Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), 16 Jan 1908, p. 16

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16 the Hudson and it looked for a while -as though the two states would ac- tually come to blows. A young man who had been running a sailboat ferry between Staten Island and New York became interested in'the subject. His name was Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was later to found the first great American fortune and to deliver a famous epigram which has survived his life and will probably outlive his fortune. The epigram, as every citi- zen knows, was "The public be damned." Vanderbilt entered into the Hudson river competition with all the vigor of his intense nature. New York was placarded from one end to the other with posters as lurid as ink coulda make them and barkers were em- ployed to drum up trade. If a man Or a woman appeared on the wharves carrying a carpet bag the barkers as- sailed them at once and frequently the bag went by one boat while the passenger went by another. As there was great fear on the part of the pub- lic at that time that the boilers would burst, the particularly nervous ones, especially old ladies, were assured by the barkers that their steamboats had no boilers. : Vanderbilt went into the trade to get it and he got it by building better boats and carrying passengers for low- er fares. For a while it was possible to travel from New York to Albany for 10 cents. This marvelous man abandoned Hudson river traffic when gold was discovered in California. He found it more profitable to project a line of steamers from New York to the Isthmus of Panama. He later de- veloped the Hudson River railroad which has since become one of the great trunk lines of the country, with the New York Central and the Lake - Shore as its leading parts. Mr. Buckman recounts the famous steamboats of the Hudson river, prac- tically all of them being of the side- wheel type, and makes especial trefer- ence to the Mary Powell, dear to the heart of every ship and engine build- er, for she was for a generation the queen of American side-wheel steam- ers, and though built in 1861 is today a wonder among them. The Mary Powell was built for Capt. A. L. An- derson, who sailed her for many years, and she is today being sailed by his son, Capt. A. E. Anderson. The Mary Powell for many years was owned by the Anderson family, but she was re- cently acquired by the Hudson River Day line. Yachts built especially for speed have all that they can do to keep up with the Mary Powell. Mr. Buckman naturally devotes some THE Marine REVIEW space to the famous races between steamboats on the Hudson. , Those races were a counterpart of the fa- mous Mississippi river races, where safety valves were weighted down and boiler pressure increased beyond safe limits. Especial attention is paid to the race between the Oregon and the Cornelius Vanderbilt for $1,000. The Oregon won this race 'but only by burning up all the berths, chairs, benches, furniture of staterooms and everything inflammable that can be thrust into the furnace. Races be- tween steamboats are nowadays things of the past, though it is only five years since the City of Erie raced the Tashmoo on Lake Erie; but such a performance is not likely to be re- peated. A chapter is devoted to the disas- ters of river travel. It must be stated, however, that while some have been appalling, the list has not been nu- merous, considering the fact that it is now 100 years since the Clermont made her initial trip to Albany. A chapter is also devoted to canal boats, and there is also incorporated a chronological list of the prominent Hudson river steamboats from 1807 to 1907, compiled by S. W. Stanton. This book is highly recommended to those that want an interesting and au- thentic history of steamboating on the Hudson river. WOOD FOR PAPER COSTS TWENTY-SIX MILLIONS. Today there is general complaint among publishers that printing paper is constantly growing dearer. In the mid- dle west many local papers are raising their subscription price 50 per cent in order to pay for the paper. From the time when Gutenberg first used movable type, made of wood, to the present day of metropolitan papers, some of which consume the product of acres of spruce in a single edition, printing has in very large degree depended upon the forest. In the face of a threatened shortage of timber, the amount of wood consumed each year for pulp has increased since 1899 from 2 million to 3%4 million cords. The year 1906 marked an increase of 93,000 cords in the imports of pulpwood, the highest average value per cord for all kinds, and a consumption greater by 469,053 cords than that of any previous year. Spruce, the wood from which in 1899 three-fourths of the pulp was manufac- tured, is still the leading wood, but it now produces a little less than 70 per cent of the total. How well spruce is suited to the manufacture of pulp is shown by the fact that during a period in which the total quantity of wood used has doubled _the forest service. and many new woods have been intro- duced, the proportion of spruce pulpwood has remained nearly constant in spite of the drains upon the spruce forests for other purposes. During this time three different woods, from widely separated regions, have in turn held the rank of leader in the lumber supply. Since 1899 poplar, which for years was used in connection with spruce to the exclusion of all other paper woods, has increased in total quantity less than 100,000 cords, and is now outranked by hemlock. Pine, balsam and cottonwood are used in mttch smaller amounts. New York alone consumes each year over a million and a quarter cords of wood in the manufacture of pulp, or more than twice as much as Maine, which ranks next. Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Michigan follow in the order given. Sixty per cent of the wood used in New York was imported from elsewhere, and even so the supply ap- pears to be waning, since the total con- sumption for the state shows a small de- crease since 1905, whereas the other states named have all increased their consumption. Other states important in the production of pulp are: Massachu- setts, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia. The average cost of pulp delivered at the mill was $7.21. The total value of the wood consumed in 1906 was $26,400,- 000. The chief item determining the price of paper is the cost of pulp. An example of the increased price of paper is found in the case of a publisher of a daily in the middle west, who recently paid $1,200 for a carload of paper. The same quantity and grade of paper cost a year ago but $800. The chemical processes of paper mak- ing, which better preserve the wood fi- ber, are gaining over the mechanical pro- cess. In 1899, 65 per cent of the wood was reduced by the mechanical process; in 1906, less than 50 per cent. . All importations of wood for pulp are from Canada, and comprised, in 1906, 739,000 cords, nearly all of which was spruce. Four and a half million dol- lars' worth of pulp was imported in 1906, a slight falling off from 1905. Circular 120 of the forest service con- tains a discussion of the consumption of pulpwood in 1906, based on_ statistics gathered by the bureau of the census and The pamphlet can be had upon application to the Forester, United States department of agriculture, Washington, D. C. W. & A. Fletcher & Co., Hoboken, N. J., recently gave the Mallory line steamer San Jacinto some repairs to her engine and boilers.

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