Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), 1 Jan 1903, p. 18

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18 -MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. WAGES ON CORPORATION SHIPS. Mr. A. B. Wolvin, general manager of the Steel Corporation fleet of vessels on the lakes, is taking steps early in the matter of arranging wages and making contracts with captains and en- gineers for next season. Capt. W. W. Smith, marine superin- tendent, announces that the captains of all the vessels are to be paid <n advance of Io per cent. in wages for 1903. 'The masters of the barges now get $100 per month and the men in charge of the steamers of the largest class get about $1,800 a season, so that the advance will amcunt to more than $100 a year per man. It is also announced that both captains and engineers are to again be paid bonuses (on the merit system) for the season just closed. The amounts have not been figured up.as yet but it is expected that the checks will be distributed shoitly. ~The question of engineers' wages for next season is also re- ported as settled between Chief Lnoineer Joseph F. Hayes of the Corporation fleet and vice president Jenkins of the Marine En- gineers' Beneficial Association. 'The basis of settlement is the following schedule: First-class steamers, chief engineers, eleven months, $1,650; first-class steamers, chief engineers, ten months, $1,500; third-class steamers, chief engineers, ten months, $1,350; (Jan. 3 From this time on the grain business at the head of the lakes will be slow until the opening of navigation in 1903. Receipts are small, of wheat especially so, and shipments are merely nom- inal. 'The contrast.in wheat receipts against this time last year is most marked. Then the stocks here showed an increase of 1,336,000 bu.; last week only 308,958. At this date last year there were in store and afloat for winter storage at the head of the lakes, 10,819,603 bu. of wheat. Now the corresponding total is about 3,750,000 bu. No ships are storing wheat for spring deliv- erv, and there will be no inducement to do so. Not all the ele- vators will be open. The Globe company's three houses have now been closed down and are in charge of watchmen and fire- men for the winter. There is nothing to keep them open for. Receipts of wheat at the Canadian head of the lake ports, Fort William and Port Arthur, are active and the two Canadian roads are carrying there as much as they can well handle and deliver. Storage is the thing that will bother these ports this winter, and this is increasing far more slowly than was anticipated, on account of unexpected delays. ; The number of ships laid up at the head of the lakes is an imposing total, and as the items comprise what is largest and A Wooden Barge of about 5,000 Gross Tons Capacity. The only wooden vessel now building on the lakes is a duplicate of the Chieftain, shown in the engraving, and which is owned, with a large fleet of similar vessels,by James Davidson, ship builder, of Bay City, Mich. first-class steamers, first assistant, eleven months, $1,100; first- class steamers, second assistants, eleven months, $325; second- class steamers, assistant, ten months, $1,000; third-class steamers, assistant, ten months, $900. It is also agreed that the steamship company will place second assistant engineers on all steamers on which the company may have installed automatic stokers. Pay- ments will be made the same as during the past year, that is, monthly by a check from the office ot the company; first payment to be made Mar. 1. In addition all men signing contracts ac- cording to this agreement and continuing. in the employ of the company will be entitled to the bonus which the company offers for faithful service, for continuing in the employ of the company and for living up to the rules and regulations made by the com- pany from time to time. AFFAIRS AT THE HEAD OF THE LAKES. - Duluth, Dec. 30.--The Pittsburg Steamship Co., which is to have the whole of the seventh floor of the new building erected for the use of the United States Steel Corporation, will soon be settled in tneir new quarters. The building is so far along that some of the western offices of the Steel Corporation are already getting in. This building is on First street, at the corner of Third avenue, west, is very central and contains about an acre of floor space. It is a model office building, of steel construction with columns incased in concrete. ee most modern in the way of great lakes shipping, it is an espe- cially interesting total. This plan of laying by ships at this end of the lakes is destined to increase in favor, especially as the business of Chicago falls further and further behind this section. The total product of sawmills at Duluth-Superior for the year, including only those mills that are on deep water and ship by lake, was 442,600,000 ft. The product of surrounding mills. in what is known as the Duluth district, was about 400,000,000 ft. additional. A considerable part of the product of the latter is shipped by lake. Combined this is far more than the annual pro- duct of any pine district in the world. 'There are three Duluth mills in operation now, and three more are to start up as soon as they can be got ready, all for a continuous run to the close of 1903. These will insure a larger cut the coming year than has ever been made in this district, and a chief part of the increase is to go out by lake. The cut of 1902 was about:4 per cent. greater than that of the preceding season and exceeded any prior year. The Duluth & Iron Range road, belonging to the United States Steel Corporation, will this winter haul more than 275,- 000,000 ft. of logs, mostly to mills in this city. 'This business_is done at. a time when that for which the road was built--ore traffic--is impossible, and it adds materially to the revenues of the system. It is the chief log hauling line in existence. De- spite. the enormous annual cut there is timber enough along this road to permit the maintenance of such an annual traffic for many years. eee es a sae ~ e. ?

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