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THE MARINE RECORD. NEWS AROUND THE LAKES. CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. Captains Harry Richardson and W. J. Carter were in this city, Saturday. : The steamer Adelia Shores was sold to Captain Sam Neff, of Milwaukee, for $38,000. The engineers af the steamers Madagascar commenced fitting out her machinery, Monday. Winter paid Chicago another visit on Tuesday, a con- tinual snow storm having fallen all day. Miles Barry, of the Independent Tug line, is running for alderman in the 24th ward in this city. The engineers of the Steamer Iroquois arrived here, Sunday. They will fit out her machinery at once. } The Independent Tug line have their tug Crawford in their floating dry dock for a general rebuild. George Hausher, of the firm of Hausher & Sons, vessel supply men, of Cleveland, was in this city, Saturday. O. H. Schutt, the well known marine meat supply man, left here, Saturday night, on a visit to his many.patrons at Buffalo. The steel barge Carrington was launched, Saturday af- ternoon, at the Chicago Shipbuilding Co.’s shipyard, South Chicago. J. G. Keith & Co. chartered the steamer Kittie M. Forbes for corn to Buffalo at 2c, the steamer Viking for corn to Kingston at 4c. The engineers of the Western Transit Co.’s steamers, laid up this port, arrived here last week to fit out their respective steamers’ machinery.: The Independent Tug line towed the steamer Kittie M. Forbes to the Nebraska elevator and the steamship Curry to Counselmans’ elevator at South Chicago to load grain. -The Dunham Towing & Wrecking Co. towed the whale- back steamer to the Wabash and Indiana elevators, and the steamer Alex McVittel to the Keith and to elevators to load grain. ' Louis Windmuller, the well-known vessel supply man, left here on Sunday night for Cleveland and Detroit ona business trip. The steamer Saranac, of the Lehigh Valley Trans. Co., laying at the company’s dock, took fire, Saturday morn- ing. The fire was confined to the top gallant forecastle, where is originated from an overturned stove. The fire boat Yosemite was quickly on the scene and prevented the -fire from spreading. The damage did not. exceed 100... ) “The fleet of vessels which laid up in Chicago River last winter was much smaller than the year previous, and only about half'as large as the winter fleet of two years ago. This yeat’s fleet comprises, all told, 233 vessels. Seventy-two of these are steamboats, 177 are tow barges or sailing vessels, and 44 are passenger and excursion boats, line tugs, etc. All are preparing for their first trips, as the ice is fast breaking up in the harbor. The collapse of the iron combine and the large orders placed for iron have created an impetus in the iron ore trade which looks very encouraging to vesselmen, and they are all looking forward to better times. This means that the grain and lumber trades will suffer as against iron-carrying. In the grain trade there are only about sixty boats engaged, many already loaded for Buffalo. In the lumber trade 114 small vessels have been chartered for the season. -At all the lake lines there a feeling that the volume of busi- ness this year will exceed that of any former season. oo oi DETROIT. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. ‘i The Star line steamer Arundel will come out in a few ays. The steamer Mascot has had her wheel house and texas put on, and she will be easily ready by April 15. - The City of Cleveland is billed to start about April rst. She is having the spring repairs and is in fine shape. The two lines now operating between Detroit and Cleve- land say that the ice in Lake Erie is disappearing very fast. Navigation will very soon be safe for all boats there. Colchester lizht was displayed Sunday night for the first time. Captain Manson, the keeper, succeeded finally in reaching the light after several unsuccessful attempts. - D. A. McIntyre, clerk of the City of the Straits, has come back from a two months’ visit in Canada, and will resume his duties as clerk as soon as the Straits starts, about April 1. c. A. Bielman has put in the lowest bid for furnish- ing the postal marine boat during 1897. The bid is $13.25 per day. The contract has not yet been let, but will be very shortly. Up till. Monday, large quantities of badly rotted ice were passing down the Detroit river. On Tuesday, how- ever, it-had been driven back along the east shore of lake St. Clair, where it is fast breaking up and disappearing. Edwards has brought his tug, which has been building at Trenton, up to Detroit, where the upper works will be put on her. The boat will be, by a long ways, the finest harbor tug in Detroit, and it has been suggested that she be called the “Nonpareil.” ; ' Capt. C. D. Secord met with an accident at the Minne- sota wharf last week which may be attended with serious consequences. He was supervising the repairs to a whaleback steamer from a scaffolding which was 20 feet from the ground. The temporary structure fell, carrying Capt. Secord with it. It was necessary to remove him to the hospital and the surgeons pronounced his injury a fracture of the collar bone. The patient was afterwards removed to his home at No. 39 Holland Place. Quite a large crowd went up to the Flats on Sunday last, and spent a very enjoyable time. The day was very fine and no trouble was experienced with the ice by the Promise. Lake St. Clair was still half full of ice. The barge Chicago Board of Trade was sold in Port Huron on Monday by United States Marshal Bernatz for $1,555 to L. H. Sullivan, of Toledo. Mr. Sullivan spent Tuesday in Detroit visiting among the vesselmen. He got the barge at a bargain, as she was valued at $2,500. Capt. John Condon, now living at 30 Lowell ™!ace, this city, is now 77 years old, and_ noticing in The Record where Capt. Alvin Dodge had lately passed away, also that he at One time had been mate of the propeller Finerty, Capt. Condon remarked that he was mate there himself. Capt. Samuel Langley having charge and Mr. Dodge sec- ond mate. Charley Hanson was chief and George Strong second engineer. The above were officers of the ship when she blew up and carried ten or twelve lives with her. The late Capt. Dodge escaped with his life by just about one minute of time, as he walked forward the moment the stern blew out of the boat. We were afterwards picked off the wreckage, but I was so injured as to render amputa- tion of my right leg necessary above the knee, and was laid up in the General Hospital for five months at that time. I have sailed on the lakes since 1837, or just sixty years of it, except for four years spent in the navy during the war, serving in the frigate Wabash, gunboat Fawn, and others. There has been great changes since father left West Point on the North River and settled in Michigan, or since 1829, and I know the lake marine history with its many changes since that time. “What do you hear from Cleveland about the iron out- look? Do you hear of any charters being made? Do you know of any deals in iron ore going forward? Our agents in Cleveland have nothing to say. Things seem ut- terly at a standstill,” said one vessel owner. “Of course, we do not want early navigation, but we do want signs of activity in the iron market. The later the Straits opens the better, for there is a large grain fleet on Lake Michi- gan which must come down as soon as it is safe, and when they get down they will be looking for up cargoes at once. But if the iron difficulty continues too long, there will be an immense tonnage waiting for a chance to earn some- thing, and it wil almost surely hurt rates.” Charles A. Edson and Frank Whitmill have associated under the name of the Wyandotte Pleasure Boat Co., and will engage in building launches, yachts, canoes and row- boats. The company will locate their offices at the foot of Chestnut street, and enter into the work at once. Among the many tasty devices which have made the D. & C. line famous for years in advertising circles, noth- ing is more appropriate and looks better than the opening announcement for 1897. It represents a bunch of oyster shells lying on a table, and one of them held in a person’s hand, while with the other hand and a knife the shell is opened, disclosing the first steamer of the season, the City of Detroit, at full speed. The idea is unique and catchy, the opening of navigation and the opening of the shells being emphasized and brought into prominence in the device. “T don’t want my name quoted, but you may put me down as saying the following,” said a prominent Detroit vesselman. “I look for rates to open up about May Ist at about 75 cents, and hold slack at that, with but little tonnage tying itself up. By July I expect to see a de- cided stiffening in prices for freight and to see an active demand for tonnage. As the season advances, and this season wil be one of the heaviest ever known, freights will get better, until I look for $1.10 or even $1.15 in Novem- ber. There is an immense quantity of grain to come down, and an immense quantity of manufactured articles to go back. The general tendency is decidedly encourag- ing, and I look for a constant stiffening in the situation.” William A Livingston said: ‘We are having more in- quiries in package freight than a year ago. I do not know what will come of them, but it is encouraging. I do not think the ore rate will open above 75 cents nor below 70 cents. At the latter figure some of the smaller boats can- not pay expenses.” A report ‘has gained circulation here that the Lake Shore railroad was making a move to coerce the D. & C. line into returning to their old freight rates. Mr. Wor- cester, superintendent at Detroit for the Lake Shore, how- ever, denies such a report as being likely to be true, but says he has no knowledge of such a move, and that it might be possibleGrant Grummond admitted knowing of some such move, but refused to talk. The D. & C. line say they have not been notified of any such intention on the part of the railway. Other inquiries tailed to find any- thing deflriite, and it is extremely unlikely there is any serious foundation for the story. Duncan A. McIntyre, clerk of the City of the Straits, said the Cleveland-Toledo route had been found to pay well last year, and that there was a growing business in the line. The D. & C. line may include Pelee Island in their list of stops some day, which will afford a cool and very pleasant place fot passengers to spend a few hours, or a day or so en route to the North or St. Lawrence points. CLEVELAND. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. L. Windmuller, of Chicago, and F. A. Myers, of Buf- i falo, visited Cleveland this week. : : Capt. William Harlow, of Toledo, is at this port seeing to the fitting out of the steamer Preston and getting her ready for the opening of nayigation. Captain George P. McKay is in Washington this week looking after a part of the interests of the great lakes. It is hoped that an appropriation will be secured for lights. Captain McKay, master of the steamer City of Detroit, reports that there is very little ice between Cleveland and Detroit. This has been found out during his past several trips on the D. & C. line between here and Detroit. — The Globe Iron Works Co. have sent out invitations . to attend the launch of the Sydney G. Thomas, built to the order of the Bessemer line. She will be launched from the ways at 11 o’clock, standard time, Satyrday, March 27. : : Colonel Jared A. Smith, corps of engineers, U. S. A., has recommended that the bid of L. P. & J. A. Smith, for the construction of 432 linear feet of breakwater at Ashtabula, be accepted. The bid was $43,139.36. Work — will be commenced as soon as the necessary preliminaries can be arranged. } The dry docks are beginning to pick up work and the stagnation recently experienced in repair work is about over. There is every indication that from this on there will be plenty of work going forward until the opening of navigation and after that the usual season work will of course set in. A few coal cargoes for the head of Lake Superior are on the market. Thirty cents is offered for the first trip, but no charters have been reported yet. Vesselmen have been asked for figures by the Illinois Steel Co. on a block or ore to be moved from Escanaba to Milwaukee, Chicago and South Chicago. The total amounts to about 450,000 tons, but contracts have not been closed yet. The only men that are interested in the lake carrying trade that are showing any life are the underwriters. A number of insurance men from different ports were in the city this week hustling for business. Capt. Lasalle, of Duluth, and Capt. J. G. Keith, of Chicago, were hustling around in the interests of the new company which is try- ing to enter the lake trade this season. zi At a meeting of the iron ore pool which was held at- this port on Tuesday, representatives of nearly all the large interests being present, it was found impossible to arrive at a basis for continuing the association which would be satisfactory to all the interests. It was decided that no further effort to reach an agreement would avail, and the association was formally dissolved. The price of standard Gogebic ore last year, such as Norrie, was $4 per ton, and standard Mesaba ore like the Fayal was $3.35 per ton. One or two large producing interests have been extremely urgent since the Rockefeller-Carnegie agree: ment to press down the price of ore to the lowest possi- ble limit. It is proposed by them to reduce the price this year to $2.65 for the Norrie and $2.40 for the Fayal. With the above result contracts for carrying ore will commence and there is no knowing how low freights will drop in the capes of vessel owners to close up for a few months’ work. ; Capt. Peter Edgar was in Cleveland last week paying his family and friends a short visit. He has been in Tona- wanda all winter looking after the repairing of six of the Corning & Edgar fleet of vessels. and best known vessel masters on the lakes, and has been a successful navigator both on salt and fresh water. In 1867 he took the schooner Narragansett across from Cleveland to London with a cargo of oil and successfully sailed her on the ocean a little over two years ‘without a mishap. He then left her in Boston and returned to the lakes, making Cleveland his home, where he. has resided ever since. He also commanded a number of deep water ships before he commenced sailing on the lakes. For the last 16 years he has sailed for Gordon Corning of Sagi- naw, and will this year sail the schooner Our Son, of the same line. He went to sea when he was 11 years old and is now 70 years past and has sailed ever since without missing a season, and never had a mishap of any serious nature with any vessel he had charge of. He is as spry and looks like a man of 50, and we wish him good luck and hope to see him with us a long time to come yet. The Narragansett returned to the lakes and is now in commis- sion on Lake Michigan. OOO PORT HURON. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. Vessel men are now looking for a general opening of navigation. ; Cautionary signals will be resumed at the weather ‘office on April to. Engineer Robert Dornan will go as second engineer on the steamer Colorado this season. a Nearly all of the chief engineers in Port Huron have secured positions for the coming season. Vessel Inspectors Danger and Van Liew are busily en- gaged nowadays granting licenses to captains, pilots and engineers. There is still plenty of ice in Lake Huron but not very heavy. A report from Lexington says lots of ice as far out as the eye can see. The steamer Grand Rapids is to be placed on the Lake He is one of the oldest NSS Lie Mee ee oy he Re ee