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go Savasg9 s (ESTABLISHED 1878.) PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY BY THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., GEORGE L. SMITH, President. ere ee ee CLEVELAND, CHICAGO, WESTERN RESERVE BUILDING, ROYAL INSURANCE BUILDING, FOURTH FLOOR. cha! ROOM 308. GE. RUSKIN, MANAGER. W. L. McCormick, ; EDITOR. _ THomas WILLIAMs, Chicago, ASSOCIATE. SUBSCRIPTION. One copy, one year, postage paid, $2.00. One copy, one year, to foreign countries, $3.00. Invariably in advance. ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. All ‘communications should be addressed to the Cleveland office. THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING Co., FOURTH FLOOR, WESTERN RESERVE BUILDING, CLEVELAND. Entered at Cleveland Postoffice as Second-Class Mail Matter. 2 ————————— CLEVELAND, O., MAY 7, 1896. eee Tu manner in which United States engineers on the Great Lakes are laying out unexpended money placed at their disposal by former appropriations indicates their firm faith in the passage of the pending bill. The money _ is being used on structures planned for permanency, in- stead of on the shifty, piecemeal systems to which the en- gineers have for years been compelled to resort. The real economy of the continuous contract system will be shown more clearly than ever before the next fiscal year is ended. The money is placed in the hands of men who are by condition and training superior to party and pol- ities, and thus in. safer care than most appropriations have the good luck to enjoy. od ee Tue ice at Buffalo has done much to prove the truth of the claim put forward by the United States engineers and others who favor the construction of a dam at the _ foot of Lake Erie. The ice gorged at the head of Niagara River, and backed the water up so as to meterially relieve the situation in Buffalo harbor. It als) indicates that the proposed dam should be of a crescent shape, and that it should come out to Horseshoe Reef in the center. The dam would be a little longer, but would be all the more solid, and perhaps less expensive to construct. Any locks or weir gates should be on the Canadian side, go as to provide abundant protection for Squaw Island and the Black Rock regions. The Canadian shore is somewhat higher, and not subject to the disasterous floods which occured on the Buffalo side last fall. rE ee THE system of managing fleets on an economical basis is being reduced to an art. Two supply stores have been established at the Sault Canal by Pickands, Mather & Co., from one of which the ships of the various fleets under their control are furnished with groceries and other eatables. At the other store are obtained supplies of cordage and other necessities of the ship chandlery order. The place is most convenient for putting such supplies on board the boats without delay and while pur- chases will be made as usual at the port of cheapest sup- ply, they will be bought in large bulk, and transported to the supply stores by the company’s boats without any freight charges except for handling. It is probable, that in addition to the greater convenience of the system, a saving of at least 40 per cent will thus be effected. This arrangement, with the company’s well. known sys- tem of fueling stations and scows along the route, re- duces operating expenses toa minmium. The boats which will primarily enjoy the benefits of are about 63 in num ber, employing nearly 1,100 men, and the supply station will probably in time become self-supporting, so far as operation is concerned, by dealing with outside boats. THE MARINE RECORD. SIGNALLING IN THICK WEATHER. The select Committee of the House of Commons has finally compiled its report on the rules of the road at sea, adopted by the International Maritime Conference, held at Washington. There has been, as everyone knows, a great deal of hesitancy shown by Great Britain and Germany in officially approving these international rules, particularly Article 15, prescribing signals for all vessels under way. From the majority report of the committee it would seem that the chief objection on the part of ship owners of Great Britain has been that they thought they had not been consulted frequently enough. The report states that the Royal Navy officers who had been examined were unitedly iu favor of the adoption of the new rules, though expressing at the same time a wish to to simplify them and reduce their number, if that could be effected by international arrangement. They advised that it was unnecessary to have separate signals for a vessel towing, a telegraph ship, and aship not under com- mand, but that one signal might be economically used for all these three cases, inasmuch as the special precau- tions in passing ships so situated would systematically be the same. ‘‘We consider,” says the report, ‘‘that the opposition to any new rules at all is, to some extent, to be accounted for by the fact that the feeling appears to exist in ship- owning circles that they ought to have been more fully consulted before the Board of Trade committed itself to an approval of the scheme. * * * It becomes theduty of your committee, under the circumstances, to ascertain — and judge for themselves of the grounds upon which the objections rested; and though the matter is one in which the utmost respect should be paid to expert opin- ion, it was possible * * * for persons not possessing special knowledge to form upon this, as on other tech- nical subjects, a definite judgment of their own.” While the rules for the Great Lakes form a code en- tirely separate from those under discussion, the two are based upon identical principles, and the subject of sig- nals of acommunicating character in fog was very widely and so warmly discussed just before the enact- ment of the White law—while, in fact, that bill was being drafted.. ‘he British committee reports that those who favor the new rules urged that under the present rules there is no provision for vessels in a fog, situated in posi- tions of exceptional difficulty, conveying the nature of that difficulty to other vessels. Such is the case with vessels anchored ina fairway, or vessels towing other ships, vessels not under command, or vessels laying cable. The committee was informed that the use of some spec- ial sound signal for the use of a vessel placed in a position of exceptional difficulty would be desirable. “Upon the other hand,” says the committee, “the ob- jection pressed upon us may be grouped as follows: 1. That masters and officers might find difficulty in acquiring a sufficient familiarity with the new rules to be able to apply them on the spur of the moment in an emergency. 2. That, in cases where a large number of vessels are close together in a fog, the number and variety of sound signals will perplex the officer on the bridge. 3. That, notwithstanding the rule to the contrary, navigating officers would be encouraged by these new rules to run rapidly in a fog, because, in their desire to make fast passages they would be tempted to rely on the sound signals. 4, That all sound signals are liable to be deceptive in a fog,from the impossibility of determining with accuracy from what point of the compass the sound proceeds. 5. That inasmuch as the new signals consist of various combinations of long and _ short blasts, coupled in one case with the ringing of a bell, it would be possible that signals from two or more different vessels might be heard together or so following one another as to cause a listener to mistake entirely the signal given. That, owing to this, confusion would arise, and that confusion necessarly means an increase of danger. The committee, acting as a non-technical jury to judge of and reconcile the varying opinions of experts, pro- ceeds to set aside the objections, which it says, “are founded partly upon apprehensions which all persons of good sense are equally capable of appraising.” This seems to mean that the fears are treated as those of per- sons who crawl under their beds during a thunder storm, or seek their cellars when an unusually dark cloud ap- pears in the sky. The committee, therefore, coolly sits down on their objections as follows: ‘¢ We do not think there will be any difficulty in learn- ing and practically using the the new rules; no difficulty arises in learning and applying other far more difficult rules. Nor do we think navigating officers would be tempted by the new ruJes to proceed more rapidly ina ge fog. If they do s», it’ must be because a mastery of these rules would impart to them a sense of greater security which seems hardly consistent with the earlier objection. But, in fact, any such attempt would be in violation of another rule, Art. 14, which embodies the practice of all prudent seamen. There seems to be no doubt that sounds are deceptive in a fog, particularly when land is close; itis not so clear whether they are equally deceptive in the open sea. Also, there is no doubt that there would be confusion if a number of ves- sels were sounding different signals at the same time, and it is possible that one sound might run into the other and cause a misunderstanding. ‘The point is whether such a state of circumstances would increase the danger. We do not consider that it would. Under the present rules when there is a crowd of vessels in a fog, all of them sound their signals quite as loud and long and often as they would under the new rules, but at present there is only one signal for fogs, which conveys nothing but that a ship is in the neighborhood, and an indication, more or less reliable, of the direction in which she is. Under the present rules an officer on the bridge, hearing the signals of fifteen or twenty-five vessels close to him should, undoubtedly, stop his vessel. Exactly the same thing would be his duty under the newrules. Upon the other hand, when two vessels are alone in a fog, or so small a number of vessels are together that their sig- nals can be distinguished, the addition of the new rules would prove very useful.” Two members of the committee, however, have sub- _— mitted minority reports; one is Sir George Baden- Powell, who suggests that masters who do not habitually sail in regions of frequent fog would be likely to grow rusty upon such an extended code, and would be uuder the necessity of referring to printed instructions at crit- ical moments; also that it will be difficult t» dis- tinguish between the separate signals with certainty, on account of similarity in tone, and that in freezing weath- er it would be hard to distinguish between long and shoit blasts.. When aman has also the management of his own ship on his mind, he is at a dlsadvantage as com- pared with a trained signal officer on a naval vessel. It must be admitted, even by its best friends and ad- vocates, that the plan of establishing such an uncertain means of telegraphing in fog involves chances which.are likely at times to develop into -great risks. The objec; — tion that the mas‘er who is obliged to hurry may oftenle tempted to make too liberal an interpretation of signals as he thinks he hears them, is certainly a very forcible one, and is by no means overthrown by-the committee’s comment that he must of necessity come under Art. 14 at once. The old rules gave a waster no discretion; whereas under the new rules, he is given more latitude in judging of danger, and circumstances would often occur when a master, in his his desire for fast time, would be tempted to ‘“‘take a chance.” Then, in case of collision, the master, when on the stand, would testify that he heard asignal which masters of all steamers in the vicinity deny having blown. The courts would be put to their wits’ end, because one master could not be blamed for moving on asignal which proved to have been the combination of whistles blown from two vessels. When a master hears plain fog signals, he must stop or move very closely, but fog belts will in all probability gen- erate some marvelous combinations when the new code ~ comes into use in thick weather on crowded waters. emo ae GENERAL COUNSEL Harvey D. Goulder, of the Lake Carriers’ Association, has drawn up a masterly brief in opposition to the adoption of the Woodman and Mahany bills forbidding the employment of alien seamen, firemen, deckhands, etc. He points out that the Great Lakes are not interior waters, but a part of the country’s boundary, and gives many excellent reasons for showing that recipro- city, and not high protection, should be our policy with Canada. Laws enacted in this country, and especial relating to foreign vessel property, are not perceptibly felt by Canada, while the same laws, enacted by the Dominion, with reference to the United States tonnage, prove a serious hardship. This shows fhat it is to the interest of both countries to co-operate rather than to throw obstacles in each other’s path. Broad and liberal views on.all questions affecting international commerce should be the policy hereafter to rule. — 22 — Atlantic coast sailors are demanding higher wages ta long voyages. :