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ea young woman on the Mississippi possessing ESTABLISHED 1878. VOL. XIX. NO. 36. CLEVELAND—SEPTEMBER 3, 1896—CHICAGO. $2 PER YEAR. 10c. SINGLE COPY A CAPTAIN IN PETTICOATS. One of the few ladies in the United States who enjoy the right to the marine title of captain is Mrs. John D. Persons, wife of Capt. Persons, keeper of Thunder Bay Island life-saving station. Mrs. Persons is another of Ohio’s distinguished progeny, having been born in Bath, Summit county. She was educated at Oberlin, near Cleveland, and went to Alpena in 1872 to teach music. Here she met and was married to Capt. Per- sons, who was shortly afterward appointed keeper of the Thunder Bay Island station. The island being 15 miles from the nearest point " where mail and supplies could be procured, Mrs. Per- sons frequently went with her husband in a sailing boat to assist him, often encountering severe storms and becoming very proficient as a sailor. In the year 1889, Mr. Persons built the steam yacht Florence C., taking out engineer’s papers, and Mrs. Persons, after standing a very thorough examination, was granted captain’s papers, and it is no unusual sight to see the steamer entering Alpena harbor with Mrs. Persons at the wheel. Although Mrs. Persons has not as yet ever had occa- sion to use her privilege as commander on any other steamer than her own, no doubt if it was eh necessary at any time to serve in the capacity of “‘captain’’ in other lines of the lake service, she would not be found wanting. Mrs. Persons has been in the life-saving service for 19 years, during which time she has witnessed and sometimes taken an active part in many scenes of shipwreck. The captain of the steam yacht Emma G., of Cleveland, is a lady. There is, we believe, a master’s papers, and another on the Ohio. In a comparatively recent issue, the Liverpool Journal of Commerce commented humorously, as follows, on the advent of the new woman on the quarter-deck: “The Melbourne Argus of April 18, reports at some length the proceedings of the Marine | Board held on the previous day, which may not altogether be devoid of interest, both to sea- farers and those interested in ships generally. It appears that Miss Barton, having served three years and a half as stewardess in steamers, both coastal, inland and foreign- going, became either disatisfied with that position or thought she could perform the duties of second mate with more satisfaction to herself, and consequently ap- plied to the Marine Board for permission to present her- self for examination as to her fitness to perform the duties of second mate of a foreign-going steamer, and if found duly qualified, to receive the customary certi- ficate. We must beg to dissent from the opening lines of the report of the proceedings, in which it states that the meeting was an “‘ordinary’’ one. Technically, per- haps, it may have been; but surely it can seldom have chanced, from the time when Noah and his sons may perhaps have deliberated whether their wives should be permitted to stand a watch or keep a lookout, that a collection of men presumably bent upon earnest busi- ness, have had to decide upon so knotty and embaras- sing a question. In justice to them, however, it must be said that the discussion was conducted with an amount of fairness, such as must have satisfied even the candi- date herself; and she doubtless now recognizes that though her request was refused owing to legal techni- calities, still by the lapse of time she will be able to ap- ply again with at least a good chance of success. It was admitted that the lady was over 17, and was there- fore eligible in respect of age, though whether the duties of stewardess could be considered as deck duties was rather a moot point; at the same time it was pointed out that so far as the Act of Parliament was concerned a stewardess was to all intents and purposes a seaman, and the Interpretation Acts of Victoria, 1890, say that in all acts the masculine gender includes females unless specially provided for. This certainly was very awk- ward, and, to the credit of the male sex be it said, there was one gentleman present with the courage of his opinions, who fearlessly asserted the rights of woman- kind. First qualifying his remarks with the great peacemaker ‘“‘if,’”’ he argued, that if the young lady had possessed the necessary qualifications as to service, she would have been justified in asking to be examined, and that had the Board declined to accede to her re- quest they would have been pointed to by the whole of the colony as a disgrace to humanity. There were female medical students now, and 25 years ago there were none in existence. Because Miss Barton was the first to claim the right to adopt the sea asa profession, = CAPT. MRS. JOHN D. PERSONS. and demand equal privileges in that respect with the male biped, there was no good and sufficient reason, save lack of the necessary service, why such permission should not be granted her. It was fiflally decided to inform the candidate that she was not eligible. After one had rubbed one’s eyes and made sure that one is awake after reading this report, it may be permitted to speculate a little upon the meaning of it all, and the impression left will probably be one of mild bewilder- ment. The manning question we have always with us; are we in addition to have the womaning question? The fates forbid. We have, it is true, heard of old women at sea; are we now to hear of young ones also? This would deprive the nautical vocabulary of one of its choicest epithets, for if the term ‘old woman’ is not to be applied to the duly cautious skipper, where else can his proper nautical appellation be found? Certainly if the imagination is sufficiently active, we can imagine this female aspirant for nautical fame passing through the various grades, either in rational costume or other- wise, and eventually becoming a master, or rather, we should have to amend the act, and say in these cases, mistress of a ship. There can be no doubt that per- sonal appearance would enter largely into the question, and then consider the fierce rivalry there would be for the position of ‘first? or ‘only’ mate. If this idea should take root with our Antepodean cousins, we may be sure that we have not heard the last of it. New Zealand has led the way with woman suffrage, and with all professions thrown open to both sexes, it will be a difficult matter to draw the line, should the sea be deemed a fair field for the scope of modern woman’s enterprise. There are many instances to be found in the pages of history of women who have played their parts manfully on board ship, even outside the pages of Mr. Clark Russell’s novels, and with rational dress, aided by universal suffrage, it appears as though there is a-possibility of its being even less uncommon in the future.”’ ED a NOTES. London Truth pronounces the Terrible practically a failure. Weare told that this vessel ‘tis being most severely criticized by all the experts who have inspected her, and naval men are unanimous in abusing her. She is very unwieldy, her armament is ridicu- lously inadequate, and she would be a most easy mark for either shell or a torpedo.” The Nippon Yusen Kaisha have just given out orders for five more steamers, of between 5,000 and 6,000 tons gross each, to the follow- ing firms: Messrs. D. & W. Henderson & Co., Partick, for three, and Messrs. Napier, Shanks & Bell, Yoker, and Messrs. Workman, Clark & Co., Belfast, for one each. These are in addi- tion to the vessels these builders have already in hand for this company. Andrew Carnegie says; ‘‘The amount we spend upon harbors and rivers, in my opinion, should be doubled, as no money expended yields such benefits to the country. ‘There is an un- wise economy and a wise extravagance. Our country is very rich, indeed, but has been sadly misgoverned financially. The government should go out of the bankif® business, and we should stand firmly on gold.”’ The Bureau of Construction and Repair has made its monthly statement showing the pro- gress of work on-vessels under construction. The Puritan leads with 97 per cent to her credit. The Brooklyn is next with 90, followed by the gunboats Nashville, Wilmington and Helena each, 85; Iowa, 68; torpedo boat No. 3, 50; gun- boats 11 and 12, 45: torpedo boat No. 4, 45; torpedo boat No. 5, 44; submarine torpedo boat, 34; gunboats Nos. 14 and 15, 22; gunboats 10,15, and battleships Kearsarge and Kentucky, 4 each. i NEWLY ENROLLED TONNAGE. Following is a list of lake vessels to which official numbers and signal letters have been assigned by the Commissioner of Navigation, for the two weeks ending August 22: : TONNAGE. peak Rig. Name. q 8. [1 Net. bake. Built} Home Port 2 *rOSS. | I . 150,730 |St. y. |Pathfinder 159.61 111,11|Racine Chicago 107,239 |St. p, |Argand 96.01} 96.01/Levanna, O. |Cincinnati 141,445 |St. y, |L, Peterson 9.21 6 27)| Buffalo Buffalo 77,231 |Schr, |J, Nasmyth 8,422.64) 3,162.29) W. Bay City | Duluth 92,740 |Schr. |Magna 3,259.43) 3,124.70|S. Chicago Cleveland 34,256 |Bge. |CSCCoNo,13|] 164.92} 164.92|Elizabethport|Cleveland