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TAE Marine REVIEW 33 Association concluded this week a conference lasting over - eight days with the representatives of the various classes of labor employed on the tugs and dredges. The workmen desired a reduction in the hours of labor but finally withdrew the demand and the settlement made with them is practically the same as last year's agreement insofar as wages and hours of labor are concerned. Some minor concessions were made, however, which improve working conditions some- what. The wages of the dredge watchmen were increased from $50 to $60 a month but they were the only ones who secured an increase. That a steamship. company is not. liable for damages when the mate of her vessel uses strenuous measures in disciplining members of the crew was the decision of Judge Page Morris in the United States district court at Duluth. The decision was made on a suit in admiralty brought by John Morgan against John Burney, of the Pittsburg Steamship Co. for $2,000, Morgan having been harshly treated by Burney when the two were at sea on the Matoa. It is asserted that Burney struck Morgan with an axe and that the master of the vessel did not interfere. The court fined the mate $150 but dismissed the case against _ the steamship company. The steamer Wm. P. Snyder, building at the Ecorse yard of the Great Lakes Engineering Works for the Shenango Steamship Co., will be quite a departure in' ship building as far as passenger accommodations are concerned. The for- ward end of the boat is fitted with a commodious observation room looking: out on the forecastle deck; four passengers' staterooms and reception hall with private bath for each state- room; captain's quarters; room for the owner or manager, and the forward crew's quarters, the latter to. have shower bath: All the rooms are fitted with quartered oak. The decks will be covered with asbestolith floors made by the Asbestoliths Co., of Columbus, O. : Vesselmen in general express surprise at the fine of $1,000 imposed upon Capt. George B. Mallory, of the steamer Amasa Stone for not "standing by" and rendering assistance to the crew of the steamer Etruria in collision with the Amasa Stone last summer. Capt. Mallory. is recognized as one of the ablest and most conservative masters. on the lakes, and about the last thing that he would do would be to desert a vessel in distress. | Capt. Mallory says that he has not. been given a hearing in the case since filing his report with the local officials. . He says that when the collision occurred he immediately ex- amined his own steamer and found that she had received very slight injuries. He adds that he remained in the vict- nity of the collision for two hours, blowing four whistles and all that he found during his search was the Etruria's fender streak. He then concluded that the Etruria had suffered no greater damage than his own ship and proceed- ed on his way. The crew of the Etruria were picked up al- most immediately by the steamer Maritana, and were taken to Detour. Capt. Mallory was much surprised upon reaching Port Huron to learn that the Etruria had been lost. AT THE HEAD OF THE LAKES. -. Duluth, Minn., Mar. 5.--The 'barge Manila lies inside the harbor, under the protection of Minnesota point, where che was beactied' last Friday by fie Reid company, her wreckers. The job of getting this ship into Duluth was a very difficult one, and took sixty days of hard work _ ' large crew of mechanics, steel workers, pumpmen and ot 7 The ship came up the lake last Wednesday under tugs, an encountered when five miles out the first ice that had formed here this winter. It was no great obstacle, however, and way was easily made through it. There were ee on the barge and she was kept afloat without trouble. The Reid company this morning inspected the Mataafa and has begun work on the Edinborn, down the shore. It is intended to free these vessels as soon as possible. The work on them will be an all-summer job and may be profit- able. As far as the Manila is concerned it is not supposed among the uninitiated the ship will be worth when rebuilt. very much more than she will have cost. Grain receipts at the head of the lakes are larger than in previous winter months and way ahead of. last- year at _this time. For February they amounted to 2,345,000 by against 925,000 bu. the corresponding month last year and for the past week they were 650,000 bu. against 197,000 the first week in March, 1905. It is expected they will be heavy from now on, as country elevators will be shipping in dur- ing this month. The amount of Duluth wheat still afloat at Buffalo is sur- prising head of the lake shippers, who wonder why it is not coming out of vessels into store. There does not seem to be any very decided anxiety for this wheat on the part of consumers just now. % ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST. The new steamer Jamestown, building for the Norfolk & Washington Steamboat Co., Washington, D. C., will be launched on March 17 at the yard of the Newport News Co., Newport News, Va. The Nilson Yacht Building Co., of Baltimore, Md., have commented work on a steam houseboat 83 ft. by 20 ft. by 2 ft. 6 in., designed by Cox & Stevens. This craft is designed for southern waters and will be delivered to the owner in the fall. She will have two triple-expansion engines, water-tube boiler and will make about 11 miles an hour. The steamer Portland, which ran on Spite Island in Alaskan waters, and for a long time was abandoned as a total wreck, has at last been got off of the rocks, temporarily repaired, and will be brought down to Seattle. The vessel's damages were not very serious after all. The Portland be- longs to' the Alaska Commercial Co., of San Francisco, and the repairs can be made with a comparatively small outlay. Hollis Burgess, to Tremont street, Boston, Mass., has sold the auxiliary yacht Edith owned by C. D. Wainwright, Marble- head, Mass., to Rodman Paul Snelling, of Needham, Mass. The Edith is a comfortable cruising boat and is equipped with a powerful Murray & Tregurtha engine. Mr. Burgess has also sold the sloop yacht Squeteague owned by the George Lawley & Son Corporation, of South Boston to C. F. Allen, of Boston. "We dilly-dally with South American trade and are trying to build a Panama canal. What good will come of it? We have not the ships, and freight rates to the "east are against it. We have not the protecting laws for a merchant marine. I myself have recognized that con- dition and shall certainly never again build a ship under the American flag." These were the words of James J. Hill in an interview at Lenox, Mass. The headquarters of the passenger service of the South- ern Pacific Co.'s Atlantic steamship lines from New York to New Orleans, has been transferred from Houston and New Orleans to New York, both in the operating and traf- fic departments. L. H. Nutting, formerly general eastern passenger agent, with headquarters at 349 Broadway, has been appointed general passenger agent and L. J. Spen- cer, formerly general eastern freight agent will be general freight agent of the line. The Caldwell improved float valve, a description and 'Hustration of which was published in the last issue of the Review, is manufactured by the W. E. Caldwell Co., Louis- ville, Ky.