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AucusT 3, 1899. THE MARINE RECORD. 7 Capt. James Travis takes charge of the steamer Jesse Spaulding, launched at West Bay City last Saturday. Her principal dimensions are 238 feet over all, 220 feet keel, 4o feet beam and 16 feet deep. She is equipped with triple ex- pansion engines, 17, 28 and 47 inch cylinders by 36-inch stroke. As showing the good demand for boats in the lumber trade the steamer F. EK. Spinner, which has been out of service for three years, re-appeared in Chicago this week with a lumber cargo, and will be regularly in the trade for the remainder of the season. The Spinner is owned by E. J. Ransom of Sault Ste. Marie. i, kick at themselves, The rate seems to hold strong at 75 ° i ‘ k with- ; cents to 80 cents with prospects of even arise. The rush of ee recorded tat ae : ee El ee 4 boats has caused the dock officials and employes to set forth boom into a bridge, sometimes to the injury of both struct-'; their greatest energy in giving arrivals the best possible ures, but more often to the schooner’s. This item has long} dispatch, getting some of the big fellows out in record time. been a chestnut. This week it was the schooner A. T. Blissf A leak caused the whaleback Sagamore to be beached at that had a rastle with the Twelfth street bridge, and as] this port last week after taking aboard a cargo of ore; and usual the bridge came off best. ® still another lucky victim to be added to the list of leaks The sale of the steamer Frank Woods is reported. She is Nf barge Iron Cliff, which was discovered to have a owned by Capt. Ralph C. Brittain of Saugatuck, and is run Leavy enough leak to cause a return to Escanaba from out- between Grand Haven, Sheboygan and Manitowoc. Theg Side Poverty Island Passage last Saturday. A steam pump rice paid was said to be $14,000, The steamer was purchased4) Was put aboard and easily kept the water under control in the interest of Galveston people, and she will be taken tof Until B. C. Lindley, representing the insurance company, the Gulf of Mexico by way of the River St. Lawrence. Forjy4trived and supervised the inspection, during which the three years the Woods ran in the Graham & Morton line. trouble was discovered to be pretty well forward. After putting a canvas jacket over her bows she left for Lake Erie. day the I. O. T. steamer Manchester broke a crank pin on the air pump and was picked up by the steamer Ferd. Schlesinger. The hardwood lumber business is slowly, but surely, tak- ing the place of pine in this section. The last week over 2,000,000 feet of hardwood has been shipped from Menom- inee to Buffalo and Cleyeland. Business in the ore trade is enjoying a big, healthy rush just at present at rates that make the signers of summer contracts spend their idle moments in taking an occasional z i Chicago grain shippers are planning to build a large eleva- tor on the Calumet thisseason. The ground has been looked} ec over, and only the purchase of the land prevents the loca-if CLEVELAND. tion and the owners from being announced. The plans take # Special Correspondence to The Marine Record in the formation of a new slip, a winding basin and other ; es improvements, which indicate that the elevatoris to be built | The Supervising Inspector-General of Steamboats attended the boiler-makers’ convention held here last week. some distance up the river. This is an indication of how the trade is leaving the creek here, or soon will. A dispatch from Duluth says that the wheat under charter at 3% cents, September delivery, at Buffalo, aggregates over 2,000,000 bushels. The old schooner Leader, reached port with lumber, leaking badly. Owing toalack of pumping facilities she sank at her dock in about 20 feet of water. She is now being unloaded and will dry dock. The steamer Mae, built by the Craig Ship Building Co., Toledo, reached New York, via the Welland canal, Saturday last. She will go into service between New York and Porto Rico, W. I. The Craig Ship Building Co. are building a sister ship for the same owners. The lumber shovers are reconsidering their famous tariff, which caused so much discussiou among vessel men and shippers a short time ago. It is said that the leaders among the men have seen the unjust side to the card of rates, which makes lumber carrying to Chicago almost impossible for large boats, owing to the heavy tax levied on the cargo by the men. The new scale will provide an additional rate on all lumber in a cargo over 400,000 feet, but not for the first 400,000 feet. This meets with the hearty approval of vessel men. Contracts were let on Satnrday for the erection of a new grain elevator for Bartlett, Frazier & Co., on slip 2, imme- diately east of their other elevators, at One Hundred and Second street, South Chicago. The Hausler & Lutz Tow- ing Co., which has the contract for the putting in of the foundations, asserts that it will gain on all records for rapid work, by putting on three machines and driving from 150 to 200 piles each day. The elevator will have a capacity of 1,750,000 bushels of grain, and will be built by Barnet & Record, of Minneapolis. The contracts call for the comple- tion of the elevator within 120 days. Mr. W. F. Mack denies having assaulted the late engineer of the Boutelle Transportation Co’s. tug Sweepstakes. It was reported that he had knocked the man overboard, but instead he very properly and promptly discharged him for negligence amounting to incompetency. The passenger travel out of this port is now on the boom, and as this month is always the best one of the year, records are to be made and gained on every route. It now looks as if the figures will show a larger number of people carried than ever before in one month during the history of lake navigation. The report that the Northern Transit Co. is to build two speedy side-wheel steamers, to run down the St. Lawrence rapids, in connection with their lake line, is contradicted here. The Empire and Badger State have all they can do, and the lake service may be increased next season, but the river trade will not be taken hold of just yet. Since the recent purchase of six vessels the Corrigan fleet now consists of six steamers and seven consorts or tow barges, as follows: Steamers, Caledonia, Italia, Bulgaria, Iron Duke, Iron Age, Iron Chief, consorts, Amazon, Austra- lia, Polynesia, Tasmania, Iron Cliff, F. D. Ewen, John M. Hutchinson. Mr. John Corrigan owns the steamer Aurania, formerly a large steel tow barge. The officials of the American Ship Building Co. had not quite decided, on Thursday morning, about launching the steamer building for Capt. John Mitchell and others at the old ‘‘Globe’”’ yards, but the Minnesota line steamer, build- ing at the Lorain yards, will take the water at 3 p.m. stand- ard time. A later inquiry at Capt. Mitchell’s office, also at the shipyards, placed the launch at 3 p. m., sun time. Capt. Thomas Wilson left for Duluth, on Wednesday, to attend the funeral of his sister, Mrs. Capt. A. P. Woods, who died suddenly at Los Angelos last Friday of heart failure. Capt. Joseph Woods, master of ths steamer Volunteer, is a son of the deceased. Capt. Woods will go to Duluth with Capt. Wilson and Capt. Edward Morton, ships-husband of the Wilson fleet, will take the Volunteer around this trip. Dredging work has thrown up quite a bar at the mouth of the river on which several incoming vessels grounded this week at the expense of detention and tow bills. The pas- senger steamer City of Erie, in trying to pass clear of the dredges, or rather a tug and a mud scow, swung into the pier and slightly damaged the light-house. It is said all round that dredging should be done early in the season when there is not such a rush of boats. The fifth serious accident occurred Tuesday in the re- moval of the wreck of the City of Duluth at the motth of St. Joseph harbor, under the contract of Capt. Jex. Robert McGee, an expert diver, while standing upon the main deck of the wrecking schooner Judd, was struck in the back with the end of a plank, which gave away while under the heavy strain of a lifting jack. Although Capt. Jex has been en- gaged in the wrecking business for twenty years, never in his entire career has he experienced such ill luck as since taking this contract a year ago. It is said Jex is now financially ruined, having lost $2,000 to date upon the job, while the machinery of the wrecked craft is still unmoved. A movement is on foot here to establish a home, or retreat, for aged and incapacitated seamen. Admiral Dewey has been asked to become a patron so that his name can be used in connection with the organization of such an institution. It is figured that there are 20,000 seamen on the lakes, and a home for the aged is needed. A fund could be raised by assessing each member a certain sum per month. While the movement is only in its initial stage, it is said that there is no doubt of its final adoption. The gentlemen interested in the project are Mr. Luther Laflin Mills, General John Mc- Nulta, Lieut B. W. Wells, U. S. N., and Lieut. W. J. Wil- son, U.S. N. Every man earning his living on the lakes will no doubt wish these noble philanthropists a full meas- ure of success in their important undertaking. ————_—___ > <> 2a ESCANABA. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The new light at Long Tail Point, entrance to Fox river is about ready for use. The big Minnesota Co.’s barge Manila gained all carrying records in the ore line out of this port last week. Every incoming passenger boat is filled up with tourists, and captains report business the best in many seasons. Giving up trimming no doubt caused the R. E. Packer to be docked at Cleveland last week to have a leak stopped. Capt. William Gerlach, manager of the Minch Transporta- tion Co., has decided that his individual efforts to release the Minch will be abandoned. He has madea proposition to submit bids for the release of the schooner from the beach six miles west of Ashtabula, and for her delivery in Cleve- land harbor. Capt. Gerlach’ said that this contract would either be made or the vessel would be sold right as she is on the beach. The Minch is still a good old craft and is worth floating again. The steamer Tecumseh is at Green Bay taking in the last cargo of hardwood timber consigned to Europe. It will take about 200, 60-foot sticks to make up a load. Capt. Mathewson, of Peshtigo, Wis., in charge of the car ferry barge No. 2, fell overboard from that craft Saturday in the river and was drowned before assistance could be rendered. ce Just after entering Green Bay bound to Escanaba Satur | Ore shovelers at the Angeline docks, Ashtabula, stopped work for two hours on Wednesday. They asked 13 cents a ton for unloading the hard ore on the steamer Merida on ac- count of the manner in which she was loaded. The advance was granted. It is now likely that all of the minor strikes at the several Lake Erie ore discharging ports is settled for the balance of the season, as the dock managers have | granted the requests of the shovelers, or met them in such a way as to make them more contented to work. United States Engineer Colonel Jared A. Smith, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., in charge of the river and harbor im- provements in this district, is properly indignant at the lax- ity of the city in securing land needed for harbor widening purposes. Col. Smith has acted with well-advised energy and shown the greatest possible engineering skill in his ef- forts to make Cleveland one of the best and safest ports on the chain of lakes, and it is very discouraging to find his work checkmated through the picayune bickerings of the present local administration. The city not acquiring the land necessary to carry out the improvements is damaging the shipping interests, and the evil effects are far reaching. Every effort should be made towards facilitating the work of widening the approaches to the port instead of delaying same through ill-advised litigation with local owners of the requjred strip of land. No scare can be raised regarding an undue competition in the towing business of the lakes. Those who remain out- side of the Great Lakes Towing Co. won’t have a chance to either “‘fish or cut bait.’’? The vessel pays all bills, and their owners are the King Bees in the towing combine as in every thing else concerning the property, just as they shouid be. This talk of towing competition or opposition is all humbug. It is like a source sending out a fancied notion of some in- competent to lake papers one day, and then having fun all the week correcting, denying and starting the notion off again on another tangent. Such has been the case all week with the towing question, and the ‘‘tramp’’ steamer combine story. The starter of the “‘tramp’’ excitement started it from the head of the lakes, St. Paul via Duluth, but it was soon recognized as a fake, pure and simple. Such yarns do no good, no harm either for that matter, they fill space though, and therefore give nothing for something. Interviewing one of the most prominent of the vesselmen here yesterday, regarding an advance in wages for the lake engineers as suggested by the national president of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, who wrote a letter to the executive committe of the Lake Carriers’ Asso- ciation, in which he said that heretofore the lake freights had always been the thermometer that measured the wages of the seamen. When the freights were low the seamen expected nothing but moderate wages. He said this seems to apply only to the market when it is low and spoke of a feeling of unrest on the part of the lake engineers and ask- ing an increase of 12% per cent. for the lake engineers, to take effect on August 1. This owner said: ‘Those who are best posted on the state of affairs says that Mr. Uhler, the national president, is mistaken in two ways. In the first place he forgets that 80 per cent. of the boats on the lakes are tied up until October, with contract ore at 60 cents per ton, and, therefore, are not getting the benefit of the wild rate just now. Hence they are not so prosperous as it might seem. They say also that he forgets that the seamen, and especially the engineers, had an advance in wages the first of the year, which covered the entire season, the advance in reality being out of proportion with the rates at which most of the boats are running. They say also that he has over- looked the fact that most of the engineers are engaged for the year at a fixed salary and that any increase now in wages would benefit but a very small per cent. of the engineers on the lakes, or those who shall make contracts with their employers from now on. With this in view his statement that there is dissatisfaction among the engineers seems not to be well founded.’”’? None of the larger owners has heard even a murmur of dissatisfaction from their engineers. On the side though, Mr. Uhler should coach up his typewriter to spell a little more correctly when sending out an important communication dealing with the business of the order, and not make it an ‘‘erra of phenominal,”’ when he means to say a phenomenal era. or ro THE TIP TOP RECORD. The steel tow barge John Smeaton, built this year at W. Superior, Wis., to the order of the Bessemer Steamship Co. carried 7,446 gross tons or 8,339 net tons of iron ore from Duluth to Cleveland. ao a a MARINE PATENTS. Patents on marine inventions issued August 1, 1899. Re- ported specially for the MARINE RECORD. 629,790. Door for ships’ bulkheads, William Houghton, New York, N. Y. 629,902. Bridge. W. E. Gunn, Covington, Ky. 629,910. Submarine mining apparatus. HE. C. Nichols, Topeka, Kan., assignor of one-half to W. C. Smith, same lace. 629,935. Suspension bridge. N. H. Sturgies, Guthrie, kla. 629,966. Steering propeller. A. T. Otto, Chicago, IIl., assignor to R. L. Stevens, Hoboken, N. J. 630,006. Wave-power, water-moving apparatus. John Rogowski, San Francisco, Cal. : 630,038. Reefing apparatus for fore and aft sails. S. G. Dresser, Boston, Mass.