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The German government has de- cided to deepen and widen the Kaiser Wilhelm canal, which connects the North Sea with the Baltic. The work will take ten years to complete and will cost ten millions sterling. The exist- ing canal was opened in 1895. Its greatest surface depth is only about 190 ft. and its bed breadth only about 70 ft. Its largest locks are only 470 ft. long, 80 ft. broad and 30 ft. deep. The old navy frigate Saratoga, which has been used as a school-ship, is now. doomed to the scrap-heap. She was recently examined at the League Is- land navy yard, with a view to being overhauled, but when the carpenters began an investigation it was found that she was beyond repair. The Sara- toga was the first ship commanded by - Admiral Farragut after he received his commission as a captain of the United States navy. The British naval torpedo-boat de- stroyer Cossack was launched recently by Cammell, Laird & Co., Ltd., Bircken- head. The vessel is 270 ft. long, 26 ft. wide and 15 ft. 5 in. deep, and will be propelled by turbine machinery of the Parsons type. She is designed to attain a speed of 33 knots per hour, which will be the highest ever accomplished, al- though the same company is building the Swift, which is expected to accomplish a speed of 36 knots an hour. Several large trans-Atlantic were tecently fast im the vast "ice fields in Cabot Strait, between New- foundland and Cape Breton. The Allan liners Vancouver and Ontarian and prob- ably the Dominion liner Vancouver were included, together with the Ottawa and the British mail steamer Virginian. The Ottawa and the Ionian later' reached Montreal but a change in the wind piled up the ice again and the conditions were again as bad as ever. Peter Wright & Sons, agents for ie Cosmopolitan line, will begin the opera- tion of a new line of steamers next fall, between Philadelphia and Havre, Dun- kirk and Hamburg. The boats will com- pete with the Hamburg-American line and affiliated interests, which have recently invaded the territory of the Cosmopoli- tan line between Philadelphia and Rot- terdam. First-class steamships will be chartered and a lower rate than that now quoted will be charged by the new line. The White Star liner Suevic, which ran on the rocks at the Lizard, has been salved by the wreckers blasting off her bow with dynamite. She was so firmly wedged for practically one- fourth her length upon the reef that no means of release were practical other than that of literally blowing the steamer in two. This task was skill- liners fully accomplished .by the wreckers TAE Marine REVIEW and the Suevic was then eid to Southampton for repairs. The Chicago office of the Standard Oil Co. will be removed to 115 Adam street -after May 27. No award of contracts for the con- struction of submarine torpedo boats has been made as yet in accordance with the bids opened by the depart- ment .on Apri 30... [he board 16 awaiting receipt of report upon. the results of tests of subsurface and sub- marine boats now in progress under the provisions of the naval appropri- ation act of June 29, 1906. The American-Hawaiian Steamship Co.'s big liner Mexican has just made a very satisfactory and successful trial run in San Francisco bay. Under command of Capt. Charles Nichols, the Mexican will go' into active commission at once: for her owners and will henceforth ply on the route connecting San Francisco with Puget Sound, Honolulu and Salina Cruz on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. She is a sister vessel to the Columbian and Isthmian, both of which are under construction, The plans for the new works of Messrs. Harland & Wolf, the Belfast ship builders, which they are to erect at Southampton, have recently been passed upon and the enterprise is now assured. The works will consist of a large engineering shop and repair shop. While this means a serious loss to Bel- fast in wages and material, Southamp- ton is correspondingly pleased. <A suitable site will at once be secured. The firm will expend in the neighbor- . hood of $1,250,000 in the erection of the new plant. ~ The side-wheel passenger steamer Orient, owned by the Montauk Steam- ship Co., recently became completely disabled while en route from Green- port, L. I, to New London, Conn., owing to the breaking of her shaft. Her distress signals were noticed by the wireless station at Plum Island and aid was sent, the towboat Harriett and the government transport steamer Gen. Nathaniel Greene responding. The latter took the passengers to New London and the former towed the dis¢ abled vessel into port. Lumbermen in the Teche district of the Mississippi have subscribed $150,- 000 for the general improvement of the Atchafalaya river and will shortly add $50,000 to the fund. The river will be widened and deepened until it is ca- pable of floating the largest barges en- gaged in the transportation of lumber. The project of starting a competitive barge line on the Mississippi has been under consideration by the lumbermen for several months, and action was only deferred through promises of the a railroads to furnish greater transpor- tation facilities. The steamship agents of the trans- - Atlantic lines at New York are not Op- timistic regarding the amount of immi- grant business.to be expected for the year, although there is no alarming falling off as yet. There is, however, a decidedly greater movement of the la- boring classes outward than is at all usual at this time of year, which is ascribed to the fact that there is a gen- eral industrial let-up in progress, in which the railroads have figured large- ly, many projects having been given up and a general policy of retrench- ment being much in evidence. The British cabinet is said to be ser- . iously considering a suggestion given by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Canadian premier, to the effect that the govern- ment, without violating its free trade principles, might give the colonies a quid pro quo for their preferential treatment of British goods by subsi- dizing steamship lines between Eng- land and the more important colonies. The: object of the suggestion is te bring about a reduction in freight charges, thus giving an indirect form of preference to the colonies. The pre- mier especially suggested subsidized lines between England and Canada and Canada and Australasia, reducing the time from England to Australia 'to twenty. instead of thirty days, and in the end diverting some of the traffic now going by way of New York. The Japanese government is report- ed to have under consideration an am- bitious scheme for the improvement and extension of harbors. The inten- tions respecting the harbor works at Kobe will probably be of the greatest importance, as Kobe has already at- tained to the position of the center of the North Asiatic shipping trade. It is said that no later than June the gov- ernment intends to commence the con- _ struction of extensive quays at Ono- hama, and on the Hiogo side spacious anchorage grounds are to be provided. This part of the whole scheme will en- tail the making of a mole, a pier, a landing stage, storehouses and sheds, 22 miles of railway, and 130 cranes. At Hiogo three wharves are projected, as well as large storehouses, three miles of railway, and eight cranes. New streets are also to be made here, and electric light installed, the cost of the whole being estimated at 32,490,000 yen, and the time necessary fon carrying out the works is eight years. Equally extensive plans for the improvement of Hokkaido are said to have already arrived at a concrete state, the work being calculated to cost 20,400,000 yen.