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THE MARINE RECORD. Ai SEPTEMBER 14, 1899. Kak kK CHICAGO. _ Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. _ ‘The old excursion steamer Chief Justice Waite was sold by E. W. Powers to John F. May, for $3,000. Rasmus Thorsen, manager of the Manistee shipyard, was killed on Monday night by falling onto a pile of stones at his shipyard. Capt. Thorsen was well known among Lake Michigan traders. The Truscott Boat Mfg. Co., St Joseph, Mich., was burned out on Saturday night; loss $60,000, insurance $15,000. About 250 men were employed building boats, launches, yachts, etc. The plant will be rebuilt at once. Citizens of South Chicago are very much opposed to the new steam foghorn at the mouth of the Calumet river. It is claimed that it disturbs the slumbers of residents as far north as Thirty-ninth street. No organized movement has yet been made for the suppression of the noise. James A.Dumont, Supervising Inspector-General of Steam- boats, has started an inquiry to see if the laws concerning lifeboats and fire appliances on passenger steamers plying out of lake ports are being observed. He will visit Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and other lake ports on the tour of investi- gation. ' Negotiations are being carried on through Elphicke & -Co., for the purchase of the steamer M. M. Drake, owned by Candler Bros., of Detroit. The purchase price is said to be $35,000 in cash, and James Corrigan, of Cleveland is said to be the purchaser. The papers have been drawn up, but the deal is not yet closed. The Mauna Loa, the new steel steamer recently launched from the yards of the Chicago Ship Building Co. at South Chicago, will go on her maiden trip September 23. Her engines, boilers and machinery have been placed, and work is now progressing rapidly on her deck fittings. Her first trip will be to Lake Superior for ore. The tug lines here are nowin the hands of the Lakes Towing Co. Capt. St. Clair will manage the former Dun- ham Line, with R. J. (Bobby) Dunham as assistant secre- tary. The Escanaba Towing & Wrecking Co. has also been taken under the wing of the syndicate and its workings, goings and comings, entrusted to the towing trust. It is said that the Northern Michigan line steamer City of _ Charlevoix has been offered to the Holland-Chicago line for $50,000, and the latter company may buy her as she is said to suit its needs to a nicety. In the event that the sale is made the Northern Michigan Company proposes to let a contract for a duplicate of the magnificent passenger and freight steamer Illinois. A gang of too men are building the new Flint & Pere Marquette elevator at the rate of about five feet per day The structure now stands about 60 feet high, and the interior arrangement of the bins, etc., is being completed as the work goes along. The building is almost square, and will stand 150 feet high, which is 25 feet higher than the old ele- vator. Its storage capacity will be 150,000 bushels, or twice the capacity of the old elevator. Inside the building there will be two legs instead of one. It is expected that the improvements at the yards of the Chicago Ship Building Co., at South Chicago, will be completed by October 15 and that the total cost will approxi- mate $100,000. Two acres have been added tothe ground space by the removal of the railroad tracks east. New black- smith, furnace and pattern shops have been built and an ad- dition has been made to the machine shop, which will make it the largest on the Great Lakes. The dry dock and one slip have each been lengthened seventy-five feet. : Charters of vessel room for 300,000 bushels of corn were made on ’change here on Monday at 3% cents per bushel to Buffalo. Corn shippers clearly understood that vessels could get cargoes out of Superior at rates better than they could offer, and there was, for this reason, little haggling done over the price. Vesselmen who had boats on hand were willing to meet the corn shippers half way, as they were in doubt how much of a jam would result at the Superior docks from the big procession of steamers headed in that direc- tion. Work on the new outer breakwater at South Chicago is progressing rapidly, and the contractors, Hausler & Lutz, assert that they will beat the Government time limit in com- leting the work, providing the Government funds are orthcoming. The first sections of the work are being built in cribs of roo feet in length, 24 feet wide, and 20 feet deep. As the breakwater extends into deeper water, the depth of the sections will be increased. There are 4,300 feet all told, of which 3,300 feet extends out east, north, east of the north pier of the Illinois Steel Co., and a disconnected section 1,000 feet in length will parallel the shore line. ‘The latter section will ultimately be 2,000 to 3,000 feet long. Marine engineers who are not under season engagements are after a raise in wages. The freights are high, boats are kept moving lively and they find that there is more work to do; besides, all hands are entitled to a share of the general prosperity. The engineers that I have spoken to are very earnest on the subject, but I have not canvassed the views of individual owners. It is quite certain, though, that a few dollars a month in engineers’ wages will not be permitted to curtail the briskest sort of carrying during the balance of the season. The Klint & Pere Marquette fleet of steamers have enjoyed an uninterrupted season of navigation this year, and now they are to be put in shape for the winter traffic. The two freighters, Nos. 2 and 5 will need repairs most. Entire new boilers are to be put in the No. 5 and costly repairs made to No. 2’s boilers, No. 2 also stands somewhat.in need of re- building, the frames being considered unsafe to withstand such a squeeze in the ice as she received last winter. It is expected that with the new elevator and this fleet of boats in working order, an immense quantity of freight and grain will be moved east via Ludington this winter. Repair work on the steamer German, chartered by the Canada-Atlantic line, has been carried out in a very expedi- tious way at the yards of the Chicago Ship Building Co., and she will be out of dock this week in as gooda condition as she was before she stranded on rocky bottom and received such heavy damage. Time was, when it was thought Clev- land was the only port where large repairs on steel hulls could be made satisfactorily as regards time and workman- ship, but we have now to say that Chicago can discount any port on the lakes in building, drydocking and making heavy repairs. Plenty of material for construction is coming this way too, while every other yard is grumbling at not getting steel. Recent marine transfers recorded at Grand Haven, Mich., custom-house are as follows: Schooner Wanderer sold by Alfred S. Bailey, of Benton Harbor, to Thurston Bannester, of Frankfort, consideration $400; one-eighth interest in the steamer O. M. Field, Nyack and Naomi, sold by Edward J. Humphrey to Edward G. Crosby et al. for ¢1 and other considerations; schooner Jesssie Winter, one-half interest, sold by John Sather, of Muskegon, to Martin Michaelson, of the same place, consideration $300; steamer Cico, sold by Frank Left, of St. James, to Thomas Friant, of Thomp- son, Mich., consideration $2,200; tug George Stickney, one- third interest, sold by Tys Walsma et al. to John Walsma, consideration $600. : If there is anything Chicagoans like it is advertising of the proper sort, and we are open to confess that Sault Ste. Marie has had all that she’s entitled to this week and last. A personal canvass of all the exchange editors develops the report that Sault Ste. Marie, and incidentally, the ‘‘Soo”’ river, has been mentioned 94,735 times in the literature of the country during the pastten days. People that never even heard of the trickling stream would now make ‘‘Soo”’ river pilots, so well has the bends, curves, courses, ranges, depths, etc., been described and illustrated. The ‘‘Soo’’ ought to grant a good sized bonus to the Houghton and then throw their hooks out to catch another sticker at as early a date as possible, and before all the excitement quite dies out. The trustees of the Sanitary District of Chicago recently opened bids for the use of water power from the Chicago drainage canal at Lockport, Ill. Mr. Clarence Buckingham offered $5 per horse-power per year for a 50-vear lease, with a provision for a sinking fund of $2.50 per horse-power per year to be set aside for reimbursing the lessee for the cost of the plant at the end of the 50 years, when the property would pass to the ownership of the Sanitary District. The Econo- mic Light & Power Co. offered to lease the water power for 75 or 99 years, at the option of the Sanitary District, and to pay therefor $4 a year for each horse-power, the necessary dams, races and machinery to be built by the company and to belong at the end of the lease to the Sanitary District. The bid was made conditional on the District’s granting per- mission to the company to string wires along the right of way of the canal and to construct power houses on District property. The company offered to furnish power to the city of Chicago in any desired quantity for $25 a year per horse- power, delivered at the site of production, if contracted for within six months after signing the contract. By a vote of the board of trustees a resolution was passed binding the District not to lease the power for a period exceeding 10 years, which virtually rejects the bids above referred to. —————_ oa oe BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. It is rumored that the Lehigh Valley Transportation Co. intends to construct two large steel steamers of the latest type. The little steamer Nellie was sold on a libel for tow bills by the marshal this week. She was purchased by Thomas Ryan for $850. The wooden steamers Fred Mercur and H. HE. Packer have been sold by the Lehigh Valley Transportation Co. to Frank B. Baird, president of the Union Iron Works Co,, Buffalo. : The statement that the steamer Aztec and consort Miztec had been purchased by Capt. J. P. Nagle for parties in Toledo, was a surprise to many marine men. ‘The purchase price, as given out, is $65,000 for the two boats. The Aztec is 836 gross tons, and the Miztec 777 gross tons, built in 1890 at Marine City. J. J. Boland arranged the transfer here. The Quebec, Hamilton & Ft. William Steamship Co. has decided to begin operations at once, so that it will be able to enter the lake carrying trade next spring. Contracts will be let in England for two 3,000-ton steel ships. Canadian firms were asked to tender for the contracts, but they could not guarantee to have the boats finished in the spring. The Hamburg canal is soon to be madea model canal, with the nuisances abated. The prism of the canal is to be drained, filled in, and retaining walls built. An important roblem is what to do with the mud when it is taken out. he health commissioners have forbidden it to be dumped into the river or lake. ‘The city authorities are having it analyzed with a view to selling it as fertilizer. This is just the exact time to inspect the small passenger and excursion steamers on the lakes. ‘‘I don’t think,” said a marine man to me this week, ‘‘fully half of them — have just been taken off their route, in fact, some of the biggest lines closed down a part of their passenger traffic only this week. I, of course, like to see an inspection that inspects, and this should be done in the height of the sea- son, not when boats are through and laid up. You won't see another excursion permit issued nor asked for this season, and where the inspection comes in I hardly know.” The Steamboat Inspection Service is right after Canadian steamers and intends charging inspection and traveling fees. The Supervising Inspector General in his report to the Secretary of the Treasury says: ‘‘Though the United States has never collected fees for the inspection of foreign passenger steam vessels, yet the Dominion of Canada, not- withstanding the courtesy it has received from the United States in the matter of non-collection of fees for inspection’ of its steamers visiting ports in the United States, and the further courtesy of sending United States inspectors into the Dominion of Canada to inspect Canadian steam vessels, aud thus prevent the delay that would be caused to such vessels if compelled to be inspected in American ports, where their stay is often but a few minutes—sufficiently long only to land and take on passengers—charge heavy fees for the inspection of American vessels visiting its ports under the same conditions as Canadian vessels visiting American ports. It’s an awful nice thing, asthe girls say, for a man to have his employes think that he’s about the best fellow on earth. The tugboat men seem to so regard Capt. Maytham (I know a good many so regarded his father before him), however, Capt. Edward C., found a very handsome leather covered easy chair in his office on Tuesday, tagged for the steamer Waldo. He brought the end of his back to an anchor and wondered for a moment at the extravagance of the dollar grabber holding the Waldo’s finances in charge. Shortly after, a crowd of men from the tug boats, headed by Capt. Doyle, walked in. Capt. Maytham was slightly taken aback at their appearance. Capt. Doyle told him, in a few well-chosen words to make himself easy, and, as he had an eye on the chair he might heave-to in it, as they had concluded that there was nothing half so easy as an easy, easy-chair. Flabbergasted is the easiest way to describe Capt. Maytham’s feelings. He let go his ground tackle while the men got under-way for the dock and left him rocking. oo DETROIT. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The second stop here of the fleet that was blockaded at the “Soo” was not as bad as the detention they are now experi- encing at unloading ports. The speedy little steamer Unique is at work at last. She now deserves the most successful career of anything afloat, as she has worked hard for it, so have her owners. The steamer Republic, loaded with ore, grounded at the lower end of the St. Clair canal on Tuesday. She is not di- rectly in the way-of passing boats, but was found more or less ~ of an obstruction. Capt. Martin Swain of the wrecking steamer Favorite has quite a difficult job in releasing the steamer Buell, sunk while coming through the Canadian channel, east of St. Joseph Island, so as to avoid the grounded steamer Houghton, her wheat cargo is all damaged and she has heavy bottom damage. Plans for the extensive improvement of the Wyandotte yard of the Detroit Ship Building Co. are under consideration and when completed the yard will have a capacity of build- ing two 500-foot vessels at the same time. The construction of a 550-foot dry dock at one of the Detroit Ship Building Co.’s yards is contemplated. ‘ae The body of Isaac G. Sowter was brought from Cleveland to this city for burial last week. Mr. Sowter was a drafts- man for S. F. Hodge & Co for about 20 years, was employed in the same capacity with the Detroit Dry Dock Co. for 6 years, and later went to Cleveland with the Cleveland Ship Building Co, The body was interred with Masonic honors, With his usual good luck Capt. James Davidson escaped having any of his fleet, with one exception, tied up through the “Soo” river blockade. Upwards of twenty large sized wooden steamers and consorts waltzed along from port to port with good paying freights while a majority of other large fleets were lying idle waiting for the Houghton to be moved out of the channel. Fortune sometimes favors the brave, and in this instance the captain must be considered the brave. The schooner Wanderer was towed to Sarnia from Lake Huron, where she met with a somewhat strange accident. The Wanderer, while about ten miles above Sanilac, was struck by an unknown steamer and had her stern cut off as with a saw. The steamer never stopped after the collision, but made haste to get out of the way. The Wanderer was