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14 MARINE REVIEW. MM 'The Roman's Injuries, wif!!The extent of injury sustained by the Menominee line steamer Roman, through striking on a bar outside Ashtabula Harbor while leaving that port in the blow of Thursday last, was not fully determined un.il the vessel was docked at the works of the Cleveland Dry Dock Co., after her coal cargo had been unloaded at Ashtabula. The ledge of rock on which the vessel struck has @hly a slight covering of sand, and as the whole weight of the ship and cargo was dropped onto the obstruction in a heavy sea, it is surprising that the result was not more disastrous. It is fortunate that the accident did not occur at a place where there would be difficulty in securing assistance, or where a harbor could not be reached in a hurry. As the bottom damage to the vessel is forward, under the foremast, and "as it extends over only two oz three plates and a few frames, it is quite - probable that the massive hull "buckled up" immediately upon coming in contact with the rock, and then the reaction in the structure was so sharp and forcible as to cause the snapping of plates that came near breaking the vessel in two. The big fracture is in the starboard side of the vessel, just forward of hatch No. 4. Beginning at the hatch it runs full across the spar deck plating, then down the side almost in a straight line to the main deck, in the plating of which there is also a fracture, and then still further down the side through a but-strap and more plating to within a few feet of the bottom of the lower hold, where it turns and ends under a frame. _ The upper part of this big fracture was at times open fully a quarter of an inch. Temporary repairs made at Ashtabula for the purpose of having the vessel undertake the short run to 'Cleveland consisted simply of angles and other strong pieces of steel placed over the fracture and secured to the vessel, both on the sides and on deck, so as to prevent spreading of the crack. Owners of the Roman will not be satisfied with putting in new plates and fixing up other damaged parts. They will compensate for the injury by giving her new features of strength. These will consist mainly of two new under-deck stringers, one on either side, running from bulk- - head to bulkhead. : An Era of Ship Canals. Hon John E. Russell of Massachusetts, who with President Angell of the University of Michigan and Lyman E. Cooley of Chicago was a member of the deep waterways commission appointed two years ago by President Cleveland, is now a ship canal enthusiast. President Cleveland selected Mr. Russell for this commission because of his business ability and familiarity, as secretary for five terms of the Massachusetts board of agriculture, with the transportation needs of the agricultural interests. As a result of investigations involved in the report which the commission submitted in.January last, Mr. Russell avows his belief that an era of canal building is about to open and that railways are to be henceforth merely feeders of canals. When the railroad age began. canals had been completed, were under construction, or were projected in such numbers that the map was a network of planned canal lines. The development of railroads stopped all these schemes and the day of canals seemed to be over. Now the situation will be to a considerable extent reversed. The main lines of traffic will he ship canals and the railroads will be the feeders to them. "It will be ridiculous," Mr. Russell thinks, '"'to see these oblong boxes called freight cars running about over the country with their little loads. There will, of course, be great use for them in winter business, but they will be to the canals in the open season what wagons have been to freight trains in the development of the railroad business." The canals, he says, will have to be prepared for large vessels and steam will be used for motive power, and much more speed 'will be secured than was ever possible in the old days. The banks of the canals will be riprapped so that the wash from the steamers will not destroy them, but this can be done easily and a good freight speed can be secured across the country. Vessels will start from the ports of the great lakes for foreign ports and the freight business of our railroads will be greatly increased, but subor- dinate to the larger business of the waterways. The revolution will be the consequence of the extraordinary cheapening of the cost of canal dig- ging by the new engineering devices brought into use in the construction of the Chicago drainage canal and the removal of the reefs and shoals in the channels between the great lakes. Steam shovels, rock dredges that grip limestone ledges 20 feet under water and wrench off great masses of rock, and other devices which Mr. Russell saw in operation in the lake region, have reduced the cost of removing a cubic yard of rock not less than two-thirds in the last ten years. This cheapness will permit the digging of great waterways instead of the narrow and shallow canals of the past. The time is not distant, in his opinion, when canals will be constricted with a depth of 30 feet and a corresponding width, enabling large ocean vessels to be brought into the heart of the country and vastly promoting and cheapening transportation. The carrying capacity of the large vessels which will be used in the canals of the future will give them immense advantage over the freight cars. More Big Liners Are Expected. As almost all ships of the class to which the new Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse belongs do their best after six or eight months of usage, it is more than probable that the big German steamer, which has already beaten the best performance of either the Campania or Lucania in a single day's run, will soon surpass all records on the Atlantic. Other transatlantic companies will accordingly be prompted to increase both the size and speed of their vessels. Increases in size and speed of ocean craft are commonly made by steps, rather than by leaps and bounds. The last two new ships of the Cunard company were, however, more than 5,000 tons larger than the two previous new vessels--the Etruria and the Umbria--and if new steamers were to be ordered by that company to enter into a competitive contest, they would probably be quite.as much in advance of those that they now consider their largest as these were in advance of their prede- _cessors. It would seem, therefore, that by the time the first decade of the coming century is ended we shall have steamers crossing the Atlantic that are at least 800 and possibly 1000 feet in length, and that these vessels will have a speed of at least 27 or 28 knots an hour, while it is not improbable that a speed of thirty knots an hour will be attained by them. A few years ago such an extraordinary rate of progress through the water would have seemed impossible, but with small craft it has been deniofsttated that this railroad speed is easily possible, provided the powér is well applied and there is an abundant supply of fuel. It is much moré:teasonable to assume that thirty knots will be made by ocean steamers twelve or thirteen years _ from now than it was to believe twelve or fifteen years ago that the speed of twenty-two knots an hour would be maintained by them. The im- provements in the marine steam engine have been very great during the past ten or fifteen years, and yet what has been done is only a foreshad- owing of what may be done in the future. Of course, these high rates of speed have only been obtained, and can only be obtained, by a liberal use of fuel, but apparently such an expense is thought to be offset if a vessel of immense tonnage can be driven at high rate of speed, because she has not only the carrying capacity needed to take in the coal, but she also provides the room for accommodating hundreds, and perhaps in the near future even thousands of passengers. Cargo Records--Lake Freight Ships. The Corrigan tow barge Amazon now holds the record among the big lake freighters as a wheat carrier. A cargo of wheat moved recently in this vessel from Fort William to Buffalo weighed out 205,572 bushels, or 6,167 net tons, which is three tons more than the record cargo of the steamer Empire City, moved from Duluth to Buffalo some time ago. The largest grain cargo of all, however, is that of the steamer Crescent City--225,000 bushels of corn, equal to 6,300 net tons, which was taken from South Chicago to Buffalo. The list of record cargoes follows: Iron Ore--Schooner Amazon, owned by James Corrigan of Cleveland, 5,631 tons gross, or 6,307 net, Duluth to South Chicago, draft of 17 feet 1 inch; steamer Empire City, A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, 5,622 tons gross, or 6,296 net, Two Harbors to Cleveland, draft of 17 feet 2 inches; schooner Polynesia, James Corrigan of Cleveland, 5,477 tons gross, 6,134 net. Du- luth to Fairport draft of 16-feet 8 inches. Grain--Steamer Créscent City, A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, 225,000 bush- els of corn, equal to 6,300 net tons, South Chicago to Buffalo, draft of 17 feet; schooner Amazon, James Corrigan of Cleveland, 205,572 bushels of wheat, equal to 6,167 tons, Fort William to Buffalo, 16 feet 8 inches draft; steamer Empire City, A. B. Wolvin of wuluth, 205,445 bushels of wheat, equal to 6,163 net tons, Duluth to Burralo; steamer Crescent City, A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, 318,000 bushels of oats, equal to 5,088 net tons, Duluth to Buffalo. Coal--Schooner Polynesia, James Corrigan of Cleveland, 5,654 net tons of bituminous, Cleveland to Duluth, 16 feet draft; schooner Aurania, et Corrigan of Cleveland, 5,187 net tons bituminous, Toledo to Mil- waukee. Winter Schedule on the Nickel Plate Road. Commencing Sunday, Nov. 14, passenger trains will run as follows: WEST BOUND. No. 1. Leave Buffalo 12:40 noon; arrive Cleveland 7:30 p. m.; leave 7:50 p. m., arrive Ft. Wayne 2:40 a. m.; arrive Chicago 7:55 a.m. Time -- at stations east of Cleveland five minutes earlier than prior to Nov. 14. No. 3. Leave Buffalo 11:45 p. m., as at present, and on same time at stations west to and including Ft. Wayne. At stations west of Ft. Wayne No. 3 will arrive a few minutes later than prior to Nov. 14, arriving Chi- cago 4:35 p.m. No. 5. Leave Buffalo 5:35 a. m., same as before Nov. 14, and passes intermediate points, including arrival at Chicago, same time as before Nov. 14. EAST BOUND. : No. 4. Leave Chicago 10:25 a. m., arrive Ft. Wayne 3:05 p. m., arrive Bellevue 6:25 p. m, arrive Cleveland 8:15 p.m. Depart from Cleveland 8:35 p. m., arrive Buffalo 1:35 a. m., arrive New York City 3:00 p. m., ar- rive Boston 5:25 p. m. No. 6. Leave 'Chicago 2:00 p. m., arrive Ft. Wayne 7:10 p.m. De- part from Ft. Wayne 7:30 p. m., arrive Bellevue 11:35 p. m., arrive Cleve- land 1:21-a. m., arrive Buffalo 6:50 a. m., New York 7:30 p. m., arrive Bos- ton 10:30 p. m. No. 2. Leave Chicago 10:15 p. m., and due at intermediate points east to Buffalo same as prior to Noy. 14; New York city, Boston and all points east at convenient hour the following morning. The through car service will be maintained at the same high standard of efficiency as prior to Nov. 14, with an advantage to passengers on train No. 6, which will afford through sleeping car accommodations to New York city and Boston, reaching Boston 10:30 p. m., following evening. The standard of our dining car service will be maintained to that same efficiency as has characterized our past service. Solid through trains with uniformed colored porters in attendance upon all coach passengers. No. 888, Nov. 18. Lieut. Stafford, U: S. N., of the Cleveland branch hydrographic office, has secured the following information regarding the wreck of the schooner Groton, which foundered in Lake Erie, several days ago, while bound from ~ Gleveland to Port Stanley with a cargo of coal: The wreck lies 9% miles = S$. W. by 'W. from Port Stanley light and 1% mile |S. E. of Talbot point in 40 feet of water, with 25 feet over the deck. Both masts are out of water with the foretopmast gone. : __ 'Charles L. Bell and W. L. Johnson of Middlesborough, England, who visited the Lake 'Superior mining country recently in company with Messrs. . J. Hi Wade, E. W. Oglebay, Capt. Thomas Wilson and: other Cleveland Owners of mining property, are relatives of Sir Lowthian Bell and have large iron and steel interests in England. Their object in visiting this country was to investigate for themselves our resources and manufaciuring facilities in the iron and steel industry. Luce's "Seamanship" has been a text-book at the United States naval academy for the past thirty years. It is being used by naval reserve organ- izations all over the country. It is a standard work, selling at $10, and will be mailed to any address at that figure by the Marine Review, 409 Perry- Payne building, Clevelanc