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fHE MARINE RECORD. De i eee ESTABLISHED 1878. Published Every Thursday by THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Incorporated. - C. E, RUSKIN, ee Manager. CAPT. JOHN SWAINSON, ~~ - - - Editor. _ THOS, WILLIAMS, Chicago, - - Associate. 3 CLEVELAND, CHICAGO, Western Reserve Building. Royal Insurance Building. SUBSCRIPTION. One Copy, one year, postage paid, _ - - One Copy, one year, to foreign countries, - : Invariably in advance. $2.00 $3.00 ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Western Reserve Building, Cleveland, 0. Entered at Cleveland Postoffice as second-class mail matter. —————— CLEVELAND, O., JULY 20, 1899. ACKNOWLEDGE the bravery of lake sailors as life savers, engineers included. ee oe THERE is a striking likeness in physical build and feat- ures between Commodore Melville, U. S. N., and J. J. Hill, president of the Great Northern Railroad. There is more of the Scotch than the Italian about each, besides, they have both got there, Where? To the top of the tree in each calling. —————— MERITORIOUS and gallant conduct afloat always deserves recognition. The life-saving service costs millions of dol- lars for standing by to save life. Let a few dollars be ex- pended by the Secretary of the Treasury in striking off ' medals for the members of the volunteer life-saving crew who picked up the castaways from the Margaret Olwill on Lake Erie. ee Some of the lake fleet built for a draft of about fourteen feet and now loading down two or three feet deeper, will feel the effects of their work this season. A carriage is not ai express wagon, so much at least can be granted. Like- _ wise, a 2,000 ton boat can’t tote along 3,000 tons of ore and that, too, without being trimmed, unless she feels it, no matter what care is taken in the loading and discharging. This applies to metal as well as wooden boats. It is just as easy to distress a tank as a tub. ———<—<<___ iqcuoo8e ae — I HAVE received the following communication this week : “In your article ‘A Vessel’s Class,’ in issue of July 13th, page Io, paragraph 3, you lay some stress upon the fact that (under the system you mildly criticise) the vessel pays -every cent of the expense of classification. I would simply ask, who pays, and how much under the other system? Does it not bring up athird party who must have their profits, which must come out of the vessels, or do these classification societies come into the field simply to right wrongs and not for the money there is init?’’ Well! this is a verdant sort of an inquiry. We made no allusion to ‘‘the other system’’ or any system in particular. Of - course the expense must all come out of the vessel, that’s why we thought the owners ought to have had a little con- sideration instead of his property being handled by ship- pers, who are, or should be, an unknown quantity in giving a vessel her character of build, condition and ability. The - RECORD has printed column after column on the question of proper classification certificates and may later renew the subject. All communications should be addressed to the Cleveland office’ TAPPING THE LAKES. It is beyond question that the more artificial outlets a body or bodies of water are furnished with at special points the greater will be the comparative waste or outflow. It is now well understood that the principal factors on which the stage of water in the Great Lakes depends, are the rainfall, evaporation, and the winter temperature. Rainfall furnishes the supply, evaporation draws away a a large portion of the precipitation before it reaches the lake and the surface of the lakes presents vast sheets over which the process of evaporation isin regular action. A severe, cold and protracted winter season prevents the melting of the snow and thus lends another feature to the lack of supply in the lakes. Under these conditions it has been shown that since 1838 the water level has fluctuated about six feet. The natural volume of waste water, outlet, or safety valve may be placed at Niagara river, to which may be added the auxiliary or occasional outflow via the Welland and Erie canals. The level of Lake Superior is 60138, feet above mean sea level, and Lake Erie is 572.23 feet above the level of the Hudson river at Albany, also 326 feet above that of Lake Ontario, the surface of Lake On- tario is 246,6, feet above mean sea level and thus is a feeder for the St. Lawrence river. There is an area of more than 270,000 square miles repre- senting the lake drainage basin, of which the actual water surface forms 95.275 square miles. The combined area of the lakes exceeds the area of England, Wales and Scotland. Other comparisons would also show that the water surface of Lake Superior alone nearly equals the combined areas of the several States of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massa- chusetts and Connecticut. The length of shore line of the lakes and their connecting rivers is about 5,500 miles, or equal to the coast line from Maine to the Isthmus of Panama. It has been estimated that if the average dis- charge of the lakes passed through a river one mile wide with a mean velocity of one mile per hour, such a river would have a depth of 40 feet from shore to shore. We have thought it advisable to quote these figures as there seems to be a disposition evinced in certain circles to minimize lake interests along certain lines, and more markedly so, perhaps, where, and when efforts have been turned toward ascertaining, beyond the shadow of a doubt, how to best maintain the lake levels, also, to establish a system whereby the maximum depth of water may be con- served for lake commerce. Ifit is granted that the lakes are simply great pools of water and that they conform to all the laws governing the rise and fall of rivers as well as other land locked waterways, it should then be conceded that additional outlets and waste water would tend to diminish the whole, in a ratio corresponding to the number and volume of these spigot or spile holes, as in comparison with the natural waste or continual flow from the bung, which, in this instance, may be likened to the river Niagara. Just a decade ago, it was our province to point out the possible injury to lake commerce which might be brought about through the construction of an immense open sewer tapping Lake Michigan and draining off millions of gallons of water daily in its enforced flow to the Mississippi. Some authorities supported our contention at that time while others loudly proclaimed that half a dozen more Niagaras would make no appreciable difference in the level of the lakes. At this stage, it does not appear to be beyond the province of investigators to ascertain approximately the quantity of water which nature will permit us to withdraw from the lake area without lowering their levels. It is within the bounds of possibility that, at some time in the remote future, locks may have to be placed so as to regulate the level on each lake, however that may be, it is for the present and the more immediate future that measures should now be taken. In this connection, we quoted last week no less an authority than Prof. Cleveland Abbe, of the Weather Bureau, also Lyman E. Cooley, Chicago, an eminent civil engineer, in their views on the effect which the opening of the Chicago drainage canal would have on the level of Lake Michigan, and they state that it would be infinitesimal. On the other hand, the Chief of the Weather Bureau admits that we know too little about the existing conditions to venture any as- sertions, pro or con, and rather relegates the consideration of the matter to be determined by hydraulic engineers, also stating that it would be necessary to establish a numiber of evaporometers in the lake regions if the public is to demand information from the Weather Bureau regarding the process of evaporation going on over the surface of the lakes. It is JULY 20, 1899. evident that the Weather Bureau knows too little about the © physical geography, hydrography and generally measureable conditions regarding the lake region. Some years ago we keyed that department up to the primary stage of ascertain- ing the set and drift of lake surface currents, but there was soon too much inertia experienced for us to overcome, an this portion of the work partly ceased. Now it is confessed that the Weather Bureau has not the particulars or data to — inform the public regarding the lake supply by precipitation — over its water shed, or the periodic consumption caused b evaporation. To overcome the views promulgated by interests antagon- istic, or at least careless regarding the maintenance of lake levels, it is now in order for an international commission to be appointed, composed of the best possible talent ob- — tainable in the United Statesand the Dominion of Canada, whose province it would be to lay before both countries the actual or probable results which the frequent tapping of the lake basins would bring about. If not from a commercial, the Dominion is interested from a territorial standpoint, and should as zealously guard the conservancy of her rights in this question as the United States. On the other hand, th situation must be admitted, that, if the State of Illinois, with or without the assistance of the Federal government, opens a canal through the State by tapping Lake Michigan, the Canadians will be at liberty to tap the supply nearer its source in constructing a ship canal from Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario, thus entailing we know not what injury and damage to all ports and lake interests lying between those points. OO Oo SALVAGE, BEFORE WAGES CLAIM. And now it appears that, according to the British Admir-, alty law, a lien for salvage takes precedence over a wages claim of the crew. The steamer Gaspesia, after being ice bound in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for seventy days, was towed into St. Johns, Newfoundland, and attached by the Admiralty Court for a salvage claim of $40,000, judgmen was given for $12,500 and costs, amounting in all to about $15,000. All hands were then turned ashore, penniless, though with five months wages due and uncollectible. Some of the crew have been returned to the port of departure as “—D. B. S.” (distressed British seamen or subjects). the rest are left to be tramps, paupers on the charity of th Dominion government, or its citizens, which after all is th same thing. Surely there’s a screw loose somewhere in this case. It is claimed that the law gives the salvor the first lien on the property salved, on the ground that if the ‘vessel had not been salved there would have been no prop- erty in existence on which the crew could have laid claim to wages. As inthe case of bottomry, where the last bond issued is the first to be paid, on the claim that the las monetary advance enabled the vessel to earn paymen thereof, reach her destination, etc. In the case of th Gaspesia, she will probably sell for less than the salvors’ judgment and the owners are, well, in a word, defunct. I would seem as if this rule ought to be reversed so that th salvors salved outside the claims of the original salvors —the crew, for, if the crew had not stuck by the ship there. might not have been any salvage possible. However, it is hard to make tramps and beggars out of British subjects in a British colony when each one had about five month’s earnings to his credit. Tramps who are penniless and with- out visible means of support, also beggars, who beg pub licly, are jailed in many parts of the United States, but, w hardly think that this starving impecunious crew woul have been ‘‘jugged”’ had they landed at a United State port.. The British is a paternal sort of a government (?) th Gaspesia case to the contrary notwithstanding. or oo ONE NAVIGATOR. The daily newspapers throughout the country, and number of class papers as well as trade journals, are gu ess ing at the manner in which Capt. Watkins of the Pa euchred the New York local inspectors of steamboats in de creeing himself to blame, with a strong recommendation fo clemency, and exonerating beyond the shadow of repr his officers. Capt. Watkins easily recognized the talent he was up against, and, in a manner of speaking, “‘took - bull by the horns,’’ floored his would-be censors by a de: ous twist and brought about the result to his own likis There are individuals, however, who appreciate the situati and one such writes as follows: “For the stranding of the steamship Paris, Capt. W: shoulders all the blame, and speaks of his officers it