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12 MARINE DEVOTED TO LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. Published every Thursday at No. 409 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, Ohlo, by John M. Mulrooney and F. M. Barton. Sussorrprion--$#2.00 per year in advance. Single copies 10 cents each. Convenient binders sent, post paid, $1.00. Advertising rates on application. SI Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second class Mail Matter. The books of the United States treasury department on June 30, 1896, containeg 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 gross tonnage 711,034.28 ; the number of vessels of this class owned in all other parts of the country on the same date was 315 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. GEGAIV.OSSECIS: ..sescec-cosscescecescseescecees BA eet icv cod wesbies 1,792 924,630. Sailing vessels ANd DALZeS ..........sssseesessseceeeececeseree 1,125 354,327.60 MTT INTO BLS cere tree cece tocar isiccetceren-cacrcseacsccsccccaterss 416 45,1 PURO GeMler Ree cccccec ssa co aeteercctoecscseesecdecsous 8,333 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 commissiorer of navigation, is as follows: Year ending Jume 30. 1891 ...............:.:seesccccsssssecee sence 204 111,856 45 SS a = HG Deere omen erentesioncs cansccenecceces 169 45,968.98 re om y 175 99,271.24 se es fe 106 41,984.61 re a fe 93 36,352.70 a ke as 117 108,782.38 BING) UHeW Leet ace esse eee eae ceacmeesecdacacerazeamccess 864 414,216.36 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 3,434) 3,352 Tonnage, net registered......|| 17,249,418] 16,806,781) 13,110,366'| 8,560,284] 8,448,383] 8,039,175 Days of navigation...... ...... 232 231 234 365 365 365 * 1895 and 1896 figuresinclude traffic of Canadian canal at Sault Ste. Marie. Not least among the freaks of the patent office are the models and drawings pertaining to patents of a marine kind. Nowadays the routes ior the big steamers crossing the Atlantic are laid as if they were actual tracks. These courses are followed closely by all of the liners, but Reuben H. Plass of Brooklyn proposes to make the way much clearer. He would mark this transoceanic highway with a series of small floating light-houses a few miles apart. 'Tihese light-houses will be somewhat like exaggerated buoys, each one bearing a light-beacon so arranged as to require attention only once in four months, not to mention a foghorn, which, worked .by compressed air stored by the wave-rocking, will bellow warning blasts for the benefit of mariners. Anybody who may happen to be shipwrecked within reach of this line of floating and anchored stations will be guided to the nearest one by the light and the sound of the foghorn. Gaining admittance to the interior of the big buoy by opening a keyless door, he finds food and shelter there. The act of opening the door sends an alarm by wire along the line of stations. 'At intervals of fifty miles are central stations, manned and provided with lifeboats, and rescue is at once sent. _ Shipping firms controlling more than 100,000 gross tons in sea-going ships are rare. England has half a dozen--the Peninsular & Oriental with sixty ships of 283,140 tons; British India, ninety-seven ships of 251,430 tons; 'Wilson line, eighty-two ships of 159,800 tons; Pacific Steam, forty- one ships of 128,400 tons; Cunard, twenty-seven ships of 119,500 tons; White Star, twenty-one ships of 114,290 tons. Germany thas only three, but now holds the record for the largest steamer, the largest sailing-ship, and the largest tonnage controlled by one company. The Hamburg- American has sixty-nine ships of 286,950 tons; North-German Lloyd, sixty-seven ships of 265,600 tons; Hamburg and South American, thirty- two ships of 100,650 tons. France 'has but two--the Messageries Mari- times, with sixty-three ships of 229,850 tons; and the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, with sixty-four ships of 166,700 tons. Italy, Austria, Spain and Japan have one each. The United States has none. Just previous to adjournment for the holidays, the senate committee on naval affairs discussed informally the plans of the navy department for the increase of the number and the improvement of the existing dry docks on the lines of the bill recently introduced by Senator Hale, but took no action 'beyond authorizing Senator Hale to confer with the house naval committee with the view of securing joint action of the two houses on any line of action that might be decided upon. There was a general expression of opinion favorable to the increase of the country's docking facilities. The present indication is that legislation in this direction will be attempted in the naval appropriation bill. The committee also dis- cussed at some length the question of armor plate, and decided to invite Secretary Long to appear before the committee at any early date and explain the status of the department's efforts to secure lower prices on the manufacture of plate. A proposition of the Union Iron Works is being considered at the navy department for establishing a central electric pawer plant on board the battleship Wisconsin, similar to that installed on the Kearsarge and Kentucky, which will turn the turrets, drive the ammunition hoists and all auxiliary apparatus excepting the windlass and steering gear. The plant will also furnish the power for lighting the vessel. A contract was -- --- = + ae -- ee a REVIEHW. recently made with the General Electric Co. for substituting hydraulic power on the Illinois and Alabama. The proposition of the Union [ron Works, if adopted, will result in the additional expenditure of $60,000.-- Army and Navy Journal. Another test of the submarine boat Argonaut, designed by Simon Lake of Baltimore for the purpose of finding sunken vessels, removing their cargoes and raising them, took place at Baltimore on Thursday last. After the vessel had been cruising under water in the river at a depth of about 20 feet for nearly an hour, a diver left her through one of the for- ward compartments and returned through the conning tower. On a second trip the vessel was under water for more than an 'hour, and a small party aboard was treated to a meal cooked in the submerged craft. This vessel was built by the 'Columbian Iron Works of Baltimore and is owned by the Lake Submarine Co. of Newark, N. J. The navy department has been so favorably impressed with the resuit of the experiments made at the New York navy yard with petroleum as fuel for small boats that it has given orders for a trial on a larger scale of two distinct systems. The torpedo boat Stilletto, at the New York navy yard, is to be fitted up with a system of burners through which the oil is fed into the furnace by blasts of compressed air. At the Norfolk navy yard, a corresponding craft is to be fitted with a system which uses a steam blast to evaporize and burn the oil, and a comparative test will be made of the two methods. It is certainly a big ship building eeablishment that in a single year launches ten steamers of 84,240 tons. This is the 1897 record of Harland & Wiolf of Belfast, Ireland, the firm that also led Biritish ship builders in 1896, when they launched 81,316 tons. Of the ten vessels launched this year, three are over 10,000 tons, namely, the Cymric 12,340, the Brasillia 11,100 and the 'Briton 10,248 tons. All of these are twin-screw steamers, but only one of them, the Cymric, has quadruple expansion engines. Ten years ago the total output of iron ore from the Lake Superior region was 4,742,276 tons, and it was then said that the maximum had been reached for a great number of years to come. With an output of about 12,500,000 tons in 1897 the figures of ten years ago will be nearly trebled. 'Comparisons of this kind are enough to give credence to the most extravagant predictions as to the quantity of Lake Superior ores that will be needed to meet the normal demand in the years immediately before us. 'C. P. Huntington, founder of the town of Newport News and owner of the ship building plant at that point, is said to be arranging for the purchase of property adjoining the ship yard and having half a mile of water frontage. These negotiations have again revived the rumor of a deal between Mr. Huntington and the Armstrongs of Newcastle, England, for enlargement of the Newport News works on a big scale. iOfficers and directors of the reorganized Detroit & Cleveland Navi- gation 'Co. of Detroit are: 'President, Hon. James MoMillan; vice-presi- dent, Hugh 'McMillan; treasurer, Wm. C. McMillan; secretary and gen- eral manager, D. 'Carter; directors, Hon. James McMillan, Hugh Mc- Millan, Wm. 'C. McMillan, D. Carter and Geo. Hendrie. The largest dry dock in the world is the Prince of Wales dock at Southampton, England, which is 750 feet long by 874 feet wide at sill and 91 feet at cope level. It is possible to lengthen this dock to 1,000 feet should the size of vessels ever demand it in the future. iOn account of the necessity for prompt action the United States senate passed a bill in a few minutes the other day, authorizing the secre- tary of the treasury to purchase or have constructed a suitable vessel for revenue cutter service on the Yukon river. An appropriation of $40,000 for this purpose was made available immediately. Great Britain now 'has in service or in course of construction no fewer than ninety-five torpedo boat destroyers, and all of the latest are of 30 to 33 knots speed. _ A large double-end ferry boat for service across the bay at San Fran- cisco will be built by the Union Iron Works of that city. 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. 18, 1897: Wheat, bushels. Corn, bushels. Gicico sf 7,793,000 16,795,000 WME ee ei toe: 1,295,000 1,374,000 VIE eN tT e easier ohare eae i ene Be 148,000 75,000 IDS tROT ie ons utes tc ee ws Veen 194,000 139,000 MONE d Ore coe ee ee eee re ome en 276,000 345,000 Uitte @rct es car Meee aoe oho ee 2,512,000 2,724,000 12,213,000 21,452,000 _As compared with a week ago, the above figures show, at the several points named, an increase of 1,540,000 bushels of wheat and a decrease of 511,000 bushels of corn. On the same date there was afloat on the lakes 1,292,000 bushels of wheat, 908,000 bushels of corn and 485,000 bushels of oats. Grain afloat on the canals aggregated 46,000 bushels' (oats). The Daimler Motor Co., Steinway, L. I., will have a large exhibit of marine motors, launches and motor vehicles at the fourth annual sports- men's exhibition and bicycle show, Jan. 13 to 22, at Madison Square Garden, 'New York. All charts sold by the Marine Review are corrected to date of sale.