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September, 1915 tion Co., between Seattle and Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge island, under the command of Captain C. T. Wyatt. * * * The steamer Cotusa is the first of the fleet owned by W. R. Grace & Co. to enter the Vladivostok — trade. She sailed from San Francisco recently. * * * ated The British steamer SrratTHesK. recently ar- rived at Jurin, Chile, from San Francisco. When the vessel left the latter port it. was understood that she was to proceed to Hum- boldt bay to load a cargo of redwood for the United Kingdom, F. Thane & Co., for this purpose, but after a couple of days waiting for SrtratHEsK to show up at Eureka, Cal., for which ‘port she had cleared, it leaked out that she had been secretly commandeered by the British ad- miralty and sent down to the west coast. * * * At a meeting in Seattle, Wash., recently 20 owners of gasoline propelled vessels oper- in the towing and jobbing business on formed the Gas Tug Owners’ Captain H. O. Benedict, man- Puget Sound, Association. being under charter to A. THE MARINE REVIEW ager of the N. L. Johnson Towing Co., Seattle, was chosen president of the organization and Andrew Foss of the Foss Launch Co., Tacoma, secretary. One representative from each of the Puget Sound districts were delegated as members of a committee to gather data on rates and service, which will shortly be pre- sented to the public service commission. Between 30 and 40 vessels operating on Puget Sound were represented by their owners at the conference. .The public ser- vice commission of the State of Washington on May 10, sent out a circular letter to all tugboat men calling attention to the petition filed by the owners of a number of steam tugs asking for the fixing by the commission of rates and regulations, Certain of the owners of gas tugs considered that such action might result in rates and regulations that would drive the gasoline. tugboats out of the towing and jobbing business, hence the forming of the new association, which will take care of the interests of the gas users. ‘i %¥ % The Great Northern Pacific Steamship Co. has inaugurated: a tri-weekly steamer service, on the commencing July 3, between Flavel, Columbia river to San Francisco. and the By H. H. Dunn HE firm of Jose Taya’s Sons, Barce- lona, Spain, has recently added two large steamers to its fleet plying be- tween Spain and New Orleans, and will add two or three more, it is said, as soon as they can be purchased. Negotiations for the purchase by this firm of two Australian steamers interned in New Orleans harbor are reported under way. This service, best known as the Perez Line, was started some years ago to render the Taya firm independent of the high rates of liner service to Spain and Por- gal, especially on forest products. For the past few years it has been conducted with the chartered steamers Emir1A S. DE _ PEREZ, Ancet B. Perez, Inez and ApotFo, carrying lumber from New Orleans, Galveston and other ports on the gulf and south Atlantic seaboards. They also have handled large quantities of cotton, naval stores and other products of the south. Emiria S. DE PEREZ recently cleared from Tampa, Fla., with 1,- 000,000 feet: of lumber, coming to New Orleans to complete her cargo. So successful have the Tayas been with this business that they have decided to abandon the chartering of vessels and to operate a fleet of their own, which is being augmented as rapidly as suitable steamers can be bought. The first of the new fleet, Louisa, 1,940 net tons, recently carried a full cargo to Galveston and took out a full cargo on her return. The second steamer, JoseFA MRaicu, recently purchased, and formerly Pena Rvusta, is of 1,629 tons and represents the type of steamers of which the fleet will be composed. She sailed from Barcelona via Seville and thence to New Orleans, returning to Barcelona with lumber. John G. Oriol, president of the firm’s interests pany, who is in charge of the firm’s interests on this side of the Atlantic, sailed on JosrrA Ratcu and will spend some months abroad seeking to build up his firm’s business with United States ports. * * * The Alabama house of representatives has voted to exempt from taxation all capital invested in new ship building plants, water power plants, cotton mills and establishments for the manufacture of lime or nitrogen, for 10 years. Such exemption of ship building invest- ments would, it is said, aid materially in the choice of Mobile as a site for the Hyde ship building plant. * * * Revision of charges on public wharves is being considered by the board of port com- missioners of New Orleans. The plan most favored consists of a division of charges be- tween vessels and cargoes, in lieu of the pres- ent method, by which all charges for wharfage were levied against the vesssl only, on the basis of 2 cents per ton gross register of the ship per day for the first three days at: the wharf; 1 cent per day for the next three days, with an extra charge of 1% cents per ton at shedded wharves, and 30 days free wharfage thereafter. The new plan is first to college wharf rentals at the rate of 3 mills per square foot per month for open wharves and 3% mills for shedded wharves; also wharfage will be charged against the vessel at the rate of 18 cents per 1,000 ship ton-hours at rented space, 28 cents at un- assigned shedded space, and 25 cents at open, unassigned, wharves; a wharfage charge will be laid against cargo, graded according to character; lumber and timber are to be charged for at 25 cents per 1,000 feet; logs and staves at 1 cent per 100 pounds, and piling at 34-cent per 100 pounds. Conferences will be held with shippers, railroad and steamship interests before the change is put into effect. * * * River Plate lumber shipments from Pensa- cola, Fla., during August amounted to about 60 per cent of all the foreign lumber business of that port. For the six months ending with June, Pensacola did an export business sea of nearly $1,000,000 per month, despite the lack of shipping, the scarcity of deep-sea vessels, and the general depression attributed to the war. The number of vessels entering and clearing totaled 241, with a tonnage of 413,285, while 32 vessels called for coal. Pen- sacola’s imports for the same time were valued at $269,589. * * * Ford, Bacon & Davis, engineers have made a report to the, New Orleans board of port commissioners, on the proposed canal to con- by © nect Lake Pontchartrarm ana the Mississippi river, running completely across New Orleans. The report is voluminous and covers ten sec- tions, as follows: the commereiai and indus- trial relations of the city and port of New Orleans to the Mississippi valley; New Orleans as an industrial center; rail and water transportation in relation to New Orleans; the present and proposed port facilities of New Orleans and other similar ports; transportation facilities; transportation rates relating to New Orleans, and comparative import and export rates of the Atlantic and gulf ports; New Orleans in relation to trade lines and markets; New Orleans as a_ potential con- centration and distributing port and market of deposit; typical canals of the world; New Orleans ship canal and terminal. Five routes are proposed for the canal. The first is from a point on the river above Carrollton avenue to a connection with the new basin canal. The second is from the new basin to the river, and the third is from the old basin to the river. The fourth and most important begins at the river below Press street and extends to the lake, while route No. 5 is similar except that it starts from Jackson barracks. The first three are capable of development as barge canals only. The fourth route is available for a barge canal, which can be enlarged into a_ ship canal, Plans for the development of this route, or of a fifth alternative route, are also discussed. They include two plans for enlarging part of the canal so as to permit the direct entry of ships, in connection with which is proposed the purchase of tracts of land on each side of the canal to be sold for industrial sites, while a third plan includes such industrial site development in connection with a barge canal. The plans for this route include coal and lumber terminals at the lake end of the canal. The sale of industrial sites is expected not only to replace the money expended for the land, but also to assist in paying the construc- tion cost of the canal. * * * Jeff D. Hardin has been appointed as a member of the board of port commissioners of New Orleans in place of Walter Van Ben- thuysen, recently resigned. * * * The Yaryan Naval Stores Co.’s two plants located in Brunswick, La., and Gulfport, Miss., were recently sold by order of the federal court. A creditors’ committee is reported to be working on reorganization plans. % * * Mobile’s exports by sea for the six months ending with June were valued at $12,081,867, or more than $2,000,000 a month. July’s car- goes at Mobile were valued at $1,661,006. Sixty-four vessels, with a net tonnage of 66,451, entered Mobile harbor during June. * * * Mactovio Herrera, a Mexican gunboat, is believed to have been loaded with arms for the Carranza forces when she slipped out of New Orleans recently. She had _ previously taken a cargo of ammunition which the authorities forced her to unload. This ammu- nition was to be loaded on the Wolvin liner City or Tampico, to be taken to Vera Cruz, but it is said that Mactovio HERRERA suc- ceeded in getting- it back on board. Included in the cargo were 61,000 rounds of rifle and machine gun ammunition. * * * The Merchants’ Transportation Co. recently organized, is now running the steamer Natcuez between Vicksburg and New Orleans. New Orleans merchants and up-country cotton shippers have pledged their co-operation for the success of the service. The Big Bend packet America has been renovated and will join NatcnHez in the cotton trade. Steam and