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tion is concerned. The steamer. W. A. Hawgood is therefore the last one that will be built at this yard for some time. .Arrangements have al- ready been made for stripping the plant and the machinery will be distributed among the other yards. The yard will still be used for repair work but with a much diminished force. The necessity which impels the company to this end is greatly to be regretted, as the yard usually employs about 1,800 men. LAKE LAUNCHINGS. The steel steamer Collingwood, building for the Farrar Transporta- tion Co. of Collingwood, was launch- ed from the yard of the Collingwood Ship Building Co., Collingwood, Ont., Wednesday afternoon, Oct.-30. She is .of the single deck bulk freight type, built On'=the arch and. web frame system without hold beams or stanchions. The spar deck is contin- uous all fore and aft with raised top gallant forecastle with pilothouse and texas on same and _ deckhouse aft, containing coal. bunkers, boiler house, galley, two dining-rooms and crew's quarters. Accommodation for such part of the crew as is not housed in the after deck house is provided in the forecastle and in the upper boil- er house and on the fantail aft. The new steamer is 406 ft. long, 50 ft. beam and. 28 it. «deep, She has 11 hatches spaced 24 ft. centers _and,.10 4. long fore and. aft, tier engines are triple-expansion with cylinders 21, 23, 33%4 and: 57 in. di- ameter by 42-in. stroke, supplied with steam from two Scotch boilers, 14 ft. in diameter by 12 it. long over heads, allowed a working pressure of 180 lbs. : Marine men who have _ inspected this new steamer consider her one of the best built and best equipped on the lakes. The design drawing and specifications of this vessel were drawn up "by H. N. Herriman of the Great Lakes Register. It is expect- ed that the Collingwood will leave on her initial trip) on Saturday, Nov. 9, for a cargo of wheat from Fort Williams to Georgian Bay ports. The steamer Charles W. Kotcher, building for the Detroit Steamship Co., was dropped overboard at the Lorain yard of the American Ship Building Co. on Saturday. Miss Alice Kotcher, of Detroit, daughter of the man for whom the boat was named, christened the steamer. A large num- ber of Detroiters witnessed the launching. After the launch the party took luncheon at the Clifton" Club, Cleveland, and returned'to Detroit on MAE MarRINE REVIEW the D. & C. steamer in the evening. The Kotcher is 440 ft: over all, 420. ft: keel, 52 ft. Beam and 26 ft: deep. She will have triple-expansion engines and Scotch boilers and will be ready to go into commission in about three. weeks. Capt... Wm. H. Hoffman, \ who was for a number of years in the Cleveland-Cliffs fleet, will be master of the Kotcher, and Thomas Purvis, who was in the steamer Majestic when she burned some time ago on Lake Erie, will be chief engineer of the Kotcher. 'The steamer Elba, the last of the eight vessels ordered by the Lacka- wanna Steamship Co., was launched at the Cleveland yard of the Ameri- can Ship Building Co. last Saturday, and was christened by Mrs. Irving 5. Fenn, wife' of the assistant pur- chasing agent of the ship building company. The Elba is 440 ft. over all, 420 ft. keel, 52 ft: beam and 28 ft. deep.. She will have triple-ex- "pansion engines and Scotch boilers. The steamer will be completed about Nov. 20. OVERHAULING WHEEL CHAINS. Editor Marine Revirew:--I was greatly interested in the communica- tion on the necessity of overhauling wheel chains from. Capt: George F. Coles, of Collingwood, Ont., pub- lished in the issue of Oct. 24. I heartily concur in everything that Captain Coles says in this communi- cation.' It: is a. practice which this office has observed for the past seven years with most beneficial results. One of our rules for the navigation of our ships reads as follows: "It shall be the duty of the mates to go over the steering gear and wheel chains prior to leaving port each trip, making an entry on the log of the time and date of inspection with a statement of the condition." The log of our steamers immedi- ately upon reaching the office is ex- amined for, this particular informa- tion. Obviously the mate will make no false entries in the log and that this duty is most rigidly attended to 'is proved by the fact that we have had during the past seven years only "one case in which anything has hap-- pened to the wheel chains of our vessels. this rule we had about seven acci- dents caused by wheel chains per annum. Our experience proves con- clusively that the number of accidents on-the lakes could be minimized by paying more attention to this highly important subject. OwNeER. Cleveland, Oct. 26. ee Prior to the enforcement of | 21 LIGHTER RELIANCE. .... The lighter Reliance of the Great Lakes' Towing Co.'s fleet in tow of the Harding arrived in Cleveland on Tuesday en route from Buffalo, The Reliance will be stationed in the lower Detroit river for the balance of the season. The Reliance is constructed entire- ly of steel and is 250: ft. long,-40 ft. beam and 9 ft. deep, with a cargo capacity . of, 3,000 . tons, She is an extremely serviceable and capacious craft, having 12 hatches spaced 16 ft. centers, 19 ft. in, the clear and 14 ft. fore and aft. All the hatches are commanded by a traveling derrick running on four wheels on a 21 ft. 9 in. gage of track. The derrick is equipped with an independent engine for swinging of the reverse' throttle type with cylinders 9 in. by 9 in, and a traveling engine of the same type. The main hoisting engine is of the G. H. Williams type, with drums 30 in. diameter with automatic holding drum for clamshell bucket work using a Williams 3-ton Faiv- rette clamshell bucket. The derrick is entirely of steel with a 65 ft. boom. The machine will travel along the deck, swing, hold the load or lower it, or reverse any of these operations at the same time. The derrick was supplied by the G. H. Williams Co. of Cleveland. fe The lighter is supplied with two mooring engines of the Chase type and a Lang patent single cylinder steering engine. The steering en- gine, as well as the traveling and swinging engines, were supplied by the Chase Machine' Co. of Cleye- land: -'The Lang steering engine, ' manufactured by the Chase' Co., is a. new invention, and the one. installed on the Reliance is the first to be put in practical service. FREIGHT SITUATION. There is practically little change in the freight situation, the ore move- ment being heavy, the coal move- ment light, and the grain fleet crip- pled by the shortage of cars at Buf-~ falo and the consequent straining of elevator capacity. Owners are some- what reluctant to take grain cargoes for Buffalo owing to the fact that they' cannot be unloaded without a- serious delay there. The grain trade is onthe whole disappointing. Capt,.. Donald -- Rosie of | Grand Haven, Mich,, died suddenly in his home there last week of heart fail- ure. He was.an old-time captain and had lived in Grand Haven for half a century, '