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From the Old Log Book Stray Items About the Great Lakes, Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coasts and Inland Rivers from MARINE REVIEW Files of 10, 20, 30 and 40 Years Ago DECEMBER, 1885 N ACCOUNT of the life and work of Capt. Alva Bradley, published in the Marine Record (then the name of MARINE Review) for December 1885, on the occasion of his death, brings home vividly the short space of time since pioneering days. Cap- tain Bradley was born in Ellington, Conn., Nov. 27, 1814, and at the age of 9 accompanied his father’s family to Buffalo, making the journey by wagon and canal boat, and thence to Cleveland in a vessel which reached that city September 1823. After sailing the lakes in various capaci- ties until 1841 he became a shipbuild- er, on his own account, at Vermillion until: 1859 when he removed to Cleve- land. In 1869 he brought his plant to this city and continued shipbuild- ing at the head of the river bed until 1880 at which time according to the old account he was the owner of more floating property than any other man on the lakes and the pos- sessor of a handsome fortune _ be- sides. * * * His son M. A. Bradley who had been associated with him for a num- ber of years before his death is well known in lake marine circles and is an honored and_ respected citizen of Cleveland today. So the lives of father and son span _ the period of the growth and development to their present proportions of lake transportation and the prosperous and populous cities on the Great Lakes. DECEMBER, 1895 FINE example of the spirit and wit of the best traditions of the navy is found in a little item in MARINE REVIEW of 30 years. ago. When William E. Chandler was _ sec- retary of the navy and Admiral Meade was commandant of the navy yard in Washington, these two positive gentlemen got into a heated argument over some question of policy. The secretary annoyed at the admiral’s position on the matter under discus- sion finally bluntly told the offending officer that if he persisted he would find it necessary to punish him by relieving him from duty ashore and sending him to sea. To which Ad- miral Meade replied: “Mr. Secre- tary, I haven’t anything to say except that when it is punishment for an officer of the navy to be ordered to sea, what is your service coming to? I should like to go to sea, sir, good day.” % * * Only 30 years ago under a ruling by Secretary Foster of the treasury department, engineers of steam ves- sels were not classed as officers. This came about through the desire of .the secretary of the treasury to allow Englishmen who applied for United States citizenship to continue’ in charge of the machinery of _ the American Line steamers Paris and New York. This under the law the secretary could not do if they were classed as officers. We have often wondered at the low estate of the engineer officer and now the origin of it seems to be explained. It is more probably due however to the responsibility for important detail duties which gives the engineer little time for dress parade, hand shaking, and contact with owners and passen- gers. You might say he is always busy and always dirty, and as long as the machinery works well he is forgotten. DECEMBER, 1905 ITH over 30 naval vessels under construction in the United States in 1905 the shipyards of the country less in number and smaller in capacity than now were not over- taxed. In 1925 with greatly expand- ed facilities there is practically no naval vessels under construction with the exception of the two airplane car- riers. With only a comparatively small number of merchant ships needed, un- less there is a decided revival in shipbuilding for the foreign trade, the future of the shipyards seems uncertain. However when conditions look the gloomiest things seem to shape up for the better. Repair work, new construction for coastwise shipping and conversion to diesel drive will -be the nucleus on which 460 the future must be built and as con- ditions in shipping improve the con- struction of larger liners to replace ships now inadequate and to ex- pand existing services will be neces- sary. * * % When the new Cunarder Carmania sailed from New York in December 1905 every stateroom was filled. The total passenger list was over 2600 in addition to a crew of 710 men. Even according to to-day’s figures’ for traveling this was certainly a very fine showing. DECEMBER, 1915 N DECEMBER 1915 the Union Iron Works, San Francisco had nine ships building or under con- tract and was busier than it had been for years. This condition was only partly traceable to the effects of the Great war as the program included five tankers for two American oil companies and a freighter and pas- senger .boat for American steamship companies. * Bo * Secretary Daniels of the navy ap- proved the plans of the Union Iron Works for the large graving dock at Hunters Point in San Francisco and agreed to furnish $50,000 worth of work annually. This dock is 1000 feet long by 40 feet deep and 110 feet wide and can, of course, handle the largest war ship. * € & The great war, at this time one and one-half years old, had begun to affect shipping rates favorably. Marine Review for December 1915 told how the coasting schooner Cora F. Cressy was fixed to load a carge of 85,000 cases of oil out of Boston for Rio de Janerio at the high rate of 35 cents per case. The six mast- er Edward J. Lawrence obtained a cargo of 5000 tons of coal from Boston to Barcelona, Spain at $10 per ton or $50,000 for the voyage with good prospects for a_ return cargo. This was only the beginning, as the war progressed rates such as the above would have been laughed at as ridiculously low. = ae . ae : q “ 4 Ps