The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

24° MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. BIG HARBOR WORKS TO BE READVERTISED. Maj. Dan. C. Kingman, government engineer at Cleveland, 'has recommended to the war department that the bids recently opened for the improvement of Cleveland harbor be rejected. Notwithstanding the fact that the work was extensively adver- tised throughout the country only three bids were received. They were all vastly in excess of the estimate. This was exceedingly surprising to Maj. Kingman, who considered that he had made liberal allowances for extra cost of material and labor and had, in addition, based his estimates upon work at present under con- struction. For the work at the entrance to Cleveland harbor the excess in cost over estimate was 37 per cent; for the exten- sion of the breakwater itself it was 18 per cent. The estimates were $600,000 for the improvement at the entrance of the harbor and $2,100,000 for the extension of the breakwater. Maj. King- man was surprised that there should have been no more than three bidders for an extensive work of this character. ; "T considered," said Maj. Kingman, "that I could purchase the material, hire the labor and do the work myself well within the estimate. 'The war department has' the authority to order me to do the work but I have not so recommended. I have only recommended the rejection of the bids. I do not consider that the bidders gave sufficient thought and study to the under- taking. 'The work involves the transportation of 1,500,000 tons of rock alone--an item of sufficient magnitude to make any rail- way company solicitous for its transportation--yet I do not find that the bidders endeavored to obtain a rate upon it. It is also of sufficient magnitude to induce a bidder to undertake personally the work of quarrying; yet I do not find that they did other than estimate what dealers would charge them for the stone. As the work approximates $3,000,0co, it seems to me that there should have been closer and more earnest figuring. "In readvertising for bids.I have decided to ask for alterna- tive bids on a modified form of construction. Some of the bid- ders seem to think the specifications arbitrary. For instance the specifications provided that to a certain depth stone of 4,0co lbs. weight should be used; and then for a given depth stone nct less than 5co Ibs. in weight. They construed this to: mean that stone weighing 3,0co Ibs. would have to be broken up before it could be used, or else rejected altczether. I have recommended the amendment of the specifications to include stone that does not quite approach 4,000 lbs. in weight. The specifications also provid- ed that the core of the breakwater should be of slag or gravel. It so happens, however, that there is a shortage of this material in this neighborhood and it is consequently somewhat more expen- sive. I have recommended that as long as the core will be kept solid and compact by other material that it may be built of sand of which there is an inexhaustible quantity in Cleveland. The whole city of Cleveland is built upon it and if sufficiently substantial fer a city it is certainly sufficientlv substantial for a breakwater. It will, in my judgment, answer the purpose just as well as gravel or slag. With these modifications we will see whether the alternative bid is worth accepting. We could not accept the bids submitted without curtailing the length of the breakwater from 10,0co to 7,cco ft." AT HEAD OF THE LAKES. | Duluth, Minn., Sept. 3.--At the close of last week there were in store in grain elevators at the head of Lake Superior but 368,- coo bushels of wheat, less than at any time since records have been kept. There has been a good demand for wheat from eastern 'millers and exporters and receipts of new wheat have not com- menced to come in appreciable quantity. It is expected that re- 'ceipts of both wheat and flax will be large another week. So much coarse grain is expected at the head of the lakes this year that special arrangements will be made by elevators for handling it. The Peavey company, which has 12,000,000 bushels terminal capacity at Duluth, West Superior and East Superior, will de- vote its East Superior houses to mixing and lower grades, its West Superior houses to coarse grains and its Duluth capacity to flax and wheat of the higher grades. It has a 4,000,000 bushel concrete storage at Duluth where the item of insurance is not a consideration. In the work of improving its terminals at Duluth the North- _ ern Pacific road has already spent several hundred thousand dol- lars and will probably use up a million before it is through. The whole west side of Rice's point has been widened 200 ft. by sand filling dredged from outside the dock line, and all tracks have been rearranged so that the road now has, or will have in a few weeks, more than 50 miles of yard and storage tracks. These yards are diagonals and are fitted with raised. tracks for breaking up trains, by means of which device it is said the time occupied in breaking up trains will be cut in two and the men em- ployed very much reduced in number. The road © will build a line of docks and warehouses along the frontage as soon as present work is out of the way. Iron ore shipments for the past month have been very large from all head of the lake ports, as well as from Marquette and Ashland, but the Duluth, Mesabi & Northern docks in the upper bay at Du- luth have passed the record for all ports but 'Two Harbors by moving about 925,000 tons in the month. 'The 'Two Harbors re- cord was made last year and has not been reached since. It was 1,000,000 tons in 30 days. Shipments will be somewhat less in [Sept: 4 subsequent months this year, on account of the fact that most underground mines have now pretty nearly cleaned up their ck piles. - ae Cont Alex. McDougall, who is now president of the High- land Canal & Power Co. of Duluth, is mentioned as president of the new Federal National Bank, which is to open in a short time with $500,000 capital. The canal and power company is commencing actual digging on its canal, which is designed to bring into Duluth 25,000 H. P. in 1904, and as much more as is required later. This first digging is on what is called "city line cut," a 50-ft. excavation that will break the divide between the waters that flow direct into Lake Superior at Duluth and those that reach the lake by way of the St. Louis river. This canal is expected to be one of the most important enterprises ever started at the head of the lakes, and should be most profitable for its projectors. There is not a single ton of unsold anthracite coal on dock, at the head of lake Superior. 'This is bad enough but it is worse in its effect, for the usual summer shipments to interior points have not been made and the interior is not only bare of coal but had none left over and is absolutely out of the race in getting any if the strike should chance to be settled next week. The treeless northwest needs ccal in its business, too. Indeed life will be im- possible in many great stretches of the grain region this winter without it, and where it is to come from nobody knows. LAKE FREIGHT MATTERS. The iron ore interests are so fully determined upon ship- ping all the ore that can be handled by vessels and railways that a continuance of the present freights on ore is expected, even if the fall movement of grain should not require much of the vessel capacity. A shortage of coal in the northwest is now certain, and if there is a falling off in the ore trade the efforts of soft coal shippers to forward more coal would make up for the loss. It follows, therefore. that the vessel interests not only feel assured of the nresent freights holding out to the end of the season but look for substantial advances if the crops are up to estimates. On this score the following from a Duluth letter to Cleveland vessel brokers is of interest: "Tn clement weather conditions continue to delay the receipts of grain. Our statistical crop year begins Aug. 1. From that date until Sept. 1, 600,cc0 bushels of grain of all kinds had been received here. During the corresponding period last year, 2.- 400,000 bushels had arrived. It is quite likely that wheat will come in liberally within the next ten days. We should be able to make some impression upon lake freights the second week in September. As to the magnitude of the cron, it is generally agreed the wheat yield is fairly large. that the flax is of 'bumper' proportions and that the production of barley, rye and oats is greater than ever before. Manitoba wheat crop is fully as large as last year and is now fully secure from frost." AMERICAN SHIP BUILDING CO. The annual meeting of the American Ship Building Co. will be held at No. 15 Exchange Place, Jersey City, N. J., on Wednes- day, Oct. 1. No statement of earnings of the company for the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, has as yet been given out. Tt would seem, however, from the manner in which the company's stock, both common and preferred, has been advancing of late that the surplus earnings are sufficient to warrant dividends: on both common and preferred stock for a long time to come. 'It is generally expected that at the annual meeting the common stock will be put upon a 4 per cent. dividend basis and that the statement of finances will be such as to expect permanency with this dividend, in addition to the 7 per cent. dividend that has been paid on the preferred since organization of the company. Ru- mors of retirement cf the common stock, of purchase by an east- ern ship building combination. and of other reorganization schemes have all been officially denied, so that' the advance in the stock seems to be entirely due to earnings and to the business which the company has booked ahead. A few months ago the preferred stock was selling at $95 to $97 a share and the common at $36 to $38. Now the former is selling at about $109 and the latter at about $62. on TUG STRIKE SETTLED. The strike of tugmen of the great lakes, which had been in force practically since the opening of navigation; was settled in Cleveland. Wednesday. Senator Hanna, President Keefe of the Longshoremen's Marine & Transport Workers'. Association, Mr. Harvey D. Goulder and other representatives of lake shipping in- terests gave up a great deal of time to the settlement of the strike, and should have the thanks of the vessel owners, as well as the men and employers. 'The settlement is based briefly on an agreement providing for meetings in future between the employ- ers and the tugmen, at which wages and other matters concerning both interests will be settled each year, as is the case with men employed on the decks and in other branches of the lake trade. Most of the details are, of course, still to be worked out. Non-union men now in'the employ of the towing company are not to. be continued in the service but the union men who held to their contracts are to be retained. eae