The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

VOL. XX. No. 16. ‘ESTABLISHED 1878. CLEVELAND---APRIL 22, 1897---CHICAGO. $2.00 Per Year. toc. Single Copy LAKE CARRIERS’ ASSOCIATION. To consider and take action upon all general questions relating to the navigation and carrying business of the Great Lakes, maintain necessary shipping offices and in general to protect the common interest of Lake Car- riers, and improve the character of the service rendered to the public. PRESIDENT. Capt, JAMES W. MILLEN, Detroit, Mich. VICE PRESIDENTS. J. S. Dunham, Chicago. Howard L. Shaw, Bay City. C.E. Benham, Cleveland. BY th, inch, Philadelphia. David Carter, Detroit. L. 8. Sullivan, Toledo. S. D. Caldwell, _ Buffalo. M. J. Cummings, Oswego. W.H. Wolf, Milwaukee. Geo, Berriman, Erie. W. C. Farrington, Duluth, SECRETARY. CHARLES H, KEEP, Buffalo. TREASURER. Grorce P. McKay, Cleveland. COUNSEL. Harvey D. GouLpDER, Cleveland. SIDELIGHTS AND SCREENS. In the fitting out of vessels in the spring of the year, too much attention can not be paid to the proper adjusting of the sidelight screens and the lights to be exhibited. Masters and owners would do well to remember that the majority of collisions happen through the errors resulting from seeing both lights, when one only ought to be in view, and similar instances having a momentous bearing on the rules of the road. The sidelights beside being of the best quality, should be tested to show that the star- board lights has a shade or glass that will throw a clear deep green, over an arc of the horizon of ten points of the compass, and not as is frequently the case, a pale, washed out green, as it were, showing over an arc of the horizon anywhere between five and fifteen points of the compass. The port light as a rule, even an inferior article, is generally more recognizable than either a white, or yel- low light, or a green light, and as so much depends on the determining of the shade, vessels navigating ought to be always fitted with the very best appliances. One law- suit would cost more than several good sidelight outfits, and in serious cases involve the vessel which has proved culpable. Having the proper lights, the question of screening them must be strictly attended to so that the green light shall not be seen to port, or the red to star- board, and yet allow both lights to be clearly in sight to anything end on. To obtain this view it is only necessary to place the light on a line parallel with the line of keel, and by having inboard screens projecting three feet for- ward of the light they will never show across the bow. We have presumed that the shades of the lamps were cut to show 112%4°, no more or less, yet it is barely possible that sidelights are now being carried that have not been constructed according to this principle. Of course the ma- jority of the lights and those constructed by reliable mak- _ ers are perfectly correct, yet we cannot but think that there are still some old, inferior lights in use which are not quite up to the regulation standard either in construction, size, or quality, and if it is added that they may be some- times imperfectly placed on shipboard, we may readily see that collision, bringing trouble, expense, and perhaps loss of life in their train, are sometimes courted unwitting- ly; under any circumstances there is no technical or legal excuse for the neglect to carry proper lights, and any vessel so offending the laws of the rules of the road is liable to pay the piper in all cases of carelessness, and we think she honestly deserves to be at the expense, or outlay caused by her collisions, or more correctly, by the incompetency of those on board. If instead of each party paying their own losses, as is frequently the case, the cul- pable vessel was mulcted in heavy damages, we venture to say that there would be a perceptible decrease in the num- ber, and the importarice of the collisions of which we hear from time to time, and by bringing the wrong-doers to justice a salutary lesson would be given to others who are engaged conducting valuable property across the wa- ters, besides having charge of the lives of a number of their fellow men, who trust implicity to the competency of their superiors in the craft or skill of seamanship. | —$—— or ar MUD LAKE OPENING UP. Information to hand says that Mud lake is open to the head of Lime Island. There are only about one and one-half miles of ice at the foot of the island, which is soft. Boats will have very little trouble in through it and reaching the Soo. oo oo INSPECTOR LEUTZ. Commander C. H. C. Leutz, who will succeed Com- mander J. H. Dayton as inspector of the ninth light-house district, will take up the office May 1. He is accompany- ing Commander Dayton on a trip over the district in the lighthouse tender Dahlia, which is engaged in placing the buoys in the district. Commander Leutz comes from the man-of-war Michigan, which has been doing survey work for the navy department for some time. Commander Dayton will be placed on waiting orders. or A STATION AT THE ‘‘SOO.’’ In less than a year it is reported that the light-house board will establish a supply depot near the straits re- gion for the storage of coal, buoys, oil, gas and other light-house department supplies of all description. Though it will be on a much smaller scale than the depot in De- uot, Cheboygan Charlevoix and Sault Ste. Marie ai. are alxious to secure it. ‘he claims have been considereu and it is said the board will probably decide in favor of Sault Ste. Marie, as being the most central point for ac- cess from Lakes Huron and Superior, and as being a town large enough to furnish such material.as may be needed in case of emergency, besides holding, near at hand, all the labor that may at any time be needed. A depot of this character has long been needed. At present the large number of light stations in the upper part of the eleventh district have to depend on the De- troit river for their supplies, which are carried up in ten- ders. The local depot is large eriough, but the distance to be traversed, 250 to 500 miles, according to the destina- tion, is too great and the time consumed in getting over it too valuable. For instance, when the light at Stannard Rock, Lake Superior, needs coal and oil, the tender, which may be up the lakes on inspection at the time, will have to go only to the Soo—if that site is chosen—instead of going back to Detroit for them. ———— De The Canadian Marine Association met in Toronto re- cently, Presiderit R. O. Mackay, Hamilton, in the chair. A committee was appointed to proceed to Ottawa and lay several requests before the government, the principal be- ing that the government in future refuse permission to any one to build a bridge across navigable waters. The government will also be asked to keep the bridge across the Murray canal open on Sundays. The contention of the vesselmen in this is that the Murray canal was con- structed to allow vessels passage by the way of the Bay of Quinte when it was too stormy to go out into the open lake, and that the closing of the bridge on Sunday does away with a great deal of the value of the route. They would also like the duty on manilla cordage reduced to about 1 1-2 per cent, the same as prevails in the case of binder twin. breaking NOTICE TO MARINERS. Correction of Notice to Mariners No. 45 of 1897. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA—NORTHERN LAKES AND RIVERS—WISCONSIN. Treasury Department, Office of the Light-House Board, Washington, D. C., April 19, 1897. STURGEON BAY CANAL SOUTHEAST EN- TRANCE LIGHT, No. 1. Notice is hereby given that the color of this light, on the northeasterly side of the entrance to Sturgeon Bay Canal from Sturgeon Bay Harbor of Refuge, will remain white, instead of being changed as stated in Notice to Mariners No. 45 of 1807. DETROIT RIVER. BALLARD REEF CHANNEL GAS BUOYS. Notice is hereby given that, on April 8, 1807, gas buoys, as follows, were established on the westerly side of the Ballard Reef Channel; Detroit River, in lieu of the float lights heretofore maintained by the Lake Carriers’ Association. The buoys are on a line parallel with and about 350 feet to the westward of the Grosse Isle South Channel Range line. Diy South Gas Buoy, No. 1.—A black, third-class buoy, showing a fixed white light, in 22 feet of water, about 5,000 feet (15-16 mile) N. by W. 1-2 W. from Limekiln Crossing Light Vessel (North), No. 65. Head of Bois Blane Island Range Front (Canadian) Light House, S. 3-16 E.; west end of railroad bridge between Grosse Isle and Stony Island, SW. by W. 3-8 W.; Grosse Isle North Chartnel Range Front Light House, N. by W. 15-16 W. Middle Gas Buoy, No. 3.—A black, third-class gas buoy, showing a fixed white light, in 22 feet of water, about 1,200 feet N. by W. 1-2 W. from South Gas Buoy, No. i. Head of Bois Blanc Island Range Front (Canadian) Light House, S. 3-8 E.; west end of railroad bridge be- tween Grosse Isle and Stony Island, SW., 3-8 W., wester- ly; Grosse Isle North Channel Range Front Light House, NNW. : 3 North Gas Buoy, No. 5.—A black, third-class gas buoy, showing a fixed white light, in 22 1-2 feet of water, about 1,200 feet N. by W. 1-2 W. from Middle Gas Buoy, No. 3. Head of Bois Blanc Island Range Front (Canadian) Light House, S. 7-16 E.; west end of railroad bridge be- tween Grosse Isle and Stony Island, SW. 3-8 S.; Grosse Isle North Channel Range Front Light House, NNW., westerly. Mariners are requested to exercise great care to keep clear of these buoys, as there is a natural set of the cur- rent to the westward in this part of the channel. Tows and rafts should be handled with especial care. These buoys are difficult to reset when once removed. This notice affects the “List of Lights and Fog Signals, Northern Lakes and Rivers, 1896,” page 26, after No. 12555, and the “List of Beacons and Buoys, Northern Lakes and Rivers, 1896,” page 39. By order of the Light-House Board: : Ww. 'S. SCHLEY; Captain, U. S. Navy, Chairman. ee Soundirigs taken on the bar at the mouth of Sandusky bay shows that the water there ranges from. fifteen feet eight inches to nineteen feet. A dredge at work along the water front at that port will within a few days begin the work of removing the bar entirely, making the depth of water at the entrance of Sandusky bay about twenty-five feet.