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MARINE, REVIEW, Ship Yard Matters. In all their parts, down to the smallest details, the big wheels of the new side-wheel passenger steamer City of 'Buffalo will be exact duplicates. The Dry Dock Co. is already actively at work on this vessel. All of the orders for material were made out before the contract was signed, so that there would be no delay in beginning operations. It is, of course ex- pected that this /vessel's name will be Forest City. Buffalo was honored in the christening of the City of Buffalo, and it would not-do to slight Cleveland people when there is another ship to name. "City of Cleve- land" can not be selected as the D. & C. line already has a boat of that name. Lorain people are asking Mr..A. B. Wolvin to take the name Lorain City for the freight steamer which the Cleveland Ship Building'. Co. is constructing for him at that point. A big steel works and a ship yard have given Lorain quite a boom, but the town probably lacks a few souls in the count necessary to make it a city. It is said that the steamer buling at NSS SEP EHOS i ine barge company will be named Alex- ander MaDougall, in honor of the general man p: the father of the whalebacks. = eee Ot ineec cr aay ae Although the big Standard oil barge built at Buffalo, is being pre- pared for a trip to the coast, where she will be used during the winter there is no truth in the report that another vessel of this kind is to be built shortly at West Superior. Mr. R. C. Veit of the shipping and lighterage department of the Standard company says that another barge has not been thought of as yet. The crane that is to span one of the building slips at the West Superior yard is being built by the barge com- pany from designs furnished by the Wellman-Seaver Engineering Co. of Cleveland. 5 ; __Not long ago the manufacturers of stockless anchors found great difficulty in introducing them on lake vessels. Nobody would now think of sending a new vessel out without stockless anchors. An anchor of the old style would not be taken as a gift. Several foreign orders received lately by the Baldt: Anchor Co. of Chester, Pa., speak well for the popu- larity of that type of stockless anchor. The manufacturers report that they have just made a shipment of anchors to Holland and have an order in hand from Japan. The Goodrich Transportation Co. will probably not undertake until next winter the important changes that have been planned for the pas- senger steamer Virginia. They have, however, awarded to Burger & Burger of Manitowoc the work of lengthening the wooden steamer Lud- ington and making other changes suited to a large increase in passen- ger accommodations. Three more steel barges for St. Lawrence river grain trade between Prescott and Montreal will be. built by the Bertram Engine Works Co. of Toronto for the Prescott Elevator Co. More Firing on Dumont, ___ Editor Marine Review:--I write to say I am in hearty accord with the ideas expressed in an article signed "Veritas" that appeared in your issue of the 7th inst. Take, for instance, the act of congress approved Jan. 18, 1897, which was evidently suggested by the board of supervising inspectors of steam vessels, and if not, then it must have been referred to them and approved by them before its passage. This law requires a vessel of over 15 tons burden with a naphtha engine, to be used for auxiliary purposes, to carry a licensed engineer. Now, as a matter of fact, steam engineers know nothing about naphtha engines, unless they have made a special study of them, and it is a great hardship on owners of such vessels to have to employ a licensed steam engineer for a purpose which is made use of only in case of necessity and which any person of ordinary intelli- gence can operate. There is just about as much sense or necessity for a licensed engineer on a-naphtha launch as there is on a trolley car. The owners of these vessels demand immediate relief from this oppressive tax, and I would like to know how long ship owners are to suffer from these nonsensical exactions adopted in consequence of a want or lack of prac- tical knowledge and experience to guide our legislators in their framing of laws in these matters? We want to get rid of the frequent amendments and changes now made, which tend to confuse those for whose guidance they are intended, and to secure for the future permanent laws, with a set of rules and regula- tions based on practical knowledge and experience. If the present board was composed of men of such ability, they would not have allowed them- selves to be held up to public ridicule on account of their reversing the decisions of the local inspectors alleging mere technicalities for so doing. The government pays the members of this board good salaries, because they are supposed to be men of undoubted ability in all matters pertaining to the inspection service and have no need of depending upon or waiting until suggestions are made from others. 55 Every day new instances come to light to show what a great political machine the office of the supervising inspector general of steam vessels is. Only today I have learned that this great trimmer for political influence has lately defied even the rules of the civil service and recommended a man to fill the vacant inspectorship of hulls in the Grand Haven local dis- trict without his having passed a competitive examination, simply pees' he had a pull, when there was at least one eligible who had teen st € ioaaee and passed with an average of 88 per cent. as far back as uly 22 last. : : I notice that a great deal is made of Dumont's long pervicgy aot rae can only be ascribed to the political pull that he has and not to meg i : * or practical knowledge, such as is required of an inspector BE St steam vessels. He also makes much of the large increase in the num t tife Passengers since he entered the office and the decrease in the loss 0 Ag as if that were due to his able management and not to the eee Ta ments in life saving appliances, and incidentally to want ft ae Biliide this respect I desire to say if his administration had been Iree HT LEtieve influences there would have been much less loss of life, althoug cath ne that it has been much larger than he states, because he Saye ee oe thin the all American steam vessels everywhere, but only au he Mae ithese waters of the United States; and it is well understood, anyhow, Tip figures are made up in such a way that no reliable statistician would con- sider them for a.moment. y In conclusion, I could refer to many cases that would tend to show that the suggestion of "Veritas" to reorganize the entire board by means of a competitive examination cannot be carried out, too soon, and I am satisfied that in the interests of ship owners and the public an immediate change is demanded from the incompetent and oppressive rulings of this © mutual administration society, which only meets once a year to exchange congratulations upon their success in holding their positions, have their pictures taken, attend several banquets and then adjourn. New York, Oct. 18, 1897. OBSERVER. Ships of the United States. When Mr. E. T. Chamberlain, United States commissioner of navi- gation, gave out, a few days ago, a short summary of the statistical part of his annual report, particular attention was given to the great increase in tonnage on the lakes. This summary contained other interesting state- ments regarding American shipping, which were omitted in the dispatches from Washington, and a copy of it, which has just been received, is there- fore printed herewith in full: "The Great Lakes region for the first time in our history," says Mr. Chamberlain, "has built more tonnage (year ending June 30, 1897,) than all the rest of the country--120 vessels of 116,937 gross cons, compared with 771 vessels of only 115,296 tons. Olur increase in tonnage for the last decade has been almost wholly attributable to growth on the great lakes. In 1887 of a total tonnage of 4,271,228 gross tons, 3,181,804 were salt water tonnage documented on the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, and 1,089,424 fresh water documented on the great lakes, Mississippi and tributaries. In 1897 of a total of 4,769,020 tons, 3,086,808 tons were documented on the seaboard and 1,682,212 of fresh water, the tonnage of the great lakes increasing from 733,069 tons in 1887 to 1,410,103 in 1897. During the decade steam tonnage has increased 816,000 tons, of which increase 590,000 tons belong to the great lakes system. "The total construction in all parts of the country for the year ended June 30, 1897, 891 vessels of 232,233 gross tons, is the largest annual out- put since the fiscal vear ended June 30, 1891, when it reached 1,384 vessels of 369,302 tons. . The year of our greatest construction was 1855, when we built 2,027 vessels of 583,450 tons. 'The square-rigged sailing vessel has virtually ceased to be a product of American ship yards. No ships or barks were built in the United States during the past fiscal year, and only one barkentine. By special act congress admitted one foreign-built bark to registry. | "The total documented tonnage of the United States, 4,769,020 tons, ° is the largest for twenty-one years, except 1893, when it was 4,825,071 tons... Our largest documented tonnage was 5,539,812 tons on June 30, 1861. Considering the speed and number of trips of steam vessels compared with sailing vessels, our merchant fleet has never before been so efficient as this year. The steam tonnage 'amounts to 2,358,558 tons; sail tonnage, including barges and canal boats, to 2,410,462 tons. Construction thus far indicates that at the end of the current fiscal year the steam tonnage for the first time in our history will exceed the combined tonnage of docu- mented sailing vessels, barges and canal boats. By act of congress in» 1874, about 600,000 tons of canal boats and barges were exempted from documents, and are:no' longer carried on the government's books. "The government's average annual expenditures for maritime purposes, including river and harbor improvements, amounted to $21,000,000, toward which foreign shipping, though conducting three-fourths of our foreign carrying trade, contributed last year $660,000. Fully 20 per cent of the foreign tonnage enters the United States in ballast and clears with cargo. "The American tonnage sold to foreigners amounted to 8,243 tons, the smallest amount since 1844. The largest amount sold foreign in a yeat of. peace was 77,054 tons in 1874. During the four years preceding the close. of the civil war the American tonnage sold to foreigners amounted to 774,652 tons. During the past four years 38,828 tons of foreign-built ves- sels have been admitted to American registry compared with 64,778 tons for the previous four years. "The tonnage registered for foreign trade amounted to 792,845 gross tons, the lowest since 1841. The greatest was 2,496,894 tons in 1861. One steamer like the St. Louis, which is of nearly 12,000 tons, is equal, how- ever, annually as a carrier to over twenty of our ships before the war. The whale fisheries employ 12,714 tons compared with the maximum, 198,594. tons, in 1858. About 10,000 men are employed in deep-sea fisheries, of whom 6,500 are citizens of the United States." Heavy Production of Pig Iron. Monthly pig iron statistics furnish eloquent proof of the expansion in 'the demand for iron during the past few months. From a weekly pro- duct of 165,000 tons on August 1 the capacity at work has risen to 200,000 tons Oct. 1, and yet stocks have declined over 200,000 tons, of which by far the greatest quality was absorbed during September. It is quite clear, therefore, that consumption lately has expanded even more than pro-" duction, so that there is nothing alarming in the known fact that additional furnaces are getting ready. As a matter of fact, nearly every well equipped furnace in the territory west of the Alleghany mountains and north of the Ohio river will be running by Noy. 1. That means that nothing more is to be expected in the way of expansion from that section. The south is in a position to produce more heavily, so far as furnace equip- ment is concerned, but it will not be quite so easy to provide the necessary fuel and ore. The east, of course, has many plants idle, and a considerable . number are in shape to start operations. A good many stacks are carried along in the lists because they have not been actually dismantled. They might as well be in the South Sea islands so far as their ability to make iron at a profit is concerned. We do not believe that the real live capacity in the country is much above 225,000 or 230,000 tons a week. We are not likely to reach the necessity for such a total, with the winter before us, and the usual slackening of consumption during that season.--Iron Age. Owing to delays caused by breaks in the canal, the Welland will be kept open on Sundays for the balance of the season.