial 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 8,302 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 * 1895 figures include traffic of Canadian canal at Sault Ste. Marie, which was about % per cent. of the whole, but largely in American vessels. Within the past few days the heads of several leading houses connected with iron ore and pig iron interests in Cleveland have ex- pressed the opinion that the turning point in business has been reached, and that, although improvement may be slow, it will be of a steady and substantial kind during the balance of the year. This same opinion from other quarters is reflected in the trade journals. In its latest review of market conditions, the Iron Age of New York says: 'A careful study of the situation in the central west will, we believe, develop the fact that in the cruder products bedrock in prices has now been reached. Iron ore is as low as it can be laid down at lower lake ports, wages and freights having touched the point where no further lowering seems possible this season. The only chance is that ore freights from receiving ports to furnaces will be lowered and the freight on coke be cut down. Coke is as cheap at $1.25 at oven as can be ex- pected. With any reasonable allowances for depreciation of plant, taxes etc., the conversion from pig to billet is at a min- imum. Merchants have ceased selling ahead withthe idea of cover- ing at lower prices later on, that having become an operation offering very little chance for profit commensurate with the risks of losses in- volved. The price of billets is now the lowest on record, counting not alone our own country, but considering also the leading European pro- ducing countries. It has reached that point because every vestige of profit has been squeezed out of the business, from the ore in the ground up. Along the whole line every interest would demand and would be entitled to some compensation for capital and skill employed in the business at the first hint of an improvement. These are conditions which favor rapid advances when the turn does come. It makes the majority of sellers conservative as to future engagements at present prices."' Fairplay of London says that lake hull insurance of the McCurdy- Prime syndicate has been placed about as follows: Indemnity Insur- ance Co., 50 per cent.; St. Paul Fire & Marine, 5 per cent.; Insur- ance Company of North America, 10 per cent.; National Standard of New York, 15 per cent.; and for the remaining 20 per cent. are given contract notes on behalf of the World Marine Co. and F. W. Marten's names at Lloyd's, The London journal, which is a great sticker for profitable insurance rates, adds this comment to the foregoing announce. ment: "It will thus be seen that while London underwriters as a whole were crying out for higher rates, the business was being scooped, not by foreign competition, but by an old London insurance company backed up by another of more recent establishment and by a philo- sophie gentleman at Lloyd's. It would seem that underwriters desir- ing an improvement in rates should look at home fora cure of the evil instead of crying out about the competition they have to contend with from outsiders." The story of a bottle message from Capt. John McKay of the steamer Manistee, which was telegraphed all around the lakes from Bayfield, Wis., several days ago, was what is known as a newspaper '"fake.'? This is proven by an investigation made by Capt. Geo P. McKay of Cleveland, who secured the piece of paper containing the alleged message from his lost brother, and who sought out other facts from Bayfield. The newspaper correspondent who is at this late day "taken in" by bottle-message fiends is hardly fit for the work in which he is engaged. He is an object of sympathy, but it is different with the fellow who invents such stories in order to get a few dollars from the dispatches which he sends out. A law should be found to apply to this latter class. ; Colgate Hoyt, president of the American Steel Barge Co., has purchased a steam yacht that is building at the ship yard of T. 8. Marvel & Co., Newburg, N. Y. The vessel is 95 feet over all, 71 feet waterline, 14 feet 6 inches beam, and 5 feet 6 inches draught. She has triple expansion engines with cylinders 6, 10 and 16 inches in diameter, and 10 inches stroke of piston. Steam will be supplied by Almy boilers. The annual report of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., just issued, shows no debt except current expenses, with cash on hand April 1 aggre- gating $1,108,146. These directors were elected: Collis P. Hunting- ton, Henry Hart, Isaac HE. Gates, Calvin 8. Brice, Samuel Thomas, Joseph Richardson, Russell Sage, Geo. J. Gould and R. P. Swerin. Roby-Florida Collision Case, In a libel against the steamer Roby and her consort, the W. D. Becker, filed in the United States district court at Detroit, the owners and underwriters interested in the sunken steamer Florida claim dam- ages aggregating $172,400. This includes the value of freight list and the crew's effects. The papers assert that at 8:45 in the morning of May 20, the time of the collision, the Florida was in every particular obeying the rules of navigation; that she was in nowise at fault; that a heavy fog was on; that after passing Presque Isle the Florida took a course a little to the east of the chart course, changing it only on re- ceiving a signal from the Roby; that the Florida proceeded on the course under a slow, checked speed, continually sounding the fog signals as required by law, with a close watch maintained; that a passing signal of two whistles was heard from the Roby, seeming to come from a little forward and a little to the starboard of the Florida, and not far away. The Florida put her wheel to starboard and answered with two whistles, which was answered by the Roby. Soon thereafter a checking signal and a reversing signal in quick succession were heard from the Roby, as the latter came into view through the fog. - The Roby was then close to the Florida, going at apparently full speed and heading to the starboard side of the latter. The Florida had com- menced to swing under a starboard helm immediately after the first exchange of signals, and continued to so swing until struck by the Roby; but the latter, as she came into view of those on the Florida, was not swinging under such helm, and evidently had not altered her course as required under her starboard signal. The Roby was hailed to starboard her helm, but instead of doing so she came on at great speed, and crashed stem on into the starboard side of the Florida, striking the latter a little abatt of amidships and causing her to sink within a short time. The Florida's owners claim that at no time were any fog signals heard from a bell, as is required from schooners being towed; that prior to the collision no fog signals of any kind--so that the location and course of such tow could not be calculated and deter- 'mined--were heard from either the steamer or her consort; that the fog and passing signals of the Florida were all given by loud and dis- tinet blasts of a good and sufficient steam whistle; that a watch on the Roby should haye heard the Florida's fog whistles and thus have located her a long time prior to the time they blew their first two-blast signal on the Florida; that though it was thick and foggy at the time. Site nt 5 the conditions were favorable for sounds to be heard a long distance. The Review has excellent photographs of lake ships. 2 eel eet