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

38 COMMERCIAL BOILER WORKS ACTIVE DURING 1909. A large numberof Pacific coast vessels were fitted with new boilers or furnaces during the past year by the Commercial Boiler Works, Seattle. Seven large Scotch marine boilers, none of them less than 10 ft. 6 in. by 10 ft. 6 in., and four of. them. 15 ft. in diameter, were built for following steamships: One for tug Lorne; two for schooner Lindsay; four for steamship Northwestern. In ad- dition to this, externally fired boilers were built for the Alaska river steam- ers Tana, Minneapolis and Altona. New furnaces were fitted to the boil- ers of the Puget .sound steamers, Indianapolis and Utopia, also to the United States lighthouse tender, Heather. The . boilers. of the old steamship, Victorian, were retubed. Stacks and breechings were built for the new fireboat Duwamish. The largest repair job on the west- - ern coast during the year, which con- sisted in building an entirely new bottom on the Norwegian steamship, Eir, was executed by the Commercial Boiler Works, who also made ex- tensive repairs to-- the. steamers Olympia, Northwestern, Heather, Chi- cago, Leelanaw, Columbine and Gen. Wilson. Fuel oil tanks were installed in the ocean steamers Plieades and Hyades, as well as vessels. Speaking of general conditions, the firm reports a better volume of busi- ness. during the past year than in 1908. Prices, however, have been poor, and have not improved over those prevailing 14 months ago. In the meantime plates, rivets, experienced a sharp advance, which Accidents to EREWITH is published the list. fleet during the season of 1909, to- of accidents to the lake : gether with table of vessels totally lost. The total losses number 34, of which 23 were schooners, 4 tugs and 1 car ferry. 6 were Of the total losses 15 were destroyed by fire, 14 wrecked in storms, 4 sunk in col- lisions, and one cut through by ice. One hundred and nine lives were lost, 7 on the tug Floss, 5 on the Eber Ward, 7 on the George Nester, 14 on the Adella Shores, 15 on the John B. Cowle, 5 on the George.Stone. 3 on the tug Princeton, 1 on the Louis Pahlow, 15 on the Clarion, 5 on the steamers, the in several other etc., have . THe Marine REVIEW is cutting down the margin of profit. for Pacific coast boiler shops and ma- rine repair firms.. An increasing volume of business is expected during. 1910, but' what 18> better from the manufacturers' standpoint, an advance in prices is expected, both for repair work and new construction, CUNARD APPOINTMENT AT NEW YORK. Percy Whatmough, private tary to the general manager of the Cunard Steamship Co., has been ap- SSEChLe= _ Percy WHATMOUGH. pointed to take charge of the Cunard passenger business of. New York, a position of great importance. Mr. Whatmough, who is quite a young man, has been brought up in the Cunard service, having been already Lake Vessels Richardson, and 32 on the car ferry Marquette & Bessemer No. 2. Three vessels were abandoned by the under- writers as constructive total losses, the James H. Hoyt, the Henry Steinbren- ner and the W. C. Richardson, though in all probability they will be raised and repaired. Of the causes, collisions lead with 41, followed by fire with 20, while deranged steering gear and conse- quent strandings has its usual quota. The first serious loss of the season was the sinking 'of the .-old steamer Eber Ward in the Straits of Mack- inaw on Apr. 20. This was one of the most singular accidents that has ever happened on the lakes, being the : contact, : franchises Jan; 4, 1910. SCo; January, 1910 20 years in their employ. He has proved himself a most capable secre- tary and has won golden opinions of all with whom he has come in for his urbanity, tact, and obliging manner on every. occasion. He was secretary to Mr. Boumphrey in the now apparently old days; he discharged the same duties for the "late. Mr. under the present general manager, oA 2 Dy Mearns, "Morehouse, and _ still holds the" office he has~ filled so well. He has served under five Cunard chairmen: The first, Lord Inverclyde (then Sir John Burns), David Jardine, the second Lord In- verclyde, William Watson and _ the present chairman, A. A. Booth. He will arrive in New York and take up his new office early in February. FERRY FRANCHISES AT OGDENSBURG. 2 On page 113 of this issue will be found the advertisement of the city of Ogdensburg offering to lease thtee- valuable ferry franchises. The ad- vertisement reads that bids for the. 'can be received up to - This should read that bids... for the - franchises: .can be. re- ceived up to March 31. The Northern Engineering Works, Detroit, Mich., -has purchased addi- tional land adjoining their plant on which it is expected that extensions to their crane plant will be made dur-- ing the coming season. The Kent plant of the Seneca Chain was destroyed by fire on Dec. 10, the company immediately transferring its business to its plant at Mansfield with two shifts... The Kent ae is being rapidly rebuilt. During 1909 'only instance on record in which a steamer was actually sunk as the re- sult of colliding with an ice floe. The Steamboat Inspection Service, which investigated the wreck, conclud- ed that the Ward's' bows were crush- ed in through impact with heavy ice, causing her to sink. The steamer Aurania was caught in the storm of Apr. 30 on Lake Stu perior and sank in Whitefish Bay, her crew managing to escape. The old steamer. Russia was sunk near Detour through the shifting of her cargo during a storm. that sunk the Au- rania also wrecked the Adella Shores, any The same storm though it was a week later before