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THE MARINE RECORD. FLOTSAM, JETSAM AND LAGAN. About 200 cars of ore are now forwarded daily to the Escanaba ore docks. Shipments of ore to furnaces from the stock piles at Conneaut now average 150 car loads daily. The steamer Majestic, which wintered at Milwaukee, will not go into commission before May 15. Official announcement is made that the St. Lawrence canals will be opened for traffic on May 1. The Minneapolis will be commanded by Capt. William Jamieson and the St. Paul by Capt. James Jackson. The price of fuel coal in Buffalo harbor is down to $2 all round when delivered from the dock, and $2.10 from the scows. _ Adispatch from Chicago says: Underwriters will take immediate steps to have the old hulk of the Grand Tra- verse blown up, as it is a serious menace to navigation. Canadian marine insurance companies are reported to have revived the pooling arrangement which prevailedtwo years ago. It is believed; however, that rates will remain as at present. The Lighthouse Tender Haze has placed two gas buoys at Erie, one takes the place of the can buoy at the en- trance to the harbor. The light-house steamer Dahlia has placed a Pintsch gas buoy on Peshtigo reef. This buoy will remain light- ed six months at a time and will be a great safeguard to vessels. This week the biggest timber fleet in the history of the city is at Toledo, eleven steamers and schooners. They will take away 320,000 cubic feet of timber and all will leave this week. The pilot chart of the N. Pacific Ocean for May has just been issued by the Hydrographic Office, U. S. N. J. E. Craig, commander U. S. N., is now the hydrographer, vice C. D. Sigsbee. The Illinois legislature has consented to the purchase by the United States of lands necessary to the widening of the Chicago River, Lumber freight rates from Menominee to Chicago open up this season at $1.12% per thousand feet, which is some- what higher than last season. The indications are that this rate will be maintained. The Cunard Steamship Co. has just issued its annual report, from which it appears that the profits of the last year have been $1,148,940. After placing $925,000 to the depreciation account, and $160,000 in the insurance fund: the report recommends the payment of a dividend of 2 1-2 per cent. Capt. George P. McKay, of Cleveland, has received a letter from J. J. Lynn, of Port Huron, stating that there is 19 feet of water over Corsica shoal. Marine Reporter Lynn, has also much trouble in keeping the float lights on the middle ground. Masters should be careful and not carry them away. Mr. M. J. Marr, Superintendent and officer in charge of the Portage Lake waterways, has completed the regular spring examination of the ship canal. He finds the usual sand bar at the entrance. A clear channel of upwards of 16 feet exists on the west side of the canal, and has been marked by a black buoy on the west and a red flag buoy on the east side. : The Chicago. & Northwestern Railway has reduced its freight rate from the Marquette range mines to Escanaba to 45s, in place of 52c last year. The two railroads having ore docks at Marquette have declared a 25c¢ rate in place of the 35c rate per ton of last season. This reduction means a saving of a quarter of a million this season to the Marquette county iron mines. Capt. Joseph Kidd, superintendent of construction for the American Steel Barge Co. for the past eight years, has resigned and will open an office as consulting marine en- gineer at Duluth, and it is more than probable that Mr. Kidd will succeed beyond his most sanguine expectations, as a man is positively wanted at the head of the lakes. The work of placing the range lights and the channel stakes in the harbors on Duluth and Superior will be com- menced immediately. It will take but a short time to com- plete the job, as Maj. Sears, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., proposes to put as large a force as possible on in connec- tion with the work, and it will all be completed this week. In coming out of Michigan City on Sunday night the steamer A. B. Taylor collided with the Franklin Street bridge, doing several hundred dollars damage. The stem and upper works forward of the Taylor were badly smashed. The cause of the collision was that the engineer was unable to reverse the engine. The Taylor left all well to have some repairs made in Chicago. H. J. Pauly has sold the steamer Westover and barge A. T. Bliss to H. W. Cook of Chicago, and the latter has transferred his one-third interest in the steamers Thomas Davidson, Walter Vail and barge Baltic to Mr. Pauly. According to the bills of sale the value of the Westover is placed at $25,000, and that of the Bliss at $7,500. The deal is in the nature of a separation of interests. Mr. Pauly is now sole owner of the Davidson, Vail and Baltic. The passenger steamer just built in Toronto for Gra- ham & Horne is steel with elm sheathing. Her dimen- sions are 125 feet over all, 30 feet beam and 12 feet hold. She is for the Rainy River district of the British Colum-. bia gold region, and will be taken- to pieces and shipped to destination by rail. It is said that she will have a river as large as the St. Lawrence to sail on. She cost $40,000, and it is expected will pay for herself this year, She will be called the Keenora. LAUNCHES OF THE WEEK. LAUNCH OF MINNEAPOLIS. AND ST. PAUL. There was successfully launched from the yards of the Chicago Ship Building Co., on Saturday last, the sister ships St. Paul and Minneapolis, built to the order of R. R, Rhodes and others of Cleveland. As a matter of record it may be noted that the Minne- apolis was started of the ways first, viz., at 2:30, followed by the St. Paul one hour later. Miss Fannie Rhodes, of Cleveland, daughter of R. R. Rhodes, the managing owner, broke the conventional bottle of champagne over the bow of the Minneapolis, and Miss Margaret Ward, of Chicago, performed the like ceremony for the St. Paul. Manager Babcock, of the Chicago Ship Building Co., was in charge of the launching. The steamers are of the Welland Canal type, and are owned by the Lower Lakes Steamship Co., of Cleveland. The Soo Line will run them between Gladstone and Buf- falo. They are 254 1-2 feet over all, 238 feet keel, 42 feet beam, and 26 feet molded depth. The engines are triple expansion, being 17, 29 and 47 inches diameter of cylin- der, by 36 inches stroke. Two Scotch type boilers 11x11 feet, engines and boilers built by the Cleveland Ship Building Co. They are the first ships on the lakes to be built under the specifications of the Great Lakes Regis- ter, and are awarded the highest class in that book. These handsome little sister ships or rather little as compared with the dimensions of cargo boats now being put afloat, are fitted with three gangways on each side, to facilitate the handling of package freight or general cargo, and they are expected to leave the builders’ hands next Saturday and proceed on their maiden trips to Glad- stone to load for Lake Ontario. To launch a couple of steamers within the hour and have them _ finished, equipped and ready for service within the week, is a record never before attained on the lakes, and the credit for which we opine must be awarded to Manager W. I. Babcock, LAUNCH OF THE SCHOONER CONSTITUTION. The steel tow barge Constitution, built to the order of the Inter-Lake Transit Co., Cleveland, Pickands, Math- er & Co., managing owners, was successfully launched from the yards of the American Steel Barge Co., West Superior, Wis., on Wednesday last, April 21st. The christening being gracefully performed by Mrs. Dieriex. The Constitution is built on the channel system, with three girders on each side of center, running fore and aft on top of floors and supportine the tank top; the sec- ond girder from the center running down and connect- ing to the bottom plating. All of the plating is of open hearth mild steel, having a tensile strength of 52.000 to 62,000 pounds per square inch. The principal dimensions are: Length over all, 379 feet 6 inches: keel, 366 feet: beam, molded, 44 feet; depth, molded, 26 feet: gross ton- nage, 3,231.30; net tonnage, 2,998. She has eleven hatches, each 28 feet by 8 feet in the clear, with 24 feet between centers. She is fitted with three steel pole masts, 92 feet long. The pumps are of Laidlow, Dunn, Gordon Co.’s, Cincin- nati, make; the donkey boiler is by S. Freeman & Sons’ Manufacturing Co., Racine, Wis.: the steam © steering gear is the Williamson Bros., of Philadelphia, Pa., and the windlass. capstans and. towing machines are by the American Ship Windlass Co., Providence, R. I. The deck winches are of the Cleveland Shipbuilding Co.’s ‘make and the electric apparatus is from the General Elec- tric Co. A complete outfit of sails and rigging is fur- nished by H. Channon & Co., Chicago. oa —_— TRANSFERS OF VESSEL PROPERTY. Among the transfers of vessel property recorded at the Milwaukee customs office recently are the following: Schooner Alice M. Beers—Fred Struck to Henry Brandt, of Milwaukee, John Litney of Sutton’s Bay, and Meinrod Oberlin of Bingham, Mich., the whole $1,800. Steamer Adelia Shores—Shores Lumber Co. of Ashland to Samuel and Sidney O. Neff of Milwaukee, the whole, $38,000. Schooner Little Georgy—George Weaver to Arthur E. Dow of Manitowoc, the whole, $800. Schooner Lydia— August Schmidt and Berlin Hall of Manitowoc to Claus and Samuel Jorgenson of Racine, the - whole _ $900. Schooner Elva—George and Martin Johnson of Sheboy- gan to Charles Gregory of Salem, Kenosha county, Wis., the whole, $1,200. Schooner C. Harrison—Thomas B. Thompson to Herman Hanson of Milwaukee, one-fourth, $150. Schooner Charles J. Smith—Sweney Hovred and Knud Erickson of Manitowoc to William Armstrong of Ahnapee, one-half, $550. Schooner Ebenezer—F. Hogen- son to I. M. Olson of Ephraim, one-third, $175. Schooner Lily E.—Gustav Gunderson to Louis Gunder- son of Sheboygan, one-fourth, $600. Schooner Norman —P. J. Goodlet of Ephraim to Berend Anderson of De- troit Harbor, the whole, $325. The number of transfers for $1 and other valuable considerations recorded this season are unusually large. yh eS eS a” A NEW LAKE ERIE LINE. - In all probability another car ferry line will be run- ning from Conneaut to Port Burwell, Ont., before the present season is over. American capitalists have suc- ceeded in getting the Canadian Government to make an appropriation for the harbor at Port Burwell. This was done with the understanding that the capitalists spend a similar sum, which is $25,000, making in all, with the bal- ance left from last year, a sum of nearly $75,000. Those interested are very anxious to get in operation, and it is expected to begin work at once. This line in operation would make it very easy to obtain the contract from the Michigan Central for their fuel. The daily ore shipment from Conneaut harbor is now I50 cars. Sad EO ge ser ITT 2 REIT OBITUARY. (Capt. J. S. Richards.) ' Capt. Richards died very suddenly in Chicago on Fri- day last. The late John Stevens Richards was born June 5, 1821, at the Richards homestead, Erie, Pa. He was a son of the late John and Anna Hinton Richards, natives of Cardiganshire, Wales. John. Richards, the elder, went to sea from his home in Wales, at a very early age, and had circumnavigated the globe three times, when he landed in New York city and apprenticed himself to the great ship building firm of Brown & Bell. At the breaking out of the war in 1812, Brown -& Bell were en- gaged by the government to construct war vessels, af- terwards designated as Perry’s fleet, and John Richards happened to be one of the considerable number of men forwarded from New York to Erie, where the vessels were built, to engage in such construction. Subsequent- ly and throughout his life he made his home at Erie, and at various times sailed the lakes, but finally engaged permanently in ship building and had for many years charge of the construction of all the then noted “Reed Line” of steamers, and sailing vessels plying on the lakes. The Hintons, with whom he intermarried, as above men- tioned, were among the very earliest settlers of Erie coun- ty, and were also natives of Wales. He died in Erie in 1845. His wife died in 1874. John S. Richards engaged in sailing, and continued thereat for 23 years, during which period, after various promotions from subordinate positions, he had command successively of the steamers Ohio, Queen City, Keystone, Western World, the latter plying between Buffalo and Detroit, and lastly the steamship Milwaukee, forming a connection with the Detroit and Milwaukee and Grand Haven, Michigan. On retiring from command of the last named steamer in the spring of 1863 he became a member of the firm of Henry Rawle & Co., shippers by lake, of bituminous coal, which firm was succeeded by that of Richards, Pelton, Reed & Co., the latter firm be- ing dissolved upon the abandonment of the Erie exten- sion canal. Since 1871 he was a member of the firm of William L. Scott & Co. It was always a pleasure in after years to listen to the captain relate incidents of the early days on the lakes. He had a very wide acquaintance and was a friend of every- one. Since the incorporation of the W. L. Scott Coal Co., after the death of the late Hon. W. L. Scott, in 1891, he became the president of that institution. Mr. Richards was also a director in the Second National Bank, the Youghiogheny River Coal Co., the Union Coal Co., and the Spring Valley Coal Co. He was married in 1855 to Adelaide McAllaster, daugh- ter of the late David McAllaster. His children, Harry Richards, Mary, wife of George R. Metcalf, and Adelaide, wifé of W. W. Michener, all survive him, and to them and his wife he has left the heritage of an honorable name and a life well spent and full of good works,