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MARINE REVIEW. Vou. XVII. CLEVELAND, O., JUNE.30, 18608. No. 26. A Radical Change in Royalties. The Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., which controls over 450,000 acres of land in the Lake Superior iron ore district, has this week announced a new schedule of royalties to take effect July 1 on all those portions of the lands under its control, which were thrown open for option and lease some years ago. The old schedule was nominally 30 cents for non-Bes- semer, 40 cents for Bessemer and 50 cents for the higher grade of Besse- mer cres. Reductions have occasionally been made 'before, but this is the first iormal adoption of a very low schedule of royalties that has been made by any large land holding interest in the Lake Superior country and is bound to have an important bearing upon the whole question of royalties in the iron ore region. The company gives as its reason for the present action the continued lower range of values in the iron industry and a consideration of the fact that the rates heretofore in force were established some time ago when prices were high. The sliding scale has been adopted for the reason that it is believed to constitute the fairest possible plan. Royalties are always to be based on Cleveland, or rather Lake Erie port, prices, whether governed by the market or by actual sale, and if the cre is to be delivered at any place other than Cleveland, the dif- ference in freight rates, if any, shall be added to or deducted from such contract to determine the rate of royalty. The new schedule of royalties is as follows: Price, Price, From To Royalty. From To Royalty Gens $1.49 07 $2.35 $2.39 21 1.50 1.59 08 2.40 2.44 22, 1.60 1.69 09 2.45 2.49 28 1.70 1.79 10 2.50 2.54 24 1.80 1.89 ral 2.55 2.59 29 1.90 1.94 12 2.60 2.64 .26 1.95 1.99 als 2.65 2.69 OE 2.00 2.04 14 2.70 2.74 28 2.05 2.09 15 2.75 2.79 29 2.10 2.14 16 2.80 2.84 30 2.15 2.19 ALG 2.85 Oo | eal 2.20 2.24 18 2.90 2.94. 32 2.25 2.29 19 2.95 2.99 33 . 2.30 2.34 .20 The above progression is to continue so that one cent additional roy- alty will be required for each additional five cents increase in price. Lake Freight Matters. One vessel concern in Cleveland is shipping soft coal just now at the rate of 75,000 tons a month. All this coal is covered by 20-cent contracts, some of which run to about Oct. 1 and others to Nov. 1 and Noy. 15. This same concern has ore contracts for most of its vessels. There are several other vessel owners controlling a large amount of tonnage who are simi- larly situated, and who secured, as far as it was possible to do so, after the vessels of the ore companies had been supplied, blocks of ore with which to provide return cargoes from both Lake Superior and Lake Mich- igan. As late as a few days ago, considerable soft coal to go from Buffalo to Lake Superior was covered by contracts running to Nov. 25 at 20 cents. Some coal to be moved from Ohio ports to Gladstone at 20 cents freight and running late in the season, has also been covered within the past: few days. It will thus be seen that even up to the present time shippers of 'both ore and coal are covering their sales by lake freight contracts at the low rates that have been established by the big steel freighters. With such a condition of affair§ the heads of the large ore and vessel companies are declaring that lake freights in the future are destined to be as steady as the freight charges of any of the trunk line railways. This claim will probably not apply, they say, to the coal business, or to the less important lines of lake traffic, but it would seem that there is considerable truth in it as far as ore is concerned. If it were not for the large amount of ore and coal that has been pro- vided for by contracts, there would probably be some hope of success at- tending the effort that is again being made to tie up vessels of the smaller class on a minimum freight agreement. Freights have reached such a low basis that a concerted movement toward putting a large part of the fleet in ordinary would seem to be the only remedy, but the ships that have contracts will not enter into any agreement of this kind. Another Shoal Found. Capt. J. W. Morgan of the Minnesota company's steamer Marina reports that his vessel, which is now undergoing extensive bottom repairs at Lorain, as a result of stranding while on her way into Ashland to pick up a consort, was not on Raspberry island but on a new. shoal directly in the channel abreast of the light on that island. The Marina had loaded at Two Harbors and was drawing 17 feet 3 inches. She was on the regu- lar course into Ashland and it is claimed that the chart indicates 13 or 14 fathoms of water where she stranded. Capt. Morgan will prepare a report of the accident, to be submitted to the proper government officials. A contract was closed this week by the Lorain Steel Co. of Lorain, (Ox. with John Stang for the construction of 900 feet of docks for its new blast furnace plant and for the dredging necessary to give 20 feet of water in Black river for a distance of 30 feet from the edge of the dock. The docks will be 24 feet wide and will carry.two railroad tracks. The contract amounts to $50,000 and a force of 100 men will be employed for six months. A Change in the Management of the Review. Eight years ago F. M. Barton and John M. Mulrooney undertook the publication of the Marine Review. The first issue appeared March 6, 1890. These eight years have passed hurriedly in the office of the Re- view, and no doubt the time will seem short also to many of the vessel men who remember the first number. But in this period of a few years a great change has taken place in lake shipping. Especially remarkable is the change from wood to steel vessels, and from vessels of 2,000 or 2,500 tons to big freight carriers of full 7,000 net tons. The Review has tried to keep pace with this progress; to keep up with what is being done on the lakes, and to present to builders and owners of lake vessels the expe- rience of older shipping districts. In the publication of the Blue Book of American Shipping, now in its third year, an effort has been made to cover a wider field, and compile, each year, from reliable sources in all parts of the United States, all manner of information that is of value to shipping interests generally. Both of these publications are now very well known throughout this country, and to some extent in the ship building and ship owning centers of Europe. 'Names of the publishers have not been made prominent. They are not of great consequence. We have re- frained at all times from attaching personality to either publication, and the names would not now be mentioned but for a desire to give to Mr. Barton, who is leaving the Review, a full share of credit for any success that has attended these publications. The half interest in them which he has owned from the beginning he has sold to John M. Mulrooney, who becomes sole proprietor. Mr. Barton is deserving of gratitude from vessel men for the degree of success that has been attained in serving their interests. He leaves to undertake, after a short vacation, the man- agement of a gospel publishing business already established in Cleveland and Chicago and offering a wide field of usefulness suited to his inclina- tions. Success to him in this work.wili be gratifying, and his associates on the Review certainly wish him well. For several months he has been instructing and familiarizing employees in the work of his department of the Blue Book and the Review, which will be taken up by competent hands. The best of feeling has been manifest in the change, and the agreeable manner in which it has been carried out is somewhat unusual in business. No lawyer was consulted in the beginning; ngt even the scratch of a pen was made for the partnership agreement. The separa- tion is in most respects equally simple. More. Heavy Repair Bills. Bottom damages to the steel works, which are highly expensive at all times, are just now furnishing an unusual amount of work to the ship builders. The Menominee line steamer Saxon, one of the vessels char- tered to the Canada Atlantic company for service between 'Chicago and Parry Sound, has been in contact with a bad spot on Georgian bay and has forty-eight frames and floors and sixteen shell plates damaged. The _ damage is in tanks Nos. 1 and 2 on the port side. The Saxon will be repaired at the dry dock of the Chicago Ship Build- ing Co. The interests of the owners will be looked after by Robert Curr, surveyor. The steamer America, built at Detroit last autumn, struck a dock in the Chicago river and damaged her stern, affecting two plates and several frames. She will also be docked by the Chicago Ship Building Co. The Minnesota Iron Co.'s steamer Marina is in the Cleveland Ship stranding near Raspberry island, Lake Superior. Repairs on the vessel Building Co.'s dock at Lorain undergoing repairs as a result of her recent will be expensive, the minimum estimate of cost by the dry dock people being $20,000, while some estimates made have placed it as high as $35,000 or $40,000, but there would hardly seem to be any justification for the assertion made in newspaper dispatches that the damage sustained is in excess of that caused by stranding in the case of any other steel vessel - on the lakes. A feature of the damage is found in the small size of the punctures in the plates. Of the 125 bottom plates which have been dam- aged, fully séventy-five will have to be replaced by new ones. Fully 175 floor plates are also damaged, and an equal number of frames will have to be repaired or replaced by new ones. Upon a' conservative estimate four or five weeks will be required for the completion of the repair work on the vessel. i With a view to informing ship masters generally regarding the places where these accidents occur, officials of the Great Lakes Register and the JMcCurdy-Prime insurance syndicate of Chicago are assisting, as far as possible, in getting reports from the captains of injured vessels. The captain of the steamer Yuma of the Wilson line reports that while round- ing to make the Cuddy-Mullen coal dock, she grounded about 400 feet south of the float, which is placed clear of the shoal on the south and in about 19 feet of water. The government has a black spar buoy in 16 feet of water on the east bank of this shoal, and the Cuddy-Mullen company has staked off the shoal and placed the float above referred.to in good water. It has been the general belief that there was at least 6 fathoms of water everywhere in the immediate vicinity of the stranding, but-this would seem to be at variance with the facts, since the Yuma stranded not more than 400 feet south of the Cuddy-Mullen float while drawing 17 feet 6 inches of water. 'The spot is evidently a small one, as the Yuma was not greatly damaged and has been permitted to continue in service without a survey. Another of the Wilson line vessels, the Yakima, is in the Ship Owners' dock, Cleveland, undergoing repairs that will cost about $3,000 and occupy ten days' or two weeks' time, due to collision with the schoon- er Helvetia in the St. Clair river on her last trip up the lakes. The steamer Minnie E. Kelton has been sold for $40,000 by the Kelton Transportation Co. to Samuel Neff & Son of Milwaukee.