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12 MARINE REVIHW. zi Ls ea = = o er ey 3 DEVOTED TO LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. Published every Thursday at No. 409 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, Ohlo, come cre "by John M. Mulrooney and F. M. Barton. ' Susscrretron--$2.00 per year in advance. Single copies 10 centseach. Convenient binders sent, post paid, $1.00. Advertising rates on application. . Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second class. Mail Matter. 7 The books of the United States treasury department on June 380, 1896, contained the names of 3,333 vessels, of 1,324,067.58 gross tons 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 press 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. 'Steam vessels........... Redeatersacseccalsacstes tcnccuss: sas assancase 1,792 924,630.51 © Safling vessels and DAarges............csscesscccccscssseceesese 1,125 sO27. s>) Oanal boats......c.0.....0500 wyeiitecvestes Seas caves sivealbeasebeas 416 45,109.47 Motalencc Moeer nae cates sscsucodeemerctedetscass 3,333 1,324,067.58 The gross registered tonnage of the vessels built on the lakes during the past six years, according to the reports of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows: ~ 'Year ending June 30. 1891 .... . 204 111,856 45 pert aer age) se re 1892 . bn 169 45,968.98 in i i 1893.. 175 99,271.24 ss ne oe 1804.. 106 41,984.61 ee te. . 1895 93 36,352.71 ee ee, a 1896 117 108,782.38 BG Geb leseetesccestnevescesedscroacsscaccersdsccesstcacad-ecseses" 864 444,216.36 ST, MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. (From Official Reports of Canal Officers.) Suez Canal. 1896 | 1895 | 1894 St.Mary's Falls Canals. 1896* 1895* 1894 Number of vessel passages- 18,615 17,956 14,491 3,409 38,434 3,352 Tonnage, net registered...... 17,249,418] 16,806,781) 13,110,366'| 8,560,284] 8,448,383] 8,039,175 232 231 234 365) 365 365 Days of navigation...... ...... ©1895 and 1896 figures include traffic of Canadian canal at Sault Ste. Marie. In accordance with the policy outlined in the annual report of the secretary of the navy, 'Senator Hale of (Maine has introduced a bill provid- ing for the building of dry docks.at Portsmouth, 'N. H., ($1,000,000); Bos- ton, [Miass., ($1,850,000); Algiers, La., ($500,000), and Mare Island, Cal., ($500,000) and for enlarging the docks at 'Brooklyn, N. Y., ($286,556); League Island, Pa., ($286,556), and Norfolk, Va., ($160,000), and for build- ing a wharf alongside the timber dry dock at Port Royal, S. 'C., ($75,000). 'The bill also provides for the addition of a first-class sea-going coast-line battleship, at a cost of not to exceed $3,750,000; six sea-going torpedo boats of 175 tons displacement, at a cost of $1,125,000, and three torpedo boats of greater speed, to cost $900,000. It is provided that the battleship shall be primarily for coast defense and that it shall carry the heaviest armor and most powerful ordnance and have a displacement of 11,500 tons. Since the Marsden Cellulose Co. of 'Philadelphia undertook the estab- lishment. of factories in different parts of the country for the removal of pith from cornstalks, ostensibly for use in war vessels, it has been found that the naval market will be but a small part of the 'business ultimately. It is claimed that corn pith properly prepared makes an ideal packing for journals. It is said to be 27 percent. more effective than the best known covering for steam boilers, steam pipes cr refrigerators. It makes a better paper than wood pulp. It can be used as a basis for smokeless powder. It makes photograph films. 'It is a substitute for the materials entering into the manufacture of papier mache and composition. It is fire-proof. It makes excellent linoleum, water-proof cloth, imitation silk and the finish on patent leather. The pith can be used in a hundred different directions. The action of (Manager 'L. M. Bowers of the 'Bessemer Steamship Co. in putting into winter quarters the entire Rockefeller fleet after their engagements in the ore trade were at an end 'has been the subject of con- siderable gossip. \Rates of 4 and 5 cents on wheat from Duluth and Fort William to Buffalo were very tempting in the closing days of the season, and the figures offered on coal were also profitable, but there was, of course, the disadvantage of vessels being scattered to all parts of the lakes, if turned into the grain and coal trades late in the fall. No explanation of the action of the Bessemer management in quitting so early is given out, but vessel owners who are talking of the matter probably have reason to shake hands with themselves. If this big fleet had been turned into the gai trade the result would probably have been a marked reduction in reights. ---------- An effort will probably be made in the present congress to have the government lend assistance to a New York dry dock scheme. The Inter- national Dry Dock & 'Construction Co. of New York proposes to build and maintain a steel floating dry dock of the pattern recommended by the naval board, 550 feet long, of over fifteen thousand tons capacity, costing, they estimate, $1,500,000, and to complete the same ready for service in nine months, if insured by the government 6 per cent. interest on the amount invested for twenty yeats For this remuneration they propose, in addition, to allow tlie use of the dock for one hundred days each year and at their own expense to dock vessels of the government within that time. 'At the present rate of increase, the tonnage of steam vessels of all kinds owned on the lakes will within two years be greater than the ton- nage of steam vessels owned on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. At present there are on the lakes more vessels of the largest type (those of 1,000. tons and over 1,000 tons) than are to be found in all other parts of the country, but a great number of small steam vessels owned on the Atlantic coast brings up the aggregate tonnage. The difference between the lakes and the Atlantic coast in total tonnage of steam vessels on June 30 last was, however, only 34,000 tons in favor of the coast. This margin wili soon be wiped out.by the building of big steel cargo carriers in lake ship yards. (Most desirable from every standpoint of national interest and patriot- ism is the effort to extend our foreign commerce. To this end our mer- chant marine should be improved and enlarged. {We should do our full share of the carrying trade of the world. [We do not do it now. We should be the laggard no longer. The inferiority of our merchant marine is justly humiliating to the national pride. The government by every proper constitutional means should aid in making our ships familiar visi- tors at every commercial port of the world, thus opening up new and valu- able markets to the surplus products of the farm and the factory.--Presi- dent McKinley's message. Postmaster 'Dickerson of Detroit will probably find the vessel inter- ests entirely opposed to his plan of changing the Detroit river mail service from Detroit to the St. Clair cut. It would seem that if the summer resi- dents at 'St. Clair 'Flats are in need of improved mail service, their re- quirements should be met in some tway other than' by a change in the marine mail service. The change to the St. Clair cut. would probably facilitate the boarding of vessels, but the loss in time due to sending the mail up to the canal would be a great disadvantage. Prompt delivery of telegrams as well as letters is the most important feature of the Detroit river mail service. In a note accompanying a:business communication to the Review, Mr. 'O. A. Howland of Toronto, one of the members of the International Deep 'Waterways Commission, says: "Although the work of the com- mission has been closed for the present, and an unfavorable disposition has apparently developed in the United States towards the scheme of deep waterways, I still have faith that the new United States commission will produce an effective answer to the objections raised in the very able re- port of the United 'States army engineer corps, and that the subject will not lose its place in the public mind." The navy department has received information to the effect that a con- tract has 'been placed with an English firm for three new torpedo boats for the Russian navy that will be easily the fastest war craft in the world. Their minimum speed capacity is placed at 38 knots. \As this speed will demand greater power than can be supplied by the ordinary type of tor- pedo boat engines, the vessels are to 'be driven by 'steam turbines, having four separate shafts for. three propellers on each shaft. The Merchants' Exchange of Buffalo has forwarded to Capt. F: D. Root, in care of Pickands, Mather & Co. of Cleveland, a 'beautiful en- grossed copy of the resolutions adopted by the exchange immediately after 'Capt. Root had distinguished himself by saving the lives of two sur- vivors of the wreck of the Idaho on \Lake Erie, Nov. 6. The resolutions are handsomely framed. There was elevated and received in store from vessels at Buffalo, Monday, 2,489,000 bushels of 'grain. 'Rail shipments out of Buffalo from the elevators on the same day aggregated 958,000 'bushels. This is cer- tainly a 'great record for a single day in the middle of 'December. Years of experience have prompted an iron manufacturer to remark that it is a peculiar characteristic of the iron and steel business that as soon as orders fall off the manufacturer or merchant acts as if the world had suddenly decided to quit using iron.--Iron Age. The navy department has finally accepted the new gunboat Vicksburg, built at the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine. Stock of Grain at Lake Ports. The following table, prepared from reports of the 'Chicago board of trade, shows the stocks of wheat and corn in store in regular elevators at the principal points of accumulation' on the lakes, Dec. 11, 1897: Wheat, bushels. Corn, bushels. I(Ghicay one ts eee ee ee sano Wha QX0) 17,467,000 Duluth weeepsee te oe eerie 1,242,000 1,135,000 IM waikkeetetacrern or ee tee 149,000 62,000 Deion ee ee ee en 218,000 ~ 58,000 Moledoseere 2a. oe es ee 214,000 791,000 Buttal Omeremers tc. eee eer ee, Pare ea 2,512,000 2,450,000 10,673,000 21,963,000 _ 'Als compared with a week ago, the above figures show, at the several points named, a decrease of 141,000 bushels of wheat and an increase of 674,000 bushels of corn. 'On the same date there was afloat on the lakes 2,470,000 bushels of wheat, 1,569,000 bushels of corn and 1,395,000 bushels of oats. Grain afloat on the canals aggregated 46,000 bushels of oats. The 'Dry Dock Engine 'Works of Detroit still announces each week a contract for Howden hot draft. The latest order is from the Western Transit 'Co. of Buffalo, and the vessel is the new package freighter for that company, the contract for which, after considerable close figuring, was finally awarded to the Detroit Dry Dock Co. The new steamer will be about 400 feet over all, and will be the best package freighter on the lakes. She will have quadruple expansion engines, and with Scotch boil- ers and the Howden draft she is expected to steam 13 miles an hour loaded. An up-to-date lithograph map of the Alaskan gold fields, printed in six colors, complete and accurate. If interested, send five 2-cent stamps to advertising department, Nickel Plate Co., Cleveland. Dec. 31, 393.