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CLEVELAND, JANUARY, 1910. NEW YORK No. 1 Ship Building on the Lakes HE ship yards of the great lakes have forty-six vessels under construction for 1910 delivery, including 22 bulk freight- ers, 5 package freighters, 5 passenger boats, 1 ferry steamer, 6 tugs, 2 hopper barges, 1 fire boat, 1 lighter, 1 light vessel, 1 light-house tender and 1 scow. Of this program the Amer- ican Ship Building Co. is building 20, the Great Lakes Engineering Works 9, the Toledo Ship Building Co, 3, the Manitowoc Dry Dock Co. 2, the Racine Boat Manufacturing Co. 2, Johnston Bros. 5, the Collingwood Ship Building Co. 3 and the Toronto Shipyards 2. Again subdividing the program, the American Ship Building Co.'s new construction consists of 12 bulk freighters, 4 package freighters, 2 pas- senger boats, 1 fire boat and 1 ferry steamer. Of this program the passenger boat Rochester, the package freighter Octorara, the bulk freighters W..B. Sehiller, John. P, Merean Jr, and A. A, Augustus have already been launched. The ' Great Lakes Engineering Works have under con- struction 8 bulk freighters and 1 package freight- er. Of this program the package freighter North Star has been launched. The Toledo Ship Build- ing Co, is building a bulk freighter, a lumber steamer and an excursion steamer; the Manito- woc Dry Dock Co. a passenger steamer and a lighter of which the passenger steamer, the Ala- bama, has been launched; the Racine Boat Manu- facturing Co., a light vessel and a light-house tender; Johnston Bros. 5 tugs; the Collingwood Ship Building Co. f tig and 2 hopper barges; and the Toronto Shipyards 1 passenger steamer and 1 scow. 'It should be mentioned that the Collingwood Ship Building Co. is lengthening the steamer Athabasca belonging to the Canadian Pacific Rail- way Co. 36 ft., which will make her 306 ft. over all, at a cost of about $50,000. Contract has also been secured by the company to lengthen the steamer G. R. Crowe of the St. Lawrence & Chi- cago Steam Navigation Co.'s fleet 72 ft., giving her a new length of 324 ft. and gross tonnage estimated at 2,/60, at an approximate cost of $60,000. - The 22 bulk freighters included in this program have a carrying capacity of 203,740 gross tons of ore in a single trip or 4,074,800 tons in an aver- age season of twenty trips. e It will be observed in the launching table pub- lished elsewhere that 17 bulk freighters were put overboard in 1909 having a capacity of 157,300 tons on a single trip or 3,146,000 tons in an aver- age season of 20 trips. In the past eight years vessels having a gross carrying capacity of 37,- 013,200 gross tons in full season have been added to the available ore carrying fleet. The 1910 program will increase this to 41,088,000 gross tons. This is more than has ever been carried down the lakes in any one year with the ex- ception of the years 1907 and 1909 when 41,288,- 755 tons and 41,683,873 tons were moved re- spectively. _ With the exception of the Pittsburg Steamship Co., which is the lake end of the United States Steel Corporation, none of the steel-making com- panies appear to figure in the 1910 ship building program, though it will be observed that in some instances the names of the owners have been withheld by the ship builders. Altogether 39 vessels were launched during 1909, of which 17 were bulk freighters, 5 package freighters, 5 passenger steamers, 6 tugs, 5 light- ers and 1 survey steamer. The number of acci- dents during the year were many, some of them severe, and repair work during the winter months will be very heavy. The lake shipyards may therefore be said to be enjoying unusual pros- perity, as repair work is admittedly more profit- able than new construction.