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--_ MARINE Vor. XVI. ee --_--_-- Coal Situation--Iron Ore Shipments. The situation as regards soft coal shipments is probably the most in- teresting feature of the lake trade at this time. Figures at hand relate only to the Lake Superior coal movement, but this is, of course, most important. The shipments of soft coal to all Lake Superior ports last season, as shown by the St. Mary's Falls canal -statistics, aggregated 2,626,130 net tons, which is a little above the average for three years past. Requirements this year, if the coal can be moved, will very probably be in excess of 1896. On August 1 of this year only 958,377 tons had been moved to Lake Superior, so that, figuring simply on a basis of last season's ship- ments, there is yet to be moved in round numbers 1,650,000, as against 1,303,876 tons moved after the first of August last year. But it must be noted that during the month of August last year 425,000 tons of coal were shipped to Lake Superior. During the present August the shipments will, of course, be very light, even if the strike is settled before the month is half over, so that it is safe to figure that if the supply or coal forwarded to Lake Superior is to equal that of last year, full 1,500,000 tons must be shipped during September, October and November. During these three months of last year the shipments aggregated only 878,000 tons. In the fall of last year the ore shippers were all cutting down the movement of ore, and there was no great shortage of cars as there is thus early this season. Taking all these facts into consideration, it certainly seems that the coal shippers, even if the strike is settled at once, will find great diffi- culty in moving their lake coal. Reports from all ore shipping ports to the Cleveland sales agents show shipments to August 1 aggregating 5,415,560 gross tons, as against 5,682,308 gross tons on the same date a year ago, or a shortage of only 266,748 tons. 'The movement of ore in July was the greatest in the history of the business. This certainly indicates a comfortable condition of affairs among the ore dealers, but it is encouraging to note that within the past few days sales of ore footing up about 300,000 tons have been made. Sault River Dredging. In the proposals for the big job of dredging in the St. Mary's river that are to be opened in the office of Col. Lydecker at Detroit, Aug. 31, thereare four items. The first relates to Round island shoal No. 1, which is about 1% miles northwesterly from the old 'light-house on Round island, near the head of the river. A channel 300 feet wide has been dredged through the shoal, and the work now to be done is to widen the channel to 800 feet and deepen it to 23 feet throughout. At Round island shoal No. 2, which is about one mile northeasterly from the old light-house, the 300-foot channel is also to be widened to 800 feet and deepened to 23 feet throughout. The third item relates to shoals obstructing the upper approach to St. Mary's Falls canal. These shoals are about three-quarters of a mile west of the light-house on the southwest pier of the canal, and the work now to be done is in continuation of previous work in this local- ity, the purpose being to provide a straight channel 1,000 feet wide and 21 feet deep. "At the Middle Neebish, fourth item in the specifications, the work to be done is to deepen the channel already excavated between sec- Hons 500 and 760, so as to make the least depth of water in this section 21 feet, and to widen the present channel about 30 feet between cross sections 62 and 900, or as much more as the contract price for work will permit; the fxact amount of widening can not be determined until the price at which the work can be done is known, as the total amount available for expenditure on the work is about $150,000. - Grosse Point Cut. ' A mistake is made in blaming the Lake Carriers' Association for the nsatisfactory arrangement of temporary lights on Grosse point cut, oie St. Clair. "The temporary lights, which were hurried into place in es er to take advantage of the new channel before it was fully completed, vere established under the direction of the Lake Carriers' Association, 7 it Was expected that they would be in use for only a very short period. enh yessel. owners were soon relieved of the care of them by the light- a oard, and they have been maintained by the government. for several of eae past. It was thought after the board took charge of the lighting ee e cut that, permanent structures would be erected immediately, on carn of the importance of the channel. Officers of the Lake Carriers enon have suggested the great necessity of hurrying matters per- 7 ig to the lighting of this.channel, but the light-house board is prob- afer need of funds for the purpose. It is probable, however, that the aM agitation of the subject will result in some improvement being tires in the temporary lights, pending the erection of permanent struc- nes West, Hartley and Dedaker, all connected with the man- Tam nt of tHe Cramp ship yard, together with a son of Mr. Charles H. they yy are making a tour of lake ship yards. The gentlemen say that talk of the the lakes simply for pleasure. Some time ago there was all araten; Cramps starting a ship yard on the lakes, but it is not at Probable le that such a venture is contemplated at present. It is quite the He ere that extensive improvements may soon be made at iladelphia works, and that in view of these improvements the €ads of de the examin Pattments who are making this trip are giving attention to ation of ship yard appliances and methods generally. liga A. R. encampment at Buffalo, N. Y.--The Nickel Plate road sells to S ate excursion tickets Aug. 21, 22 and 23. Tickets may be extended aoe 232, Aug 21 CLEVELAND, O., AUGUST 12, 1897. REVIE Noe. Statistics of Lake Commerce. - Everybody interested in lake commerce will be pleased with the an- -- nouncement from Washington that a special bureau of the treasury de- partment is to devote attention to the collection and publication of in- formation concerning all branches of this commerce. Geo. H. Tunell, who has been selected to take charge of the new bureau, is known to ~ readers of the Review. Through connection with the Journal of Political Economy, which is issued from the University of Chicago, he has con- tributed to that publication of late several valuable articles on lake com- merce, all of which would indicate that he is in many respects fitted for the government work that has been assigned to him. The work of the new bureau will undoubtedly be purely statistical. Mr. Tunell will find - that existing regulations on the lakes are of a kind that make it vety difficult to secure reliable information regarding commerce of the lakes . other than the small trade which we have with Canada. Regulations in the coastwise trade do not require reports that admit of a full summary of lake commerce being secured. This has proven a great drawback to everybody who has tried to make up detailed and comparative reports of the commerce at all lake ports. Probably the establishment of the - new bureau in the treasury department will bring about the necessary changes, in customs regulations. It is announced that for a time, at least, -- Mr, Tunell will remain in Chicago, sending from there the results of his work to Washington for publication in the monthly reports of the bureau of statistics. Eventually, his office will be established in the treasury - department. . His first work will be included in the annual report of the ° bureau of statistics to be issued this fall, and transmitted to congress in ° December by Secretary Gage. Combination Boilers. Another vessel of the navy, the cruiser Atlanta, 3,189 tons, is to be -- fitted with a combination of water tube and cylindrical boilers. The alter-~ ations are to be made at the New York navy yard. . Eight single-ended ~ cylindrical boilers now in the vessel will be removed and six new boilers -- put in their place. Four of the new boilers will be of the Babcock & Wilcox water tube type, and the remaining two, cylindrical, single-ended, all designed for a working pressure of 180 pounds per square inch. The fire rooms will be fore-and-aft, as before, but space will be gained for a new athwartship bunker of about 102 tons' capacity. 'The old three-cyl-~ inder compound engine, with the high pressure cylinder between the low pressure cylinders, will be converted into a triple expansion engine. The. old forward low pressure cylinder, 74 inches in diameter, will be replaced by a new high pressure cylinder 34 inches in diameter. The old high pressure cylinder, 54 inches in diameter, will 'be bushed to make its diam-_ eter 50.5 inches and to serve as the intermediate pressure cylinder of the new engine. The other low. pressure cylinder will be retained for the same purpose in the new engine. The forward condenser will be removed, and the internal arrangement of the after one will be changed to give a better distribution of the steam and more cooling surface. The independ- ent engines for driving the old air and circulating pumps, and the forward _ air and circulating pump will be discarded. The after air pump will be worked from the low pressure engine, and the circulating pump will be blocked off. A new centrifugal circulating pump will be installed. Few persons looking at an ordinary ocean steamship, loaded or tn- loaded, as it lies in a dock, have any conception of its enormous carrying capacity. The boat looks big, of course, but gives no idea of the tre- mendous amount of freight that can be stowed away in its capacious. hold without overloading it. The Baltimore & Ohio railroad loaded an ordinary freight steamer the other day, and this is what it took to fill her: Sixty-six cars of lumber, four of starch, nineteen of oilcake, six of pro- visions, one of grain, one oi flour, twenty-two of tobacco, two of wire, - three of sugar, thirteen of fresh meat, twenty of sheep, or 1,699 head; forty- five of cattle, or 888 head; three of lard, one of copper, four of merchan- dise and 161 of grain, making a total of 371 car loads. This is equal to ~ ten long freight trains, which, if placed in a row, would cover a distance of about two miles. And all their freight went into one tramp steamship. --Philadelphia Record. A correspondent of the London Times summarizes, in connection with the naval review of the Queen's jubilee celebration, the progress of the marine engine in the past sixty years. He says it embraces an in- crease of steam pressures from three to 155 pounds per square inch, ex- cluding from the account the water tube boilers; an increase of piston speeds from 220 to nearly 1,000 feet a minute; a decrease in the weight of marine engines in proportion to the power they develop from 10 hun- dredweight to 134 hundredweight per indicated horse power, more than five times the power for a given weight of machinery; and a decrease in the fuel consumption proportioned to the power from five to seven pounds per indicated horse power per hour to two pounds. These figures are not the best attained, but they are regarded as fair on the basis of comparison adopted. Nine contracts for the improvement of fifty-four miles of the middle division of the Erie canal were awarded at Albany a few days ago, the: bids aggregating $1,372,009.50. The Warren-Scharf Asphalt Paving Co, of New York secured two sections of the work at $455,703; the National Contracting Co. of New York, three sections at $496,777.50; John Dunfee & Co. of Syracuse, one section at $136,600; W. B. Priddy of Spring Lake, one section at $115,713, and Andrew Onderdonk of New York, one section at $167,216. sacar He