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32 Tact Marine REVIEW OBITUARY. It is with regret that the MARINE REVIEW announces the death of Capt. John W. Collins, engineer-in- -chief of the United States revenue cutter service. While he had been ill for over a year, his illness did not take a - serious turn until lately. Capt. Collins was born in New York city on Jan. 20, 1845. After attending the public schools of his native city and serving an appren- ticeship in the shops of the South Brooklyn Steam En- gine & Boiler Works, he was, at the early age of nine- teen. years, appointed third assistant engineer in the United States navy and assigned to duty on the frigate CAPT. JOHN Wi COLEINS, Wabash. He saw considerable service during the civil war. and at the close was commissioned as second as- sistant engineer in the revenue cutter service on April 7, 1866.. He was made chief engineer on July 18, 1878, Up to January, 1892, the position of consulting en- gineer of the service had been filled by an engineer in civil lite. Chief Engineer Collins was, prior to that time, engaged in duties as an engineer member of the International Marine Conference. So well were these duties performed that Secretary . Foster selected him from the entire list of the chief engineers of the service and detailed him as consulting engineer, making him the first officer of the service to hold that responsible position. This selection was subsequently ratified by congress, creating the position of engineer-in-chief of the service on July 31, 1894. 'The work of this office was SO largely increased on account of the building of new vessels that congress in 1897 created the grade of captain of engineers which carried with it the pay and emolu- ments of a captain in the line. President McKinley appointed Capt. Collins to this new position. He thus became the first marine engineer "in the employ of the United States government to have what is commonly known as positive rank. At the time Capt. Collins was made consulting engineer of the service there was not a revenue cutter afloat having a triple expansion engine. The first machinery constructed under his direction, that of the Hudson, was fitted with a triple-expansion en- gine and a water-tube boiler. While in office he super- vised the designing and construction of the machinery of twenty-two new revenue cutters. In the death. of Capt. J.. G.° Parker, at. Ontonagon, Lake Superior, lost its pioneer navigator. He was iden- tified with the navigation of this lake long before the Sault Ste. Marie canal was built. In fact, he personally assisted in hauling around the rapids a number of little schooners that took care of the traffic of this lake prior to the construction of the canal. His life as a navigator antedated the lighthouse. 'Capt. Parker was born at Winchester, N. H., in 1821. In 1845 he and his brother Asa A., now eighty-six years of age, and past probate judge of Ontonagon County, made preparations toran overland journey to California but were dissuaded by their parents and went to the Lake Superior country instead in 1846. He was the mate of the little schooner Fur Trader in 1848, and carried stone for the first light- house to be built on the lake, that at White Fish Point.. Capt. Parker built Ontonagon's first saw mill in 18sr. The Fur Trader was lost at Eagle river in 1852, and Capt. Parker went to Milwaukee and bought the schooner George W. Ford to replace her. Capt. Parker continued to sail in her until 1870, when she went to pieces on a reef in Eagle harbor. He also sailed the steamers Gen-_ etal Taylor and Mineral Rock. He sailed at one time also as a pilot between Detroit and Cleveland, but had retired from the lakes for over thirty years. James Fitzpatrick, of Marquette, Mich., the oldest active sailor on the great lakes last season, died at Tonawanda, recently, as the result of an injury sustained in an accident at Cleveland last fall. He was seventy- eight years old, and worked for the last thirty-five years on lumber carriers, between the Tonawandas: and: Du- luth. Fitzpatrick had his left lung punctured by a broken rib, by a fall into the hold of a schooner at Cleveland harbor in November. Capt. Ole Hansen, one of the pioneer vessel men of Lake Michigan, died at Manitowoc on Saturday night last. Capt. J. J. Olsen, who had sailed on Lake Michigan as a boy and man for more than forty years, died at Manitowoc this week. a Capt. Joseph: Stover, Sombra, Ont., died this week of heart failure. He was a veteran master of the lakes, and was sixty-nine years old. CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. The annual convention of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers opened at Toronto on Jan. 30, at the King Edward hotel. Mr. C. H. Rust, vice president, took the chair, and called upon Mr. Frank L. Sommerville to wel- come delegates on behalf of Toronto. The council report showed a substantial increase in membership. The number was 1,389 a8 against 1,261 in 1904. The Gzowoski medal award for 1904-5 was given C. B. Smith, M. E., for his paper: on the construction of the Canadian Niagara Power Co., 100,000-horsepower hydro-electric plant at Niagara' Falls, Ont. In the students' class the best papers were awarded: Mechan- eal, U,. Hi Schwitzer> mining, G. S,:Cole; general, ©. R. Young. There were no papers in the electrical sec- tion. The treasurer's report showed an income of $8,- 107.23, with the balance from 1904, giving a total of $11,- 378.04, of which $10,057.74 had been spent, leaving only $1,320.30 0n hand. In the banquet hall in the evening Mr. J. B. Porter