The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

M 6A R I N E, R E£ NV ol Ee -oe G of 21 ft. for a minimum width of 4oo ft. and for a possible maximum width of 800 ft. through Bar Point shoal through aeep water in Lake Erie. Breymann & Bros. of Toledo were the lowest bidders, their bid being 27 cents per cubic yard or a total of $324,000. The totals of other bids were as follows: Chicago & Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., $342,000; Detroit Dredging Co., $348,000; M. Sullivan, Detroit, $348,000; L. P. & J. A. Smith, Cleveland, $360,000; Lake Superior Contracting & Dredging Co., $372,000; Samuel O. Dixon, Milwaukee, $379,000; Buffalo Dredging Co., Buffalo, $396,000. Alfred McNevin of Detroit, teacher of navigation and com- pass adjustment, had a conference with the board of super- vising inspectors in Washington last week in which he urged that examinations should be extended to include the details of compass management. He maintained that officers 'at pres- ent have only a crude knowledge of this important instrument and suggested that inspectors see that they are proficient in the following: The laws of deviation and variation and the application of such in the correctness of courses and bear- ings; the use of the dumb card or polorus in determining the deviation, in shaping a course and in compensating a com- pass; the essentials of an efficient compass; the chief points to be cohsidered when selecting a position for a compass on board ship, and what should be particularly guarded against; the method of compass adjustment. Active work is now being pushed in Washington for the im- provement of the Chicago river by two delegations of Chicago citizens. Mr. Robert J. Dunham represents the River Im- provement association and Messrs. Walter Mills, R. B. Ennie and Henry H. Walker represent the Real Estate board. The committee from the Real Estate board will ask congress to appropriate $1,250,000 for improvements to the outer pier and breakwater and the dredging of the outer basin adjoining the new lake front part. In this petition the River Improvement association does not occur. In the river and harbor bill now before the house of representatives there is an item of $200,000 for improving the north pier and the association will not ask that any more be spent for work outside the river. All it will ask is that an equal amount be appropriated for dredging the river properly where the channel has not already been deepened by the Dredge Canal board, the work to begin after the lowering or removal of the tunnels, April 1, 1906. TOTAL ENTRANCES AT BRITISH PORTS Liverpool, Jan. 25.--The official returns of trade and navi- gation for the year 1904 have just been issued by the British board of trade, and Americans will gather from a careful perusal of the following figures reliable facts as to the growth and volume of this country's shipping, so large a proportion of which is in the hands of the British ship owner. The total entrances at British ports during the year amounted to 39,- 941,897 tons, as compared with 39,903,017 tons in 1903, and 37,904,313 tons in 1902, the increase over the two years thus being 38,880 tons and 2,037,584 tons respectively. Of last year's tonnage entered, British ships represented 27,807,003 tons, an increase of 358,592 tons over 1903, and an increase of 2,006,428 tons over 1902; while last year's foreign en- trances were 12,134,804 tons, a decrease of 319,712 tons as compared with 1903, but an increase of 31,156 over 1902. The clearances from British potts show an even greater expansion. The total tonnage cleared with cargoes amounted to 48,466,364 tons, an increase of 1,066,398 tons over 1903, and of 3,664,276 over 1902. British shipping represented 31,- 893,297 tons, an increase of 576,873 tons over 1903, and of 2,358,589 over 1902. Foreign shipping reached 16,573,067 tons. an increase over 1903 and 1902 of 489,525 tons and 1,305,687 tons respectively. The share of the different merchant navies in the carrying trade to and from British ports is best seen in the following table: Cleared, Nationality. Entered tons, tons. RISE oe. ety ste 27,807,093 31,893,207 Russian SUIS ie ao anes aed ene 561,070 579,047 SIWEdISHD ose eh ae ee eae, 1,419,819 1,740,238 INGE WERTAN ec a 2,539,318 2,701,390 Danish oe ee es ee ee 902,731 1,954,920 Genin 0 i Te se 1,655,213 2,992,411 DuttOhs oa ere a a ee 1,503,942 1,783,179 Belg ae a a oe 481,739 644,192 Brencd 0 a: Ce. ee ae 1,003,666 1,195,668 DPMS Delia el oes eee 1,095,927 1,271,120 POPURUGSE Ne ie cee ee T5i3i7 18,252 TaN ee es el Go es 230,991 510,306 AUStrONUInbatian cee ue ae ke pO ROGO 478,071 GEOG a ee ee 135,827 347,505 WS ee aa er 278,432 239,905 Other Countries ove 82,153 115,057 A further fact which is worth a passing notice, viz., that over nine-elevenths of the increase in the country's foreign shipping trade has gone to the British flag. The greatest trade is with the United States of America, though compared with 1903 there is a great falling off and there is a decrease com- pared even with 1902. The tonnage entered at British ports from the United States during 1904 amounted to 6,871,316, and the clearances from here, 5,373,701, against entrances 7,382,838 tons, and clearances 6,138,589 tons in 1903. Practically the whole of this large trade is a monopoly for British shipping, for last year we carried 6,111,914 tons, of the entrances, and 4,764,620 tons, of the clearances. Our nearest competitor is so far, namely the United States itself, that the total tonnage both ways is only little over half a million tons. Naturally the colonial carrying trade has also the appearance of monopoly. The total entrances into British ports from the colonies amounted to 7,246,473 tons, of which the British share was 6,637,852 tons; the clearances for the colonies reached 7,320,516 tons, the British share being 6,959,353 tons. The share of foreign ships in this trade is chiefly in the hands of the Nor- wegians and the Germans. The Norwegians interfere most in the trade from the North American colonies to this country, but their tonnage this way is only 200,830 tons, as against 1,813,291 tons in British ships, which of the clearances from British ports to Canada, etc., British ships account for 1,476,738 tons, against 36,850 tons in Norwegian vessels. The Germans divide their favors, but do most with Australia and New Zealand. A further examination of the figures of the Euro- pean countries Britain does shipping business with, finds France and Germany in leading places with Spain, Holland - and Belgium good runners-up, while a large tonnage is also sent to Italy. The entrances from Germany reached 2,612,675 tons, and of this British ships represent 1,592,770 tons, and German ships 892,654 tons. The clearances to Germany were 4,868,559 tons, the share of British ships being 2,374,672 tons, and German ships 1,708,817 tons. The entrances from France " were 2,752,477 tons, and British ships represent 1,832,889 tons and French ships 702,135 tons. The. clearances to France reached 4,879,812 tons, made up of British ships, 3,185,991 tons, French ships, 862,882 tons, and Spanish ships, 362,464 tons. The general coasting trade reached 31,628,393 tons in 1904, against 31,085,768 tons in 1903, and 30,930,932 tons in 1902. It is practically all under the British flag, foreign ships last year accounting for less than a quarter of a million tons. As one authority on British shipping observes, it will require a great deal of ingenuity to write "Decadence" across these returns. The annual prize of the Nzeval Institute open to United States naval officers all over the world and awarded for the best paper on any naval subject has been won by Commander Bradley A. Fisk whose paper was on "American Naval Pol- icy.' Honorary mention was won by Rear Admiral S. B. Luce on his paper entitled "The Department of the Navy." &