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THE MARINE RECORD. JUNE 22, 1899. IRA B. BASSETT GEORGE PRESLEY, JR. A. R. TRAIN, BASSETT, PRESLEY & TRAIN, IRON AND STEEL WAREHOUSE. Ship Plates; Ship Spikes, Car Iron; Hoops, Bands and Sheet Iron. Angles, Beams; Channel and Tee Iron; Boiler Tubes; Boiler, Tank and Cooper Rivets; Steel Boiler Pfates; Bar, Bridge and BURDEN IRON COMPANY BOILER RIVETS. THE STANDARD AND ONLY RIVET USED BY ALL FIRST-CLASS BOILER MAKERS IN THE UNITED STATES. Acme Shafting—We own and control the sale of this celebrated brand and carry a full stock of all sizes and lengths. Boiler, Bridge and Tank Plates, Nails, Boat and Railroad Spikes, Smoke Stack Rivets, Boiler Patch Bolts, Open Hearth Steel. ARCHES AND STRAPS FOR VESSELS A SPECIALTY. GENERAL OFFICES: 23 Merwin Street. CLEVELAND Main 417. Telephones { main 423. WAREHOUSE : 17 to 31 Merwin Street. OHIO. | Almy’s Patent Sectional Pintsch Gas Lighted Buoys. WATER TUBE BOILERS, } NOW USED IN 21 Passenger Boats from 70 to 160 ft. long. 61 Steam Yachts from 50 to 180 ft. long. U. S. TORPEDO BOAT «STILETTO.”’ Numerous freight’ and fishing steamers, launches and ‘stationary boilets are giving most excellent results. ALMY WATER TUBE BOILER CO., 178-184 Allens Ave., near Rhodes St., PROVIDENCE, R. I. Adopted by the English, German, French, Russian, Italian, and United States Light-House Departments for channel and harbor lighting. Over 800 gas buoys and gas beacons in service. Burn Continuously from 80 to 365 days and nights without atten- tion, and can be seen a distance of six miles. Controlled by THE SAFETY CAR HEATING AND LIGHTING Co, 160 Broadway, New York City. NOTICE TO MARINERS. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA—NORTHERN LAKES AND RIVERS—MICHIGAN. ' TREASURY DEPARTMENT. OFFICE OF THE LIGHT-HOUSE BOARD, WASHINGTON, D. C., June 17, 1899. J PETOSKEY BEACON LIGHT STATION. Notice is hereby given that, on or.about July 1, 1899, two lantern lights, one red vertically above one white, will be _ established at the northerly end of the West Breakwater, Petoskey Harbor, Little Traverse Bay, easterly side of the northerly end of Lake Michigan. The lights will be suspended from a red iron post, about 25 and 18 feet, respectively, above mean lake level. Asmall red lamp house stands immediately in rear of the post. By order of the Light-House Board: FRANCIS J. HIGGINSON, Rear Admiral, U. S. Navy, Chairman. (BY THE HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE.) LAKE MICHIGAN—CHICAGO—FERRIS WHEEL RE-LIGHT- ED.—The Ferris wheel, situated at the corner of North Clark street and Brightwood avenue, has been re-lighted for the season. The wheel will be lighted by 3,000 incandescent ° _ electrit lights from dusk until midnight daily, Sundays and holidays included, regardless of the condition of the weather. _ Theheight of the wheel above the ground is 274 feet, and the height above the mean lake level is 305 feet. LAKE ST. CLAIR—GROSSE POINTE—NEW Buoy.—A 25- foot red spar buoy has been placed in 15 feet of water on the following bearings to mark the position formerly occupied by the Grosse Pointe beacon, which was cut down to the _ . water’s edge byice: Windmill Point light-house S. 76° W. true (W.S.W. % W. mag.). Walker’s house, Isle aux Peches, S. 52° W. true (S.W. ~W. mag.). Clubhouse Dock N. 27° W. true (N. N.W. &% W. mag.). This buoy will be known as Grosse Pointe beacon buoy and should be given a berth of about 100 feet so as to avoid the riprap about the old beacon. LAKE ERIE—SUNKEN WRECK ABREAST OF BAR POINT LicHt.—Information has been received that on June g last the lumber-laden schooner Thomas Dobbie struck a rock abreast of Bar Point light, Lake Erie, and sunk. She lies in 12 feet of water, with her stern in the channel. oo A WEATHER PROPHET’S METHOD. There is a man in Brookfield, Mass., who claims to have forty years’ reputation as a good weather prophet and whose system of calculating the number of snow storms during the winter, for instance, smacks somewhat of the mystic. It reminds one, in fact, of the way in which the old skipper . worked out his longitude, by multiplying the number of drinks he had before breakfast by the number of times he had an occasion to kick the cat and the number of knots he guessed she made per hour, less the allowance in degrees for leeway. The weather sharp’s secret of the method of cal- culating snow stormsis this: ‘‘Take the days of the month that the first snow storm appears, add to this the day of the week, to this again add the age of the new moon; the total will tell the number of snowstorms that will occur during that winter. I. only count as storms when sufficient snow falls to show the tracks of acat. Flurries don’t count.’’—Ex. oo oro INVENTION OF THE MARINE ENGINE. W. Clark Russell, a well-known British writer on marine subjects, in the course of a late contribution to the Pall Mall Magazine, gives the following opinion regarding the inven- tion of the marine engine: “The invention of the marine steam engine has a vast number of claimants. One looks around the crowd bewil- dered. If I may, with the utmost modesty, venture an opinion, I should say that the first man to give practical and useful form to the idea of driving a wooden hull by steam machinery was Symington, who, in r8o1, fitted up a steam- boat at the instance of Lord Dundas for the Forth & Clyde Canal Company. She towed two vessels of an aggregate burden of 140 tons at the rate of 3% miles per hour, in the teeth of a strong breeze. ‘Justice should be done to John Fitch, however, an Amer- ican, who so early as 1784 had obtained rights to run steam- boats on the waters of Virginia and Maryland. His partner was one Rumsey. Afterward the States of Pennsylvania and New York granted Fitch exclusive rights in the use of their waters. His boat was of nine tons, and his engine drove her five miles an hour. He failed for want of money, and died by his own hands in 1798. “One who knew him says he could think of nothing but his steamboat, but he fell into rags and broken boots through wandering and talking of her. The same authority says that he met him at the house of a boat builder named Wil- — son, with whom was associated his blacksmith, Peter Brown, where, after indulging himself for some time in his never failing topic of deep excitement, he concluded with these memorable words: ‘Well, gentlemen, though I’ shall not live to see the time, you will, when steamboats will be pre-— ferred to all other means of conveyance, and especially for passengers; and they will be particularly useful in the navi- gation of the Mississippi river.’ He then retired, upon which _ Brown, turning to Wilson, exclaimed in a tone of deep sym- pathy, ‘Poor fellow; what a pity he‘is crazy!’ ”’: ee Injury to Cargo from Leakage.—A steamship had a wooden figurehead under her bowsprit, which was supported by scroll work extending back for several feet on each side of the vessel, to. which it was secured by bolts passing through the sides, and fastened by nuts on the inside. This scroll work was subject to the action of the seas in heavy weather, especially when the ship was heavily laden; and such action had a tendency, at least, to loosen gradually the nuts on the bolts, if it did not necessarily do so when con- tinued for any considerable time, and in such event the wa- ter would enter around the loosened bolts into the fore peak. The ship started on a voyage of several thousand miles, which would occupy some two months, and during which © ; would occur the autumnal equinox. She was so heavily laden as to bring the scroll work within about nine feet of — the water line. The fastenings of the scroll work had not been inspected for two years, and the only inspection made previous to entering upon the voyage, was to ascertain that there had not been previous leakage. A consignment of — sugar was stowed in the fore peak, which was injured during the voyage, but no more so than was reasonably expectable. | Held, that the facts were insufficient to sustain the burden testing on the owners to show due diligence to render the ship seaworthy at the inception of the voyage, under the re- hee of the Harter act. The Aggi, 93 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 484.