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INU HE Chicago-Gulf Transportation Co., reported to be capitalized at $10,000,000, has taken over the steamer Steet Curry, renamed it CoLoneL Conway, and_ inaugurated through passenger and freight trans- portation by water between Chicago and New Orleans. The company is said to be backed by prominent business men and shippers of Chicago, and the in- stallation of the. steamer line is_ re- ported to be their answer to New York in connection with rail freight rates on export shipments. Colonel Conway, for whom the steamer was renamed, in- spected the boat and conferred with her captain, Edward Noland Jr., recently in New Orleans. Colonel Conway an- nounced that the company will put two other steamers—one from St. Louis to New Orleans and one between Memphis and New Orleans—into service soon. W. A. Bertman is manager of the com- pany. CoLtonet Conway, after leaving New Orleans for’ its northern terminus at ta Salle Ill: left that: city. on her return trip March 25, and New Orleans again on April 3, trips being made regularly every three weeks there- after. The Chicago-Gulf Transporta- tion Co. plans eventually an all-water - line from Canadian ports on the Great Lakes to New Orleans. 2 K ok: * More steamers came down the river with large parties of Mardi Gras car- nival visitors than in any of the past five or six years. Homer SmitH and St. JAMES came down from Pittsburgh; Peoria from St. Louis; Street City (now CoLoneL Conway) from the IIl- inois river, and G. W. Ropertson from Baton Rouge. EC Rk The steamer St. James, for many years a New Orleans packet, has been sold by Captain John E. Klein, of Pitts- burgh, to Captain H. M. Lindsey, of Mobile, Ala. She has left New Orleans for the latter port, where she will be operated as a packet on the Warrior and Tombigbee rivers. HEE oe The Wheeler Towboat Co. has been organized at Jonesville, La., to handle the products of the Tarve M. Wheeler Lumber Co. intended for river ship- ment. The towboat company has pur- chased the steamer T. R. Taccart, at Vicksburg, Miss.; four barges and a derrick boat. It will begin operations immediately. oe + The Bluefields Fruit & Steamship: Co., New Orleans, has purchased the 1,600. ton steamer Porto Rico from the Balti- more & New York Steamship Co. Vic- tor Camors, president of the Bluefields i A asts, Lakes and What's Doing and Who's Doing It CTE eee eee ee By H. H. Dunn company, acted as purchasing agent in the deal. This is the first American vessel bought for foreign service by a New Orleans company. Porto Rico will be operated between the Crescent City, Bluefields and Cape Gracias. Pe ee The Slidell Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Co., Slidell, La. is making large im- provements to its plant. The company soon will be in a position to handle deep-sea vessels on its ways, as well as to build the largest boats required in southern waters. Dredging of a deeper channel through the center of the lake makes it possible to bring sea-going ships directly to the company’s yards. * * x John G. Oriol, who for several years, has conducted the American business of Jose Taya’s Sons, of Barcelona, big ship-owners, severed his connection with the firm, March 1, and will enter the export business for himself. The New Orleans office for the present is under direct management of Ricardo Taya, while Pablo Ferres has been appointed port captain. * Ok For the purpose of building a number of schooners to engage in trade along the Atlantic coast, the Brunswick Ship- building Co. has been formed at Sa- vannah, Ga. under the direction of Captain J. H. Leo. The company is incorporated for $50,000, with privilege of raising the capital stock to $500,000. Sixty business men of Savannah headed the petition for charter, a High rates prevailing for shipments to England are well illustrated by the re- cent charter of a schooner at Gulfport, to carry lumber to Great Britain at $60 per thousand, about eight times the rate before the war. She will carry 1,300,000 feet and will earn $78000 on the trip. ee ‘The Alabama Coal Transportation Co. has been incorporated under the laws of Louisiana, according to an- nouncement by - C. Whiteman, of Whiteman Brothers, of New Orleans. The corporation, capitalized at $500,000, has been formed to operate steamboats, towboats and barges from and to the Warrior river coal districts of Alabama. The company will have about 70 vessels including tugs, sea-going barges, and steamers. Practically all the stock is subscribed and operations are scheduled to start May 1. Coal is to be handled to all gulf ports of the United States and to Cuba and Central America, from Alabama, and return cargoes of lumber and merchandise brought in. According to Mr. Whiteman, the cost of coal to the consumer in New Orleans will be 190 CN ee ee I LA ~ materially lowered by the operati the new boat line. x ok x As a direct result of the open cleaning out, deepening and putting of locks on the Warrior river, bama, the Henderson Lumber Co, preparing to erect a mill of 100 feet capacity near Holt, on the bank the improved island waterway. eee is preparing to i. steel barges from the Birmingham dis 4 Mississippi waterways, points. the Alabama & New Orleans Tran portation Co., but this could not be co firmed at the offices of the latter cor poration in New Orleans. ae * x x Captain J. M. Scott has bought th barkentine JoHN Patmer in New Yorl for $50,000, and will add it to the Sco fleet, operating out of Mobile, Ala. T barkentine will bring a cargo of coal’ Mobile and will then load lumber for the west coast of Italy. Ko ROS The Whitney-Bolden Co.’s_ barkentine STRANGER, operating out of Mobile, Ala, claims the record for a round tip from a gulf port to Tampico, Mexie She went from Sabine, Texas, to Tam- pico, unloaded 13,000 feet of lumber ucts Co., Jacksonville, Fla. ee Scarcity of ocean-goin vessels has caused a serious falling off in exports from Gulfport, especially in lumber shipments. : * ok OR Mato Skifich, a naturalized Austrian for 10 years widely and well known along the Mississippi river, and for four years engineer of the big tradé power boat Gem, plying between New Orleans and Empire, on the lower coash fell overboard and was drowned neat the mouth of Duluth’s canal a few weeks ago. The body was not recovered. ~ 4 KE Oe _ Captain James Rudden, of the Amet- ican steamer Mary Otson, has beef accused of criminal neglect of du and neglect of his crew by the entt crew, before U. S. Shipping Comm