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

Marine Review January 1925 Fig. 1—Big grab buckets which take from 10 to 15 tons of iron ore from the hold of a lake freighter each time their maws close Lakes Pay uo: Large Dividends ECAUSE of its international im- B portance and the publicity it re- ceived during construction, the Panama canal is one of the best known and most talked of waterways built by the United States. When this canal was projected, a traffic of ten million tons was expected to de- velop in five years. Ten years after its opening, the actual amount of freight passing through in 1923 was 28,000,000 tons, carried in 5000 ships and paying $23,000,000 in tolls. Its tonnage already exceeds that of the Suez canal, which in 1923 handled 25,000,000 tons in 4600 ships paying tolls of $35,000,000. The management of the transcontinental railroads may be of the opinion that the Panama canal is not a good investment for the United States because their traf- fic is being reduced temporarily by the use of the canal, but few would now agree with them. Even from a selfish point of view, these railroads may later reap the benefit of the greater trade and development brought about by the canal. How is it with other waterway invest- ments made by the United States? Are they paying a return in lower carrying charges or in the development of the country ? Another American waterway, perhaps BY L. CC; SABIN not so well known as the Panama but of greater commercial importance, is that of the Great Lakes, on which was trans- ported in 1923 more than a hundred mil- lion tons of freight, carried in some twenty thousand ships, and paying no tolls. Lake Trade Is Unique The geographical position of the Great Lakes is peculiarly fortunate for the development of a large traffic by water. Their greatest extent is nearly in a line between the world’s largest developed iron mines of Minnesota and upper Michigan and the vast coal beds of the Pittsburgh district; between the grain fields of the productive Northwest and the large con- suming centers of the East. The physical conditions likewise are particularly fav- orable to the operation of large carriers, since the deep and broad expanses of the lakes above the Niagara river are joined by comparatively short rivers or straits, and in these connecting channels only certain reaches require improvement. Thus in sailing from Duluth to Buffalo only about 50 miles of restricted im- proved channels have to be traversed, and from Chicago to Buffalo about half as much. This situation has built up an inland 1 traffic unique in its extent and in the low cost of transportation. As_ the greater part of the traffic is carried in bulk, the ships are so built as to facilitate loading and unloading. The size of the ships may be indicated by the fact that the average cargo eastbound is nearly 7000 tons, while the maximum cargo exceeds 15,000 tons. The average cargo on the Panama canal is about 5600 tons. The freight ton mileage on the Great Lakes in 1923 was about one-sixth of that of all the railroads in the United States. In a navigation season of about eight months, some of the larger ves- sels on the lakes carry from 400,000 to 490,000 tons of freight a distance of 800 to 900 miles, thus showing a record of some four hundred million ton-miles. Such an accomplishment is possible only through the greatest perfection in ter- minal facilities. Coal is loaded by hoisting an entire car and dumping the contents into the hold of the ship. By this method from 1000 to 3000 tons per hour may be loaded. An ore loading dock consists of a series of high bins, filled by cars running on tracks overhead. With the vessel along- side the wharf, these bins are discharged into the hull through chutes, this method being similar to that commonly used