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1900] : MARINE REVIEW. 15 BRIGHT OUTLOOK ON THE LAKES. KEY TO THE FREIGHT SITUATION STILL IN THE HANDS OF JOHN D. ROOKE- FELLER'S REPRESENTATIVES--OPENING CONDITIONS. Another week or ten days will certainly have elapsed before all the vessels of the great lakes are in commission. The opening will not, there- fore, be regarded as an early opening. The outlook for the season is just as it was in October last when John D. Rockefeller's representatives in the Bessemer Steamship Co. forced the payment of $1.25 a ton on season contracts. for carrying ore from the head of Lake Superior to Lake Erie ports. The key to the whole lake freight situation is still in the office of the Bessemer company. The action of the Rockefeller interests in en- gaging in October last vessel capacity to the extent of some two and a half million tons more than they seemed to have use for in their ore business has certainly been strengthened by all transactions in lake freight lines since that time. Even today Chicago is paying 3 cents on corn to Buffalo which is 'better than the contract ore rate from Escanaba, and 'the latest charters for taking grain from Duluth to Buffalo at the opening have been at rates above the contract figure on ore from the head of Lake Superior. The uncertain element in the situation is what the 'Rockefeller interest proposes to do with its surplus vessel capacity. If its operations in ore are in some manner to be so increased as to hold practically all of its vessel capacity in that trade, the shippers who will have grain and coal to move certainly 'have a difficult problem to meet from the outset. Ships to care for the normal movement of freight in these lines on what are known as wild charters, are certainly not available unless a very large part or all of this surplus Rockefeller capacity is to be placed on the market. A large part of it could undoubtedly be rechartered even now to other ship- pers for the ore trade from the head of the lakes at $1.25, but nothing of this kind has been done. This surplus of about 2,500,000 tons in the Bes- semer office is just about equal to the addition that will be made to the lake fleet by the combined capacity of new vessels that went into commis- sion late last fall and others that are to be available during the present season. The ship yards are at work on orders for vessels that will carry far more than 2,500,000 tons in a season, but it is hardly necessary to say that only a few of these ships will get in a full season. Some of them may not be ready in time to make even a few trips late in the fall. A general slump in business, especially in iron and steel lines, would of course change the whole scope of conditions that now seem so favorable to the vessels, but as radical disturbances are not thought of, it is quite certain that the season about to open will see a movement of freight larger by 25 per cent than that of any other year in the history of lake navigation. The labor question, as far as the thousands of men on docks are con- cerned, seems to have been settled. (Wages of men aboard the vessels - have not been fixed as yet, but as this is not a year for delays in labor matters, the vessel owners will undoubtedly make liberal advances in the schedule of wages that is to be issued within a few days. About 1,500,000 tons of soft coal to go to Lake Superior ports has been covered by contracts at 50 cents a ton. This is probably something more than a third of the soft coal that will go to all Lake Superior ports. Vessel owners are still demanding higher rates than shippers are willing to pay on coal for Lake Michigan, and as yet probably not more than a quarter of a million tons has been covered by contract for ports on that lake. It is mainly coal for Sheboygan and Manitowoc and the rate is 60 cents. Contracts for Milwaukee delivery extending throughout the season can not be made at less than 75 or possibly 70 cents, but of course this difference between the Sheboygan and Milwaukee rate will not be paid without a great struggle, on account of the disadvantage that would result to the Milwaukee dealers. A large number of vessels loaded at Ohio ports for Milwaukee are to have the going rate on the opening for the first trip, and as one or two boats were chartered within the past day or two at 65 cents it is probable that that rate will prevail on "wild" charters. AROUND THE GREAT LAKES. Headquarters of the Great Lakes Towing Co., Cleveland, will soon be moved into the Western Reserve building, which is being enlarged. Col. G. J. Lydecker, United States engineer, Detroit, will open pro- posals April 30 for removing boulders, excavating limestone bedrock and dredging in the lower Detroit river. Another effort will be made to secure from congress funds for a general resurvey of the lakes. Senator McMillan of Michigan has just introduced in the senate a bill with that end in view. A. G. Blair sends out a notice from Toledo to the effect that he has succeeded to the firm of W. H. Vance & Co., dissolved; that he is the sole owner of all the property and assets of the firm and has assumed and will pay all its liabilities. Rieboldt, Wolter & Co. of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., have been awarded a contract to build a tug for Mann Bros. of Milwaukee. A steel tug build- ing at Ferrysburg, Mich., for the Sullivan Tug Co. of Detroit, is in the water and will be hurried to completion. William Marlton, ship builder at Goderich, Ont., has under construc- tion three tugs for delivery at the opening of navigation--one for N. Dyment of Barrie, to be used for towing on the Georgian bay, one for the Dominion Fish Co., and the other for Purvis Bros. of Gore Bay, Ont. The Green Dredging Co. of Chicago, has been awarded contracts for dredging the following harbors on the east short of Lake Michigan: Charlevoix, Frankfort, Ludington, Manistee, Grand Haven, 'Holland. Saugatuck, St. Joseph, Michigan City, Muskegon, South Haven and Por- tage Lake. , ' In holding their vessels until there was an urgent demand for them, the Jenks Ship Building Co. of Port Huron undoubtedly turned a nice profit. The steamer Black Rock was sold to R. J. Dunham and others of Chicago, the Linden to the Sandusky Lumber & Box Co., the Runnels to Spence Bros. of Cleveland and the tug Mason to Chas. Maytham of Buffalo. William Cassel Rhodes is the name selected for the Canadian canal- size steamer launched at the Lorain works of the American Ship Building Co. on Saturday last, for Robert R. Rhodes of Cleveland, and others in- terested in the Lower Lakes Steamship Co. 'Mr. Rhodes now directs the affairs of quite a fleet of vessels of this type, which will be available if required for service through the Welland canal and down the St. Law- rence to Montreal. In its preparations for opposition to the Great Lakes Towing Co., the Maytham Towing & Wrecking Co. of Buffalo has certainly succeeded in gathering into its fleet of some seventeen tugs a few that are of a very good kind. The list includes the G. W. Mason, Schenck, Frank W., Peerless, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Pete Gorman, Erie, Triton, Nau, Crosby, C. E. Benham, Arthur Woods and three or four others, At is expected that, the new foundry at the Craig ship yard, Toledo, will be completed in about sixty days. Work on the several steel vessels under way at this yard is progressing favorably. The passenger steamer building for the Arnold Transportation Co. of Mackinaw, Mich., is about one-third completed. This vessel will be ready for sea about June 15. She will be equipped with triple expansion engines and will be very fast. The ocean-going steamer Tampico--Canadian canal size--will be launched within a few weeks. Although slow in doing so, the Buffalo elevator managers will un- doubtedly again enter into a pooling arrangement this season whereby cargoes consigned to crowded elevators may be transferred to houses that have room for the grain, or in other words the facilities of the port will be afforded to the vessels. It would be poor policy on the part of the elevators not to enter into such an arrangement this year, as the vessel owners have the upper hand and could enforce, as never before, the bill of lading features regarding shortages and detention that have been talked of for a long time past. PATENT PORTABLE HOIST. Capt. C. H. Sinclair of Chicago, well known to the insurance inter- ests as well as the vessel owners, has had years of experience in the work of releasing stranded vessels. Practically his entire life has been spent in this kind: of work on the great lakes. Knowing of the great expense that is attached to lightering eis cargo from stranded ves- A sels, and the advantage that would often be derived from beginning this work at once instead of waiting for a wrecking expedition, he has developed an inex- - pensive portable hoist that may be carried aboard ship ~ and which can be readily set up for the purpose of lightering cargo in case of accident. The device may also be carried, of course, to great advantage on a wrecking tug, and would prove of value to vessels unloading cargoes o/ coal, salt, etc., at ports where facilities for the discharge of such*cargo is unsatisfactory. Two views of the hoist are presented herewith, the smaller one showing the rig that is placed over the vessel's hatch. for the hoist- ing of cargo, and the larger one the inclined traveler over which the bucket is moved for discharge over the side of the ship. As the tele- scopic tripod would be of 2 and 2% inch pipe and the traveler of about 6-inch I beam the device is not a 'heavy affair and in its various parts would not be cumbersome. The inclined I beam may be of any desired length, and of one or " more sections. This incline is made available, under all conditions, by the use of the telescopic legs or supports and four guys fitted with turn- buckles render the whole apparatus practically rigid. A one-ton bucket is filled below, and by the ship's own deck engine is hoisted to the head of the I beam where its bale engages the patent releasing hook secured to the traveler. The deck engine then "pays out' and the load travels, of its own volition, down the I beam to the desired point where the bucket is dumped by the one operator, who stands upon a conveniently bracketed scaffold. The bucket is then hauled back to the head of the incline where the patent hook releases the bale and it is lowered again to be filled. The hoist is so made, in fact, that it can be folded up. ' In case of the stranding of a coal, ore or salt-laden vessel, the device can readily 'be set up in a few minutes and fully manned by the ship's crew, and thus the ship may be lightered off in less time than in most cases is required to get the wreckers alongside, and at only a fraction of the cost of the latter. In event of the stranding of a grain-laden vessel all that is required is a satisfactory lighter upon which to discharge, when, upon the release of the stranded vessel, the lightered cargo may be re- loaded by setting up the hoist on the lighter and PSR as before. In case the cargo is package freight, hooks could, of course, be used instead of the bucket. 'Capt. Sinclair's address is Royal Insurance build- ing, Chicago.