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MARINE REVIEW. : Ship Yard Work. Notwithstanding low freights and generally bad conditions some lake ship yards are getting a few contracts. It is understood that figures are being asked for ona large steel barge. The building of another steamer by the Union Dry Dock Company, Buffalo, and the contract for an usually large steel tug taken by Wheeler & Co.at West Bay City, give promise of some activity in lake yards. The tug is to be 156 feet long, 11 feet longer than the tug recently contracted for New Orleans parties. It will be used in the coast trade about the Gulf of Mexico, and will be constructed sufficiently strong to cross the Atlantic when desired. The measurements of the new boat will make it the largest in the world, with the Wilmot tug the second in size. It is to be built for Pittsburg parties. The Union Dry Dock contract is probably for the Union Steam- boat Co., although Supt. Gaskin will not give out any information concerning it. This makes three lake ship yards busy, the Globe Iron 1399. RMS CAMPANIA' &'LUCANIA" which he is not a believer, but by deepening the channels in the old way--by dredging and blasting rocks. He gives his reasons for it ina Detroit Free Press interview: Damming the Niagara may have some effect on the Lake Erie harbors, he says, but not beyond that. Damming the Detroit river might have some good etfect in raising the water over the Lime Kilns crossing and Ballard's reef, which have always been more or less trouble- some, and perhaps this would be cheaper method than deepening them by the old plan. But deepening the St. Clair river is not necessary to clear obstructions, for there are none there that give trouble. It might deepen Lake Huron a little, but who wants it deepened? Lake Michigan ports can not be affected by any damming process at any points, as they are all much higher than the lower lake ports. South Chicago, Chicago and Milwaukee harbors can only be deepened by the expenditure of vast sums of money in shifting docks and other property and in dredging. Until this is done what good will the damming of 1888 "LAHN" 448 F' long. PP. ~ 460 ft y ." exk " See 4 527 . long PP '\ 1088-9 "CITY of NEW YORK" & CITY oF PARIS' 560 "long ext. ii o aie ~ 460 Ft long FP 1889 AUGUSTA VICTORIA" &COLUMBIA 480° lond ext Velde set tw twee eee i 565 ft long PP 1889-90 "TEUTONIC' & MAJESTIC" S82 . Ft long ext -- SSS ee ee i a 465 f° lony PP (890-1 "SPREE & HAVEL 485 F* long ext 5----_ orale la ele le leie eee oS eae et es be Artie le le Tel : alee ead else nada tate ict esa pie = = = = KK | ee -_----- --_ _ Z 500 f! long PP. 1890-1 'NORMANNIA' & "FURST BISMARGH' 520 f* iong, axt. we ease 45006. ILLUSTRATION SHOWING INCREASE IN LENGTH OF ATLANTIC LINERS IN TEN YEARS. Note: The two at the bottom on the left are the Oceanic and Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, now building. The Great Eastern is included although she was built in 1858. Tt may be seen that the Oceanic slightly exceeds the famous boat in length. Works company with the two revenue cutters, Wheeler's with two large ocean tugs, and the Union Dry Dock Co. with a package freight steamer, i Comments on the 20-foot Channel, : An article discrediting Capt. McDougall's judgment on the deepen- _ ing of lake channels, has been printed in several lake newspapers. In reply to a note from the Review, asking his opinion on the deeper water, he says: "I personally am not losing any sleep on account of it. Our vessels are getting the full benefit of the depth, as well as all others; but we are still three feet short of the 20-foot channel that was looked for, notwithstanding the fact that we had over six feet fall of snow last winter and the greatest rain fall since then in the history of the country. Lake Superior is chuck full--the highest water mark T ever saw--but beginning to recede a little at this end."' Capt. Dunham has predicted that: he will live to see a depth of 26 feet in lake harbors. This will be done, he says, not by damming, in the Niagara do Chicago, as an increased depth at Buffalo could be of no use to vessels bound there from the Lake Michigan ports? The Lake Superior ports are in the best condition of any. The St. Mary's river needs no dam to deepen that lake. Duluth-Superior now affords a magnificent deep harbor for the loading of all classes of ves- sels, and Ashland and Marquette are but little behind it. Drawing 28 feet of water, the monster four-masted British steam- ship American has left her pier at Columbia stores, Brooklyn, for a trip of 6,000 miles to Cape Town, South Africa. With her, the huge vessel will bear the interests of 3,000 shippers of New York, for that is the number of bills of lading her cargo represents. Twelve thousand tons is the measurement of this immense cargo packed below the American's iron decks, and it means approximately a value of $2,000,- 000. This does not include 118 mules in stalls on the upper deck aft. The cargo even includes such trifles as face powder and artificial teeth, wigs and switches, to say nothing of a consignment of glass eyes and another of artificial legs aud arms.