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THE MARINE RECORD. a) SHIP BUILDING AND REPAIRS. NEARLY READY TO FLOAT. Several more of the new ships building for the Besse- mer Steamship Co. are about ready to put into the water. The launch of the steamer Sir William Siemens, sister ship to the Sir Henry Bessemer, will occur at the Globe shipyard next Saturday, the 25th inst, at 10:30 a. m. The Sir William Fairbairn, the first of the two steamers building for the same company at the Wyan- dotte yard of the Detroit Dry-dock Co., will probably be launched on Saturday, August 1. Her sister ship, the Robert Fulton, will be launched afew weeks later. Mr. F. A. Kirby, of the Wyandotte yard, is to take a trip through foreign shipyards soon. The steamer Senator is ready for delivery to her owners this week. Capt. James Davidson, of West Bay City, expects to launch very soon the larger of the two wooden steamers which he is building on his own account. He has a tug in frame which he is building for himself, and another for Capt. B. B. Inman, of Duluth. Work at the yard of F. W. Wheeler & Co., West Bay City, has been impeded by the strike of their emloyes. After waiting a reasonable length of time for the men to return to work, the company has posted notices that the establishment will be known hereafter as strictly non-union, and the men must return to work on that basis or not at all. The steam yacht which is being built for Mr. Eugene Higgins, of New York, was launched Tuesday afternoon of last week at Glasgow, Scotland. The craft, whichis to be the most sumptuous of its kind afloat, and to cost. $100,000, is to be of 1,500 tons register, and to have a guaranteed speed of 16% knots an hour. Mr. Higgins is a member of the New York Yacht Club, and owner of the twin-screw steam yacht Varuna. Dunbar & Sullivan, of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., have declared their political sentiments by christening their new steel scow Gold Standard. The scow was launched on Tuesday of last week. She has a capacity of 228 cubic yards, and is the second of this kind built by the _ firm. She measures 89 feetin length by 25 feet 4 inches in breadth and 1144 feet in depth. She was at once placed in commission. The steamer Joseph L, Colby was put together in time for launching at Ogdensburg Saturday, after her trip up the St. Lawrence. She took on fuel in Cleveland Wednesday and continued on her way up the lakes light to Duluth. + i es CONTRACT FOR A NEW FIREBOAT. The City of Milwaukee has awarded the contract for building its new fireboat to Rieboldt, Wolter & Co., of Sturgeon Bay, who have already laid the boat down. She will be 107 feet long over all by 24 feet beam and 11 feet molded depth. She will be built entirely of Wisconsin oak of the finest quality, cut in the vicinity of New London, Wis., aud the bottom will be sheathed with steel up to a toot or so above the water-line. The engines will be double, 18x20 inches, with steel frames, and her screw will be eight feet in diameter. She will also have two sets of pumps, with a capacity of 6,000 gallons per minute, air pump and steam steerer. The contract for all the machinery, except the boiler, has been awarded to the Charles F. Elmes Engineering Works, Chicago. The shaft and wheel will, of course, be put in before launching, but the other machinery willbe put in at Milwaukee. Consequently the hull builders will put up the pilot house and cabins in sec- tions, and complete their workat Milwaukee. Rieboldt, Wolter & Co. will receive $11,490 for their work and the Elmes Engineering Works $15,000. The new fireboat was designed by Mr. John Conrad, of Milwaukee, who will also superintend her construction. GENERAL REPAIR WORK. CLEVELAND—The cases of repair work which have not heretofore been mentioned as under way are very few. Within the past few weeks at the Ship Owners’ dry dock the Parks Foster has had a temporary patch put over the hole she made by striking a rock at Sandusky; the schooner Dolly Morden, which had been struck by the Wallula at the Limekiln, had some planking done on her side and on the bluff of her port bow. The Cambria had a bracket put on her wheel, and the tugs Sunol and William Kennedy had their wheels patched. The re- build of the steamer V. Swain is nearly completed, and she will probably be ready to go into commission again by August 10. The new tug Oscar C. Stedman, build- ing for harbor work at Huron, is going forward rapidly and has already been painted. She may be delivered by the 1st of the month, although there is a good deal to do on her machinery. The Cleveland Dry Dock Co. still have the schooner Kent in dock, but will have her rebuilt far enough along to float her by Saturday. ‘The rebuild of the Olive Jeannette’s cabin and stern are practically finished and she will go to a dock to load coal to-morrow. Cuicaco—The Independent Tug Line have removed their floating dry-dock from Illinois Central slip C to the north branch on the east side of the river between Kinzie and Indiana street bridges, where the com- pany has been dredging the river to a depth of 18 feet to allow their floating dry-dock sufficient depth to take ves- selsand tugs into it. Thetug R. Prindiville will go i : elon nto their dock for general repairs and calking in a day or two. At Miller Bros.’ shipyard the steamer James H. Pren- tiss is in dock for a new forefoot, repairs to her stern bearing and wheel, and re-calking her bottom. The steamer Alice M. Gillis in for a new shoe. j William Saville, shipbuilder, has given the tugs Tom Brown and R. Prindiville a thorough overhauling. The Tom Brown has goneinto commission for the Chicago Towing Co., and the Prindiville will go into commission for the same company in a few days. StTuRGEON Bay.—The steamer J. EK. Rumbell was on the floating dry-dock for several days for repairs to her wheel and stern-bearings, recalking of butts, bottom scraping and painting. She will go on again soon for a new wheel of the Sheriffs pattern. The steambarge I. N. Foster followed’ the Rumbell for repairs to her shoe and stern-bearings, and for bottom calking for- ward. The Fannie C. Hart had her wheel keyed tighter and her stern-bearings lined up. REPAIR NOTES. The steamer North West got a new wheel at the West Superior dry-dock Monday. Samuel F. Hodge & Co., of Detroit, are fitting a new sectional wheel to the steamer Ey. W. Oglebay, with a view to improving ther already fast performance. It was shipped to Chicago last week and will be placed there. The engine of the little steamer Hilton went through itself at Milwaukee just after an overhauling. ‘The work is now being done a second time. The H. K. Runnells has been getting a new stem at Jenk’s shipyard, Port Huron. 22 — ' NEW INVENTIONS. Mr. Charles Cummings, of Chicago, has just patented (No. 563,750) an apparatus for raising sunken vessels, the operations of which are pretty well shown in the illustration. The claim is for a truss-bag composed of an inflatable body, a series of straps that are attached within and project out of said body, and means for con- necting the exposed ends of these straps; the combina- tion of this truss-bag with an air-forcing apparatus com- ‘ posed of a flexible body, a superposed platform, and springs connected to the platform and adapted to collapse the flexibly body. A speed governor for marine engines, a device which has been patented in England since Dec. 6, 1890, has just been protected in the United States (No. 564,079), Owen Jones, of London, being the patentee. The claim for the combination, with an engine cylinder, of valves adapted to simultaneously cut off communication between both ends of said cylinder and the steam chest and ex- haust port and exhaust space thereof, and at the same time open communication between the two ends of said cylinder. These valves are located in the admission ports or passages of the cylinder, there being also a supple- mentary port or passage connecting the said:admission ports or passages and a valve for varying the cross sec- tional area of the said supplementary port or passage ; also of means for operating the said valves. George H. Nichols, of Akron, O., has patented (No. 563,876) a dredger, for which he claims the combination of the stanchions 6 6, provided with the semi-circular faced bracket, and the toothed gravitypawls and their operating crank-shafts, and cords, of the spud, provided with rack-teeth, having its lower end pivoted toa ballast block, and of the pitman connecting said spud and block the stanchion. Patent No. 564,144 covers an automatic meatis for closing leaks in marine vessels, the invention of M. Henri Bricard, of Havre, France, who claims the combi- nation, with an inner compartment of a vessel, of a flexible, bouyant mat attached by one edge to the inner face of the interior wall of said compartment, and adapted to be unrolled and floated by water entering said compartment to close an opening in said interior wall. This mat is to be formed of flexible material and provided with floats and stiffening supports, said mat being secured by an edge to the lower part of the inner face of said interior wall of said com- partment, with the stiffening parallel with the line of attachment, and, the n.at being rolled from its free edge, the water entering said compartment will. unroll and buoy the mat up against the inner wall and over any opening therein. bg ape guapins THE FREIGHT OUTLOOK. The scarcity of ore dock room is a very bad factor in freight conditions at present, as considerable scheming and some delay is occasioned in finding room for the cargoes which are constantly arriving. Almost none is being forwarded to furnaces, and the conditions must soon develop a very bearish influence on lake freights. The rates remain at 60c from the head of Lake Supe- rior, 55c from Marquette, and 45c from Escanaba. Grain may soon begin to move, but this will be con- sidered more of a relief than as a positive improve- ment. Duluth shippers are now paying 1%c on spot boats to Buffalo, but only 14%c on boats to arrive. Chi- cago is paying 1c to Buffalo, and what little is shipped from Milwaukee goes at the same rates. Coal shipments continue good, but this will probably be at the expense of theoshipments usually made later in the fall. Soft coal pays 30c to Duluth, and 35c to Lake Michigan and Green Bay. Hard coal pays 30c to Lake Michigan. rr 1 The Queen City arrived at South Chicago last Satur- day with 4,067 gross tons of iron ore from Duluth, the largest Lake Superior cargo on record.