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THE MARINE RECORD. ye CLEVELAND. pecial Correspondence to The Marine Record. nk Hickey, engineer of the Pastime, fell overboard at ledo early on Monday morning last and was drowned. is The steel steamer Texas, 476 feet in length and 50 feet beam will be launched from the Lorain yards of the Ameri- can Ship Building Co. early in August. . Capt. John W. Moore took a party of friends to the _ Islands this week on his steam yacht Marietta. Capt. John _ is wearing well and getting over the rough spots in life as easy as possible. The steel steamer which was contracted for by the Bes- _semer Steamship Co. with the American Steel Barge Co., _ West Superior, will be built at the Globe yards here. She __ is to be 490 feet over all or 14 longer than at first planned. The Minnesota Steamship Co. made choice of a very appropriate name for their last launch at South Chicago. _ The names of the fleet begin and end with the letters M and A. oe pis occasion they added the Manila to their exten- _ Sive fleet. + Bay City passed into the hands of the American Ship Build- ing Co. has been closed. Two weeks ago the yard was ap- raised and the papers were signed on Saturday. ‘The plant is listed at about $700,000. _ - Capt. McKay received a letter from Capt. John H. Irens, _ steamer Merida, this week, announcing the discovery of a _ shoal patch between Colchester and Pt. Pelee. Capt Ivens’ _bearings are so inexact that no information can be gained from his letter or the pencil diagram sent with it. _ The D. & C. Line steamer City of Cleveland smashed two _ paddles on her port side-wheel on Tuesday in working past _ a vessel at the Lake Shore railroad bridge. The wonder is, that damage is not more frequent in handling these large -beamy boats in such a narrow creek as the Cuyahoga. _. The large steel tow barge John Smeaton, built by the _ American Steel Barge Co., at West Superior, Wis., to the _ order of the Bessemer Steamship Co., Cleveland, was suc- _ cessfully launched on Saturday last. It is expected that _ the Smeaton will out carry anything now afloat on the lakes. Mr. A. Osier, western representative of the well known cordage house of De Graw, Aymar & Co., New York City, _ visited this port during the week in the interests of his firm. Though inclined to be non-commital regarding the business outlook, Mr. Osier seemed fairly well satisfied with the orders coming his way. _ There is one small tug that does a little towing, outside of the two large tug lines at this port. The time was when ‘Cleveland tug owners were considered a little uppish but there is excellent service now and there is no port on the chain of lakes that is better equipped, or offers any more towing facilities at moderate charges than Cleveland does. _ The docks at the head of the lakes were swept rather clean this spring, the estimated supply for next winter is about 2,700,000 tons. This large quantity must be trans- _ ported from lower lake ports and it is well able to pay a fair rate for being moved. Coal shippers would do well to hustle for tonnage in time and before 75 cents per ton freight is called for. It was talked of some time ago ina broker’s office that there was very little profitfor the underwriters in insuring freight and cargoes. One know-all sneeringly said there _was not even lunch money init. Judging from the way a arge Chicago syndicate is. corraling this portion of lake business I-should call it a ‘‘gilded bait,’? as that com- bination don’t work for nothing. _ It would be just as well for our readers to note that Sand Beach, Mich., the harbor of refuge on Lake Huron, is now _known as Harbor Beach. This item for telegrams, letters, ‘reporting arrivals, vessels windbound or sheltering, etc. _ Any lake farer asked where Harbor Beach is, should remem- ber this change of name. The post office people are likely to be sticklers for the correct name. The fleet of four 500 foot steel steamers will be built at the Lorain yards of the: American Ship Building Co., to the order of the American Steel & Wire Co., Chicago. ing to the present plans they will have fifteen hatchways, adruple expansion engines, and water tube boilers tested or 250 lbs. steam, estimated to carry nearly 8,000 tons on feet draft. Cost $350,000 each, or a total of $1,400,000. The C. & B. line claim this week for their large side- ‘wheel passenger steamer City of Erie a maximum speed of g-Io miles an hour from Dunkirk to Buffalo. This need, IT. F. Newman, general manager of the Cleveland Buffalo line, says, can’t be touched by anything afloat m fresh water. The Erie is steadily improving in speed as her machinery gets down to easy bearings and the other tenth of a mile will be taken out of her ina trip or two. same time 23 miles an hour is a fairly lively clip to sing over the ground. stated last week that Capt. Herriman of Chicago, was ming to reside here in theinterests of a classification ety; it is now on the tapis that rooms will be taken on the floor of the Perry-Payne building and that the work carried on from this end instead of Chicago, The ndy City’’ may be the center of and for lake under- ing on hulls and cargoes, as well as freights, but Cleve- _ The deal whereby the shipyard of F. W. Wheeler at West | . stick up for their rights. Accord- - land has the commerce, building and ownership, after all, the owner pays every cent that is paid for construction, equipment, classing, insurance, etc., and Capt. Herriman’s society is no doubt right in locating him here, although its interests were well conserved heretofore by local agents. When J. J. Hill, president of the Great Northern Rail- road built his lake fleet of cargo steamers, he wanted boats 500 feet in length, but was overruled in this particular as being a little ahead of the harbor facilities as well as the shoaler spots in the rivers. Mr. Wolvin contracted for the fleet of 500 footers now under contract, he also made a trip to the Pacific coast for Mr. Hill and rumor had him in Mr. Hill’s employ. It was suggested this week by a vesselman’ that the capitalists had pooled interests in the building of sister ships and that two at least of the big boats might be for the Northern Line, had the contract been signed for six they could have been built at a relative less cost in the total. oO ro FLOTSAM, JETSAM AND LAGAN. The basin of the St. Lawrence river covers 530,000 square miles, of which 460,000 are in Canada. The Nile is the longest river in the world, 4,300 miles. The Niger is 2,500 miles, and the Zambezi 1,600 miles. Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, Ontario and Michigan have an aggregate area of 94,000 square miles, which is larger than the area of Great Britain. The greatest bay on the face of the earth is that of Bengal. Measured in a straight line from the two inclosing peninsu- las, its extent is about 420,000 square miles. Knapp’s roller boat rolled herself or itself ashore last week on a trip from Toronto to Prescott, her best speed was about 41%4' miles an hour, she was finally taken in tow. Capt Walk—No sir, I did not ground the vessel! There was simply not enough water. to float her when she stopped. Owner—Oh, ay, she was loaded too deep I suppose, the bottom was getting nearer the surface and kept coming up. ‘The House of Lords has finally dismissed the appeal of the owners of the steamer La Bourgogne from the decision holding the steamer responsible for the collision with the ship Cromartyshire, which resulted in the sinking of La Bourgogne, with great loss of life. The Amazon is regarded as the largest and longest river on the face of the globe. Its length is not accurately known, but it is generally believed to be nearer 4,000 miles than 3,000. The Nile is 3,400 miles long from its source in the Victoria Nyanza to its mouth. Ten knots an hour is equal to rather more than 11% miles an hour, a knot or nautical mile containing 6,080 feet This is the admiralty knot. It isa little shorter than the true knot (6,082.66) which is one-sixtieth of a degree or the circumference of the earth divided by 360 by 60. A strike is talked of this week at the yards of the Mary- land Steel Co., Sparrows Point. The number of men in- volved in the demand for a nine hour day with ten hours pay is 2,500. The men were addressed on Saturday last by J. M. Sullivan, of the Street Pavers’ Union, and urged to It is difficult to see the connection between shipyard labor and street paving, though of course it is all labor. A Drawn Bet.—A down Hast minister in poor circum- stances had a purse made up for him by his congregation, and on the same day that it was presented his wife obliged him with a bouncing boy. . Two members of the congrega- tion were very curious as to which he would refer to first in his opening prayer on the following Sunday, and a bet was made thereon, ‘The two members duly attended the church and listened very intently for the prayer, and the minister began: ‘Oh, Lord, we thank Thee for this timely succour’’ —-and the bet was drawn. The new steel steamer Hureka recently launched at Lorain, started on her maiden trip this week with bituminous coal, 50 cents to Milwaukee. The Eureka, built for the Welland and St. Lawrence Canal trade will probably be taken to the coast in the fall. There is no reason why small, handy craft such as the Eureka should not be keptin service all the year round, kept in the lake trade during the summer and placed in aspecial coast trade during the winter months. Enlarging the St. Lawrence system of canals is an assurance that more steamers of the Eureka’s dimensions will soon be put afloat, then, on the last trip to Montreal, instead of win- tering there, or returning to a lake port, they can leave Montreal about the date that Gulf insurance expires and proceed to the New England coast, or trade at the Southern ports in the gulf of Mexico, or around the West Indies, Cuba, Porto Rico and even the foreign owned islands. Capt.Frietsche left ’Frisco a few days ago for Manila in a sail boat. ‘The only occupant of the small craft, besides him- self, was a favorite cat. Sunday two others left port to cross the Atlantic, Howard Blackburn in asloop rigged, four-ton boat, the Great Western, from Gloucester, Mass. ,to Gloucester, Eng. Blackburn followed a seafaring life on Gloucester fishing vessels for many years, and in January, 1883, was cast away in his dory on the Grand Banks, with one companion, for five days without food or water. His companion died, but Blackburn was rescued, although he lost his fingers and toes, and was otherwise crippled as the result of his terrible 7 SS eee ee eee eee eee experiences. William A. Andrews also cleared from Atlantic City, N. J., on Sunday, in a little craft he called the Doree, and he will shape a course for the Azores. The boat he is using this time is twelve feet long, five feet wide, and twenty-two inches deep. It has been painted black for the purpose, the captain states, of not attracting the attention of whales and sharks, as he claims to have had trouble with these monsters during his former trips. Itis learned from the Shipping World, London, that the numbers and tonnage of vessels bound to or from the port of Liverpool during 1898 were: Inward 20,505 vessels, of 9,815,008 tons ; outward, 20,593 vessels, of 10,332,155 tons. These give the largest totals for many years, viz., 41,188 vessels of 20,147,163 tons. The query arises, are these figures inconclusive, do they mean local, coastwise and foreign tonnage, and if so, whether gross or net, also the ascertained, or estimated value of the commerce or cargoes. There seems to be much to be desired in the methods of com- puting trade, commerce and shipping of the United King- dom, much of which is no doubt due to the circumlocution, red tapeism, of the old country’s staff of government clerks who are not permitted to show their vazson d’etre or if so, are scared to suggest what might be considered as an in- novation in their clerkly routine. By the way, that word clerkly isa good one, most people write it clerical, but clerical smacks of clerky, and clerky of ecclesiasticism. Se EE BEESON’S MARINE DIRECTORY. Beeson’s Marine Directory for 1899 is now in the hands of its subscribers for the twelfth consecutive time, following the practice of former years, it is bigger and better than ever before. There are a large number of excellent illustra- tions of subjects of interest to vessel men, there are articles of interest to the trade, lists of vessels, sail and steam, with full information about each, record of engines and boilers, giving type and size of those on each vessel on the lakes, a directory of vessel owners and a classified directory of all those connected with the lake marine in various capacities. There is a list of the vessels lost during 1898, with the man- ner of their destruction, a description of the various ports of the lakes, the output of iron ore by ranges, ports and mines, and, in short, everything that could be expected of such a work and a good deal more. By the use of addenda the changes of ownership and ratings of vessels are given up to May 10. The book is handsome typographically, and itis a valuable directory of the marine interests of the lakes. It can be obtained from the MARINE RECORD Publishing Co., Cleveland, or at the offices of the publisher, Harvey C. Bee- son, Royal Insurance Building, Chicago. —— 2 or THE county of Cornwall, the southwestern extremity of England, was formerly a noted locality for wreckers, not wreckers as we know them on the lakes, men who lighter cargo, dismantle the hull, and save all that it is possible to secure, in the interest of owners and underwriters, but wreckers according to the old generic term, those who lure ships ashore by false lights for purposes of plunder, etc. The Lizard, or the outlying rocks, called the Manacles, with the long, low dangerous point known as the Land’s End, is the Cornish of Cornwall; no doubt the exact loculity where the babes in arms used to be taught to lisp their evening petition in this strain: ‘‘God bless mammy, God bless daddy and send a ship ashore before morning.”’ The large powerful steel steamers Mohegan and Paris are now piled up in this wreckers ideal locality, where ‘‘all the Queen’s ships and all the Queen’s men coulden’t get the old tanks afloat again,’’ and they had to ask the Svitzer Co. to please come and tty to float the Paris, so as to save some of their pennies, and they had to do this on other occasions, that is, the Queen’s men had to ask the foreign Svitzer Co. to come over and help them. However, thisis not what we started out to say. Cornwall is the objective point, as the Paris and Mohegan discovered. On this side the Atlantic we are loaded down with Indian legends, their forest lore, modes of communication, secret recipes for curing all the ills that flesh is heir to, including bites of snakes, and snakes that bite, etc. Now, since every reason in the heavens above, the earth beneath, and the earth under the waters, has been advanced to show cause why these two large steamers stranded, can we not fall back on the secrets left by the ancient Cornishmen, on the sure means of luring a ship to. destruction-in dark, cloudy, foggy weather. They never get there in clear weather, because the magnet won’t work. How then, has the secret been handed down to the present generation, and what is the key toit? MHere’s a new scent for archeologists to follow, perhaps the lotion, ’potion, substance, devilish charm, incantation, or whatever it is can only take effect at periodic intervals. Whatever the luring qualities of the Cornish coast concatenation may be, it is absolute in its positiveness, its a dum dum, and a sticker. As regards lives, the Mohegan dash appeased that side of the compact, and the voracious maw of the demon charm holds to the material metal of both ships. It may be noted that all the lives that were called for went out with the Mohegan. but there was more hull plunder required for the sacrifice, hence, the holding in a tight grasp of. the Paris, which can now only be stolen away piece by piece. The wiseacres make Bacon prove Shakespeare a liar, and savants prove that they both wagged a false pair of jaws, is the key to the Cornish cryptology to be deciphered by the cryptographer, and is it contained in the rendering of the ancient idioms of the Cornish boys, girls or child’s evening prayer. With these few gentle hints we leave the subject to be pursued.