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THE MARINE RECORD. ESTABLISHED 1878. Published Every Thursday by THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Incorporated. GEO. L. SMITH, President. C. E, RUSKIN, - - - Manager. CAPT. JOHN SWAINSON, - - - Editor. THOS. WILLIAMS, Chicago, - - Associate. CLEVELAND, - CHICAGO. Western Reserve Building. Royal Insurance Building. | eee Rha s SUBSCRIPTION. One Copy, one year, postage paid, - - One Copy, one year, to foreign countries. - - Invariably in advance. ADVERTISING. Rates given on application, $2.00. $3.00. All communications should be addressed to the Cleveland office. THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Western Reserve Building, Cleveland, Ohio. Entered at Cleveland Post. ponies as ereone. ae Mail Matter. CLEVELAND, O., MARCH 4, 1897. The new rating for lake vessels called the “Great Lakes Register” is not likely to be printed till well along in the season, as the promoters calculate on getting up quite a mass of data and making the book very inclusive. a The thanks of the Record are due,the branch hydro- graphic office, Cleveland, for a copy of the North Pacific pilot chart for March. The branch offices of this useful ‘government department are growing in favor daily and each one that is established adds prestige to the navy de- partment. ———— or In the reproduction of cuts the American Shipbuilder, New York, makes the fore-and-aft sails draw contrary to the square canvas. This has occurred several times and notably in the last issue where they try to show an illustra- tion of the iron auxiliary screw steamer Scotland in charge of Capt. Stannard. There is talent enough in the Shiubuilder to obviate these gross errors and we hope that our eyesight may not be further annoyed by glancing over any more impossibilities, such as the ‘Scotland’ picture. oor oe Students of the Northwestern University at Evanston, Ill., are much troubled over the new civil-service rules for the government life-saving service on the lakes, which practically exclude them from that service. The students of Evanston have earned fame for their effective heroism in this work; the building of the service is on the univer- sity campus, and was granted in consideration of the fact that the crew should be entirely made up of students, ex- cepting only the captain. This has been the case since 1876; the 20-years’ lease then given has expired, and now unless there is a concession made, the government will have to find a new site for their building—which is diffi- cult, as the land for a mile north is the university’s, and for several miles south is occupied by costly residences. The story of the crew’s services would make thrilling reading; it has twice received the thanks of Congress for saving life. — Senator Cullom has obtained the insertion in the sundry civil appropriation bill of a paragraph so construing the river and harbor act of last session as to permit the use for widening and deepening the Chicago River of a portion of the $700,000 appropriated by that act and which had been held to be available for dredging only. The original ap- propriation. of $700,000 was incumbered with the phrase “for dredging purposes,’ whereas the amount needed for that use was but $180,000. The effect of Senator Cullom’s amendment, if it becomes a law, will be to make the bal- ance of $520,000 immediately available for straightening and widening the river. A dispatch from Ottawa, Ont., states that in retaliation for the passage of the immigration bill by Congress M. R. Cowan, member of Parliament from South Essex, is going. to press for the abilotion of reciprocity in wrecking The result of that arrangement entered into three or four years ago has been in favor of the United States. Let us stop it and give the work of wrecking in Canada waters to Can- adians, he says. The last monthly bulletin of the bureau of statistics of the Agricultural Department shows that New Orleans is now one of the principal corn shipping ports in the United States. During January of this year, New Orleans shipped 4,504,064 bushels of corn, against 3,505,604 bushels during January, 1896. This record is 1,800,000 bushels in excess of the shipment at Baltimore, which aggregated 2,753,613 bushels. Newport News was third, with 1,875,578 bushels, and New York fourth, with a record of 1,835,963 bushels. These figures speak volumes in regard to the threatening character of Southern competition for the grain export business, and will serve to increase public interest in the proposed deep waterway from Duluth to the Atlantic coast. “ ; or At the solicitation of the committee on bird protection of the American Ornithologists’ Union, of which Prof. Leverett M. Loomis, of the California Academy of Scien- ces, is a member, the government officials have set the seal of their displeasure on the importing of seabirds’ eggs from the Farrellones, an island near to San Francisco Har- bar. The-lighthouse board at’ Washington, which has the affairs of the Farrellones in charge as a sort of United States government preserve, has issued a decree that the traffic in the eggs of the sea birds must cease. The eggs of the Murre, or foolish guillemot, have been shipped to the markets of San Francisco in great quantities ever since 1849, at which date they were almost the only fresh eggs to be had, bringing over $1 a dozen. oe ool The recent decision of the government land office in re- gard tothe validity of the claims of parties who secured a hold on a portion of Chicago’s lake front is of interest to everybody who possesses riparian rights of any value. The land which the claimants sought to;secure would have made them rich, as the frontage in Chicago is valuable. The case grew out of an accretion of sand around a wreck which was occupied as a home by an old captain who, when his vessel had stranded, stuck to her and squat- ted right there for a home. As the area of the new beach increased, the squatter’s view of his right to ownership became more firmly established, and a question for the courts to decide literally came out of the sea. The squat- ter was too poor to make a long legal fight, but his chances were merchantable, and the holders of some scrip granted by Congress to McKee, many years ago, and which entitled the holder to 160 acres of “any unoccupied government land,’ joined interests with a number of others who had already interested themselves in the squat- ter’s claim, and the land was taken on the scrip as unoccu- pied government property. Commissioner Lamoreux has decided that the accretion of sand on the lake front is not government property, and that the claimants have no right to it whatever. Of course this decision will be appealed from, and the case carried to the court of last resort—the Supreme Court of the United States. The first appeal will be to the Secretary of the Interior, and if he decides adversely, the matter will be taken to the court. 4 There is a strong feeling prevalent that the old squatter will lose his habitation solely on account of lack of funds to thoroughly prosecute other claimants and establish his prior rights to the accretion or made land formed around his domicile. ————— ea MARINE TREASURY DECISIONS. Home ports of vessels. Treasury Department, Bureau of Navigation, Washington, D. C., December 21, 1896. To Collectors of Customs and Others: The last paragraph of article 2} Customs Regulations of 1892, states that the term “home port’ means that port established by law at or nearest to which the owner, if there be but one, or if more than one, the husband or act- ing and managing owner, resides, or the port at which the vessel is documented, or the place in the same district where the vessel was built. The paragraph is Bere y amended so as to read as fol- lows: “A vessel’s home ae is that port established by law at or nearest to which the owner resides, or, if there be more than one owner, that port at or nearest to which the husband or managing owner usually resides. It the port at which a vessel’s permanent marine papers sue, and its name must be specified in all marine do ments. But in reference to the painting of the name o port of hail on the stern of a vessel, the word ‘port’ may construed to mean either the port ‘where the vessel i is” istered or enrolled or the place in the same district w the vessel was built, or where one or more of the owne! reside.” (R. S. 4141, 4178, and Act June 26, 1884.) EUGENE T. CHAMBERLAIN, — Approved: Commissioner, : S. WIKE, Assistant Secretary. ay Vessels Proceeding Coastwise with Imported Cargo o Board. Treasury Department, Bureau of Navigation Washington, D. C., December 1, es To Collectors of Customs and Ocanies ‘ The Department’s attention has been invited to recer cases in which vessels have been allowed to proceed coast wise under enrollment and license with merchandise o board which had not been unladen in the United States The practice was prohibited by the Regulations of ‘wé and preceding general regulations. Article 117, Regulations 1892, is hereby amended by. th addition thereto of the following paragraph: “Enrollment and license must not be granted to a vesse having on board merchandise brought in her from a fo eign port and not unladen in the United States.” EUGENE T. CHAMBERLAIN, Approved: Commisstaeas CHARLES S. HAMLIN, Assist. Sec. of Treasury. Tonnage Tax on Vessels from German Ports. ~- Treasury Department, December 3, 1806, To Collectors of Customs: In pursuance of the proclamation of the President dated the third instant, of which a copy is appended hereto, yo Be take measures for the collection, on and after January. 2, 1897, from vessels entered in the United States from ports in Germany, of tonnage dues as provided for by sec- tion 11 of the act of June 19, 1886. EUGENE T. CHAMBERLAIN, Approved: Commissioner of Navigation. W. E. Curtis, Acting Secretary. Notice of Change of Law Regarding the Issue of Steam- : boat Officers’ Licenses. Treasury Department, Steamboat-Inspection Service, Office of the Supervising Inspector-General, Washington, D. C., December 8, 1690) To Supervising and Local Inspectors of Steam Vessels and Others Whom it May Cone ‘ An act of Congress approved May 28, 1896, chapter 255, First session, Fifty-fourth Congress, authorizes licenses to officers of steam vessels to be issued, after January 1, 1897, for a term of five years instead of one years as here- totore. é Inspectors will therefore, after the date indica issuing original, or renewing old licenses, issue them ior the term of five years. New licenses for the purpose are being prepared, and will be furnished inspectors, it is hoped, in time to begin their use on the 2d of January, 1897. In case, however, the new license books should fail to reach any board of local inspectors by the 2d proximo, they will issue licenses from the old books, erasing the word “one” preceding the word wyear” where it occurs therein, and, interlining the word “five” instead, until such time as they shall re- ceive the new license books. The act referred to also provides that, after the first day of January, 1897, “no person shall be qualified to hold a. license as a commander or watch officer of a merchant vessel of the United States who is not a native-born cit- izen, or whose naturalization as a citizen shall not have been fully completed.” Inspectors will see that the law as here quoted is carried out, by refusing, after January I, 1897, to issue licenses except to persons qualified as therein stated, and should also demand for cancellation all out- standing licenses held by persons not so qualified. The act referred to also provides for issuing one renewal of license to licensed officers engaged in service outside the United States, upon receipt of an application in wri- ting from the holder thereof, for such renewal, “verified before a consul, or other officer of the United States authorized to administer an oath, setting forth the rea sons for not appearing in person.’ Attached hereto will be found the full hee of the ac above referred to. JAS. A. DUMONT, Approved: Supervising Inspector- General, W. E. CURTIS, Acting Secretary. or oe ALASKAN BOUNDARY TREATY. The following is the text of the Alaskan boundary treaty recently signed by Secretary Olney and British Ambassa- dor Pauncefote: “Each Government shall appoint one Commissioner, with whom may be associated such surveyors, astronom- ers and other assistants as each Government may elect The Commissioners shall at as early a period as pr ticable proceed to trace and mark under their joint direc