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e The Marine -Record, ESTABLISHED 1878. Published every Thursday, at 144 Superior Street (Leader Building,) CLEVELAND, O. - - Proprietors IRVING B. SMITH. CAPT. JOHN SWAINSON. BRANCH OFFICE, Cxrcaao. Iuu., = - 35 Franklin St. THOMAS WILLIAMS, Associate Editor. SUBSCRIPTION. One copy, one year, postaze paid, One copy, one year, to foreign countries, Invariably in advance. ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. Entered at Cleveland Post Offiso as Second-class Mail Matter. ce eee aE EEseEnS Sessa SnSnSD ESSE aS SESE, OO EPR IE BLT REET NS CLEVELAND, O., JANUARY 18, 1894. i ABUSES OF CLEVELAND HARBOR. At the meeting last Tuesday evening, of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, for the discussion of opportuni- ties for municipal government, Col. Jared A. Smith, Unitel States engine:r for this district, hit the nail squarely on the head when he called the attention of the members to the shameful uses to which the city puts its own harbor. Col. Smith stated that the river and the water inside the west breakwater basin were so foul from stagnacy and the accumulated sewage poured into them that the men at work on the goverament dredges engaged in deepening-the harbor last summer were several times mide violently ill by the nauseating stench. He also stated that while the city prescribed a very moderate distance to which mud and debris dredged from the river should ba carried, it was safe to say it was never carried beyond that limit, and he feared it was frequently drop- pedinside. Hs outlined the projection of the east break- water, stating that it would end nearly opposite Muirson street, 1,700 feet from the shore line. When Col. Smith spoke of, the manner in which the city abused the ha r- bor made for it by the general government, he was asked by Judge Ingersoll, if the general government was not in a position to protect its own work. Col. Smith replied in the affirmative, but said it would come with a very - bad grace if the representative of the general govern- ment should ba compelled to apply for an injungtion against the city to prevent it from filling its owa harbor. It would seem that when the municipal government has its attention called to a matter of this sort, it should certainly receive prompt attention. By making a catch basin of the breakwater basin, the city of Cleveland not only runs the risk of exposing its people to infectious disease, but certainly stands io its own light, both com- mercially and so far as securing additional appropria- tions for harbor improvement is concerned. Below we print the res lations offsred by Mc. L. E. Holden, in this connection, and which were referred to the committee on navigation: ‘Ror the purpose of enlarging the dock capacity of the city of Cleveland, so as to hold and preserve the shipping of the lakes which properly bewugs to this city, and in order to increase the haroor as a harbor of refuge, and to encourage the general government to extend the break- water to a suitable distance eastward ; and for the pur- pose of making valuable land where theshallow water on the shore of Lake Krie exists in front of Lake View Park, and to furnish a place where dirt and ashes may be dimped to the advantage of the city and not to the detriment of navigation, and in short, to utilize the lake front belonging to the city to the advantage of all inter- ests in the city both of business and pleasure, be it “Rasolved, Toat the Chamber of Commerce recom- mend that Erie street be opened to the lake, and that steps be taken to build a pier out to the line of navigable water as soon as the same is practicable, and that steps be taken looking toward the building of docks from the end of such pier westward along the line of navigable water to the pier on the east side of the mouth of Cuya- hoga River. : “Resolved, That the committee on navigation be, and they are hereby directed to confer with the proper city authorities and request them to have surveys and plans made for the building of the pier above centemplated on the line of Erie street into the lake ; also that surveys and plans be made for the building of docks from Erie street to the east side of the pier at the mouth of Cuya- hoga river, and that estimates be made first for the build- ing of the pier, and second for the building of the dock, and that they be requested to report what legislation, if any, may be required to procure means for completing these improvements.” rrr 0-2 Now that an agreement has at last been reached as to the proper method, the proper thing is for every owner to take hold and give the plan his heartiest support. There are no doubt some owners who feel that some one of the plans offered in open meeting of the Lake Carriers’ Association would have been as good, or better than THE MARINE RECORD. that adopted. But this is not the time for criticism. The plan has many advantages which will be better appre- ciated the longer its provisions are studied; and its suc- cess is now dependent upon the manner in which it is taken hold of by the owners. Thenames of four or five of the leading owners at the top will do more than any- thing else; and owners should not refrain from, nor post- pone placing their names under the agreement, from modesty or other motives. The agreement in its forma- tion is provisional unless the requisite number of signa- tures can be obtained; therefore, there is no danger of any owner signing away his rights and privileges to his own prejudice. Tire association made a happy selection in the choice of Mr. James Corrigan as president of the Lake Carriers’ Association. He has never been backward when active work was needed, and as a “hustler” there is hardly his equal in the association. There was,a general feeling that his services should receive proper recognition. Pres- ident Wilson’s wise administration and conservative counsel have also been heartily appreciated, and there is no doubt that if the unwritten policy of the association were not hostile to the president serving :two successive terms, Capt. Wilson would have had the office placed in his hands “willy nilly’” for another year. Dr Ir the newagreement is formed and not lived up to, there will at least be the consolation that those who vio- late its provisions cannot screen themselves from notice by a careful observer. The report of Secretary Keep, of the Lake Carriers’ Association, is sufficient evidence that the value to owners, of the association, cannot be measured. It is yearly increasing in influence and prac- tical usefulness, and it seems that theday is not far dis- tant when membership will be almost indispensable to carriers, of whatever size or trade. ang ls USP AS A Se ECONOMY IN THE FIRE HOLD. In these days of low freight every detail connected with the running expenses of steamboats should be given careful Consideration, and it may be to advantage to consider what part the firemen have in this, It is often said that one engineer will get more out of a ship than another, but in general it will be found that the most successful engineer is the one who manages his firemen best. In many cases this is too little real- ized and the position and comfort of the fireman, either on or off duty, are not given the consideration they deserve. Men may stand the exhausting labor fora day, or even a trip, but are sure to succumb to a contin- uous drain of their capacity, and then we have poor firing. To illustrate, let us take the case of a boat starting out on her trip. One engineer, the moment he gets full speed from the bridge, pulls his throttle ‘‘wide open,’’ and sends the links to the end of their stroke; not a moment is to be lost; forgetful of the fact that although his safety valves are just lifting, his fires are not properly away; the doors were open and the damp- ersup. ‘The result of his method is that in less than ten minutes he finds the pressure steadily falling. Then the firemen are sworn at; they take to their prickers, pull the fires about, heap on coals, and do what they ought not todo. The harder they work, the less steam they seem to make, until finally they become disheart- ened, and the upshot is, that instead of carrying 150 or 160 pounds pressure throughout the trip, the engineer has to be satisfied, or dissatisfied, with 130 or 140 pounds. Then the coal is blamed and the men are blamed and there is nothing but grumbling and ill humor all round. On the other hand, the engineer who really knows his business knows that nothing is more likely to keep good firemen hard at work than success, or to dishearten them than failure, such success or failure being meas- ured by the steam pressure. On starting, therefore, he will give his fires a fair chance to get a start; he will work his engines up by degrees and will work a little slowly for the first few minutes. His reward will bea rise in pressure; then, gradually, always watching the pressure guage, he will give his engines more and more steam, and the result is, he will run over the trip with the safety valve on the point of lifting the whole time. Such engineers understand not only engines and boil- ers, but men. When engines are rather short of steam, it is a foolish thing to drain the boilers in the hope that things will be better by-and-bye. If firemen are already working hard and doing their best it jis unwise to let them know that their best efforts aré useless. A fall of five pounds may be due to want of boiler power and by judicious handling of the engines it may be prevented from getting more. If by hurrying the engines a fur- ther drop of five pounds takes place, the chances are it will be followed by a further drop attributable to the relaxed efforts of the disheartened firemen. The temperature of the fire holds, especially where the boilers are situated at the bottom of the hold, is often needlessly high, in most cases due to the neglect of ob- vious precautions on the part of owners, builders, or — 3 some one who has to do with fitting the boilers in place. Hot air can only get outif cold air gets in to take its place, and to secure this there should be good and suffi- cient downtake ventilators, in addition to the large opening or grating immediately over the fire hold. Much of the excessive heat is caused by radiation from the ash pits and Furnace doors, some of the latter seem- ing to be specially constructed to roast the firemen, all these should be properly screened, as well as the smoke box doors and uptakes, the boilers themselves should also be screened off by a bulkhead at the front end, and they as well as all steam pipes should be properly lagged to prevent radiation. Some owners, we are sorry to say, argue that the expense of a few dollars in making things comfortable is waste of money. No statement could be more short sighted: In the hands of the fireman, lies to a great extent the economical utilization of the coal; and the success of the vessel as regards speed is practically in the hands of the neglected fireman, while the difference between really good and poor firing is at least equal to the dif- ference between a triple expansion and a compotnd en- gine, as regards the amount of fuel burned. Not half enough care is taken to provide conditions under which they can work to advantage in the firehold and money spent in making these men comfortable, either on or off duty, so that they may do their work with ease and get sufficient rest, is money well spent. R. L. DP I ee aE THE SHIPMASTERS’ GRAND LODGE. The convention of ‘the Shipmasters’ Association be- gan proceedings Tuesday morning at the:rocms of the Chicago branch, on Market street. The following del- egates and ufficers arrived at the Tremont House, where they were entertained during their stay in Chicago. Capt. Alexander Clark,‘grand president ; Lyman Hunt, grand treasurer, from Buffalo; W. A. Collier, grand financial secretary, Cleveland; delegates KE. G. Thorp, Buffalo; W. Hy. Rice, Port Huron; C. KE. Benham, Cleve- land ; John Cochrane, Milwaukee; George McCullough, Detroit; George A. Shaw, Marine City; John NcNeil, Bay City. The delegates were received by President George Tebo, Past President James Hogan, Secretary Frank B. Higgie, and several other members of the Chicago branch, who escorted them from the Tremont House to the meeting hall, where they went into session at once. The report of Grand Secretary Collier shows that the past year was the most depressed of any in the history of the organization. For endowment purposes $11,918 was raised, of which $2,340 came from Buffalo, which has the largest membership in the association. In the evening the captains enjoyed themselves hugely at a grand ball given atthe Tremont house. ~ Wednes- day was devoted to the choice of officers for the ensuing year. There were several candidates for most of the offices, but the ticket was in the main the same that was elected last year. The election resulted as follows: Grand president, Alexander Clark, Buffalo; grand first vice president, George McCullough; grand second vice president, John Cochrane; grand treasurer, Lyman Hunt; grand secretary, W. A. Collier; grand chaplain, W. E. Rice; grand warden, George Tebo; grand marshal, C. EK. Benham; grand sentinel, Charles Weeks. The newly-elected officers were installed at a short session held Thursday morning, after which the grand lodge adjourned. The Shipmasters’ Association has lost eight members during the year, five of them by shipwreck. Fifty new members were adinitted during the year. Officers of the Toledo lodge, Shipmasters’ Association elected recently, are: President, T.. C. Herrick; first vice president, William Lever; second vice president, D. Stalker; treasurer, Charles Hubbard; financial secre- tary, Al. Fitts; recording secretary, EK. G. Ashley. Capt. Ed. Thorp is now at the head of the Buffalo ‘branch of the Shipmasters’ Association. TEED ea THE DRY DOCK ASSOCIATION. The annual meeting of the Dry Dock Association of the Great Lakes was held at Milwaukee Wednesday. There were present Geo. lL. Quayle, of the Ship Owners’ Dry Dock Co., and Frank Wright, of the Cleveland Dry Dock Co.; Edward Gaskin, of the Union Dry Dock Co.; J. K. Davidson, of the Bay City Dry Dock Co.; Thomas K. Miller, of Miller Bros.’ Dry Dock; John Fitzgerald, H. J. Mills, of the Mills Dry Dock Co.; W. R. Fitzgerald, of the Milwaukee Dry Dock Co. The dry docks of the American Steel Barge Co., of Superior; of Dunford & Alverson, of Port Huron; and of H. H. & G. Burger, of Manitowoc, were represented by proxy. George E. Quayle, of Cleveland, was chosen president for the year; W. EE. Fitzgerald, of Milwaukee, vice president; and H. J. Mills, of Buffalo, secretary and treasurer. The con- vention adopted the schedule of rates of last year and adjourned.