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

1903.] MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. ~ 27 to the desertion. In the case passed upon three men left the tug in the only small boat available, leaving their five comrades to go down with the wreck. The first wireless telegram ever sent to Chicago from Lake Michigan was delivered shortly before noon on Friday last to President James H. Graham of the Graham & Morton Line. The message was dispatched from the steamer City of Milwaukee, twenty-five miles from shore and was caught at the station in the tower of the Montgomery Ward building and delivered to Mr. Graham two hours before the boat steamed into port. For a month experiments in wireless telegraphy by the De Forest sys- tem have been in progress on the sidewheel steamers City of Chi- cago and City of Milwaukee, but not until Friday last have the instruments on shore and on the vessels been alike responsive to the electric impulse. Complete success marked the trials, how- ever. Captains of vessels who would avoid trouble on _ their craft must be extremely polite in giving orders. This latest union rule was brought forcibly to the attention of the captain of the steamer Hiawatha. When his steamer was on the way up the lakes last week, the wheelsman, believing the captain had used unnecessarily strenuous language to him in directing the course of the ship, packed up his dunnage and left the ship at Detroit. He was followed ashore by several of the crew, and the union the seas were rolling mountains high. Fearing to expose the ~ broadsides of the heavily laden vessels to the storm in an effort to reach a haven of safety along the south shore, the captain of the Rhodes held his course directly into the teeth of the north- easter. Unable to. make headway or hold his own against the gale, he finally decided to run for this port. Once in the trough of the sea, the waves threatened to engulf the two vessels. The upper works on both boats were crushed in by the weight of water thrown against them. Early Sunday the distress signals of the Rhodes were heard off Marquette port and the tug Wisconsin hurried to the assistance. The small craft with great difficulty managed to bring the Gregor into port, while the Rhodes, freed ot her burden, reached the shelter of the breakwater. At a wage conference held at Chicago on Wednesday of this week dredge workers on the great lakes were refused a general. increase in pay. Leaders of two international labor bodies in con- ference with the executive committee of the Dredge Owners' Pro- tective Association learned that the demands of the workmen threatened a cessation of harbor work throughout the lake sys- tem, because with the increase desired contractors cannot keep their estimates within those made by government engineers. Im- provements to cost $10,000,000 may be delayed by the trouble over the dredgers' pay. In addition to urging caution on the labor leaders concerning wage demands the owners' association \ Buffalo Dredging Co.'s Elevator Dredge at Work on the Buffalo & Susquehanna Iron Co.'s Canal at Buffalo, N. Y. refused to send men in their places, compelling the Hiawatha to go to Milwaukee shorthanded. As soon as the steamer reached Milwaukee the union officials ordered the entire crew to quit. In order to keep his boat in commission the captain called at the union headquarters and explained that he had not sworn at the wheelsman, but had merely asked him civilly to hold the wheel steadily. The explanation was satisfactory and the crew were ordered back to the steamer. : Notice is given that on or about Sept. 15 a fixed white lens- lantern light, illuminating the entire horizon, will be established, 36% ft. above mean lake level, in the structure recently erected on and about 23 ft. from the southerly end of of the new south breakwater, northerly side of the main southerly entrance to the harbor of Buffalo, northeasterly end of Lake Erie. The structure is of iron, bottle shaped and painted white. On Sept. 15 also a light of the fourth order, illuminating the entire horizon, and showing one red and two white flashes alternately, interval be- tween flashes ten seconds, will be established in the structure recently erected on and about 23 ft. from the northeasterly end of Stony Point breakwater, southerly side of the main southerly entrance to the harbor of Buffalo, northeasterly end of Lake Erie. The focal plane of the light will be 5234 ft. above the mean lake level and the light will be visible in clear weather 15 miles, the eye of the observer 15 ft above the lake. The struc- ture is an iron covered tower; lower part cylindrical, and painted reddish brown, upper part conical and painted white, surrounded by a black cylindrical lantern. : The steamer Robert R. Rhodes with the barge Gregor in tow had a hard time of it in the gale on Lake Superior last Saturday. They finally made the port of Marquette full of water and with the crews exhausted from steady work at the pumps. All of the crew wore life preservers, so imminent was the peril. The two boats left Duluth Friday with cargoes of iron ore for delivery at Lake Erie ports. As the vessels proceeded down the lake the northwest storm set in, and when Keweenaw point was rounded declined, through its executive committee, to use the power of the association to compel its members to raise wages. Wage in- creases have been granted at several Lake Erie ports, and the owners would not commit themselves to further increases now. President Daniel J. Keefe and Secretary T. J. Dolan represented the unions of longshoremen and dredge workers. Representing the big dredge owners of the lakes were President W. A. Lydon, T. C.. Lutz and C. J. Connell of Chicago; S. O. Dixon of Mil- waukee; James Smith of Cleveland; E. T. Williams of Duluth, and P. B. McNaughton of Buffalo. The meeting ended with an agreement between the labor representatives and employers leav- ing the wage matter in abeyance for the present. Capt. Edward Nathan Burton, probably the oldest of all the lake captains, died last week at the home of his daughter, Mrs. H. L. Proctor, at Ogdenburg, N. Y. Until five years ago Capt. Burton made his home with his son in Duluth, but in 1808 re- moved to his daughter's home in New York state. Capt. Burton was born on Aug. 30, 1814, so that at the time of his death he was 89 years old. His career as a vessel com- mander began in 1832, when he was 18 years old and he assumed the duties of captain of a small ship, at that time. Since then and until 1886, he was engaged in sailing the lakes and became famous as a contemporary of Capt. Bradley of Cleveland. The names of Bradley and Burton were equally well known at the eastern end of the lakes. During his last years of service, Capt. Burton was engaged on a revenue cutter. He was pilot for the steamer Chase at the time he decided to retire. Early in his career Capt. Burton was engaged in the trade on Lake Ontario and at that time sailed one of the largest vessels afloat on the lakes, capable of carrying 8,000 bushels of grain. Since then, vessels have been built which are engaged regularly in the lake trade which will carry that many tons of freight. Capt. Burton is sur- vived by three sons, J. K. Burton of Duluth; George R. Burton of Ishpeming, and Charles E. Burton of Joplin, Mo., and one daughter, Mrs. H. L. Proctor, of Ogdensburg, N. Y