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JO THE MARINE RECORD. ENGLAND TAKES SOME EXCEPTIONS. The London Times, in its issue of May 9, says: Mr. Ritchie, president of the Board of Trade, yesterday re- ceived a deputation representing the principal shipping organizations in London and at the outports on the subject of the sound signals for fog proposed in the Rules of the Road at Sea as formulated at the Washing- ton International Marine Conference. The following bodies were represented: Liverpool Steamship Owners’ Association, Liverpool Shipowners’ Association, Mer- cantile Marine Service Association, Clyde Steamship Owners’ Association, Glasgow Shipowners’ Society, Chamber of Shipping of the United Kingdom, Shipping Federation, Shipmasters’ Society, London, Shipmas- ters’ and Officers’ Federation, London Shipping Ex- change (Sir Donald Currie, M. P.), Lloyd’s, together with Sir G. Baden-Powell, M. P., and Mr. Cayzer, M. P. After hearing the deputation in private. the presi- dent announced that the Board of Trade had decided to abolish regulation g, ‘‘A steam-vessel wishing to indi- cate to another ‘the way is off my vessel; you may feel your way past me,’ may sound three blasts in succes- sion—namely, short, long, short—with intervals of about one second between them.” Regulations /, 4, andzwould be amalgamated, as they would read to- gether as follows: ‘‘/ A vessel when towing, a vessel employed in laying or in picking up a telegraph cable, and a vessel under way which is unable to manoeuvre as required by these rules shall, instead of the signals prescribed in subdivisions 4 and ¢ of this article, at in- tervals of not more than 2 minutes sound three blasts in succession—namely, one prolonged blast followed by two short blasts. A vessel towed may give this signal, and she shall not give any other.’’ Mr. Ritchie further intimated that he was carefully considering, with a view either to its amendment or withdrawal, regulation é, which, as proposed in the final Act, stood as follows: ‘A vessel at anchor at sea, when not in ordinary anchor- age ground, and when in such a position as to be an ob- struction to vessels under way, shall sound, if a steam- vessel, at intervals of not less than two minutes, two prolonged blasts with her whistle or siren, followed by ringing her bell; or, if a sailing vessel, at intervals of not more than one minute, two blasts with her fog horn, followed by ringing her bell.’ If Congress should _ agree to the changes thus proposed it will be necessary to pass a bill through both branches of the American legislature before adjournment, which will take place towards the end of the present month. _ Fairplay comments upon this finding as follows: “Beyond the fact that the deputation was one of the most representative of shipping that could possibly be convened, the general public will probably consider the further particulars not very interesting, and will wonder why shipowners should object to the Board of Trade or Parliament fitting them out with nice ready- made alphabetical blast and siren signals, with bells and drums thrown in as occasion may require, all beautifully Americanized .and thoroughly up to date. But then the general public does not know that each separate signal means a separate extra risk of liability for shipowners in case of collision, nor that the British shipowners’ personal liability amounts to £15 per ton, while the foreign shipowners’—including Venezuelans, —personal liability amounts to nothing. That is where the hideous joke comes in. Let us remember that British subjects own half the tonnage of the world,a consideration which our legislators calmly ignored when they allowed this country to go into the Washing- ton Conference on equal terms with twenty other na- tions, all of whom together only totalled the remaining half, and some of which had not as many ships as single British firms might have. “One of the six new signals then proposed at Wash- ington, g, is positively dangerous, all are confusing, none are conducive to safety, and yet the British ship- owner, with his heavy liability, was to be saddled with these extra risks, well knowing that the failure of his officers to remember all or any of them at the right time would make him responsible in damages. ‘This is not fair poker. ‘The foreigner, who has few ships and no personal responsibility, cares very little how many extra signals are proposed; he is sharp enough to see that the Britisher with the liability must take the risk and run the worst chance, which for the foreign com- petitor is good business, The International Conference was held on that great continent which overflows with legions of fearless inventors, whose wonderful instru- ments will produce long and short blasts to indicate every point of the compass. But in moments of emer- gency the average nautical brain is unable to think in 32 varieties of long and short blasts, and the British shipowner, knowing this, is apt to add an additional blast of his own invention. “Mr. Ritchie and the naval advisers of the Board fenced with the nautical talent present at the meeting, but failed to convince any one. Signal g was quickly abandoned, and had the remaining five been merely voluntary or experimental, the Board would have hada fair case; for it is difficult to argue against the sugges- tion that hearing a lot of unintelligible signals all going at once should at any rate not induce less caution than hearing the signals now in use. It is different, how- ever, when the six extra signals are to be compulsory; six more chances of making a mistake are involved, which, though it might not cause the accident, would mean damages. A voluntary signal is one thing, and means very little; a compulsory signal is quite another “thing, and means a great deal when a £15 per ton lia- bility hangs upon it. When the president rose to leave, neither party was convinced, and the discussion had suddenly drifted into the consideration of the compara- tive merits of bells and blasts, and some one suggested that the Board of Trade should enforce a standard bell of equal size and tone for Atlantic liners or coasting schooners. The permanent officials seemed to welcome the idea, and as any tampering with the bells also im- plies tuning gongs, and Turkish kettle-drums, the de- partment is likely to have a musical time of it. ‘“The only hopeful feature of the whole business is the evident desire of the President of the Board of Trade to consult (albeit at the eleventh hour) those who are principally interested, and who know most about the matter. Had a shipping council existed, Parliament would at least have been advised against going into a conference blindfold and on unequal terms, with the natural result that British shipowners, on whom the commerce, prosperity, and safety of the country de- pend, are to be saddled with fresh liabilities. Load- lines, squinting lights, mixed signals, life-saving toy boats, and manning scales are a few of the impositions with which Parliament loves to fetter British shipping . enterprise, until the only thing a prudent shipowner has to do is to sell his ship to the foreigner; and that he is doing ‘hand over fist.’ ”’ Upon learning of the report of the Board of Trade, the Liverpool Ship Owners’ Association issued a pam- phlet expressing itself as opposed to the compromise, and asserting that the owners are still convinced that the new signals are “‘unreliable, dangerous, and likely to result in disaster.’’ The report proceeds to criticise the signals which the Board of Trade propose to retain, condemning 4 as misleading, ¢ (if retained) as unani- mously objected to by the British mercantile marine, and the proposed new signal fas likely to serve no prac- tical purpose and to be confusing. They express them- selves as satisfied that safety can be obtained only by the use of the simplest signals, and that itis of the ut- most importance to minimize the number of sounds used in fog to the smallest number possible. ee TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL NOTES. The Penberthy Injector Co. on May 12th completed the one hundred thousandth ‘‘Penberthy”’ injector man- ufactured at their Detroit factory. In honor of this event, the company intend giving their employes a hol- iday and excursion a little later in the summer. The MacKinnon Manufacturing Co. are having a great run on their patent steamboat wheels. Five have already been shipped this week, and orders for several more are on hand.—Bay City Tribune. The Bucyrus Steam Shovel and Dredge Co., of South Milwaukee, Wis., has received an order for the third hydraulic dredge to be used between Cairo and Vicks- burg, on the Mississippi River. The boat which carries the machinery is to be 138 feet in length by 38 feet beam and 8 feet deep. The hull willbe of steel. The engines will be of 800 horse-power, and will drive a centrifugal pump having suction and discharge 34 inches in diam- eter. Theestimated capacity of the machine is 2,500 cubic feet per hour. The suction is arranged to cuta channel of 35 feet in width at one cut, and the discharge is 1,000 feet in length and carried on floats, The maxi- mum depth of cut the machine will take is 15 feet, Steam is furnished by six externally fired marine re- turn flue boilers. The work these dredges are employed in isthat of cutting out sand bars which form each year across the channel of the Mississippi. Between Cairo and Vicksburg there are thirty-three of these, ranging» The width of the chan-. in width from 400 to 2,400 feet. nel cut is from 100 to 250 feet. The dredges formerly built for this service by the Bucyrus people have been wonderfully successful, and the placing of this order is the result of the satisfaction they have given to the government engineers. \ oD re —eEE : H.G. Trout, Buffalo:—The wheels recently ordered were for the ocean going tug Luckenbach, the steamer Lucy, and the U. S. engineer steamer Lucerne. The engineers of the boats speak in the highest terms of the results atained, and I am sure that these boats will never swing any other than the “Trout” wheel. Wish- ing you much success, we remain, Yours truly, CuHas. A. MCLEAN, Mgr., ElizabethIron Works, Norfolk, Va. PROPOSALS. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Office of General Superintendent U. S. Life-Sav- ing Service, Washington, D. C., May 28, 1896. Sealed proposals will be received at this office until 2 o’clock p. m. of Wednesday, the 24th day of June, 1896, for furnishing supplies required for use of the Life-Saving Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897; the supplies to be delivered at stich points in New York City, Grand Haven, Mich., and San Francisco, Cal., as may be required, and in the quantities named in the specifica- tions. The supplies needed consist of beds and bedding, blocks and sheaves, cordage, crockery, furniture, hardware, lamps, lanterns, etc.; lumber, medicines, etc.; paints, oils, etc.; ship chandlery, stoves, etc.; tools and miscellaneous ar- ticles; all of which are enumerated in the specifications attached to the form of bid, etc., which may be obtained upon application to this office, or to the In- spector of Life-Saving Stations, 24 State Street, New York City; Superintendent Bleventh Life-Saving District, Grand - Haven, Mich.; and Superintendent Twelfth Life-Saving District, New Ap- praisers’ Stores, San Francisco, Cal. Envelopes containing proposals should be addressed to the ‘‘General Superin- tendent U. S. Life-Saving Service, Washington, D. C.,’”’ and marked on the outside ‘‘ Proposal for Annual Supplies.” The right is reserved to reject any or all bids, and to waive defects, if deemed for the interests of the government. S. I. KimBaLy, General Superintendent. 23-24 U.S. ENGINEER OFFICE, 1637 Indiana Ave , Chicago, Ill., May 26, 1896. Sealed proposals for dredging at entrance to Calumet Harbor, Ill., will be received here until 12, noon, ‘June 9, 1896, and then publicly opened. Information fur- nished on application, W. lL. MARSHALL, Maj. Engineers. 22-23 ~ U.S. ENGINEER OFFICE, 213 Woodward Ave., Detroit, Mich., May 19, 1895. Seal- ed proposals for furnishing all labor, materials and appliances for (EK) widen-. ing channel below Islands at Little Rapids; (F) widening channel at angle, foot of Hay Lake; and (G) widening channel from dike to angle at Little Mud Lake, will be received here until 2 p. m., June 18, 1896, and then publicly opened. Information furnished on ap- plication. G. J. LypEcKER, Lieut. Col. Engineers. 21-24 OFFICE OF THE LIGHTHOUSE ENGI- NEER, 7TH AND 81TH DistTRIctTS, 349 Caron- delet Street, New Orleans, La., May 11, 1896. Proposals for the erection of eight square and seven triangular bea- cons for lighting the Mobile Ship Chan- nel, Ala., will be received at this office until 12 o’clock M. June 8, 1896, and then publicly opened. Forms of proposals, plans and specifications showing what is required, can be had or seen by ap- plying to this office. James B. QUINN, Major and Lighthouse Engineer, 21-24 PO eae AS MANN I eo ORS NLT OLY POPES PROT SON SE eh! 4 2 Sy i eee i: SY Nebel Aen ray Con DS fet Ny cet eS Bye *