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| | . MARINE REVIEW. ---- Vou. XVI. CLEVELAND, O., SEPTEMBER 231607, a : 5 LNo? 13: Over-Loaded Ships. The schooner H. A. Kent, which foundered off Stanard rock, Lake Superior, on Thursday night last, was laden with 1,674 gross tons of ore. To the practical vessel man of the lakes who knows what the Kent was capable of carrying. when properly loaded, this correct statement of her cargo will prompt some reflections. Not long ago the canal schooners. of the lakes (so called on account of having been built of light draft to suit Welland canal traffic) were practically wiped out in the fall gales of two or three years on account of being overloaded. In a few seasons of high freights they were put into the ore traffic after channels had been deepened to about 16 feet. They were built for 14-feet draft, or less. At this draft, no sea, however great, would bother them. But when they were over- loaded, in a desire to take advantage of profitable freights, they soon dis- appeared from the lakes, and with them a great many poor souls perished. May we not expect a repetition of these catastrophes in the present dispo- sition to load wooden vessels of 13-foot hold to the deep draft of 17% feet provided in lake channels by government expenditures of millions of dollars for deep-draft steel ships--not the old wooden schooners of days one by? , 2 It is not the aim of this article to signal out the owner of the Kent as the only offender in this matter of loading down old wooden vessels to a deep draft for which they were never intended. She was the best schooner in the fleet of wooden vessels to which she belonged, as she was given a thorough rebuild last winter, but the fact remains that when she foundered she was loaded with fully 100 more tons of iron ore than she should carry with chances of favorable,weather. Olther owners of vessels of the same kind may be charged with a desire to take advantage of the full limit of draft, but a forcible objection would be raised if a load-line was advo- cated; and yet who can say that the underwriters would not be justified in demanding the establishment of load-lines under such circumstances, or that the ordinary humane feeling for the lives of men endangered on such vessels should not prompt the adoption of extreme measures looking to their safety? By all means, let the owners of lake ships take into account the awful risk of loss of life through overloading vessels that were not in- tended for deep-draft brought about by dredged channels. If this is not done, the losses of the coming fall will certainly outnumber the worst ¢ catastrophies in the days of canal schooners. Points for Ship Masters, Commander Jewell, light-house inspector of the tenth district, an- nounces that the positions of black gas buoys Nos. 3 and 5, marking the Ballard's reef channel, Detroit river, have just been changed. Buoy No. 3 's now 975 yards above buoy No. 1, and buoy No. 5 is 975 yards above buoy No. 3. The position of buoy No. 1 has not been changed. These three buoys are in a line parallel with the axis of the channel and about 25 feet to the westward of its western limit. Buoy No. 5 is about 430 yards S. E. by E. % E. from Ballard reef light-vessel. The black spar buoy, which for- merly marked a ledge of rock in this channel, has been discontinued, the ledge having been*temoved. "In navigating this channel," says Com- mander Jewell, "its eastern side should be avoided while the improvements are IN progress, on account of the rocks that may be thrown out in blast- ing. The engineers in charge of the improvements at this point have also found it Necessary to again say to vessel masters that they must not follow the Duff & Gatfield ranges for the present, as they will thus be led to the fastward of the deep water and encounter boulders where the contractors are at work. noes John H. Maloy of the steamer W. H. Stevens is the latest captain to 'Port an encounter with a rolling stone or obstruction of some kind in the channel near Amherstburg. "The obstruction," he says, "is about 250 ed north of the red buoy marking what 'is sometimes called Spokane ae When we struck we were heading down clear of the red light on wi. Stake, say 75 to 100 feet west of it, and we were drawing about 14 feet eS It is understood that government employees on the river are oh at work sweeping for this or any other obstructions that may be in the annel between Wigle's mill and New York shoal. ' "ports to underwriters and to officials of the Lake Carriers' Associa- of pec the effect that there are now full 20 feet of water over the wreck eae tand Traverse, sunk near the mouth of the Detroit river. The the €Ts have recovered the pony pump, capstan, and two deck trucks from ; as of the steamer, and have cut the wreck off below decks except ne feet on one side. Rubbish will be cleared away as far as possible I W as and then there will be 26 to 30 feet of water over the wreck. é the : etter to George L. McCurdy of Chicago, Capt. Harvey Stewart "Sha We €amer Sauber says that on the 12th inst., when rounding the een (Waugoshance), his vessel struck a rock or some other obstruc- t c sgh o Sives the following bearings: Gray's reef, S. W. by W.; dike » S. EY E. with Rose shoal one or one anid one-quarter miles nt: The Sauber was drawing 17 feet and 17 feet 4 inches; possibly When Tunning she was down to 18 or 18Y feet. bona Charles S. Ripley, who has been in charge of the Chicago Ordered ydrographic office for the past two years, has been detached and City. On ee for duty on board the U. S. S. Marblehead at New York recent] + el. He will be succeeded on Oct. 23, by Lieut. Simon Cook, ¥ detached fromthe U. S. S. Puritan. t Dimension Soft Length Over all, 59 ee Chicago Ship Building Co.'s enlarged dry dock are: Width at b et; length on blocks, 500 feet; width at top, 100 feet; ottom, 80 feet; width of gate, 70 feet; depth over sill, 18 feet. American Citizens for the Navy. Since the return to Washington of Lieut. John M. Hawley, U. S. N., who has been in charge of the establishment -of templorary naval recruit- ing' stations on the lakes, it has been announced: that with the closing of the station at Buffalo, now in charge of Ensign N. E. Irwin, this work will be discontinued for the present on the lakes. But Lieut. Hawley will very probably recommend to the secretary of the navy the establishment of a permanent recruiting rendezvous at Chicago; not because the navy is short of the number of men allowed by law, but because of the experienced men who were found willing to enter the navy from the lakes. The num- ber of applicants of all kinds who presented themselves for enlistment at each of the temporary stations on the lakes was greater than could now be conveniently used in the service, and this is why Toledo, Cleveland and other places were skipped. The percentage of those who successfully passed the exacting physical examination was very large, being over. 50° per cent. at all points. All the men enlisted have been sent to the receiving ship Vermont at New York, and most of them have already been assigned to duty on ships in active service. None but American citizens were en- listed and no boys not born in this country. Lieut. Comdr. Hawley will suggest to Secretary Long the advisability of a visit of a recruiting board to establish temporary recruiting stations at Savannah, Mobile, New Orleans and other southern ports. He finds that in all the lake towns and seaports there are large numbers of promising sailormen and mechanics of American citizenship who have not the money to pay their expenses to the recruiting ships, but who gladly enlist when the recruiting officers come to them and their expenses to the receiving ships are paid. They constitute a class that it is very desirable to induce to enter the navy, and the first experiments in recruiting them have met with signal success. It is the policy of the department to weed out the foreign element in the _ personnel of the navy as rapidly as possible. Lake Freight Matters--New Ships. The northwestern grain movement has not up to this time been as heavy as was expected, and although the soft coal miners have now been at work for several days, the shipments of coal by lake during the present week have been little in excess of shipments during the strike period. The first supplies of coal had to be distributed in all directions, and a shortage of cars also prevented a large movement to the lakes. It is again expected that within a few days these delays will be overcome and the freight mar-- ket improve accordingly. In the meantime the ore trade is the main sup- port of lake shipping, and there is every indication that ore will continue moving to the full capacity of the producing interests until the close of the © season. Some sales are being made right along by the few dealers who are not sold up to their full output. The iron market grows stronger each day without a boom in prices, and the best feature of it fis an assurance of a heavy business running well into-another year. Markets for Bessemer pig iron all over the country are strong, and the demand for foundry iron - within the past week has been more urgent than it has ever been in the~ history of the iron trade. This is 'certainly a most encouraging report, as consumers of this kind of iron represent a trade that is far reaching in its various elements. Ship builders,are figuring on several vessels, contracts for- two of which in Cleveland will probably be closed in a few days. No Discriminating Duty. After all the fuss that has been raised during several weeks past about 3 the discriminating duty section of the new tariff bill, Attorney General Mc- Kenna has finally rendered a decision that practically nullifies the work of whoever it was that made the changes in the language of the section while the bill was in the hands of the conference committee, without the com- . - mittee or either of the houses of congress knowing what those changes were expected-to effect. In other words, this section of the tariff act, in. accordance with the decision of the attorney general, will permit of the collection of discriminating duties only in such cases as have been provided for in every tariff act for a third of a century. : This is just as it should be. The friends of American shipping, as far as they are concerned in this matter, want no assistance from "sneaked" legislation. It was admitted after the passage of the tariff bill that neither the senate nor the conference committee was aware of the effect of the al- terations in section 22, even if it was known! that any changes had heen made: Under these circumstances, the decision of the attorney general, in addition to being legally correct, is also a just decision. Let the fight in favor of assistance for our mercantile marine, which is certain to be made in the next congress, be conducted on such clean lines as to prove that - none of the friends of American shipping have had anything to do with the changes that were made in the tariff act. Directors of the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co. are getting around to the point of authorizing the construction of another side-wheel steamer _ similar to the City of Buffalo, but it is not probable that the contract will be let in time to have the new steamer in service next year. The C. & B. company is in the same position that the Detroit & Cleveland company found itself after building their first big boat, the City of Cleveland. Every- body wanted to ride on the City of Cleveland. She was crowded all the time, and the smaller boat on the line was poorly patronized. The com- pany was forced to build the City of- Detroit, which was practically a ment is now experiencing a similar condition of affairs. duplicate of the City of Cleveland. The Cleveland & Buffalo line manage+ - EE