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THE MARINE RECORD. 7 THE SHIPPING SITUATION IN GREAT BRITAIN® H. EK. Moss & Co., of Liverpool, London and New- castle, the well-known sales agents of steamers, make the following comment in their semi-annual statement of available vessels : ‘* We regret to say that the pessimistic views we have so persistently foreshadowed have been, unhappily, more than fulfilled, and the first half of 1896 may be chronicled as the worst period in the annals of steam shipping, The anticipated increase in wages in the shipbuilding and engineering trades at the commence- ment of the year, together with the probable rise in the cost of raw materials and a-slight spurtin freights, caused, as usual, a rush to order new boats, and some of the yards were filled with orders for tramps and liners. These orders have now been nearly worked off, and if steamship owners will only content themselves in re- placing such boats as are absolutely necessary for old established and existing lines, we may hope to see that improvement in freights for which we have waited so long. “Tt has been demonstrated beyond all in long-voyage trades it is only the new- est and most modern type of steamer that can hold its own in the present days. of excessive competition. The old and ob- solete type of vessel must go to the wall, | and for years past we have advised the | realization of such property. Large | nuinbers have been sold to foreigners, andothers to be broken up, but many | thousands of tons yet remain and must in- evitably follow suit. “Tt is exercising the minds of many of our steamship owners as to whether the present existing rates of freight are to be considered the basis of the future. For our own part we do not think so. Granted rates are as low or lower than they have ever been, we believe they have touched bottom and will shortly improve. ‘The new features to be chronicled are the introduc- tion of team into the Californian trade; the wonderful energy of foreigners, especially of the Japanese, who are starting new lines of steamers, even to our own doors, in opposition to our old established companies ; the great strides made in Germany in the art of ship- building, where our naval architects have already had the opportunity of seeing that work in the German yards can be well, cheaply, and efficiently executed, a fact which has already told, and is bound to tell more in the future, on our own shipbuilding industry. Although quadruple-expansion engines are being fitted in some boats now building, there is no inclination to adopt them generally. “A large number of useful second-hand steamers have been sold at very low prices to foreign ers, principallyfor the Baltic and Black Sea trades, where they can be worked even now at a profit, free as they are from the excessive restrictions impcsed on British shipping by over-zealous leg- islators. : “Many new steamers are for sale in the hands of builders. There are alsoa number of nearly new triplex boats that can be bought very cheaply. Prices for building new steamers are about 5 per cent higher a around than in December last, but many builders, being anxious for work, would willingly forego their standard yard charges ; consequently orders can be placed prac: tically at nearly the same prices. How long this will last it is impossible to say, but as other trades are thriving, the railways prosperous, board of trade re- turns increasing, surely these facts must before long have a beneficial effect on the shipping industry, and place it upon a sounder and more profitable foundation. rr io or PENBERTHY INJECTOR CELEBRATION. The Penberthy Injector Co., of Detroit, who com- menced business in 1886 in a very modest way at their present location, corner of Seventh and Abbott streets, celebrated the event of the manufacture and sale of 100,- 000 *Penberthy” Injectors during the past ten years, by giving their employes and customers an excursion to one of the islands on the Detroit River, on Saturday, July 25. Detroit is known as a city having some of the largest measure that manufacturers of certain products in the world, and this firm, who have quietly, but industriously, worked their way from the lowest round of the ladder in 1886, to the top round in the short period of ten years, have added one more to the list of the largest manufacturers in the world, When it is taken into consideration that, in this time the company has backs incident to the commencement of any business, and have made the business of Injectors principally the largest of the worldof this special article, Detroit can well be proud to add to her list that of the Penberthy Injector Co. S. Olin Johnson, the president and manager of the company. has been the chief promoter of the business during this time, and by his able management the busi- ness has been brought up to its present standard. He gives also due credit to his able assistants, George W. Childs, Jr., secretary ; Wm. O. Lee, Thos. J. Sweeney and Wm, A. Downes, who have been with him since the commencement of the business and have occupied posi- tions of trust and responsibility. This company have a factory at Windsor, Ont., which supplies about two-thirds of the injectors sold in that country, which, by the way, were not included in the 100,000 injectors referred to, which sales apply to the United States alone. Their business extends to Aus- tralia, South Africa, and all the countries of Europe, as well as South America, Mexico and the West Indies. While business in many lines of goods has been de- pressed during the past season, this company have been hard pressed to fill their orders, notwithstanding they kept their full force of employes engaged during the en- tire winter, endeavoring to accumulate a stock for the demand during the spring and summer months. Dee POOR POLICY. A writer in New York Town Topics, speaking of the effort of the superintendent of the Naval Academy to have Commodore Melville disciplined for criticising that institution says: ‘‘Now, to the outsider all this sort of thing seems not only dana/ nonsense, but decidedly adverse to the best interests of the naval service, and calculated to raise doubts as to whether the largely mil- itary and scientific course pursued at Annapolis is, after all, the best possible mode of providing a corps of naval officers, pure and simple; not accomplished men who fit in well with scientific and social duties and vocations on shore, but men who love the sea and the ship, and who know the latter, from the double bottom to the top of her military mast, with all the appurtenances inter- vening. Inthe English service they begin the instruc- tion of the naval neophyte by catching him young and finding out whether his physical and moral idiosyncra- sies are such as to fit him for the career of a sea officer; in ours, a capacity to absorb difficult mathematics in large lumps, and a contempt for the men who supervise the machinery which drives the ship, seem to constitute the highest standard of excellence. Perhaps when the currency question is settled, and the national revenue is adjusted, there may be a committee appointed to look into these matters and to find out whether we have, after all, attained the me plus ultra of naval training.” commenced with all the draw-_ Ne 1342 WORK OF LIFE SAVERS. The report of Gen. Supt. Sumner I. Kimball, of the United States Life Saving Service, for the year ended July 30, 1896, has been presented to the Treasury De- partment. TYollowing is a summary for the lake districts: LAKES ERIE AND, ONTARIO.—Number of disasters, 68; value of vessels, $349,680; value of cargoes, $144,940; total value of property, $494,620; number of persons on board vessels, 318; number of persons lost, 9; number of shipwrecked persons succored at stations, 5; number of days succor afforded, 5; value ot property saved, $484,230; value of property lost, $10,390. LAKES HURON AND SuUPERIOR.—Number of disasters, 75; value of vessels, $1,610,485; value of cargoes, $479,- 205; total value of property, $2,089,690; number of per- sons on board vessels, 580; number of persons lost, 1; number of shipwrecked persons succored at stations, 13; number of days succor afforded, 24; value of property saved, $1,801,810; value of property lost, $287 ,880. LAKE MICHIGAN.—Number of disasters, 99; value of vessels, $1,334,470; value of cargoes, $125,255; total value of property, $1,459,725; number of persons on board vessels, 1,150; number of per- sons lost, none; number of shipwrecked persons succored at stations, 40; number of days succor afforded, 45; value of property saved $1,332,675; value of prop- erty lost, $127,050. TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL NOTES. The Illinois Steel Company has con- verted a part of its North Chicago Works into a cement’ plant, where it is turning waste furnace slag into ‘Illinois Steel Portland cement.”’ The slag is runin its molten form into a pit, where water gran- ulates it. The slag is then put into a roasting oven, after which it is mixed with lime and other ingre- dients. The product is ground to powder and packed into bags for market. The Gas Engine & Power Co., Morris Heights, N. Y., has plans for a new two-story machine shop, 250x76 feet, to be built of steel. The Bucyrus Steam Shovel & Dredge Company, Mil- waukee, Wiss, has been organized under the name of the Bucyrus Company. The capital stock is $300,000. The incorporators are: J. M. Millman, A. W. Robinson, and A. B. Stetson. rf A project is on foot to establish a large open-hearth steel plant at Duluth, Minn ; also blooming, billet and rod mills, and wire drawing and wire nail plants, con- nected altogether as one large plant. R. S. Munger, president of the Duluth Iron and Steel Company, is one of the promoters, representing Duluth capitalists, and S. T. Wellman representing Cleveland capitalists. ee LLOYD’S QUARTERLY STATEMENT. From returns compiled by Lloyd’s Reg- ister of Shipping it appears that, exclud- ing warships, there were 334 vessels of 774,012 tons gross under construction in the United Kingdom at the close of the quarter ended June 30, as follows: Steel, 313 steamers of 741,313 tons and 29 sailing vessels, 25,964 tons; iron, 27 steamers, 4,026 tons and sailing vessel, 226 tons; wood and composite, 2steamers, 150 tons, and 22 sailing vessels aggregating 2,333 tons. ‘The above shows quite an increase over the 339 vessels of 707,079 tons gross reported a year ago. There are also 98 warships, of 309,435 tons gross build- ing at British yards, 673 0f which are for the British government. rrr THE P.S.& L. E. EXTENSION. A contract that will have the effect of greatly in- creasing the importance of Conneaut as an ore receiy- ing port has just been let. C.J. McDonald, of Pittsburg, has just been awarded the work of building the exten- sion of the Pittsburg, Shenango & Lake Erie Railroad from Butler, Pa., to the Allegheny River. The contract covers all the earthwork and masonry for over thirty miles of the proposed road, including 800 feet of double track tunneling. ‘The contract requires the work to be completed within the present year. About thirteen miles of road between the Allegheny and Monongehela rivers has not yet been let.