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oe a MARINE REVIEW. Estimates on Lake Improvements. Several congressmen from lake districts who have been interviewed say that there is no truth in the reports of a movement to prevent the pas- 'sage of a river and harbor bill by the present congress. They are of the opinion that appropriations will be held down to the lowest possible figures but that a river and harbor bill will be passed in addition to the regular appropriations for continuous contracts. Among the estimates for river and harbor improvements submitted by the secretary of the treas- ury in his great letter of estimates from all departments are the following: -- Detroit river, $91,257; Hay lake channel, $494,115; Cleveland, $350,- 000; Buffalo, $481,250; Black River, Michigan, $32,000; Grand river, Michi- gan, $250,000; Kalamazoo river, $145,000; Pine river, $5,560; Menonimee river, $5,000; Menonimee harbor, 5,500; Saginaw river, $80,000; Chippewa river, $80,000; Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan canal, $63,500; Minnesota river, $11,000; Ashtabula, $480,600; Black River harbor, $38,500; Conneaut, $495,000; Fairport, $250,000; Huron, $75,000; Port Clinton, $15,000; San- dusky, $185,000; Toledo, $300,000; Cheboygan, $10,000; Frankfort, $65,000; Grand Haven, $30,000; Grand Marais (harbor of reftige), $100,000; Hol- land, $15,000; Belle river, $10,000; Charlevoix and entrance to Pine lake, $25,000; Ludington, $15,000; Manistee, $50,000; Marquette, $100,000; Mon- roe, $11,000; Muskegon, $110,000; Pentwater, $40,000; Petoskey, $55,000 ; Portage lake (harbor of refuge), $160,000; Presque Isle, Marquette (har- 'bor of refuge), $30,000; St. Joseph, $100,000; Sand Beach (harbor of refuge), $250,000; Saugatuck, $10,000; South Haven, $45,000; White lake, $48,000; Ashland, $100,000; Green bay, $38,800; Kenosha, $34,000; Mil- waukee, $14,000; Milwaukee (harbor of refuge), $155,650; Oconto, $46,710; Racine, $23,953; Sheboygan, $26,600; Two rivers, $19,800; Agate bay, 71,708. ; : Estimates from the light-house board for aids to navigation include the following. Cheboygan river, range light station, $1,750; Lake St. Clair, light and fog station, $20,000; Middle island, $25,000; Mud_ lake, - light station, $3.500; head of St. Mary's river, range light, $1,000; Crisp's point, light and fog signal, 18,000; Rock of Ages, light and fog signal sta~ tion, $50,000; Eagle river, light, $20,000; Martin's reef, light vessel, $15,- 000; depot for eleventh district, $15,000; Grand Traverse, light and fog signal, $5,500; Tail point, light and fog signal, $7,500; Fisherman's shoal, light and fog signal, $50,000; Point Aux Barques, light and fog signal, $32,000; Escanaba, fog signal, $5,000; Michigan City, fog signal, $5,500; Portage lake, light $3,500; Kewaunee light and fog signal $7,500; depot for ninth district, $15,000; tender for ninth district, $85,000; Toledo, light and fog signal, $75,000; Grassy island, range light, $5,000; Grosse isle, 'north channel range, $3,500; Grosse isle, south channel range, $5,000; depot for tenth district, $35,000; tender for same, $85,000. - Sturgeon Bay Canal Traffic. During five months of 1897 2,960 vessels of 1,064,868 net tons passed through the Sturgeon Bay canal. This canal, which connects the lower end of Green bay with Lake Michigan, is seldom taken into account in statistics relating to lake commerce, notwithstanding this big item of tonnage. The Review is indebted to Capt. Geo, A. Zinn, United States . engineer at Milwaukee, for the following comparative statement of vessels and net tonnage passing through the canal, July to November, inclusive, _ 1896 and 1897: 1897. 1896. Number of Net Number of Net Vessels. Tonnage. Vessels. Tonnage. Hituliyacseeiceeseere re eeeeiecees 504 214,976 552 215,115 August..........+. Behera 703 235,130 487 169,607 Septemiber.........:,...-. i elu 244,754 470 167,091 October .s.-...5..c5ocseees ~ 681 204,116 567 210,278 November............-..+ 405 165,892 531 219,421 TN OKwaIIS Cosoconsapesdngedn 2,960 1,064,868 2,607 981,507 Increase in number of vessels............-.sessssseeees Dec Seis ceete 353 Increase in net tonnage............0..cscesssercescsescecnseencerecs 83,361 Ships and Naval Heroes. Fourteen rousing good sea stories of 1812 are included in "Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors." James Barnes, the author, has written a half dozen books of a similar kind. It is published by the Macmillan, Com- pany, New York, and sells for $1.50. Zogbaum furnishes some of the il- lustrations. The book deals with a condition that will never come again, The sailing ship was in its glory and the officers were considered heroes. -Many of them no doubt were entitled to the name. The ordinary seaman receives considerable attention. It would make a nice Christmas present for men engaged in operating lake vessels, and it ought to prove very attractive reading for members of the naval reserve. Boys who have a liking for the sea and naval heroes will be interested in "Twelve Naval Captains,' published recently by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. It gives the principal events in the lives of such com- manders as Paul Jones, Stephen Decatur, Oliver Hazard Perry, and others who served their country on the sea from 1776 to 1815. The accounts of battles are impartial, accepting the statement that no vessel was unworth- ily given up on either side. The author states in the preface that the youth of the country should realize that a ceaseless whine against England* is very un-American. "Commodore Bainbridge" is a simple but interesting biography in the series of "Young Heroes of Our Navy," published by D. Appleton & Co., New York. The author, James Barnes, is a descendant of the gallant commodore, anid on this account had access to letters and documents that would insure the accuracy of the story. The chaper describing the capture of the frigate Philadelphia under his command, at Tripoli, is tragic. The whole book excites as much interest as any novel, and in addition gives a fair history of the naval warfare that the United States had to keep up during the early part of the century to enforce the respect of other nations. The price of the book is $1.00. Around the Lakes. H. W. Hubbell & Co., dredging contractors, have purchased the Chi- cago tug Thomas Hood. Some 63,000 tons of coal have been received at Two Harbors for the use of the Minnesota Iron Co.'s mines during the winter and for the rail- | way. This relieves all fear of scarcity there. It is claimed that the side wheel steamer City of Buffalo, going to Detroit for winter repairs, made the run from Cleveland piers to the foot of Woodward avenue, Detroit, in 5 hours and 53 minutes, The Ship Owners' Dry Dock Co., Cleveland, has in hand, with its new plant for repairing steel ships, quite an extensive job on the steamer La Salle. It involves the repair of damages to twelve plates and about seventy frames. A dispatch from Chicago announces the death of Capt. Robert Kyle at. Rogers Park on the 6th inst. Capt. Kyle quit the lakes some sixteen years ago, but was well known among vessel men. He was seventy-four years old. A. A. Schantz, general passenger agent of the Detroit & Cleveland Steam. Navigation Co., has issued a very clever card noting the closing of navigation on his lines. It is a picture of a roll top desk being closed down over five little boats resting on the blotter. On the desk top is printed "closing up." : Lieut. H. K. Hines, U. S. N.,-who is to have charge of the new branch hydrographic office at Duluth, will soon spend a few days at the Cleveland office preparing for this duty. He will go to Duluth about the first of the year, and it is probable that the branch office at that point will be in full working order upon the opening of navigation next spring. A timely and useful publication of the United States hydrographic office is its chart, No. 1684, just issued, showing for the principal lake ports and channels the average times of the closing of navigation, with the mean departure from the average of the yearly dates of the commencement of the © ice-season. The chart is compiled from the report of the United States Deep-Waterways Commission of 1896. It forms, as well, a handy refer- ence map of the great lakes, and is sold by the sales agents of the hy- drographic office. The Chicago School of Navigation (No. 20 Michigan avenue) gives promise of being the most successful institution of its kind as yet opened on the lakes. One class recently organized is made up of yachtsmen and members of the naval reserve and numbers about twenty-five. The suc- cess of the school last winter with captains and mates of lake vessels has proven of great advantage to the principal, W. J. Wilson, in organizing a class of these men, a few of whom are already at work. The number will be materially increased when navigation is closed. Miss Lillian F. Stevens of No. 766 Sedgwick street, Chicago, fears that her brother was lost with the unfortunate steamer Idaho and writes the Re- _ view in hope of securing some information regarding him. He is thought to have caught the Idaho at Buffalo on his way back to Chicago from New York. 'My brother is an engineer,' Miss Stevens says, "and alike to my father is a member of M. E. B. A. No. 4 of Chicago. He is about 5 feet 10 inches, weighs about 160 pounds, and has brown hair and dark brown eyes. There is a film on the right eye and he is tattooed on one arm His name is Relly M. Stevens but he is sometimes called Ralph and is also known as 'Mat.' We have not heard from him for over a month." The New Revenue Cutters, It is now more than probable that the revenue cutter Algonquin, launched at the ship yard of the Globe Iron Works Co., Cleveland, on Wednesday, will be stationed at Detroit, replacing the old Fessenden, which will be sold. The second vessel building at the Globe works, which will be launched shortly, will probably be stationed at Cleveland. Officials of the revenue cutter service are greatly pleased with the three new ves- sels--Gresham, Algonquin and the ship about to be launched. There is every assurance that the two vessels now nearing completion will be as fast as the Gresham, and the speed which she attained on official trial wouldindi- cate that she is capable of overhauling any ship on the lakes. The Algonquin, which is practically a duplicate of the Walter Q. Gres- ham, built by the same company, will be completed and ready for sea May 1, 1898. Her principal dimensions are the same as the Gresham and she will have the same power. The only difference of importance will be in cabins and deck arrangements. Dimensions are 205 feet over all, 188 feet water line, 32 feet beam and 16 feet depth of hold. She will have triple expansion engines, having cylinders 25, 37 1-2 and 56 1-2 inches in diame- ter, and a common stroke of 30 inches. Steam will be supplied by four single ended boilers of the Scotch type, each 11 feet 6 inches long. Each boiler will have two corrugated furnaces, and the total grate surface will be 185 square feet. The total heating surface will be 5,300 square feet. The propeller is of bronze, with 13 feet pitch. The vessel will be supplied with steam steering gear, steam capstans and steam windlass. She will have an electric light plant and a powerful searchlight. With the $9,000,000 appropriation for improving the Erie canal ex- pended or tied up in contracts it is found that probably $5,000,000 more must be appropriated by the New. York state legislature to complete the scheme of improving all of the state canals. Of the new funds required, probably $3,000,000 will be needed on the Erie canal, and unless this money is appropriated the Erie will be in no better condition than it was before the work was begun. It is said that the legislature cannot authorize the issue of bonds for more than $1,000,000 in any one year for one purpose, consequently there must now be made an. appropriation of $1,000,000 each year for three years, if at all, and in the meantime the canal will be in a continued state of imperfection. The serious question is whether it will be possible to get any appropriation through the legislature at this time. Subscribers to the Review who have been receiving the paper through the marine postoffice, Detroit, will please notify us of home addresses at once, in order that changes may be made for the winter.