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i3 : | MARINE REVIEW. --= DEVOTED TO LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. hlo Published every Thursday at No. 409 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, Ohlo, 4 by John M. Mulrooney and F. M. Barton. SusscrieTrIon--$#2.00 per year inadvance. Single copies 10 cents each. Convenient binders sent, post paid, $1.00. Advertising rates on application. > Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second class Mail Matter. oks of the United States treasury department on June 30, 1896, contained the Reet 950333 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: Gense oe Number Tonnage - Be nace amlihace an aucasuedocatavesietttteees i stcucoeesses me a Sailing vessels and barges... ; soul anal boats sdevweeede svsevennensensaes 416 45,109.47 MO tial itevaiesstsccsts aeaccteceticolestanccneczets : 3,333 1,324,067.58 The gross registered tonnage of the vessels built on the lakes during the past - six years, peeoraltig to the reports of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows: PLOO Uc suctecsscstoasarseesebees= eevecee sucess 204 111,856 45 pier esis anne ee 1BQ2......scccvesseocepsosncernecneseccoscrons 169 45,968.98 ras Sf "4 BOB. cetcescccccncevacsesevcnsneroncartacees 175 99,271.24 % Sse yee ior HB Oa iercenseesenstcncecrccsscoes aapeearaeeeen - 106 41,984.61 fe om is USO Deere ester renter es cnverseenecneesee \93 36,352.70 # =f ss SOG Mectanseaneere: acer etecsescettcestese 117 108,782.38 MOAN ec--c-:2cevna-sesesccacnctiacnccccsanesassvenssecnesns= 864 444,216.36 ST, MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. (From Oficial Reports of Canal Officers.) St.Mary's Falls Canals. Suez Canal. 1s96* | 1895* | 1894 1896 | 1895 | 1894 Number of vessel passages- 18,615 17,956 14,491 3,409 8,434 8,352 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 aed 365 365 365 "1895 and 1896 figures include traffic of Canadian canal at Sault Ste. Marie. Mr. Charles H. Cramp is quoted as saying: "Torpedo boats are not only not sea-going craft, but they are not even part of the navy proper. They add nothing whatever to the actual naval strength of the nation. They are simply adjuncts of harbor defense; floating guns, you might say, adapted for a peculiar form of projectile. A navy is necessarily a sea- going and sea-keeping institution. Torpedo boats are essentially a port- staying and harbor-defending institution. There is no more analogy between a navy proper and torpedo boats than between a navy and sub- marine mines or disappearing coast batteries. I have seen it stated in discussion that 100 80-foot torpedo boats could be built for the cost of one battleship. This misleads the public. You might as well say that 100 submarine mines could be planted for one torpedo boat. No one is more sensible than I of the value of torpedo boats within their peculiar and limited sphere. But they add nothing to the general naval power and prestige of the country. We might have one for every mile of our coast and yet if we did not have a real navy of sea-going ships, armored and unarmored, we would be as helpless a league from shore as Hayti is."' Assistant Naval Constructor Robert B. Dashiell, U. S. N., who went abroad to examine into the construction of government dry docks, has returned after an interesting visit. He found in England that all docks, with few unimportant exceptions, were of stone or concrete, and that wooden docks had long passed out of use. Docks in which vessels had been put in the French revolution were now accommodating 30-knot torpedo boat destroyers and other small craft. Mr. Dashiell found that many of England's present stone docks were constructed in the last cen- tury, and are still in use and almost as good as new. It is reported that his opinion is that no further timber docks be built for the navy and that the highest type of concrete docks be authorized. The English docks, he reports, are the finest in the world, and there are probably more of them than the combined available supply of France, Germany and Russia. --Army and Navy Journal. _ Among the largest steam yachts owned in this country are the Va- liant, William K. Vanderbilt, 382 feet long, 39.2 feet beam, and 16.6 draft; Niagara, Howard Gould, 272 feet long, 36 feet beam, 16 feet draft; Nour- mahal, John Jacob Astor, 250 feet long, 30 feet beam, 14.3 feet drait; Corsair, J. Pierpont Morgan, 241.6 feet long, 27.2 feet beam, 13 feet draft; Eleanor, W. A. Slater, 232 feet long, 32 feet beam, 14 feet draft; May, E. D. Morgan, 226 feet long, 27.8 feet beam, 14.5 feet draft; Josephine, P. A. B. and G. G. Widener, Philadelphia, 225 feet long, 28 feet beam, and 11.6 feet draft; Comanche, H. M. Hanna, Cleveland, 172 feet long, 25 feet wide; Wadena, J. H. Wade, Cleveland, 158 feet long, 20 feet wide; Enquirer Wiese Conners, Buffalo, 133 feet long, 17 feet wide. Duluth's newspaper correspondents certainly take the prize for "fake stories." They have been writing of late about a second ship-canal through Minnesota point, to be dug opposite the swing of the Duluth- Superior bridge, so as to enable vessels loaded in the upper bay to steer a straight course for the lake after passing through the bridge, and thus avoid the time required to navigate around the corner of Connor's point and through Duluth harbor to the government canal. And this is to be a private undertaking! A case of competition with the government Tolls are to reimburse the stockholders of the proposed company, _ A. Ballin, formerly with the Detroit Boat Works and now decent of the Wolf & Zwicker Iron Works of Portland, Ore., is advertising for fifty ship carpenters. There will be plenty of work on the Pacific coast for the next two years," he says, and as ships will be building all along the coast men will find steady employment. As there is little doing in wooden ship building on the lakes, it would seem that this is a favorable opportunity for idle men who are willing to work. It is certainly a compliment to Geo. 'Clinton of Buffalo that he should be selected as arbitrator in the collision case of the Susquehanna and [ra H. Owen. Mr. Clinton's ability as an admiralty lawyer has been fully recognized of late, and the trial of this case out of court may cause other vessel owners to favor arbitration as against the delays and expense © of court proceedings. Reports submitted to the American Iron & Steel Association show the total production of Bessemer steel ingots for 1897 to have been 5,475,- 315 gross tons, an increase over 1896 of 1,555,400 tons. The production for 1897 was the largest in the history of the country. There was in- crease in the production of Bessemer steel rails, the same-periods com- pared, of 511,507 tons. Two or three grain carriers have been unloaded at Buffalo and in each case the elevators refused to accept pay for the use of steam shovels, pending a settlement of elevator affairs for next season. It would not be surprising to find all the Buffalo elevators engaged in a scramble for business.next season, as their differences have multiplied of late. The London Shipping Gazette announces that James Gordon Ben- nett has commissioned G. L. Watson to design for him a palatial steam yacht to be built on the Clyde, to be 310 feet long, have quadruple expan- sion engines of 7,000 horse power, and a sustained sea speed of 15 knots. The 700-foot White Star liner Oceanic was launched at the ship yard of Harland & Wolff, Belfast, Ireland, on Saturday last. Wonderful Progress in the Iron Industry. At the present time there are mills that can roll-more steel rails in a month than any one mill in this country could produce in a year a quarter of a century ago, and that, too, with the aid of much less help. Less than one-third the number of workmen are now required for a given output of rails than were needed twenty years ago. These facts are brought out by an interview in the New York Commercial Advertiser with a vet- eran iron and steel manufacturer regarding changes that have taken place in the industry during the last three decades. Steel rails were first turned out in this country in 1867 and brought $160 a ton. Hardly six years had elapsed when the cost was scaled down to $90 a ton, and one mill pro- ~ duced 30,000 tons a year. The producing capacity was further augmented until 50,000 tons had been reached in one year, which figure at the time was considered marvelous. In 1871 the duty on steel rails amounted to $28 a ton and the average price per ton was $102.50. When it is stated that steel rails sold for export last year at $16 per ton, the extent of the transition is at once obvious. A number of factors have combined to bring about these changes. Chief among them may be menticned the » cheapened rates of transportation, low-priced ore and improved methods: of production in the form of mechanical devices which have replaced hand labor. The extent to which steel rails have been substituted for iron rails may be gathered from the fact that in 1867 only 2,277 tons of steel rails and 410,319 tons of iron rails were turned out from the mills. On the other hand, the year 1896 brought forth 1,117,663 tons of steel rails as against 4,357 tons of iron rails. Inasmuch as steel rails have been found to be more durable and considerably cheaper than the iron rails, the manufacture of the latter has about ceased. While pig iron has decreased greatly in value, the cost of steel has been lessened much more in proportion, because of the discovery and the superior utilization of improvements in the Bessemer process. 7. W. Wheeler and Co.'s Output in 1896. Phe statement that there was probably not a ship yard on the lakes that had built vessels aggregating more than 20,000 gross tons in a single year, has brought out reports from the different ship building companies, and it is found that the Globe Iron Works Co., Chicago Ship Building cone 'Wheeler & Co. have all exceeded that amount of tonnage Lae year's output. The latest report is from F. W. Wheeler & Co. ope Bay City, showing an output of 31,357 gross tons in 1896, as ows: Gross tonnage. Net tonnage. Horse power. 9 L. IC. Waldo Shoesheislelialellslec'alsisielc 4, O44 34 ,000 City off Bangors.. 0.0... 3,690 2,986 1,800 EW @alebay oles es. 3 3,666 3,019 2,000 agomdaiwen. stl G84 3,647 3,017 2,000 George Stephenson ....... 4,583 3,502 2,500 James Nasimnythe "4295. 3a. 3,418 3,158 Sir Isaac Lothian Bell* ... 3,418 3,158 Peres Mandiuette: «stad .2% 4,691 4,134 2,000 --_----_---- 31,357 26,264 12,300 *Steel tow barges; all others steel steamers. . The Iowa Iron Works, Dubuque, Iowa, has secured two more import- ant contracts for vessels. One is a large steel tugboat for the govern- ment, to be used on the lower Mississippi, to be furnished with machin- ceed all other appliances by the contractors. The other is a large dredge. _A steam vessel 75 feet long for survey service on the Yukon will be built for the government by the Gas Engine & Power Co. and Seabury & Co., Consolidated, of Morris Heights, New York. The vessel will be "knocked down" and loaded on cars at Morris Heights and then shipped to Seattle, where she will be set up again ready for service in June. = a a a