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Lake Carriers’ Association. IF TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CONSOLIDATED : ORGANIZATION. { MOST PROSPEROUS YEAR IN THE HISTORY OF THE AS- SOCIATION—SHIPPING OFFICES—GRAIN SHOVELING AND FUELING REFORMS— PROCEEDINGS IN DETAIL. At 10:40 a. m. Wednesday, President Wm. Livingstone called the annual meeting of the Lake Carriers’ Asso- tiation to order, in the Conservatory of Music, stating that the hall had been selected in order that the associa” tion might go into executive session when necessary. He shen made a short speech ot welcome, saying that the closing year had shown the largest tonnage member- “ship in the history of the association. He invited a full and free discussion of the Detroit River bridge and other important questions. He referred in a touching manner to the death of Gen. O. M. Poe,and said there was no one present but was fully aware of his untiring efforts and his unswerving loyalty tolake commerce. It seemed to him fitting that the association should take some ac- “tion before adjournment toward placing some sort of a memorial showing appreciation and gratitude. Mr. Goulder then moved that action relative to the death of Gen. Poe be made a special order of business for 10 o’clock Thursday morning, when Gen. Alger would oo probably address the association. Secretary Keep then read his annual report. ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS. ee NONNAGE OF THE ASSOCIATION. The membership of the association shows a very gratifying increase during the year which is just clos- 3 ing. For the year ending March 31, 1895, the tonnage of the association was 590,136 tons For the current -_year the tonnage is 617,880 tons This isan increase of ~ nearly 30.000 tons, and the figures for the present year are the largest in the history of the association. Out- _ side of the railroad ferry linesand passenger lines which operate in certain localities where they do not share to any great extent in the benefits afforded by membership in the association, there are not 20 important vessels on the Great Lakes which are not now on our rolls. The -- Board of Managers is much gratified at this showing and feels that it affords a conclusive proof that the asso- ciation is accomplishing valuable results. FINANCES OF THE ASSOCIATION. The annual dues for the current year remain at three cents per net registered ton, to which figure they were reduced at the annual meeting in 1894. The treasurer’s report, which is submitted herewith, shows that these dues have been well paid up, but that the income of the association has not been quite sufficient to meet all ex- penses. It is not necessary to review the treasurer’s re- -port-in detail. It is enough to say that the uncollected ues which his statement shows as $462.99 have been re- duced by later payments to a little over $200, most of which will probably be collected, and that there is now a balance of about $850 in the treasury which will nearly provide for existing liabilities. Mvery year here- _ tofore the treasurer has been compelled to borrow money at some time between the annual meeting and the first of May to meet the expenses incurred during the winter and before the new dues were paid in. We had hoped that this year we should not be compelled to do this, but the statement submitted shows that a small sum will have'to be borrowed to tide over the interval until the - income of the coming year is available. In 1894 the ex- - penses of the association ‘were quite rigorously cut and decided economies have been inforce ever since. ‘The current year has also, like the previous year, been com- paratively fre: from extraordinary and unforseen ex- penses. The very low stage of water, however, com- pelled'the association to establish some additional lights in the vicinity of Ballard’s Reef and at other points in the Detroit river, and these increased the expense of ' private 1 ghting beyond the estimates. Aside from this, all expenses have been kept down to the lowest estimated requirements. hea OPERATIONS OF THE SHIPPING OFFICES. Shipping offices of the association have been main- tained during the past year at Cleveland, Chicago, South Chicago, Buffalo, Ashtabula and Toledo. The follow ng condensed report taken from the annual re- port of Chief Shipping Master Rumsey shows the num- ber of men placed on board vessels atreach of these points ~ as follows. There have been no complaints from mem- bers of unsatisfactory service at any of the shipping - offices: Preon boata at Cleveland: 5 ..0.0 008 oe ee 2,871 Sent from Cleveland to other ports................ 530 Pit Ore DOa MI AUC NICAP Oe ie 2S oie Ss beiela oa 5 aye’ 2,861 Sent from Chicago to other ports.................. 112 * Put on board at South Chicago..:................ 2,494 Put on board at Buftalo and Tonawanda.......... 2,300 {Put Of DOATG at ASitaDilla: 2% yes ce ee cae 1,892 Sent from Ashtabula to other ports................ 160 Pet ON DOAEC AL EOLCUO sc... e ee Cec cree we tees 755 Motel. ok: ee es cons 13,975 THE MARINE RECORD. The total number of men shipped during the past sea- son shows an increase of 3,919 over the season of 1894. This isan increase of 40 per cent and shows that the use of the shipping offices by members is growing very rapidly. The great:st increases in 1895 have been at South Chicago and Buffalo. THE FUELING AGREEMENT. In reviewing the operations of the past year the first place should, perhaps, be given to the important work projected at the la-t annual meeting in reforming the practices prevailing at the port of. Buffalo in supplying steamers with fuel. At last year’s meeting the committee on fueling presented a report which was adopted by the meeting, in which they r: commended that vessel owners on the lakes, whose vessels carried coal cargoes out of Buffalo, should sign an agreement pledging themselves each to the other that under no circumstances would they purchase fuel for their steamers directly or indirectly from any shipper of hard coal. Such an agreement was prejiared and largely signed by those present at the last annual meeting. After the meeting the committee on fueling circulated the contract among vessei owne:s generally and suc- ceeded in securing the signature of so large a propor- tion of the tonnage which is engaged in carrying hard coal out of Buffalo that the plan was declared operative, and all s'gn rs of the agreement were notified. that the necessary tonnage had been secured and that they were expected to live up to the contract in all particulars It was not expected that a victory could be won in this matter without a long and hard fight. The shippers of hard coal and their agents. who nad exacted as a con- dition of charter.ng a vessel to cai ry hard coal that they or some p rson designated by them should have the p ivilege of fueling the vessel at a price 40 or 50 cents above the piice at which soft coal firm, stood ready to furnish the same or better fuei,would not willingly see a practice, so decid: dly for their advantage, go out of ex- istence. Circumstances, however, were on the whole favorable to the vessel owner-. During the early part of the season the movement of yrain to Buffalo was light, so that a comparatively small number of vessels outside the line boats visited that port. There was, therefore, no great competition to secure charters for carrying coal. Later in the year when the grain trade became active, and the number of vessels desiring coal charters became numerous, the requirements of the coal shippers became Jarge and pressing, and the amount of coal to be forwarded w.s tinusually great. In addition to these favoring circumstances, the vessel owners had ° the very great advantage afforded to them by the skill, cre and con tant vigilance exercised in their behalf by Mr. J. J. H. Brown, the Buffalo member of the fueling committee. Capt. Brown was ina position to know ex- actly what was going on in the matter of chartering for coal He kept the closest watch of every phase of the struggle between the vessel owners and the coal shippers and was always on the aert to detect the slightest sign of weakness on the p rt of the vessel, and to keep vessel owners promptly advised of every occur- ence, however slight, which had any bearing on the controversy. The amount of time, patience and skill which he gave to the matter can scarcely be over esti- mated, and the Board of Managers desires to express in its annual report the great obligations of all vessel owners 10 him for the generalship which he showed in conducting this struggle on their behaif. ‘The resu't of this combination of favorable circumstances and_skili- ful leadership was a complete victory on the p:rt of the vessel owners. Du:ing all the latter p rt of the sea-on vessels were freely cha:tered for coal without the slightest pressure put upon them to buy their fuel at any particular place. On the contrary, the vessels fueled where they chose, and ata price far below that prevailing in previous seasons. Good 34 lump coal was placed in the bunkers of s'eamers at from $2 10 to $2.20 per ton, as agains! a price of $2.60 per ton in 1894 for fuel which has been described as “anything that was black.”” It is estimated that the money saving to ves- sel own: rs during ihe season of 1895 in the price of fuel at Buffalo was over $50,000; and it is believed that the exactions which prevailed in the season of 1894 and pre- ceding years have been permanently ended. THE POLICY FOR NEXT VEAR. During the latter part of the past season the hard coal shippers freely offered fuel to vessels at the same price at which it was. furnished by the soft coal dealers, Under the agreement which vessel owners had signed, however, vessels were not free to fuel with the shipper even on the same terms at which fuel was offered by the regu'ar fueling docks, Animportant question to come before the annual meeting this year will be to determine the course to be followed during the season of 1896, Two possible courses'lie open. First, to enter into a new agreement similar to that of last year, whereby vessels bind themselves not to take fuel fromany shipper of hard coal. Second, to raise, what has been called by the hard coal shippers the “‘boycott’? upon them, upon the dis- tinct understanding that vessels shall be free to fuel with the hard coal shipper or with the soft coal firm, as they choose, and that under no circumstances shall the hard coal shipper exact a price for fuel over and above that at which the soft coal firms are ready to furnish it, it being also understood that as soon as there is any indication that the charter of any vessel for hard coal isin any way dependent or conditioned upon her fuel- ing, the agreement of last year shall be revived and all fueling with shippers or their agen's shall cease. GRAIN SHOVELING AT BUFFALO. In 1893 the scale of charges for shoveling grain at the port of Buffalo was as follows:— For steamers: For grain in the hold,.......... For grain between decks, ASO ca hancit § Fcr wet or damaged grain,..... 10,00; 4 "Shit4 $2 ser e8 For sailing vessels, $3.50 per 1000 bushels for grain in good condition, and $10.00 per 1000 for wet and damaged grain. A reduction in these charges was obtained so that in 1894 the rate for shoveling grain in the hold of steamers was reduced irom $400 jer 1000 to $3.75, the other prices remaining as before. The matter of a further reduc- tion of the grain shoveling charges at the port of Buffalo was brought up at the last annual meeting and a committee, of which Capt. J. J Brown, of Buffalo, was chairman, was appointed to see what could be done in the matter. Under the guidance of its chairman this committee adopted and put into operation a plan for shoveling grain at Buffalo which is entirely new and which has proved itseif during the season of navigation just closed a complete success. Before the opening of navigation a contract was $ 400 per 1000 bush. entered into between the Lake Carriers’ Association and. James Kennedy of Buffalo, N. Y , whereby Mr. Kennedy contracted and agreed to do all the shoveling of grain Out of vessels of the association during the season of 1895 at the uniform rate of $3.50 per 1000 bushels, irre- spective of the kind and condition of the grainand of its situation in the vessel, and with no distinction be- tween steam and sail ves-els. In order to show just what has been saved to vessels. under the operation of this contract a statement has been obtained from Mr. Kennedy showing his operations under the contract during the past year. A summary of this statement is as follows: During the past season there was shoveled atthe port of Buffalo 121,225,497 bushels of grain. Of this, 103,225,497 bush ls was grain in good condition carried in the hold of vessels. 15,000,000 bushels was grain in good. condition carried on deck, and 3,000,000 bushels was wet or damaged grain On the grain in good condition, carried in the hold, the charge for shov- eling was $3.50 per 1000 as agajnst $3.75 per 1000 in 1894 and $4.00 per 1000 in 1893. Calculating the saving only for the difference between 1894 and 1895, namely, 25 cents per 1000, the shoveling charges on this grain were reduced under the operations of Mr. Kennedy’s contract $25,806.00. On the grain cartied on deck there wasa saving of $1.00 per 1000, or $15,000.00 in all, and on the wet and damaved grain there was a saving of $6 50 per 1000, or $19,500.00 in all, making a total saving to ves- sels of $60,306.00. This, however, is far from showing the real advantage to vessels derived from this contract. It is conceded that the work of shoveling grain in Ves- sels has never been so satisfactorily performed as dur- ing the past season. In former years it was the prac- tice to stop work prcisely at midnight on Saturday might, even if only a small remnant of grain was left in the vessel. In such cases the process of unloading was finished on the following Monday. During the season just closed it has been the uniform practice to finish unloading all vessels where the process was once begun. This has resulted in a large saving of time to many vessels during the season. In addition to this, the con- tract system of shove ing grain has done away with a numb«r of practices whi'h had grown up in the busi- ness which tended to send vessels having cargoes con- sisting of several different lots of grain toas many dif- ferent elevators. Under the present system much less shifting of vessels during the process of unloading is necessary, and valuable time, as well as tow bills, has been saved. EXTRA PRIVATE LIGHTING AND MARKING OF CHANNELS. Besides maintaining the usual number of private lights on the Canadian side of the Detroit river, the as- t sociation was compelled during the s«ason just .closed, by the extraordinary low stage of the water and the consequent groundings and difficulties experienced by vessels at new points in the Detroit river, to expend about $900.00 extra for additional stakes, buoys and lights. These additional marks were placed under the direction of Capt. George P. McKay, the efficient chair- mat of the Committee on Aids to Navigation ‘The re- sult of establishing them was a large decrease in the number of accidents in their locality and afforded posi- tive proof that exactly the right thing had been done. On August 20th, 1895, Capt. McKay superintended the placing of the following marks: A black stake on Briton shoal; a float light on the foot of Bois Blanc Island; a float light on Boston shoal; a float light on New York shoal; a fleat light and black staKe directly opposite Amherstburg, Ont. On the 21st of October, 1895, Capt. McKay placed six float lights and six black stakes and one red stake between Limekiln Crossing and Ballard’s Reef. On the night of October 20th, just previous to Capt. McKay’s arrival at this point the steamer Waldo Avery had struck there and was leaking badly The steamer John Craig was sunk, and several others had experienced trouble. Capt. McKay was obliged to act promptly in the matter to avoid further disasters. and the stakes and lights above referred to were «rdered placed by him on his own atthority. This result was as beneficial to the underwriters as tothe vessel owners, and the underwriters will be asked to share the extra expense with the Lake Carriers’ Association. NEW AIDS TO NAVIGATION. In October, 1895, the president and the secretary of