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THE MARINE RECORD. NEWS AROUND THE LAKES. CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. Capt. A. L. Fitch chartered the steamer J. J. Hill for to Kingston at 4 cents. : : “oT he tug Weleoshe pe in the I, T. Line’s floating dry- dock for some calking. : H. W. Cook & Co. chartered the steamer Germanic for orn to Kingston at 4 cents. : The Duniaen Tug C6; towed the steamer Mecosta to the Danville elevator to load grain. — Capt. Jas. A Calbick was down at his office on Tuesday, his first visit since his sickness : Capt. John Prindiville chartered the steamer Lansing for wheat to Sandusky at 2%6 cents. The Independent Tug Line towed the steamer J. J. Hill “to the Union elevator and the steamer Germanic to the city elevator to load grain. | At the present time there are not more than two dozen of the grain fleet of steamers in winter quarters at this port, which are not loaded, one-half of which are line steamers. é The Chicago Shipmasters gave a_ progressive pedro party and banquet at their hall Tuesday evening, March oth, which was well attended and a very enjoyable even- -ing was spent. : Capt. Jas. A. Calbick & Co. chartered the barges Sophia Minch, George H. Warmington, Halsted and Middlesex fot corn to Kingston at 4 cents; the steamer John N. Glidden for wheat to Kingston at 4% cents. : _ At Miller Brothers’ shipyard the steamer Atlanta was _in dock and had her wheel fastened. The U. S. light- hotise tender steamer Dahlia is in, having her bottom cleaned and painted. ; : The Goodrich Co.’s steamers City of Racine and City of Ludington are receiving new water bottoms to their boilers and new stay bolts where required. The com- pany’s steamer Indiana has received similar work on her boilers. : -Fitzsimmons & Connell are having a new marine boiler 6x13 1-2 feet to be allowed 150 lbs. steam pressure built by Tobin & Hamler, boiler-makers, for their tug Monitor. The Monitor is also to receive new engines, 17x18 inches each. Geo. C. Blair, recently of the firm of Carr & Blair, has entered into partnership with H. W. Cook. Mr. Blair is well and very favorably known among vesselmen and his manhy friends wish him great success in his new partner- ship. th addition to the expensive repairs which the Goodrich Co.’s steamer Sheboygan is receiving at Burger & Bur- ger’s shipyard at Manitowoc, the side stairways leading to the main saloon will be removed and a center stair- way put in, which will be a great improvement for passen- gers. The candidates for the vacant hull inspectorship in the Grand Haven district are said to be Capts. W. F. McGreg- or of Milwaukee, William Nicholson of Grand Rapids, Bliss of Muskegon, Honner, Beativais, Parker and Miller of Grand Haven. Work in connection with the new Great Lakes Register is progressing so slowly that its issue may be delayed until very late in the season. .A vast amount of. labor is involved in the preparation of this register, as it deals not alone with the condition and construction of hulls, but with the condition of machinery, boilers and boiler con- nections in steamers also. Thus a great deal of ground must be gone over in order to reach results, and the rate of progress cannot be otherwise than slow. Thomas Bagley, yacht and boat builder, has just com- pleted for the United States light-house department two large Mackinaw two-mast cat boats, 24 feet long, 7 feet beam, 3 feet deep; one for service at Poverty Island and the other at North Manitou Island. He has also con- tracted to build for the Goodrich Transportation Co., for their passenger steamer Virginia, four new life-boats, to be built of cedar, 24 feet long, 6 1-2 feet beam, 2 feet 8 inches deep with air tanks at each end and air tubes on sides under the seats. He is also building several yawl, sail and row boats for the coming season. or oor : BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. Pfohl & Son, who bought the sunken steamer Grand Traverse as she lies off Colchester, are negotiating with the Canadian government for a permit to raise her. The Canadian steamer United Lumbermen and tow are under charter for lumber from Georgian Bay to Black Rock for the season at $1.25 per 1,000 feet. This is a very low season freight rate. The Northern Steamship Co. will build a large grain elevator, to be fireproof, at Buffalo this season. It will hold 2,500,000 bushels. The bins will be of steel and of 80,000 bushels capacity each. _The Standard Co.’s oil barge has been taken out of the upper Union dock and the Rochester put in for her re- build. The work on the New York and Syracuse is now pretty well advanced. The Syracuse will be entirely new above her steel hull except her cabins. That is to say, she will haye entirely new upper works. . D.S. Austin died in this city last week. Mr. Austin was at one time engaged in the shipchandlery business at Buf- -falo, and while thus engaged acquired a prominence in that direction which made him known along the entire chain of lakes. Later in life he dealt in real estate and mortgages. : John Collins, an old lake captain recently employed by the Erie Railway as a flagman, was killed by a passenger train at this port last week. Deceased was 60 years old. He had sailed on the lakes and at one time owned two vessels. Failing health compelled him to retire from lake work and he became a railway employe. 3 Hingston & Woods, contractors, are considerably put out on account of the delay to their work on the new Carnegie docks at Conneaut. It was expected at the out- set that the docks would at least be so far completed that they could be used by July, but that will be impossible now. The delay has been caused by the changes in the plans and is therefore chargeable to the owners and not the contractors. There are now at this port eight vessels that have not been unloaded since their arrival last fall. They are the Rappahannock, V. H. Ketcham and Barge 118, with wheat, the Thomas Maytham with corn, the C. B. Lockwood with rye and the Armenia, Granada and Progress with flaxseed. The total quantity of grain afloat in lake vessels at the present time is about 458,000 bushels. Small por- tions, however, are being taken out of some of these ves- sels gradually. oon oo or DETROIT. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. Capt. Alex Ruelle, tug owner, has bought a Worthing- ton pump for testing boilers. The steamer Frank E. Kirby has had her new propeller boxes completed, and the work of putting on a new main deck goes rapidly forward. Early Saturday morning the north passage cleared of ice as far as Colchester light, and the probabilities are that: it will soon be clear as far as the mouth of the river. The Frontier Iron Works are keeping a large staff of skilled workmen employed, but chiefly on stationary jobs, however, a fairly good marine patronage always falls to the share of the Frontier and there is good work in sight. Grant Grummond has made no further announcements regarding the starting of the State of Michigan. The name and all information regarding the proposed mate for the State of Michigan also remains a mystery. The above steamer still lies at Amherstburg. C. E. Bielman is fitting out the steamer Arundel, and she will be ready to start between Detroit and Port Huron as soon as the ice permits. Work on the balance of the Red Star and White Star fleets has not yet been begun, but will start the latter part of the month. Everything in marine circles in Detroit is very quiet and without feature, though there is no doubt a fairly sunccessful season anticipated by Detroit men. Judge Swan’s decision rendered some weeks ago, regarding the “season of navigation,” has been the means of settling the Selwyn Eddy—Northern Steamship Co. case, the latter paying the judgment, with costs. Mr. William N. M. Kay. the courteous secretary of the firm of Samuel F. Hodge & Co., will join the ranks of the benedicts on the 24th of this month and take under convoy for a life’s charter Miss Emma M. Von Essen. All with whom Mr. Kay has been brought into contact will wish him the choicest blessings which the world can bestow. Certainly he has the best wishes of his many marine friends. It is probable that the ticket office of the Northern Steamship Company will be removed from Jefferson Ave- nue and taken to the foot of First street. Fred Joslyn, as- sistant to freight agent Hart, will resume his place at the office again this season. Mr. Joslyn made himself very popular last season by his courteous conduct, and will meet a lot of friends on his return. Colonel Lydecker is at Michigan City and other points in Western Michigan attending to details connected with his business. He returns the latter part of this week. As yet nothing has been done towards laying out new work for the coming year, so he told the Record,: but before long something on general line of river and harbor im- provements would doubtless be decided upon and he would receive instructions. The Detroit Dry Dock Engine Works, Mr. Charles B. Calder, superintendent, are full of work at the present time. I find a number of boilers in process of being fitted with the Howden hot draft, also compounding several engines, and have almost finished two new engines for the St. Louis car ferries, plans for which Mr. Frank H. Kirby, of the Detroit Dry Dock Co., got out some months ago. Sveral teams left Kingsville, Ont., bound for Pelee Is- land, on Friday, and several more were to start on Satur- day morning, but when they got ready to go, a half mile of open water lay between them and the ice, and great fields were drifting slowly eastward. Had the teams got out on it, they would have probably been lost. As it was, some of the teams near Pelee Island were caught, but a northeast wind was blowing, and drove the fields of ice against the shore ice round the island, and they got ashore all well. By the 15th of March there is verv little doubt that a clear north passage will extend to the Detroit river, and it may be that a steamer can get into Cleveland by that time. if the south shore ice breaks up. John Stevenson’s steamer Mascot; rebuilt at Hodges’ dock this winter, is going to surprise those who remember the old steamer. Her sides have been flared and in putting up her upper works the sheer has been eliminated largely. On her promenade deck there are no center stanchions aft March roth. The D. & C. Line also begin running today, of the companionway, giving a fine place for dancing. She has been provided with twin screws, and is expected to make 18 miles an hour. Her engines have been com pounded, a new smoke-stack will be put in, entire new upper works from the water line, and new arrangements ofthe saloon and rooms. The cost of the rebuild will b about $15,000. The Mascot will run on the Mt. Clemens route, but will also carry excursions. — At the shipbuilding yards of Walter H. Oades I find a new tug building to the order of the Houghton French Ice Co., of the dimensions of 44 feet and to be finished by April 1. There are also three Detroit River light-ships being overhauled, their location at the north and south ends of the Limekilns and the third at Ballard’s Reef, with repairs and general overhauling to the light-house tender Haze, forms a fairly good patronage to the Oades yard. In addition to the foregoing they are lengthening the handsome little yacht Dawn by ten feet. She is owned by Mr. Newberry, and the addition will certainly increase her speed, although hitherto she was about the smartest yacht on the river, but it would appear as if the owner wants more out of her. ee PORT HURON. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. The tug B. B. Inman, of Duluth, has been bid in by the Jenks Shipbuilding Co. for $50. The firm is the holder of a mortgage for $13,240 against the tug. There are libels against the boat also for over $5,000. The tug is valued at $15,000, and was sold to the Jenks Shipbuilding Co. subject to the mortgage and the libels. ro oo CLEVELAND. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. Capt. Robert Pringle will sail the steamer Siberia the coming season. ’ 2 The Bessemer barge building at the yard of the Globe Iron Works Co. will be launched the latter part of the month. a! Capt. Heinrich, of Detroit, one of the most skilled and scientific navigators of the lakes, is spending a week-or two at this port. Re es: Shipmasters and engineers are generally pleased to receive this year a five years’ license to prosecute their calling instead of only one as heretofore. : fe There is plenty of ice at the lower end of Lake Erie and the indications are that it will be quite late before boats can get into Buffalo. e Or, OT es Mr. Russell, of the firm of Russell & Watson, lamp man- ufacturers, etc., Main street, Buffalo, paid a visit to this port during the week. ee Oe: Pinney, Esq., admiralty lawyer, Perry-Payne building, is receiving considerable vessel patronage just now which will no doubt be largely augmented within the next season or two. Roe ee The season of navigation between this port and Detroit opened on the arrival of the Grummond Line freight and passenger steamer State of Michigan on Wednesday night, their first boat leaving Detroit early Thursday morning. The schooner Brunette, which was driven ashore under the west arm of the breakwater about two months ago, was released on Tuesday and towed inside. Tugs then started to work on the steamer W. L. Wetmore, which went ashore at the same time, and it is thought that she can be released without much trouble. Dr. R. M. Woodward, for the past two years in charge of the Marine Hospital work at this port, has been de- tailed to the station at Philadelphia and will shortly leave for that city. The directors of the Chamber of Commerce on hearing the order relating to the doctor’s removal passed a set of resolutions regretting the change, etc., and wishing him all manner of good success in his new posi- ion. The strike among union and non-union workmen at the yards of the Globe Iron Works Co. has terminated and the men are back to work again, with some slight concessions apparently made on either side. It has been quite evident that while the officers of the shipbuilding company were firm in the position taken at the outset they were unwilling to bicker over minor points of differ- ence and thus amicably settled the points at issue between their workmen. The steamer City of Detroit will leave Detroit for this port Thursday morning, and according to the officials of that steamship company, will arrive in this city some time Friday morning. When once started, there will probably be a pretty race between the City of Detroit - and the State of Michigan of the Grummond Line, to see which boat will have the honor of “opening navigation.” Of course, the boat arriving here first will obtain that honor, and as the State of Michigan has the advantage in the way of an earlier start, the chances are in its favor of beating the D. & C. boat. The D. & C. people say their boat can get through the ice and arrive here on schedule time. So confident are they that they are adver- tising a return trip to Detroit for Friday night, and sub- sequent trips every other night from that time on. This by the way as we go to press and the fight has yet to be fought. The Ore Men’s Association, which is supposed to reg- ulate the output and chartering of the majority of ore tonnage for the season, will meet again next week, when some definite action is expected to be taken, The indi- — cations are that there will be very little, if any, ore — chartering done this month, If it is decided at the