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12 MARINE REVIEFW. ; SS DEVOTED TO LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. Published every Thursday at No. 409 Perry-Payne pbuilding, Cleveland, Ohlo, : by John M. Mulrooney and F'. M. Barton. Susscription--$#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 tous 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 316 and their tonnage 685,204.55, so that more than half of the best steamships in all the United States are owned on the lakes. 'The classification of the entire lake fleet on June 30, 1896, was as follows: Gross Number. Tonnage. aa oi ae aes Bice 1,792 924,630.51 Sailing vessels and barges. F O27. Canal DOALS........00..-cceeeereee 416 45,109.47 NO Gale ettaccitedesssceknvvescotshsoeee on cneawonstess 8,333 1,324,067.58 The gross registered tonnage of the vessels built on the lakes during the past six years, Becpraine to the reports of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows: : GING PUNOVSO ISO vo cceccvtrsatescecsesccsccssecsvereseevos 204 111,856 45 ae capers SO Dene eee a ceseccicecesenttcceesraccoses 169 45,968.98 ef f ce SOS Beaee ee ol aciecocctissctecascos cooeasee 175 99,271.24 oy re oe SOA ee ieee RN eEN casccbeecectesecssocs - 106 41,984.61 as) te 's SOD Ree ec ecaevecrersocoecbecictswcottowe! 93 86,352.7 st, a ey IS OGmeectccseeteccercccepaccsecsscuseassses . 117 -108,782.38 PIO tet leeeeete tiene cose en trans tote stcarcenencsaaccteenanccnesees 864 444,216.36 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. (From Official Reports of Canal Officers.) St.Mary's Falls Canals. Suez Canal. 1896* 1895* 1894 1894 1896 | 1895 18,61 17,956] 14,491] Number of vessel passages DS 5 4 17,219,418} 16,806,781) 13,110,366 232 231 Doe Tonnage, net registered...... Days of navigation...... ...... 3,409 38,484 3,352 8,560,284] 8,448,383] 8,039,175 ~ 365 365 365 *1895 and 1896 figures include traffic of Canadian cana) at Sault Ste. Marie. The new heads of the navy, Secretary Long and Assistant Secretary Roosevelt are said to be at work on a radical plan for harmonizing the long existing differences between the line and staff corps. A lengthy editorial in the Army and Navy Journal would indicate that the scheme embodies some excellent ideas. It contemplates nothing less than the ulti- mate dissolution of the engineer corps as it exists today, and the education of officers in the future in such a way as to enable them to perform equally well the duties of a navigator and those of an engineer. All officers on board ship with the exception perhaps of surgeons and paymasters will be given positive rank and with this bone of contention buried the advocates of the scheme believe that it will be adopted by congress. Prof. Ira' N. Hollis is credited with having suggested to the secretary the ideas that formed the basis of the scheme. From information available, it appears that the existing conditions will not be changed. The officers at present in the engineer corps, with the possible exception of those who have just entered that branch of the service, will remain as engineers. The same is true of those who are now line officers. But it is proposed to change the course of study at the naval academy so as to give every cadet a thorough and practical knowledge of steam engineering, a knowledge which will be equal to that which is now imparted to the engineer cadets. There will be no line or engineering branch. Upon graduation the men will -be assigned to duty as ensigns. They may be available for duty as deck officers or they may be assigned below at the engines. There is to be a corps of chief engineers, the members of which are to enjoy positive rank. It is said that the proposition is favored by Commodore Melville, as well as other leading members of the engineer corps, and also by the younger line officers, but the older line officers are thought to be opposed to it. _ Engineer-in-Chief J. M. Wilson of the war department has issued a circular giving instructions to the officers of the corps regarding the em- ployment of men on public works under the civil service regulations. Provision is made for the selection of temporary employés for positions where there are no eligibles or in case persons on the eligible list do not possess the requisite qualifications. Civil service local boards have been established in each engineer district. One of the largest classes of employés who require peculiar qualifications for the work are junior engineers, which grade includes inspectors, sub-inspectors, Overseers, sub-overseers, surveyors, hydrographers, topographers, transitories, levelmen, sextant ob- servers, computers, rodmen and recorders. Employés occupying any of the junior engineer positions in the classified service, for which educational tests are required, are eligible for assignment to clerical grades without examination, subject to the approval of the chief of engineers. Investigation by the London Ironmonger into the recent purchase of American steel rails for the East Indian railway shows that English rails were offered at an average price of $27.50 a ton, while the American bid was $23.50. The Bengal & Nagpur Railroad Co. has placed an order with an American firm for 2,000 tons of rails at $23. The English bid for these was $27.25. The high price asked by the English firms is peculiar when it 1s considered that the London price of steel rails in July last, as given by the Economist, was $21.78. _To be sure, the price bid for the Indian rails included cost of transportation to Calcutta, but that should be less from London than from_any American port. There seems to be ground for suspicion that the English firms were bidding on the supposition that the contract must come to them anyway for patriotic reasons, and they wanted their patriotism well rewarded.--Exchange. Few people comprehend the multifarious operations of the United States treasury. We credit it with the supervision of the mints, and the printing and engraving of paper money, stamps and bonds, but, perhaps, do not realize that it has under its control a fleet of ninety-seven vessels, or nearly as many as are in the commission of the United States navy. These are employed not only in collecting the customs, but in patrolling the coast, furnishing supplies to light-houses and light-ships, rescuing vessels in distress, enforcing the revenue and navigation laws, as well as being en- gaged in the coast and geodetic survey and in the service of the marine hos- pitals. Mr. Charles H. Hamlin, ex-secretary of the treasury, refers to these, as well as many other duties that fall within the scope of the de- partment, in an article which he contributed to a recent number of Har- ' per's Round Table. Mr. Charles H. Cramp says that officials of the navy department are certainly in earnest regarding the general project for the construction of dry docks, which they propose to submit to congress at its next session. Humiliation attending the docking of the Indiana at Halifax has stirred up the whole country. Mr. Cramp is of the opinion that the next dock should be built at the League Island navy yard. He says that there are now built and building nine or ten naval vessels that can not well be dock- ed in any existing dry dock in this country, though some of them might use the new dock at the New York Navy yard, if the latter, which partially collapsed lately, were in condition to be used. In England as in this country the closing years of the century are distinguished by propositions that involve several gigantic engineering schemes. One of these is the project for connecting Scotland and Ireland by a tunnel. 'The passageway would extend from a point in Scotland just north of Point Patrick to a point on the Irish coast just west of Carrick- fergus and several miles north of Belfast lake, which is an arm of the Irish sea. It would be lighted by electricity and would cost $35,000,000. The plan'is reported to have received the endorsement of engineers, and "'syn- dicates" and "government influence" are freely mentioned in connection with the promotion of the enterprise. The lightest known solid is said to be the pith of the sunflower, with a specific gravity of .028, or about one-eighth that of cork. The sunflower is extensively cultivated in central Russia, and various uses are served by its different parts, the recent discovery of the lightness of the pith essen- tially increasing the commercial value of the plant. For life saving ap- pliances at sea, cork has a buoyancy of one to five, while with the sunflower pith one to thirty-five is attained. About 800 cubic inches of it would weigh as much as 1 cubic inch of iridium, the heaviest metal.--American Machinist. As indicating the draft of water in the Detroit river under different conditions of weather, it may be noted that during the week ending on Saturday last the gauge used by the government engineers at Ballard's reef, where the water is shallowest, was at the following marks: Aug. 16, 17 feet 6 inches with wind north-west, heavy; Aug. 17, 18 feet, north-west moderate; Aug. 18, 18 feet 2 inches, south, strong; Aug. 19, 18 feet 1 inch, north-west, light; Aug. 20, 17 feet 11 inches, north-west, light; Aug. 21, 18 feet, south, moderate. Rapid development of our torpedo boat fleet is probably the cause of the navy department again directing attention to the question of using oil fuel. The secretary of the navy has ordered Lieut. Nathan Sargent to proceed to the oil fields of Pennsylvania to pursue investigations along this line. It is said that plans for special machinery to be applied to one of the new torpedo boats at the Newport station will depend largely upon Lieut. Sargent's report regarding the kind of petroleum fuel that is at com- mand. : C. P. Huntington, who is the leading spirit in the Pacific Mail Steam- ship Co., Newport News ship building plant and other big enterprises, 1s quoted as saying that he will build two 10,000-ton steamships, which, with the China and City of Peking, will enable the Pacific Mail to largely in- crease its business and give the quietus to threatened transpacific Japanese competition. Forced draught, it is asserted, is very bad for boilers, but if it is, the locomotive seems to get along pretty well with it. No marine boiler was ever forced as locomotives are forced, or burned anything like the same amc of coal per square foot of grate surface--The Engineer, New ork, All sorts of extreme statements are being made regarding the scarcity of wheat in European countries, one of them to the effect that the Russian government is meditating the promulgation of a decree prohibiting expor- tation, owing to the small crops in southern Russia. George H. Bliss, whose death was announced from New York a few days ago, was an active member of the firm of John Bliss & Co., well- known manufacturers and dealers in nautical instruments. He was fifty- five years of age. Four Thornycroft boilers will supply steam for engines of over 70 horse power in the torpedo boat to be built by the Harlan & Hollingsworth Co., Wilmington, Del., for the United States government. It is more than probable that Chief Naval Constructor Hichborn will again be reappointed to his present position after the regular term of service - in such capacity, which expires next month. Sp Contrary to what might be expected, British statistics of shipping casualties show that collisions occur more frequently by day than by night