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'" . -MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. proposition we will not submit to. The position of the Lake Car- riers is that the rate of flow in the south branch must not be allowed to exceed 1% miles an) hour. We intend to fight it out on that line before the secretary of war." STAGES OF WATER ON THE LAKES. Gage records of the United States lake survey show the fol- lowing mean stages of water above mean sea level for October, 1903 : Higher Lower Higher Stages than during than during during same month Ct. Oct. - last year. 1895. tt. ft. it: mite Pere SUperiOY...... 602.89 0.59 oe 0.31 Take Michigan' ..... 580.30 0.41 ee 1.38 Care Mato |... 580.26 0.50 ae 1.05 Dake Ete 6.0. ek. 572.34 ee Ga 2 1.45 The present fall from Lake Huron to Lake Erie is 0.54 ft. more than it was a year ago. SEA POST OFFICES. A recent news paragraph announcing that certain express steamships in the North Atlantic trade are now being equipped with sea post offices and that such offices will be in operation shortly on board the Oceanic, Majestic, Teutonic and Cedric, calls attention to one of the important, though little known, features of the government's mail-carrying enterprises. Many persons have a vague idea of what a sea postoffice is and think that it has to do with the handling of letters to or from the passengers on the Atlantic liners. As a matter of fact the sorting of letters written by persons aboard ship does form one small item in the work of the ocean post office clerks, but the primary purpose of the institution is to facilitate the movement of the immense amount of foreign mail matter passing back and forth between the United States and Europe. ; eee : The sea post office is distinctively an American idea. The first offices of this kind were established on the American Line steamships a few years ago when clerks were placed on the steamers to aid in handling the heavy mails between London and New York. The plan proved so valuable that later on arrange- ments were made with the German postal authorities by which it was introduced on some of the ships running to German ports. The White Star Line is the fourth to be provided with these offices, so that the system may be said to be pretty firmly estab- lished on the Atlantic. Postal officials say that it is responsible for very important gains in the delivery of the heavy ocean mails. It is especially important in lessening in some measure the con- gestion of the New York post office, in which the inadequacy of the facilities provided for handling the business that passes through it has become notorious... : The equipment of a sea post office is simple. It consists merely of a couple of rooms below deck on a transatlantic steam- ship fitted with tables on which the mail bags can be emptied, separation cases with many pigeon holes for use in the work of assorting and pouching cases for holding the sacks in which the mail is placed after the assorting. is completed. Usually one room is used for "working" papers and packages and for storage and the other for letters and registered mail. On the American liners and one the White Star boats three postal clerks are usually carried; when mails are light the number is reduced to two. On the eastward voyage there is little for the clerks to do, for the outgoing foreign mail is very thoroughly assorted and made up for European cities and railway mail routes in the foreign branch office in New York. Most of the work on this half of the voyage consists of making up and "routing" the letters. and postals mailed. by passengers on board the ship. This sometimes amounts to as much as 4,000 pieces--evidently many persons take advantage of the ocean voyage to pay off their correspondence obligations--but comparatively little time is required in disposing of this. On the westward voyage there is a different story to tell. The English ships always carry a heavy British mail which is put on board at Queenstown, and the American liners, while not receiving much from this source, always carry a large consign- ment from the continent. This mail is not separated with any such thoroughness as that which leaves New York for Europe. All the matter destined to the United States must be separated by the clerks and' made up in packages for different cities and railway mail routes just as is done in the case of domestic mails in all the larger offices of the country. As the number of pieces frequently amounts to a million or thereabouts, and many of them are illegible or incorrectly addressed, the clerks have no easy time of it. They regularly work from ten to twelve hours a day, and. even with this steady labor they rarely complete the separa- tion entirely by the time the steamer reaches New York. On the German ships the same system is followed, but since these offices were established jointly by the American and German post office departments, the ships carry clerks of both nation- alities and the mail is sorted in both directions. That is to say, the mail for Germany is given a division en route more com- plete than that which it receives before leaving New York and the United States mail is separated on the westward voyages as on the Southampton ships. Two German and two American clerks are assigned to each steamer and they work together. While the German clerks theoretically are concerned only. with [Nov. to, mail destined to their own country, the Americans help them in handling this in return for their. assistance on. the return voyage. Thus the work on the German boats is really easier than that on the Southampton and Liverpool vessels with their alternate voyages of heavy rush and comparative idleness. There are now nineteen sea post offices in all, operated either wholly or partially under the control of the United States post office department. The clerks are assigned from the regular 'department' ranks and there is no difficulty in finding men to fill the positions, for the work on the whole is not difficult and holds attractions for the man to whom the sea is a good friend. The practical value of the sea post offices is demonstrated on the arrival in New York of any transatlantic steamship that carries one. The mail is taken off the ship at Quarantine by the govern- ment mail boat Postmaster General, which, with its white sides, red smokestack, and United States mail flag, is a familiar object to every person who spends much time on the harbor or along the water front. Since the mail has been separated on the ship and. placed in bags labelled "Chicago," "Boston," "St. Louis," "New York,' "Chicago railway post office,' and so on, there is no'need for that destined to interior points to be held in the New York office to undergo the laborious process of separation and repouching. Indeed it does not have to pass through the New York office at all. The mail boat delivers it direct to some pier convenient to the railway station from which it is to be sent. The postal officials say that an average of from six to eight hours is gained in the delivery of all mail through the better railway connections which are made. The letters and papers for New York city are taken direct to the main postoffice or the branch stations from which they are delivered. Thus the mail brought in by a steamship arriving at noon is ready for delivery at 2 o'clock instead of by the latest afternoon delivery. or possibly the following morning. The sea post office is only one of a number of plans adopted by the United States post office department in facilitating the movement of foreign letters. United States postal officials in- variably dispatch the transatlantic mails by the fastest available steamship, whatever its nationality, say the steamship men, and do not hesitate to suggest changes to the carriers when these will make an improved service. For example, one line, to meet the convenience of the post office department, has just changed the time of departure of its steamers from New York from 10 o'clock Wednesday morning to Saturday at 9:30. As a result, the Saturday mail for London, naturally the heaviest of the week, will be delivered in that city by special train from Southampton about noon of the following Saturday, in time for distribution on that day. It will be possible now in cases of. importance to send a letter from New York to London and receive a reply in fourteen days. The Wednesday mail does not suffer by the change, since the post office department has arranged to equip the White Star ships sailing on Wednesdays with sea post offices. - At the present time there are five mails a week from New York to London and transatlantic mail is sent from this port by British, German, French and American ships. In strong contrast to this is the system followed by the British postal authorities. The policy of the Britons seems to be to use the ocean mails as an instrument to help purely British shipping lines at the expense of those controlled by foreigners. As a result, there are only two regular mails a week from London to New York, on Wednesday and Saturday, instead of five as in the opposite direction. The westbound steamship facilities are, of course, as: good as the eastbound. The British authorities will forward letters by German and American liners if specific directions to that effect are written on the envelope, but this is a cumbersome system, involving the constant consultation of sailing lists and one that few correspondence will take the trouble to employ. Broadly speaking, in some cases, letters mailed in London on Wednesdays, too late to catch the Queens- town boat must wait over until Saturday, and those mailed between Saturday and Wednesday do not depart until the latter day. The British department has repeatedly dispatched mail to this side by vessels as slow as 17 knots. A comparison of the mail services in both directions between New York and London reveals the fact, say men who know, that week by week or month by month the time of westbound letters in reaching their destination is more than a day greater than the time of those traveling in the opposite direction. BATTLESHIPS MISSISSIPPI AND IDAHO. Secretary Moody has approved a circular to govern contracts for two 13,000-ton battleships to be known as the Mississippi and Idaho. The maximum time allowed for completion is forty- two months. There are to be two trials, one for speed and one for endurance. In each case the speed must be 17 knots, and less than 16 knots will result in rejection. Penalties are to be exacted for failure to attain 17 knots speed where the vessel makes more than 16% knots. The general dimensions of each ship are as follows: Length, 375 ft.; breadth, 77 {ft.; mean draught, 24 ft. 8 in.; total coal bunker capacity, 1,750 tons. The armament will consist of four 12-in., eight 8-in., and eight 7-in. guns, two 18-in. submerged torpedo tubes in the main battery, and twelve 3-in., six 3-pounder, four 1-pounder, two 3-in. field pieces, two machine guns and six automatic guns. The armor and protection will have a total weight of 3,323 tons. The en- gines will be of the vertical, twin-screw, three-cylinder triple- expansion type, with a combined horse power of 10,000. There will be eight water-tube boilers.