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oe te eee ee a Po VOL. X/X. NO. 21. CLEVELAND-—MAY 21, 1896—CHICAGO. $2 PER YEAR. 10c. SINGLE COPY. THE CITY OF BUFFALO’S INITIAL TRIP. The new sidewheel steamer City of Buffalo made her initial trip very successfully last week. Mayor Jewett and party, from Buffalo, made the trip to De- ‘troit by train, and the Cleveland contingent went over by boat, all arriving there Thursday morning. The colors were attached to their halyards at each of the flagstaffs, and a man was stationed at each. The pre- sentation party from Buffalo, and the directors of the C. & B. Co. gathered at the after end of the boat on the promenade deck, and Mayor Jewett formally presented the colors on behalf of the city of Buffalo to her beau- tiful namesake. They were accepted for the steamer by Gen. Mngr. T. F. Newman, who at the close of the speech-making, gave a signal to Commodore George W. Gardner, who stood abreast the big walking-beam. The commodore raised his cap, Capt. Edwards, on the bridge, gave the word, aud all the flags were run up simultane- ously. At the same instant the lines were cast off, and the big steamer fairly shot out into the stream. She made an excellent trip acercss to Cleveland, and was met outside by the steamer State of New York witha large delegation from the Cleveland Commercial ‘Trav- elers’ Association on board. The City of Buffalo was royally greeted as she entered the harbor. She pro- ceeded directly to her dock and took on some freight, afterwards moving across the river to take on her fuel. About midnight, when the guests had assembled on the dock, Capt. Edwards brought her across the stream again by means of her own power—a very neat accomp- lishment with so large a vessel. She left an hour later with about 300 guests on board and made an easy trip to Buffalo. A late departure from Cleveland had been arranged, in order that Buffalo might not be reached at too early an hour, and in this the boat succeeded perfectly. A loose key caused a stop which meant considerable de- lay, but the big steamer reached Buffalo just at the noon hour. The docks from the mouth of the creek to the C. & B. dock were black with howling humanity, whose cheers were drowned by the din of the whistles. Gen. Mngr. Newman, as the boat touched the dock, called for three cheers and a tiger for Mr. H. S. Fisher, general agent of the line at Buffalo, and his call was responded to with great enthusiasm. _ Some Buffalo newspaper man, whose eyes were evi- dently somewhat dazzled, remarked next morning that the looseness of the machinery caused considerable vibration of the steamer. Asa matter of fact there are few boats that have so little motion as the City of Buffalo. By reason of her great power and the rigidity of her feathering paddles the ‘‘push,’’ which occurs when the connecting rod moves downward is almost imperceptible on this boat, and vibration is reduced to a minimum for the same reason. The machinery is rapidly smoothing down into fine working order, and it is expected that she will develop 22 miles per kour. About 2,000 Buffalo people enjoyed a lake ride in the afternoon, and several times that number looked over the boat during ‘he evening as she lay at her dock. About 300 guests from Buffalo and the East came to Cleveland on the return trip. ‘The steamer behaved splendidly on her way up, making the run in nine hours and three minutes. Mr. Thomas Fitzpatrick, the well-known vessel owner, who was formerly engineer of the steamer Western Metropolis, stated that this broke the record by just two minutes, 9:05 being the best record of that crack boat, in spite of the fact that it has been stated within the week that the Western Metropolis had made a record of 8:35. After a lake ride out of Cleveland, tendered especially to the Cleve- land Chamber of Commerce, at which some very enter- taining and instructive speech making was done, the City of Buffalo went regularly into commission on Saturday night, returning with the Buffalo guests, and making the trip in 8:40. In referring to past time in olden days, it is not out of place, in recalling the palmy days of steam boating, when the Western Metropolis was in the height of her glory, to give a short sketch of this crude steamer. She was built in 1856, at Buffalo, by Bidwell, Banta & Co., and measured 34 feet over all by 40 feet beam and 18 feet depth, with a tonnage of 1860. She had a beam engine, built by Merrick & Towne, Philadelphia, with a diameter of 76% inches by 12 feet stroke. Her two boilers were built by the Buffalo Steam Engine Co. and were 12 feet in diameter by 40 feet in length. She had iron paddle wheels 38 feet in diameter. She Western Metropolis was built torun on Lake Erie between Buf- falo and Toledo, in conne-tion with the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad. She after- wards ran out of Cleveland, but only for a short time, W. F. HERMAN. General Passenger Agent C. & B. Line. and in 1862 was dismantled and converted into a bark. Her engine, which had previously been in the lake steamer Empire State, was taken to the Atlantic coast, and placed in a steamship also called the Western Metropolis. Asa bark the Western Metropolis carried 5,000 yards of canvas, and was never beaten by any sailing craft. She had a cargo capacity of 65,000 bushels of grain. She was lost on Lake Michigan in 1864. The success of the several complimentary trips was due to the efforts and good judgment of the officers of the line. Mr. Newman, Mr. Herman, Mr. Rogers and the entire clerical force having been kept busy for weeks before the start was made. Of these three, two are very well known to the marine fraternity, and need no further introduction here. Gen. Pass. Agent W. F. Herman has spent most of his career with the railroads, but was appointed gen- eral passenger agent of the Cleveland & Buffalo line ‘sentative of the Union Pacific. when that office was created. He was born in Hamil- ton, Can., and began his railroad life in 1870 with the Great Western road, as it was then known. He re- mained with this company seven years in the operating and purchasing agent’s department, and then came over into the United States, taking a position with Gen. Passenger Agent James Charlton, of the Chicago & Alton. He was afterwards connected with the Burling- ton road, and later became private secretary to George H. Daniels—now passenger agent of the New York Central—when that gentleman was with the Wabash railroad. He accompanied Mr. Daniels in his changes to the lowa Trunk Line and the Colorado Pool, with headquarters at Denver. a Mr. Herman came to Cleveland in 1884 as the repre- He later looked after the interests of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western, and then becamecontracting agent for the Great North- ern Railroad. Mr. Herman’s natural abilities, with the training he received through association with Mr. Charltonand Mr. Daniels, who are still recognized as two of the leading passenger men of the country, have enabled him to be of the greatest service to the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co. He hasa wide acquaintance among both passenger and freight men, and his personal popularity has served to augment considerably the business of the steamer line, which is so large that the advent of the new City of Buffalo will only serve to enable the boats of the line to take care of the business expected this season, without counting on any increase of traffic for the future. It is, of coarse, recognized by all that the necessity will soon arise for a steamer which shall te as large and powerful as the City of Buffalo, to take the place of the State of Ohio upon the route. The astonishing amount of business created in the few years during which the company has operated is certainly a sufficient evidence of the ability of all connected with it, and this cer- tainly includes the capacity and efforts of General Freight Agent H. S. Rogers, who is a steamboat man by birth, education, and prejudice, and who has more friends and admirers than he could enumerate ina long time. rr ee 2 cr It may not be generally known that, in spite of the boasted ability of the officers of British ships, the stiff examinations for masters’ and mates’ certificates, etc., there is stilla large fleet of British seagoing vessels which do not require certificated officers at all. These are what are called the home trade cargo vessels. Al- though the British Board of Trade has imposed an examination test upon the skippers even of English fishing vessels, it is still the fact that a steamer or sail- ing ship of any tonnage, large or small, carrying only cargo, and not passengers, and confining its trade to the coasts of Great Britain and the continental ports between Brest and Elbe, may be in charge of men to whom no test of efficiency, is applied, who may be inca- pable of distinguishing a green light from ared one,and who may be profoundly igrorant of the regulations for the prevention of collisions at sea. Such men are in charge of vessels like the Crathie, that ran down and sank the North German Lloyd steamship Elbe a year ago, with the loss of nearly 400 lives.—Marine Journal. qu aa The Bureau Veritas, represented on the Great Lakes by Capt. F. D. Herriman, Chicago, has just issued some very conveniently arranged tables of equivalents of French and English measures of length, and of the weights of steel plates. The figures are very clearly printed on good paper.