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ee 4902.) MARINE REVIEW, ! 47 THE DEATH OF PATRI e SMITH. . Patrick Smith, one of the most progressive and picturesque characters on the whole chain of lakes, has passed away as a result of an accident. While driving home along the Superior street viaduct in 'Cleveland on Wednesday of last week his vehicle was struck by a street-car. The in- furies which he received would not be considered serious ordinarily, but owing to his great age he was unable to rally from the shock. Patrick Smith might truly be considered one of the pioneers of Cleveland, or of the great lakes region for that matter, as there was little development of either when he came to this country from Ireland in 1836. He was born in 1827 and when nine years old his mother brought him to this country to join his father, who had settled on a farm at Independence, near Cleve- land, a few years previously. The lad was sent to the village school and . . spent his spare time working on the farm with his father and around the eight-mile lock and canal near Inde- pendence. Subsequently the family moved into Cleveland and took up a 'residence on Front street where the gas house is now. The family later lived on Spring street and on Bond street and later yet on the corner of Erie and St. Clair streets. Mr. Smith assisted his father in the hum- ble employment of peddling milk and then engaged in the general teaming business. Having grown to man's estate he married Miss Margaret Olwell and moved to Pittsburgh street, where he bought a house and lot from Joseph Stanley who was identified with the street railway in- terests of the city. His house occu- pied the space between that of Joseph Stanley and Charles Barkwell. He then engaged in the brick business, which he continued until 1865. It was just upon the cessation of the war that Mr. Smith purchased a pile driver from the United States government and started out upon what was to be his life work. He drove piling for the general govern- ment and for the city and private interests. From this modest begin- ning his maritime interests grew until he became the principal con- structive figure in the harbors of Lake Erie. It used to be said indeed that Pat Smith owned the Cuyahoga river. The Cuyahoga river of the early days was an entirely different stream from the present deep chan- : nel. The head of navigation was at Superior street. The river was ex- tremely shallow and Mr. Smith saw that before it could attain any navi- gable importance whatever it would have to be dredged. Such a thing as a steam dredge was unknown. Mr. Smith rigged: up a dredging machine which was operated by horses. The horses wound a rope about the capstan and in that manner elevated the scoop. He dredged the river from its mouth to Superior street for years with this cumbersome appara- tus. The scows were towed by hand along the wharf, a process which was sometimes assisted by poling. When the mouth of the river was reached the scows were pushed by poles out of the channel and dumped, and then pulled back by means of ropes. Later in life Mr. Smith said that the songs of the sailors heaving on the capstans of his dredges could on still nights be heard as far as Erie street. The first steam dredge on~ Lake Erie was built by Mr. Smith at Cleveland. From his experience as a dredging contractor he saw the possibilities of the towing business and entered into it most extensively. His fleet of tugs was accounted the best on the lakes. In fact his river equipment was his pride and it seemed almost impossible for him to satisfy himself on this score. He was for- PATRICK SMITH. (From an old steel engraving.) | ever and forever improving them. If he would hear of a new device, on dredge or tug in New York he would think nothing * whatever of slipping out of the house after supper, and without saying a word to any- one, run down to New~York to inspect the new device. He was deter- mines that from the mechanical standpoint his outfit should not be sur- passed. Mr. Smith assisted in every improvement of a public nature which had to do with the development of the river and harbor. He was an earnest advocate of the construction of the Superior street viaduct and aided greatly in obtaining the money to build that structure. He built the foundations for the viaduct. He built the water-works pumping station at the foot of Taylor street and helped to build the old reservoir on Franklin avenue. He was instru- mental in getting the breakwater in front of the city of Cleveland and afterwards constructed a great deal of it. It is possible that he would have finished it had not his health failed. Mr. Smith did a great deal of work for the railroads, particu- larly in facilitating their entry into the city and securing for them rights of way. He built nearly all the foun- dations of the bridges over the Cuya- hoga river for the railroads and the city. He built the railroad embank+ ment for the Lake Shore railway street. He also built the docks and reclaimed all the swamp lands on the west side of the Cuyahoga river for the Erie railway; and also built all the wharves. and reclaimed all the lands on the north side of the river bed, now known as Whiskey island, for the Pennsylvania Railway Co. Mr. Smith was a very warm friend of old Mr. Linton, engineer of the Pennsylvania company,and Mr. John Newell of the Lake Shore. He did a great deal towards establishing the city water-works with John F. Whitelaw and others and acted as water-works commissioner for a number of years. He was also a councilman from the old Eighth ward, now the Twenty-eighth, and also served as a county commis- sioner. He constructed pretty much all the dock property for the Lake Shore at Toledo and did all the company's dredging. He went to Ashtabula twenty-five years ago and built docks for the city of Ashtabula, the United States government and the Pennsyl- vania and Lake Shore railways. Mr. Smith was of an extremely rugged nature. He was apt to call things by their proper names, and when at all stirred upon a subject was sure to strike straight from the shoulder. To those who did not under- stand him he seemed severe, but he really was not. He possessed a kindly, generous soul and was intensely religious. He took a deep inter- est in the Catholic church, but was a firm supporter of all religions and helped them as he could. He believed the influence of all religion to be good and maintained that anything that helped to uplift mankind ought to be itself helped. He took a great interest in the Bethel Association, the floating Bethel and the orphan asylums. Mr. Smith always had the Irish cause much at heart. His father, John Smith, belonged to the party of Robert Emmet and Mr. Smith fre- quently said that he hoped to see the day when Ireland would be free. He surrendered 'his extensive dredging and towing interests to his two sons L, P. and J. A. Smith eighteen years ago. CENSUS BULLETIN ON SHIP BUILDING. A bulletin issued by the census bureau on the ship building industry is a voluminous document of thirty-three large pages, containing a great many tables. The industry in the various states in which ships are con- structed is discussed in an exhaustive manner. The statistics given treat of every phase of the work and show its character, growth and extent. In Virginia, for instance, the following figures are shown for the years 1900 and 1890: i Year 1900--Number of establishments, twenty-nine; capital, $14,824,- 884; salaried officials, clerks, etc., number ninety-three; salaries, $228,261 ; wage-earners, average number, 5,560; total wages, $2,523,121; miscellane- ous, expenses, $224,144; cost of materials used, $2,943,317; value of pro- ducts, including repairing, $6,162,962. : : Year 1890--Number of establishments, seventeen; capital, $310,726; salaried officials, clerks, etc., number fifteen; salaries, 9,988; wage-earners, average number 194; total wages, $89,706; miscellaneous, $4,436; cost of material used, $83,694; value of products, including repairing, er The report says that the capital invested in ship building on the Dela- ware river in 1900 was $16,756,000, and the value of the products ae 279. On the Chesapeake bay the capital was $19,262,193, and the, value o the products $10,263,345. The figures for the Delaware river district Je not include a new ship building plant of large proportions, the capita invested in which runs into the millions, but which was not in ee during the census year. The value of the ship building products of the great lakes was almost double that of Virginia and considerably ea oe than that of the Chesapeake bay district as a. whole. It: was, however, S "than two-thirds. of that.of the Delaware river district. . The (capital investé in ship building on the shores of the Delaware river and of Chesapeake bay is nearly one-half of the capital invested in the industry in the United States, and the value of the products of these districts is more than three- eighths that of the whole country. There can be no doubt, in view of the above facts, that these two sections possess attractions and advantages which may in time materially help in advancing the United States to a leading position among ship building nations. In the southern states, during the last decade, the growth in ship building was probably greater than in any other geographical division of the United States. This was due, in a large measure, to the remarkable increase made in Virginia. The capital invested increased from $4,567,860 in 1890 to $22,476,618 in 1900, or 403.1 per cent. In 1890 it constituted 16.4 per cent. of ship building capital in the United States, and in 1900, 29.1 per cent. The increase in.the capital invested in ship building in the United States during the past decade amounted to $50,099,869, of which $18,008,758, or 35.9 per cent. was placed in southern ship building estab- lishments. In 1890 the value of the products of ship building in the south was $5,485,116, or 14.4.per cent. of the total for the United States; in 1900 it was $14,905,422, or 20 per cent. of the total, showing an increase of 171.7 per cent. A second payment of $10,000,000 has just been ordered to the syndi- cate which underwrote the United States Steel Corporation. This makes $20,000,000 -received so far by the syndicate for putting through the amal- gamation deal. The subscribers pledged themselves in the sum of $200,- 000,000,. but_as they were only called upon to advance $25,000,000,-which was 'afterwatds' repaid, the sum distributed amounts to a commission,-of 80 per cent. on the cash paid up. It is reported that;two other payments are eventually to be made. a : from the Cuyahoga river to Waverly - .