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20 DEVOTED TO EVERYTHING AND EVERY INTEREST CONNECTED OR) ASSOCIATED WITH MARINE MATTERS ON THE UDO pecy Or THe 'HARTH. - aff "|. Pyblished every Thursday by Aesid tc ; The Penton Publishing Co. CLEVELAND. : NEW YORK PHILADELPHIA PITTSBURG CINCINNATI BOSTON DULUTH CHICAGO Correspondence on Marine Engineering, Ship Building and Shipping Subjects Solicited. ® Subscription, $3.00 per annum. To Foreign Countries, $4.50. Subscribers can have addresses changed at will. of advertising copy must reach this office oes Tharnday preceding date of publication. Cleveland News Co. will supply the trade EP in the MARINE REVIEW through the regu- Jar channels of the American News Co. Agents, The International News Com- ae Breams Building, Chancery Lane, London, E. C. England. oe 2 d at the Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio, as a . Second Class Matter. Avucust 0; 1906. DULUTH HARBOR IMPROVE- 5 MENT. Greatest interest in marine.circles dur- ing the past week has been centered in the investigation by the board of gov- ertument engineers and the discussion de- _ veloped by it, anent the improvements proposed for the harbor at Duluth. The discussion narrowed down to arguments for and against two propositions,--the building of a breakwater outside of the present entrance, extending parallel. to Minnesota Point, from the foot of Four- teenth avenue east about 6,000 feet out into the lake and about 4,000 feet from the ends of the pier,--and the cutting of a new canal through Minnesota Point, opposite the St. Louis river. The board besides its own investigation, held an open meeting at which all the interests having property affected by. the -condi- tions complained of in the harbor,: were docks, and to the Missabe docks. THe Marine Review represented, This contingency, in which the leading spirit. was Capt. Alexander McDougall, have committed themselves as being in favor of the breakwater con- structed as outlined above and as sug- gested by Capt. McDougall and against a central canal. The advocacy of the central canal was presented at the last minute of the board's session by W. A. McGonagle, vice president of the Du; luth, Missabe *& Northern the form of a message from Cleveland signed by Harry Coulby and A..B. Wol- vin, which read as follows: "In answer to yours No. 645. If I had known of the board meeting of the government en- gineers in Duluth I would have arranged to have been present. Captain Wolvin is now in iny office and we are absolutely opposed to the building of a 'breakwater from Fourteenth avenue east, as being.a thoroughly impractica- ble proposition. Furthermore, the object of the rivers and harbors committee is the im- proving of the waterways for the benefit of commerce. A central canal through Minnesota Point will save fully one hour on each trip of each vessel entering the Duluth harbor bound for the Missabe docks or any other dock in the vicinity of or above. Rice's Point or Connor's . Point. Apply the saving at this rate on the boats to the Missabe docks alone and you will see the force of this argument. The large modern ships of today must have room to navigate, and after having given this subject much thought and study, we are abso- lutely of- the opinion that the only solution is a large canal entrance through Minnesota Point. ; "Would it be possible for the board of en- gineers to have another meeting later either in Duluth or Detroit or any other place they may designate to give us an opportunity to appear before them?" In response to the request a hearing railroad, = Ji was set for August 6 in Detroit. That the size and importance of the port of Duluth justifies whatever im- provement will best remedy the evils ex- That three * dis- tinct evils do exist is equally -admissi- isting is undisputed. ble. The are,--first, and most important, because of the danger to life and prop- erty that it involves, the current back and forth through the canal; second, the damage to dock property in the har- bor and the interference with loading and unleading due to the surging of the harbor waters in \times of a northeast third, the channel for boats going to all points on of the wind ; present roundabout canal The opposing interests are naturally biased the inner bay, to most in their respective opinions toward a remedy that will prevent first, the evil that affects them. most and secondarily, the evil that concerns the other fellow. It so happens that the vessel interests, at least that part which docks in the river, suffer almost entirely from the first and third evils and the dock interests or the advocates of a breakwater, from the sec- ond. On the basis. of damage already received and property involved, the ves- sel. interests have beyond question the balance of weight in the matter of. ar- gument, for there is scarcely any one single property in the harbor either dock or elevator whose value equals that of one of the big freighters and the dis- proportion in numbers needs no. men- tion. In the aggregate. it would, seem in all fairness to the local capital con- cerned, remembering that the improve- ment is a government work and intended to serve everyone impartially in propor- tion to the interests involved, that if all the evils cannot be remedied at once the most far-reaching evil should be attended to first. estate which it is anticipated will result Even with the advance in real from the formation of docking proper- ties inside the new breakwater, the 'same general principle holds true. the docks amounts to $10,000 yearly .in addition to The damage to any of costly delays and in the storm of last November the piling up of the water in the bay resulted in. far. greater harm, This action of the water it is claimed results from the unprotected condition of the entrance and the nature of the chan- nel which permits the alternately in and outgoing current. They say. these dis- advantages have been increased with the new canal which is nearly twice as wide as the old one. To counteract this con- dition the, breakwater is proposed as above, with 'the statement that it will 'afford the added advantages of greater harbor space, both for pleasure and ref- uge, and that it will make the entrance into the piers more safe for it will pro- vide calm water. The experience of the men back of this proposition and. their knowledge of the harbor give reason to believe that all that is claimed would be The argument against the central canal is gained by building a breakwater. that the present expensive canal would have to be abandoned, that the inrush of water through a canal opening in from a clean sweep of the lake would be greater than in the present -- entrance, that a breakwater would be necessary to protect that canal also and that it would For it is claimed that in a dark night or a be an entrance less easy. to make. snow storm where no other means of- fers, for obtaining their bearings, it is