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MARINE REVIEW. == 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. SuBscriPTIoN--$#2.00 per year in advance. Single copies 10 cents each. Convenient binders seut, post paid, $1.00. Advertising rates on application. a Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second class Mail Matter. The books of the United States treasury department on June 30, 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 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 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 eg NDR Don baucsl Steam vessels : ,630.. Sailing vessels and barges.......... Pistene ratestenstensee ee 12D 354,327.60 j Canal DOATS.......cccerccsccscecssccrse voces Sate ec gecibates eves fete 416 45,109.47 Motale:cccccs uacatnereceapencscarsestseesecesscss©) 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 commissioner of navigation, is as follows: Year ending June 30. 1891 204 111,856 45 Se & ee 1892 on 38.98 " oe oe 1893 os " be 1804 106 41,984.6 oo '6 ss 1895 » 93 $6,352.70 o oo " 1896 117 108,782.38 MO Gal eetee re tcsesc: Rae ies cGuesteccteeeans Peeeeccsatacnenst 864 444,216.36 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. (From Official Reports of Canal Officers.) Suez Canal. | St.Mary's Falls Canals. 1896* 1895* 1894 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 figures include traffic of Canadian canal at Sault Ste. Marie. Although prices are low in all branches of the iron industry, produc- tion is very heavy, and it is quite evident that the big concerns look for a large business in 1898. Voluntary advances in the wages of miners throughout the Lake Superior ore region are undoubtedly made with a view to rebuilding the stock piles that have been generally cleaned up. Managers of the big mines in the vicinity of Ishpeming, Mich., have taken a firm and commendable stand with their workmen. When labor was scarce about the close of navigation, wages were advanced at the Minne- sota mines, where no attempt was made by the labor agitators to enforce unsatisfactory rules in the mines. Advances would also have been paid in the Michigan districts, but when the mine owners were about ready to increase wages the labor leaders began preparations for a strike that was to be ordered about the first of the year unless certain terms which they proposed were agreed to. The following dispatch from Ishpeming shows that, although*the workmen refused to act upon the strike proposition of the union leaders, the mine managers have shown a very liberal spirit: "The attempt of the mine workers' union to force the companies to grant employees a raise of pay was unsuccessful. Very few members came out to cast ballots to decide whether or not a walkout should be declared. The great majority of those who voted were opposed to the proposition, In consequence of the union's failure to carry out its threat, the mine managers decided to increase wages 10 per cent.. dating back to Dec. 1. This will place the lowest pay of common laborers at $1.35 and the average earnings of miners will be $2 or over. It is generally thought that the union will now go to pieces, as members assert that they have become tired of supporting the leaders." _ In view of the desire of the president and the navy department to build new docks and improve dock yards, rather than increase the number - of naval vessels, it is not at all probable that the present congress will provide funds for more than one new battleship. Heretofore the comple- tion of new vessels has sometimes been delayed six months or more, on account of delay in preparing plans after appropriations had been secured, but this year plans for the single battleship for which an appropriation is expected have been perpared in advance, and if the money is forthcoming bids will be sought promptly from the ship builders. The new ship is to have a speed of not less than 16 knots. She will have a length of 372 feet by 73 feet beam, and a mean draught of not more than 24 feet on a dis- placement of 11,500 tons. The plans of the engineers call for twin screws and vertical triple expansion engines, with a maximum indicated horse power of not less than 10,000. Thie heaviest guns in the two fore and aft turrets will be of 13-inch caliber, which, according to the plans of the ordnance officials, is the proper type for the big battleships, while a large secondary battery of rapid fire and machine guns is to be arranged along the broadsides. The turrets will be of the reflective type, and an inter- esting feature of the ship iis the more general use of electricity, including the appliance of the power to the turning of the turrets. The secondary battery under the plans will be the heaviest carried by any battleship de- signed for the new navy. _ Congress should at the present session consider very fully the prop- osition that foreign ships be asked to bear a greater share of the maritime expenditures in this country than is required of them at present. The expenses which the United States incurs for maritime purposes amount annually to about $20,000,000. As showing the inequality of burdens in cur system of raising money on ships, the commissioner's report states that, although three-fourths of the foreign tonnage in foreign trade enter- ing and clearing ports of the United Kingdom is British shipping, all yessels are taxed to maintain the light-house service and for other mari- time purposes in that country. We, on the other hand, are far more liberal to foreigners. Notwithstanding three-fourths of the tonnage engaged in foreign trade entering and clearing ports of the United States is foreign, this class of shipping is asked to contribute only about $650,000 of this country's expenditure of $20,000,000. In fact, the United States are more liberal toward foreign shipping than foreign governments are toward their own shipping. Marquette's concrete breakwater, constructed under the direction of United States Engineer Major Clinton B. Sears of Duluth, is attract_ng a great deal of attention among engineers who are interested in this kind of work. Major Sears' report for the year ending June 30, 1897, contains a large amount of valuable information regarding this concrete structure, supplemented by numerous illustrations. Capt. Abbott of the army en- gineer corps, who is in charge of the Minneapolis district, examined this breakwater recently and said of it: "It is a splendid piece of work. It is subjected to unusual conditions. For instance, it may be incrusted with several feet of ice when along comes a storm and peels every bit of ice off as clean as if it were melted. Then in a day or so it will be all frozen up again. The pounding of the waves and masses of ice is tremendous. But the breakwater is standing as solidly as if it were made of granite. There is not a sign of roughness, no chips cut out; every angle is as clean as if newly: cut from solid rock. It shows what I wanted to find out--whc<ther concrete work is to be a'sticcess in this climate." Lord Brassey of the British admiralty writes of the "Position of the British Navy" in the Review of Reviews for January. Referring to the naval review which occurred during the jubilee celebrations he says: ""The fleet mustered at Spithead included fifteen first-class and six second-class battleships; eleven first-class, twenty-seven second-class, and five third- class cruisers; gun vessels, twenty gunboats, thirty torpedo-boat des'roy- ers, twenty sea-going tompedo boats, eight special-service vessels, and eighteen training ships, including six corvettes. four ironclads and eight brigs. The displacement of the ships aggregated over half a million of tons. 'The number of guns was over 2,000, including more than 500 heavy quick-firers. The speed of the battleships averaged about 1714 knots, while that of the cruisers was about 1914 knots. With some twelve ex- ceptions all the vessels have been designed, laid down, launched, and com- 'pleted in a period of eight years." : A dispatch from Pittsburg says that plans are being prepared by the Carnegie Steel Co. for the erection of a universal plate mi.] at the Home- stead steel works which is to be the largest in the world. The Carnegie company recently purchased additional ground at Homestead, giving iat concern a total frontage of two miles on the Monongahela river. Work on the new universal mill will begin in a few weeks. The company is building ten 50-ton open hearth furnaces at Homestead. They will be completed by the first of the year, as will the company's new girder rail plant. All these additions will give work to a total of nearly 1,000 men. With these increases the big Pittsburg interest will have an investment of .$15,000,000 in its Homestead plant alone, the largest investment in a single steel plant in the world, save the Krupp plant at Essen. The tremendous preponderance of exports in our foreign commerce is a frequent subject of congratulation in, trade circles. The month of November showed an excess of merchandise exports over merchandise imports of $64,277,959, anid the record for December is likely to run about the same, if not a little more strongly in our favor. The balance of trade on merchandise exports and imports for the calendar year {897 is expected to come very close to $350,000,000 in favor of this couniry. This will surpass anything ever before shown in our history. Taking the twenty- seven months ending with December, the aggregate balance of trade in favor of the United States will be over rather than-under $800,000,000. These are stupendous figures. Looking at them, it is little wonder that American bankers are loaning money in Europe.--Iron Age. Referring to the record of eighteen and a quarter millions of freight (net tons) passed through the St. Mary's Falls canal during the season just closed, the Engineering & Mining Journal of New York says: "These facts serve once more to show the enormous value of the lake waterways, without which it is safe to say that the iron industry of the Un.ted States would never have been able to reach its present commanding position. The future seems to present every prospect for the growth of the lake traffic; and new economies are continually being introduced into its m n- agement. Nowhere else in the world are large quantities of freight han- dled so quickly and at so low a cost." A large steamer and tow barge of the kind now building in lake ship yards would move in two trips a quantity of iron ore equal to the capacity of all vessels that have been lost on the lakes during the past season. It will thus be seen that the tonnage lost is not of sufficient importance to he taken into account in calculations regarding lake freights. The thirty- five vessels that were lost in 1897 were capable of carrying only 21,450 net tons, or about 18,000 gross tons, and their aggregate value was only $372,900, or about the value of a large steel steamer and tow barge of: modern type. In view of the very small portion of Lake Superior commerce that is carried on in Canadian. vessels, the expense of building and maintaining the Canadian canal at Sault Ste. 'Marie is certainly a great burthen on the people of the Dominion. During the season just closed the tonnage of vessels passing through this canal was only 3,804,361, against 13 815,572 in the United States canal. But the most discouraging feature of the canal reports to the people of Canada is the fact that the tonnage of all Canadian vessels passing through their canal was only 282,089.