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1901.} it) . MARINE REVIEW; | : a STEAMSHIP BONDS. A few years ago steamship bonds were unknown on the great lakes. Vessels were built almost entirely for cash. But a conservative bond arrangement inaugurated by some of the Cleveland and Detroit trust companies has met with decided favor. The Guardian Trust Co., one of the Strong financial institutions of Cleveland, has been making a specialty of this business and a very neat pamphlet which they have just issued on the stbject is as interesting as it is attfactive. The striking feature of the pamphtet is a summary of information regarding many of the vessels accompatiied by statements showing the low bond issue compared with the value of the ships. Of course all the vessels are high class steel steamers of recent construction. It is noted, for instance, that on one steamer of $225,000 cost the bond issue is $72,000; another steamer of $275,000 cost is covered by $275,000 of bonds, and a fleet of four vessels carries $330,000 bonds as against a cost of $580,000. On the subject of this class of securities generally the pamphlet says: "Steamship bonds form a strong class of securities which are as yet little known outside of the ship building cities on the great lakes, but which are no more local in their nature than the bonds of the largest railroads, seeing that they are incidental to a great commerce which traverses or touches more states than do 75 per cent. of the railroads whose securities are listed on the New York stock exchange, and whose tonnage during a season of but eight months is far in excess of that of the 'New. York Central, Baltimore & Ohio and many other railroads com- bined for an entire year. These have.thus far been almost entirely ab- sorbed in the cities of Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit, having been pur- chased, in large amounts by individuals, banks and trust companies. in those cities who were familiar with the lake shipping industry and with the companies engaged in it.. The issuing of bonds upon lake vessels in the same manner as upon railroads being a practice of comparatively recent, origin, it was the natural course of events that securities. of: this class should for some years find their market only among those who had first-hand knowledge of their value as investments, until time should demonstrate it to outside investors. No holder of steamship bonds to our .knowledge has ever. suffered the slightest delay in the payment of his interest or principal. Adding to these features--of strength and a record for punctual payment--their present favorable prices, the bonds prove to be desirable in every way for the investment of private, trust _ and bank funds. The constantly widening acquaintance among investors with the value of these securities has been and is appreciating their price steadily, Selling formerly at a-discount, they are now quoted: at 'a small 'advance above par, and their intrinsic merits warrant the opinion that they will in'a few years command a substantial premium. a "© "The ctistomary plan of issuing these bonds is substantially this: The 'bonds are délivered to the purchasérs upon completion of the mortgaged 'vessel, and cover usually one-half of' its cost--sometimes less, seldom 'more. They mature in most cases in ten or twelve equal annual install- ments, beginning the year -of their date or the year after. The holders of the longest bonds have constant security, for the debt is steadily dimin- ished, and, besides, the life of modern steel steamers is from fifty .to 'sixty years, and the insurance underwriters give them their initial rating for'twenty-five years, so it is evident that no depreciation of consequence occurs during the life of bonds issued for less than one-half of that time. ©f-course, an annual overhauling of the vessels and their machinery is necessary, which is paid for out of net earnings. By requirement of the mortgage the boat'is 'képt insured 'in good and responsible insurance companies' 'selected 'or approved by the trustee,' in a sum at least equal to, and usually to a fixed amount in excess of, the outstanding bonded indebtedness, losses being payable to the trustee, who also always keeps possession of the policies. Priority of lien, and bondholders' interests am-case of default, etc., are carefully safeguarded, by provisions as bind- ing and efficacious as the similar clauses of any railroad or other mort- gage. The vessels are operated by well-known companies, owned and 'managed by men who'are among the oldest and most successful vessel 'owners on the lakes." PLANNING TO SELL TO THE BIG STEEL COMPANY. ary Philadelphia dispatch says that the activity in the steel stocks there indicates that the syndicate of underwriters, headed by Drexel' & Co., who. have organized:the Pennsylvania, (Cambria and Bethlehem steel. companies, have undertaken a plan to consolidate the ownership of those three companies, with the object of transferring them as a single organ- ization to the United States Steel Corporation. Following the announce- ment by Drexel & Co. on Monday that $20,000,000 of the new issue of capital of the Pennsylvania Steel Co, had. been sold by. the underwriting brokers to investors, there was a rapid buying movement in stock.of the Cambria Steel Co., led by a house representing John Lowber. Welsh, one of the underwriting capitalists and also a director of the company. Tues- day the directors of the Cambria Steel Co, met and adopted a plan of readjustment similar to the one applied to the Pennsylvania Steel Co. in January, increasing the capital from $16,000,000 to $50,000,000. The Jast assessment on the stock of $3. was paid on Saturday, making the shares stand 13%. To meet the requirements of the plan the directors declared a dividend of $1.50 on the common stock. The Cambria plan will be backed by the Drexel syndicate. It was ascertained from well- informed: sources that this syndicate will finance a plan of consolidating the three-steel companies to facilitate the sale to the Stéel,Corporation. An announcement of the. undertaking is &xpected in a few days. The capitalization of the three. companies, including the bonded debt and old - stock not cancelled, is in excess of $150,000,000, but the paid-up value of the stock .is less than half that amount. ee FOURTEEN FEET NAVIGATION IN THE ST. LAWRENCE. . Some time ago Mr. Thomas Monro, -well known engineer of canals in. Canada,.was quoted in these columns as saying that.'a 14-ft, channel existed between the great lakes and. Montreal through the St, Lawrence, notwithstanding all views.to the contrary which appeared. in the Gana- dian newspapers. It would seem that this statement is..fully,. confirmed by the following extract from the Montreal Herald ofsMay 27:... 1. : -"- (The certaitity of the 14-ft. navigation. in the St.:diawrence channel "and canals between the great lakes and Montreal has been placed beyond sisbarseiedagscretogetaa doubt by the achievement of 'the' *@ttawa Forwarding. €o.'s propeller Arabian. The big boat, which has been in the transportation business for some years has just arrived down with a cargo which bore the hull down to 14 ft. 2.in. This is the deepest draught under which a vessel has ever been brought down, and the owners arid master are: consequently jubilant. It has been proved that a, capable. master, by using ordinary prudence, can navigate the new 14-ft. channel without the slightest danger. An answer has also been given to the pessimistic critics who have been maintaining that the channel was not navigable by any vessel drawing 14 ft. At the point where the Northwestern, bound for Europe, touched ground the Arabian passed freely, thus corroborating the explanation made at the time as to the cause of the mishap to the pioneer of the Chicago-Liverpool line. The dredge is still working at the point where that vessel went aground, but the Arabian passed well away from it in the center of the channel?" : FLOATING DOCKS. Worth more probably than anything ever published on the subject of floating docks is a pamphlet of some fifty pages, well' printed and. well illustrated, which comes from Clark & Standfield of London and which is entitled "Facts, about Floating Docks." Clark & Standfield are prob- - ably the only firm of engineers in the world making a specialty of floating docks, They are the engineers in charge of the construction of the 18,000-ton floating dock which, is being built for the United States gov- ernment at Sparrow's Point, Md., and which is to. be located at Algiers, near New Orleans., Docks now in course of construction under their supervision have a lifting power of 67,000 tons. Most of the information contained in the pamphlet was first brought out in this country. when the. subject of docks for our naval vessels attracted so much attention in congress a short time ago. The introduction to the pamphlet, which is in itself very interesting, is as follows: ~ se 2 "In 1898, the action of the navy department of the, United States in sending the battleship Indiana to. Halifax to be dry docked, on account of there being no graving docks in the states that could take this vessel, rudely opened the eyes of the American public to the dearth of docking accommodation for their then-rapidly growing fleet, and a comprehensive scheme of docks was promptly laid before congress. Inventors, naturally, took this opportunity to extol their own wares, one of them, indeed, issuing a pamphlet in praise of his special type of excavated dock,: in. the course of which he made a very direct attack on floating docks in general. To those acquainted with floating docks many of the statements 'made on the subject were absurd, but as anything printed, unless promptly contradicted, attains a glamour of truth; it: seemed to naturally fall: upon us, the only firm in the world which makes the designing of. floating docks a specialty, to reply for and defend the same. Hence the reason for the publication in the United States of a large part of what is :con- tained in the pamphlet, which was of a. distinctly controversial character and was meant to advertise and defend the floating dock from the attacks made against it.. The controversial portion of the pamphlet is now. no longer required, for time has settled this question--and we may be pat- doned if we add in our favor--but the facts and comparisons appertain- ing to the two types of docks, which were. also. contained in the same pamphlet, still have their, yalue, for it is a regrettable fact. that there is - a universal ignorance not only as to what floating docks can do, but.as to, what they have done, and, indeed, even as to the number and size of them that actually exist. foe get oe o Ag ts _ During the present year (1901) a member of a certain harbor board aS reported to hayg¢ stated that 'there are something like 1,800 dry. docks, floating docks, and slipways in different parts of the world, and out of this total there are only about 100 floating docks, and, as a tule, they 'areéof small dimensions. In. the United Kingdom, the largest of these 'floating docks is only 144 ft'In length.' If this gentleman had consulted the admiralty dock book published yearly, he would have found out that there were really 168 floating docks in existence, amongst which five have over 10,000 tons lifting power, whilst England has more than one over 400 ft. long. The admiralty dock book indeed affords very good evidence of the way in which the floating dock is gradually acquiring favor and supplanting its 'older rival. In the edition published in 1890, floating docks represent only 17 per cent. of the total number of docks proper as apart from slips, whereas out of the new docks built in the decade follow- ing this date the floating dock represents 28 per cent. ie , "Dealing with our own contributions, we have at the present time in our offices plans for docks actually in course of construction of which the aggregate lifting power totals up to over 67,000 tons, and of which the total length, if placed in line, would be well over half a mile, As re- gards the size to which floating docks have now attained, we "may. also mention that at the present time there exist or are approaching comple- tion no less than three floating docks whose lifting power is in each case 'over 17,000 tons. one of 15,000 tons, one of 12,000 tons and two of over 10,000 tons. These seven docks can hardly be said to be of 'small dimensions.' : ag son ee "But apart from the general ignorance as to what floating docks there are, there is also a great want of knowledge, even amongst. engi- neers, as to their details, such as first cost, cost of working, durability, life and general handiness and suitability to certain locations. "This is doubtless largely due to the fact that the engineer who is usually called in, in connection with harbor works, is naturally a specialist in earth, brick and stone work, and is therefore more prone to solve the problem before him on the lines with which he is best acquainted than go experi- menting in naval architecture, for that is the category into which the design of a properly arranged floating dock falls. It is in 'the hope of bringing to the knowledge of the harbor and port authorities and their advisors the fact that floating'docks up to the largést size are now vert generally accepted where conditions are favorable, and of setting fort clearly what are these conditions and 'explaining in the form of a com- parison between the two types what are' the special advantages that the floating dock can claim over-its masonry rival, that we have decided to reprint the pamphlet referred to, shorn as far as possible of all its polemical character." a os , A new chart, in colors, of Erie harbor and Presque Asle, has just been issued and maybe had from the Marine Review. 'A new chart of Buffalo harbor and Niagara river to the falls is also in pitt Se ass Aes Ba re a To RU Rat