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Kekkke Ce CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. 'Freights ruled steady this week at 3% cents on corn to - Lake Erie with a good demand for tonnage. Poe. - Capt. James H. Randall, Chicago, died at Benton Harbor this week. The Puritan, Lora, City of St. Joseph, and S. K. Martin are some of the vessels that Capt. Randall built. With prices right and a date of delivery named, it is said that the Goodrich Transportation Co. would contract for two new steel steamers, it is now safe to say that they won’t be built this winter. President C.J. Booth, Vice-president E. J. Chamberlin, and Traffic Manager C. J. Smith, of the Canada Atlantic line, made a critical examination of the big package freighter Troy, during their visit to Duluth on Monday last. _ The Edward Hines Lumber Co., of this city, now owns twelve vessels, and has six more under charter, all secured since the opening of navigation this year. The concern will have moved 200,000,000 feet of lumber by the close of the season. The Goodrich liner Atlantic is now the company’s only vessel running to the east shore. She is making three trips weekly, leaving Chicago Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The Iowa and Indiana alternate on the Milwaukee run, and the Virginia, which isa more expensive boat to operate, has been retired for the season. The fleet of canal boats recently purchased in Buffalo by the Chicago Railway Terminal Elevator Co. arrived Sunday in tow of the tug Boynton. They are the H. lL. Congdon, W. M. Green and A. W. Stoneburgh, and they were towed _ to the Galena elevator. They will be put to work in the grain transfer business on the river in a short time. ‘In line with nearly all lake ports we are this week _ grumbling about shoal water in the river. It is just possible that when the canal is opened we may have a better flow of water and the depth kept up to what will accommodate any- thing that comes here, but asit is now a south-west wind knocks us out of at least six inches of depth and this means a great deal over the tunnel crowns. River men say that the contractors working on the drain- age canal by-pass at Jackson street are making a bad shoal that will cause endless trouble in the near future. The City of Paris went hard aground there recently, and the City of Venice just slid over the bar yesterday. It is claimed that the contractors are very negligent in removing the dirt ex- cavated from the by-channel and allow it to accumulate in the river. Barry Bros., the well-known Chicago tug men, have pur- chased the Hurson line of steamers. The consideration could not be learned, but it is understood to have been about _ $125,000. The Hurson line operated but two steamers, the _ City of Fremont and the F, and P. M. No. 1, and did a pas- -senger and freight business between Milwaukee and Chi- cago. Ill health is said to be the cause of Mr. Hurson’s retirement from business. Civil Engineer Lyman E. Cooley, formerly a member of the Deep Waterways Commission, now makes the statement _ that the opening of the big drainage canal and the flowing of 10,000 cubic feet of water per second through the same - will produce the effect of diminishing the flow of water _ through the St. Clair river 4% per cent. We want and will no doubt secure the canal, but there is no desire to hurt other interests in bettering ourselves. The Lake Michigan & Lake Superior Transportation Co. has started suit against Capt. James Davidson, of Bay City, for $800, which, it is claimed, was the extent of damage re- ceived by the steamer Peerless, in collision with the barge Armenia in the St. Mary’s riverin July, 1898. The Armenia was being towed by: the steamer Appomattox, and it is said by the transportation company that the Armenia crowded the Peerless to the side of the channel and finally rammed her on the port side, at the same time driving the steamer onto a dredge, which was tied to the bank of the channel. The case will be tried in Chicago. W. H. Singer, Friday night dispatched his new purchase, the steamer Bon Ami, of the Chicago, Saugatuck and Doug- lass line, to Duluth, where the vessel will run next year in the south shore passenger trade. Mr. Singer was able to secure an excellent freight return from the boat for her first run to her new home. The Lake Michigan & Lake Su- perior Transportation Co. engaged her to help carry some of the package freight that has been filling up its local ware- houses. The Bon Ami is to be remodeled slightly. As she is going on daylight runs on the Lake Superior course her _ staterooms will be taken out so as to give more cabin room. This will materially increase her passenger carrying capacity. THE MARINE RECORD. The question of a deep waterway connecting Lake Mich- igan and the Gulf through the route of the present drainage canal system, will be the subject for general discussion at the waterway convention at Peoria, Ill.,on Tuesday. Delegates from every county bordering on the proposed waterway, also from Chicago and St. Louis, will be present. President Kingman confidently expects 450 delegates and a couple of hundred more who are interested in the proposition. Col. Taylor, of Governor Tanner’s special drainage com- mission, who will pass finally on letting the water into the canal, says that the meeting will be a revelation and much good will be accomplished. The schooner yacht Idler, recently bought from John Cudahy by A. R. Rumsey, the Cleveland shipping master, departed about 4 o’clock last Thursday afternoon for her new home. She will be taken down the lakes under her own sail. Captain Rumsey stated before his departure that the yacht had no good tow post, and he did not care to strain the foremast by making a towline fast to it. Itisstated that Capt. Rumsey has bought the yacht for a capitalist of Cleve- land. The new owner, it is said, intends to have the old craft rebuilt at considerable expense, and next summer she will be raced against the schooner Priscilla, which Dr. Bee- man bought in New York several years ago. Capt. H. J. Davis, master and owner of the schooner Wenona, which was grounded near Houghton over a year ago, says that the report published in the Chicago papers, to the effect that the Wenona was a total wreck is untrue. Capt. Davis says the wreckers contracted to take her off the beach in July, and after delaying matters nine weeks, finally came to make a very weak bluff. He is satisfied that they had no intention of releasing her. Heis much vexed at the report that her bottom was gone, which he terms a mis- take. The captain has been with the schooner ever since . the wreck occurred, and says he has watched her closely ; that she is in good condition and there is no reason why she cannot be floated. Heclaims that he has not abandoned her yet by any means and hopes to induce certain wreckers to take up the work. Grain shippers are putting forth every effort in their power to make good their promise of good dispatch held out to vesselmen last week. The elevators worked Sunday as though it had been a week day, and six boats received grain cargoes. They were the City of Venice, Alva, Robert Mills, Meade, Kalkaska and schooner Fryer. Some of the coal docks were working also, and on top of this came a big fleet of lumber vessels. Tugmen found it a busy day, and it was not until late in the evening that the business was fairly cleaned up. A jam at the Fort Wayne railroad bridge blocked the south branch late Saturday night and gave the harbormaster a rude shock, for during the summer there have not been enough boats in the river at one time to make any sort of ajam. This held the lumber fleet arriving at the pier, and they were not moved up to their docks until Sunday. All of the boats available were taken by local corn ship- pers Friday at 334 cents per bushel to Buffalo. This rate bids fair to be held to the close of navigation, though the largest corn shippers, Armour & Co., announced flatly that they would not pay above that rate, though they would see that the vessel ‘was given every possible facility to do busi- ness so that no time would be lost. All traces of the re- action of lake freights, which seemed to have set in ten days or two weeks ago were lost sight of yesterday in the uni- formly firm market prevailing everywhere. Duluth was up ¥% cent on wheat, and there was firmness in ore, lumber and coal freights at the various points throughout the chain of lakes. Some of the results of carrying big cargoes at high rates are rather astounding when figured out. The steamer Crescent City, for instance, yesterday loaded 230,000 bushels of corn at Manitowoc for Buffalo at 3% cents. On this cargo the American Steel & Wire Co., owners of the steamer, will receive a gross freight of a little over $8,000. It willnot take over four days for the steamer to earn that amount, or $2,000 a day on the trip. If she comes back to Chicago with coal she will have a gross freight of between $6,500 and $7,000. The round trip could be made in a week from the time she started. Vesselowners are already beginning to compute what dividends they will receive by the close of navigation, and estimates run all the way from 25 to 50 per cent. accord- ing to the valuation and size of their vessels. On single trips nowadays boats make more than they were able to during most if not all of last season. It is highly probable that all the interests concerned in the future of the Chicago river asa commercial highway will get together before Congress again assembles and agree on some sort of proposition that will have the combined weight of all of these interests behind it. In the past there has been a great deal of pulling and hauling in different direc- tions by various parties whose interests are really identical. This puts Congress in a difficult position, as it is unable to act on any of the ideas presented. It is the plan of cam- paign on the part of local commercial people both in and out of the marine and dock line direct, to first agree on what they want, and then go after it with a torce that, it is presumed, no Congressman here or elsewhere can stand against. In this spirit it is designed that all minor differ- ences are to be buried, and, if necessary, many will be sac- rificed in order to attain the great end desired. Investiga- tion, inquiry and conference between the units of the inter- ests involved are going on daily, and it is highly probable that something of a concrete nature will soon be evolved. The tunnels and the bridges are to be called upon for an overhauling that is certain to land the tops of the former at OCTOBER 12, 1899. a a depth of at least twenty-two feet and that will entirely do away with center piers the length of the stream in both directions. The reports of the engineers on the removal of the swinging bridges at Taylor street. and at the Grand Cen- tral station, between Twelfth and Taylor, in order to clear obstructions to the stream, have practically settled the lead- ing interests in favor of rolling lift bridges, and on this and the tunnel question they may be said to be a unit. The rogress made in the Calumet district by the few interests involved there, has awakened the immense moneyed inter- ests lying along the main stream, and it is now as good as settled that they will work together effectively to some definite purpose. ae ae a DETROIT. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. . Mr. Edward O. Avery, a prominent Alpena lumberman, died here on Sunday morning, last. John Stevenson will rebuild the little steambarge Sakie Shephard, which was burned off the foot of Twentyfirst street, some time ago. She has been taken to Marine City. The steamer F. R. Buell has been repaired after her hard grounding in the ‘‘Soo” river and is now as good as ever. The Detroit Ship Building Co. isto be credited with excellent and rapid work on the hull and machinery of the boat. The. schooner Mott, laden with coal for Port Huron, was beached at Marine City in the mud at the mouth of Belle river. She is leaking badly and an effort is being made to repair the leaks temporarily until she can be docked at Port Huron. It will be pleasant news for the friends of General Passen- ger Agent Schantz, of the D. & C. line, to know that he is recovering from a severe fever. The process of recovery is slow, but he is steadily regaining strength and soon hopes to be around again with his accustomed vivacity. Port Huron custom house records show that over forty transfers of vessels have been recorded there this season, and that the above number of vessels will change their hail- port from Port Huron to some other district. The transfer of the Thompson Towing Company’s tugs to the Great Lakes Towing Company accounts for quite a number of the transfers of thedistrict. The handsome steel yacht Dungeness, purchased recently from the Carnegies by the Fletchers, of Alpena, has reached Alpena. Dungeness was so named after the summer home of the Carnegies off the Georgia coast. As Mrs, Carnegie desires to use the same name for her new yacht, the Fletchers have consented to re-christen their acquisition and have selected Winyah as an appropriate one for their float- ing palace. Mr. J. H. Graham, of the Graham & Morton Transporta- tion Co., Chicago, visited here this week on the search for a speedy passenger boat to place on the St. Joseph-Chicago route next season. Mr. Graham could not be suited here | and left for Cleveland. He wants a boat and a good one, so if there is nothing found at the lake ports he may proceed on to New York City and enter into negotiations for one of the Sound boats and bring her to the lakes. The Frank B. Kirby would no doubt have suited Mr. Graham, but as the saying goes, ‘‘ money wouldn’t buy her.”’ It is said that the Jenks Ship Building Co., of Port Huron, is asking $170,000 for the Welland-canal-size steel steamer which they have under construction. The vessel will be a good one, especially from a structural standpoint. Her dimensions are 243 feet keel, 43 feet beam and 26% feet molded depth. She will be double decked and in a general way similar to the Eureka and other vessels of her class. Engines will be triple-expansion with cylinders of 1734, 28 and 47 inches diameter and 4o inches stroke. Dimensions of boilers—two of them—are 11 by 12 feet, to be allowed 181 pounds steam pressure. General Manager Henry W. Ashley, of the Toledo & Ann Arbor-and the Menominee & St. Paul railroads, was in Menominee this week. He announced that business has been so pressing and matters have arranged themselves so the Ann Arbor road will attempt to navigate Green Bay waters all next winter. Mr. Ashley said: ‘‘I find that we must keep Menominee an open port, and this winter our boats will keep a channel open. We need. two more car ferries that can transport more cars. The shipbuilders are so rushed that they could not promise to have boats of such dimensions completed in time for the winter campaign, so we will prob- ably lease an ice crusher which will assist the No. 3 on this route.’”? Mr. Ashley will not keep the channel open just the same. A Washington special to the Detroit Free Press says the United States War Department has referred the protests of the Lake Carriers’ Association against the construction of the canal through Kent county, Ontario, connecting Lake St. Clair with Lake Erie, to Col. Lydecker, with the request for a full investigation and a report. Col. Lydecker will report both as to the probability that the project will find adequate financial support, and as to its effect upon the level — of the lakes, should it be carried out. It seems probable that if it is found that the Canadian project is being serious- ly considered with any prospect of its being actively entered upon in the near future, the State Department will take the matter up with the Canadian Government on the basis of a proposition to appoint a commission, which was earnestly advocated by Col. Lydecker and his colleagues in their re- porton the Sault power canal.—The Canadian Engineer Toronto and Montreal.