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on the others also. - in force at Confederation. : last Friday, after electing the following officers: THE MARINE RECORD BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. ‘The Donnelly Contracting Co. has begun on the Erie - basin work. ‘The Donnelly is one of the best firms of con- tractors on the lakes. The master of the Canadian passenger steamer Hero, whose vessel was released from a shoal in Alexandria Bay this week, claims that the gas buoy had been shifted to make it easier to fill. Capt. Noonan, of Kingston, Ont., will lay the keel of a new steamer this winter for the Rideau route, to be ready by the opening of navigation next spring. Capt. Noonan has now the steamer James Swift. Capt. Smith, of the schooner Grandy, reported at Buffalo that seaman Gordon Seymour walked overboard while his vessel was going through the ‘“‘Soo’’ river on the way down. Seymour shipped at Buffalo, but it is believed his home is elsewhere, as there are letters addressed to him from different places. Messrs. Boynton and Thompson, Port Huron, who re- cently disposed of their towing and wrecking plant to the Great Lakes Towing Co., sold their steamer Westford and -consorts Monitor, Manitowoc and Atmosphere to J. J. Boland of this city. The price has not been given out. Capt. Boland will put the fleet in the bulk cargo trade. The Collector of Customs here placed a fine of $200 on the steamer Alexander McDougall last Saturday. The steamer is charged with violating rule 1 of the St. Mary’s river regulations, which regulates the extreme speed of steamers in the river. Complaint was made by the masters of other steamers and the matter forwarded to Buffalo for action. : Drake & Maytham, who libeled six grain cargoes last fall on demurrage claims have received the amount of their claims on the Germanic and Philip Minch from the shippers, Hancock & Co., of Philadelphia, without going to the expense and trouble of a law suit. They expect settlement The firm are to be commended for their well advised energy in settling up these claims for demurrage. If any one should ask about Capt. L. C. Cole, of Daysville, N. Y., I can tell them that he has ‘“‘swallowed the anchor’”’ and gone farming. Instead of plowing the lake, he is now plowing the land. Quits work when the sun goes down and on rainy and holy days, manages to eke out three square meals each day and still keep a ‘‘shot in the locker’’ for pro- duction when occasion demands. Capt. Cole has been a REcoRD subscriber for over seventeen years, and will still _ keep posted on lake marine matters. In the charge against Capt. McIntyre for Sabbath profa- nation, brought at Niagara, Ont., judgment was reserved. The defence put in a number of pleas, but itis held that the magistrate has no jurisdiction. The remedy, if any, isa civil one by action only. The Provincial legislature can make a crime of it or amend the Lord’s Day Act, which was It is claimed that the local leg- islature has no jurisdiction in respect to the Niagara river, - asit is an international highway, and that the Dominion Parliament alone has jurisdiction. The Niagara Navigation Company has a Dominion charter, and when a corporation is not liable its servant is not liable. J. J. Foy, Q.C., Toron- to, appeared for defendants, and M. Brennan, St. Catharines, for plaintiffs The international ’Longshoremen’s convention adjourned President, Daniel J. Keefe, Chicago; first vice-president, John Walsh, Cleveland; second vice-president, Henry Daragan, Duluth; third vice-president, James Dunne, Duluth; secretary and treasurer, H. C. Barter, Detroit; executive committee, James F- Carberry, of Buffalo; H. W. Brazee of Ashtabula, O.; Peter Allen of Newport News, Va.; William Hardner, - of Hamilton, Ont.; Fred Hutter of Sandusky, O. Duluth was selected as the convention city of 1900, President Keefe, John Walsh, of Cleveland, and P. J. McMahon of Buffalo, were elected representatives of the association at a meeting of the Lake Carriers’ Association, to be held in De- troit next winter. Immigration Inspector De Barry has ordered back to Can- ada a young Canadian woman who went to Buffalo te act as housekeeper. The Buffalo Enquirer thinks De Barry is a bully and a fool, and advises the Washington people to sup- press him. The Mail and Empire, Toronto says: It is very clear that he is not inspired with the spirit of the Anglo- Saxon entente, and that he is not observing the bargain under which our Alien Labor law is suspended. It should in all fairness be added that at a recent inquiry it was found that the action taken by Mr. De Barry in several instances were all within the pale of the law, in one or two other in- stances he did not come out quite so well The point to de- termine is the meaning of the word labor, is a ship’s cook, for instance, a laborer? CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Since the completion of the dredging at Michigan City, the harbor is navigable for vessels drawing 16 feet. W. I. Babcock, manager of the Chicago Ship Building Co. is preparing for an extended trip east in the interest of ship building experiences. _ An inspection of the Calumet river has revealed numer-- ous bars. between Ninety-second and One Hundred and Sixth street, which will have to be removed. On account of failing health Capt. George Larson has re- signed as keeper of Racine light-house, to take effect August I. He has been in the service of the government since 1875. The steamer E. W. Oglebay, which stranded on Round Island in the Straits of Mackinac, last week, reached South Chicago Saturday night and was placed in dry dock. Capt. C. M. Davis, of Milwaukee, and Robert Logan, of Cleveland, made a survey of the steamer’s damage. Sixteen hundred members of the boiler and shipbuilders’ union struck here on Monday. They ask for an eight hour day, 30 cents per hour, and a half holiday on Saturdays dur- ing the summer. Two hundredand fifty ore shovelers em- ployed by the Chicago Furnace Co. also struck for more pay. A new 250-foot side-wheeler, having a speed of 20 miles an hour, is to be built by the Chicago, Saugatuck & Douglas Transportation Co. for the passenger service between Chicago and Saugatuck next season. Capt. John'Campbell, of the steamer Saugatuck, will have command of the new vessel. The steamer P. H. Birckhead was released from Racine reef Friday afternoon by the Chicago tug Welcome and Racine tug S. O. Dixon. Her captain says he passed on the outside of the Pintsch light crib, believing that by so doing he would clear the rocks, but went on heavy amidships and aft. Unless something is done, Racine will gain the reputa- tion of being an unsafe port to charter to. The list of tug properties which the American Towing Co. is prepared to purchase includes the tug lines at Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Port Huron, Sault Ste. Marie and the lines at Duluth and West Superior, The tug lines at the smaller Ohio ports are already practi- cally under the control of Cleveland companies, whose pro- perty is to be included under the present deal. General Passenger Agent R.C. Davis, of the Goodrich Line, is one of the busiest men that ever held the position. He has a fleet of nine steamers to look after, and is con- fronted with the greatest boom in excursion business since the palmy days of the world’s fair. Although ayoung man, Mr. Davis is regarded as one of marvelous energy, it is said that his popularity has had much to do with the liberal patronage of this line. The new steel tow barge Manila, discharged a cargo of iron ore at the Illinois Steel Co’s. furnaces on the Calumei, on Tuesday, that exceeds all previous cargo records of lake craft. Ona draft of 18 feet fore and aft, the Manila loaded 7,300 gross tons of ore. To this may be added 1 percent. for moisture in the ore, making the total weight 7,373 gross tons, or 8,110 net tons. The largest previous cargo was carried by the tow barge Fritz, of the Bessemer fleet. This was 7,030 gross, or 7,952 net tonsofore. The Manila’s cargo exceeds this by 158 net tons. So the Minnesota Steamship Co., of Cleveland, can carry the broom for large cargoes on steel tow barges, or anything else. After considering the question four days the presidents of all the big railways between Chicago and the Atlantic sea- board have agreed that on and after Aug. 1 Chicago ship- pers must pay from 3 to5 cents more on the hundred pounds for transportation of their grain to the Eastern mar- kets. More than this, the chief executive officers of these roads say that with the new tariff there will be no secret deals with big consigners, that the man with a carload of grain must be given the same rate as he who can promise a trainload and those rates must be the ones printed and hung up for public inspection. The new charge on wheat, oats and flour from Chicago to New York will be 17 cents per 100 pounds, compared to the present rate of 11% cents. On corn the advance will be from 10% to 15 cents. For export shipments from Chicago via New York the advance on corn will be from 10% to 1r centsand on oatsfrom 10% to 13 cents. For wheat shipments to the European markets the rate will be 17 cents per. 1oo pounds, the same as now. On provisions, both for export and domestic, the rate will be 25 cents, an increase of five cents in the export rates. Be- tween now and Aug. I, when the new rates will go into effect, the local agents of the east bound roads have been instructed to clean up all cut-rate contracts. Several days ago Capt. D. L. Ramage and A. 1. Anderson, of Sturgeon Bay, forwarded to Collector of Customs Roberts at Milwaukee a sworn complaint that the captain of the tug A. J. Wright is licensed as a second class pilot only, and therefore cannot assume command of vessels of over 100 tons measurement, whereas the Wright measures 240 tons; that on June 5 last, when the Wright made a trip to Chicago, the owners wired Capt. Ramage to take her in and out of that port, as Capt. Isabel was unqualified by his license; also that one trip was made to Chicago with two unqualified pilots, the license of Mate Beaubo limiting him to steam vessels of not over thirty tons measurement. This complaint Collector Roberts submitted to Capt. Davis of the revenue cutter Mor- rill for investigation. Thus when the Wright reached Mil- waukee with a stone-laden scow, officers of the revenue cutter boarded her at the breakwater, and after having satis- fied themselves of the truth of the complaint, caused her to be taken into the harbor. Capt. Davis states that not alone were the two pilots improperly licensed, but the chief en- gineer of the tug could show nothing whatever in the shape of a license. When the facts were laid before Collector — Roberts, he at once imposed fines aggregating $800 against — the owners of the Wright, Messrs. Leathem & Smith, of Stur geon Bay, Wis. Of the fines imposed, a levy of $500 is mad upon the tug and the remaining $300 cover the unlicensed — officers, viz. $100 each. The case is one of such an aggra— vated nature that Collector Roberts says the Treasury Depart- ment can hardly be prevailed upon to remit any portion of — the penalties. Pending the payment of the fines and the engagement of properly licensed officers to handle the Wright, she will be held in custody. : rr oor a _ DETROIT. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Postage on letters from Canada to the United States has been reduced to 2 cents. : The Oades Shipyard Co. is making repairs upon the yacht Oneida and overhauling M. M. Sullivan’s dredge Tipperary Boy. Tt is now stated that the wrecked steamer Harlem was not included in the transfer of the Thompson fleet to the Great Lakes Towing Co. ; The Milwaukee Tug Co. has sold out to the combine on a — valuation of about $122,000. The Singer line at Duluth is placed at $150,000. : The Riverside Iron Works, S F. Hodge & Co., has con- siderable marine repair work on hand. The machinery of — the J. H. Pauly is now being overhauled. The total receipts of wheat at the head of Lake Superior since the beginning of the crop year are 75,000,000 bushels, ~ against 42,991,023 last year, an increase of nearly 50 per cent. The passenger and-excursion business was never so brisk — as it is now and a half a dozen more boats could earn money — if they were to be had. Lake and river excursions are be- coming more popular each season. x The steamer Preston, with cargo capacity of about 1,000 tons, is chartered for the season at a lump sum of $9,200, or $1,500 per month for eight months. All expenses, even to the insurance, are paid by the charterer. Our boss skipper is Capt. John Robertson, of the river steamer Darius Cole. With over half a century of active experience he is still to the fore, hearty, capable and well — liked by all with whom he conies into contact. Masters and pilots of steamers passing through the Strai.s of Mackinac, when asked concerning the movements o Capt. James Reid in connection with the Cayuga, uniformly convey the information that thus far he has not resumed operations on the sunken craft. The new steel steamer Mae, built at Toledo and bound f the coast, stranded at Kingston on her way down. She wa eventually released and proceeded after lightering a portio of her cargo. She can’t pass all the St. Lawrence system of canals and will be taken through the rapids. i A Cleveland coal shipper was here this week after ton- nage. Hesaid, one year ago the rate from Ohio ports to Milwaukee was 20 cents. It opened this year at 30 cents, — and prospects were considered bright. Then came 40, ; and 60 cents, the present rate, even 70 cents having beet offered, it is said, in some instances. District Attorney Gordon has begun condemnation pr ceedings in the United States District Court for the acquisition of certain lands in Mackinaw City to be add to the present lighthouse site, and Judge Swan has appointed Frank Shepherd, James F. Maloney and William N. Cros all of Cheboygan, to assess the damages. The steamer Algomah, which was the original car fers between St. Ignace and Mackinaw City, came down trom the Straits, and is at the Detroit dry dock to have a new wheel keyed on. Since the construction of the big crushers, St: Ignace and Sainte Marie, the Algomah h been operated in the excursion business at the Straits by Capt. L. R. Boynton. ; The large steel tow barge, John Smeaton, built at We Superior, is now loading her first cargo, which will probabk be the largest ever carried in one bottom on the lakes. This is the way that cargo records are made and gained daily. I is now reported that four large steel vessels will be on ths stocks at West Superior this winter and be completed rea for early delivery in the spring of Igoo0. The body of a man was found on the beach three mi west of Colchester Point on Saturday morning. It was bad! decomposed and beyond recognition. On the body ¥ found a card bearing the name ‘‘Thomas Odea, 83 Chicag - and showing him to be a member of the Buffalo G Shovelers’ Association and the International Longsh men’s Association, The mau was about forty-five years old and nearly six feet in height, and had red hair. : Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Spaulding has mitted the penalty of $3,200 imposed on the Canadi steamer Comfort for violation of the law forbidding carriage of coastwise passengers to $35. ‘Ihe vessel carrii