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~ in magnitude. OCTOBER 19, 1899. oa DETROIT. _ Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. It is stated here that J. H. Graham, of the Graham & Morton line, made an offer to buy outright or charter the new stéamer Pennsylvania, now running between Erie and Buffalo. The plant of the old Frontier Iron Works is being re- opened by the Northern Engineering Works. The plant has been extensively improved and the manufacture of the Frontier gas and gasoline engine will doubtless be re- sumed. The Sault Ste. Marie water power is figured on giving 40,000 horse-power, and will be determined from a flow of 70,000 cubic feet of water per second from a fall of 19 feet. The available head is 16 feet, and the volume of water re- quired 31,250 feet per second, : 2 The big freighter now inthe stocks in Wyandotte and being built for the McMillans will probably be launched early in November and be completed for early navigation next spring. Her dimensions are the same as the Angeline, recently completed for Cleveland owners. Acting Secretary Spaulding has directed the collector of customs to refund the duty paid on the cost of the repairs to the schooner Theodore Voges, which struck an obstruction in the Detroit river and was repaired at Amherstberg, Ont. It was shown that repairs were necessary to allow the boat to proceed to her destination. - Mrs. Rose Campbell, of No. 183 Lovett avenue, Detroit, mother of the sailor, John Campbell, drowned in the wreck of the schooner Typo on Lake Huron, requests that any one finding the bodies of any of thevictims of the wreck com- -municate with her.. Her son’s body may be identified: by. _ the absence of the middle finger of the left hand at the first joint. Svan eo Ate Several more handy passenger steamers like the Pennsyl- vania or Kirby ought-to be built on speculation by the De- troit Ship Building Co., at their earliest'opportunity. These little steamers could have been sold several times over if their purchase price had been .within Io or 20 per cent. of their cost, and this, too, after allowing for builders’ profits, etc. There is a little squabble on here this week between the late master of the mail boat’and the postmaster. It appears that charges have been filed but they only amount ‘to the grumblings ofa discarded servant egged.on perhaps by other parties in interest. The Detroit river marine service is well conducted and of too valuablea nature to be triflingly pestered by individuals. Bis It is learned here that the elevators of the Northern Grain Co., at Milwaukee, and the elevator at Manitowoc arein bad shape as the result of their inability to secure boats - enough to keep the grain moving. The report that Chicago elevators are anticipating something of the same sort is given some color by the offer of 34 cents made for 1,000,000 bushels of corn room to Buffalo for November loading. The agent who was offered this figure was unable to find enoug boats at that price to move the grain. An examination of the engines of the yacht Enquirer, which is in the upper dock of the Detroit Ship Building Co., shows the ravages of salt water on machinery not specially built for service on the coast. It is estimated by Engineer Crisp that it will take a full month to complete the overhauling of the craft, removing injured parts and replacing with new, etc. The tail shaft between her wheel and hull had the appearance of having been eaten away with an acid and the entire length of the shaft to the engine was slightly pitted by the action of salt water. D. H. Bryant, of Detroit, pilot of the United States revenue cutter Fessenden, died on Thursday last at the home of his daughter in Chicago. He was born in Ovid, _N. Y., May 14, 1827, and became a sailor on the Great _ Lakes at the age of 12. for 60 years. In the days of the old wooden vessel he was one of the best known captains on the lakes, and even yet’ everyone familiar with lake matters knows Capt. Bryant. His home had been in Detroit ever since he entered into the United States service 14 years. ago. The deceased was a member of a Cleveland lodge of Odd Fellows,and he belonged to lodge No.7 of the Shipmasters’ Association. — The steamer W. P. Ketcham ran down the little schooner Typo in Lake Huron last Saturday morning. The Typo foundered and four of the- crew were drowed. The names were Henry Ledford, mate of the Typo; Dan Carr, seaman; John Campbell, seaman; Mrs. Adams, cook. The Captain of the vessel and two seamen managed to escape, and were picked up bythe Ketcham, The Ketcham was bound from Chicago to Buffalo with a cargoof grain. The Typo was met off Middle Island, near Alpena. After picking up the survivors the Ketcham continued on her voyage. The Typo was owned by J. P. Nagle, of Toledo. She measured 335 gross tons, and was built in 1873. The Ketcham belongs to the Chicago Transit Company, and is commanded by Cap- tain Carter. or or or A FIGHT against the Chicago drainage canal is being or- ganized in St. Louis. The district to be drained covers 180 square miles, including most of Chicago. The drainage canal is practically an immense open ditch, 29 miles long, dug, dredged and quarried through solid rock, swamps, anit and sand. No public work in the world approaches it It is a profession ‘he had followed THE MARINE RECORD. DULUTH—SUPERIOR. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Work on raising the sunken tug Record is progressing and it is expected that she will be alongside her dock again by the end of the week. ; The entire season’s output of the Keystone Lumber Co., at Ashland, Wis., has been sold toa Chicago dealer. All but 8,000,000 of the 50,000,000 feet of lumber covered by the transaction, will be taken to Chicago by lake. The 8,000,000 feet is now on the docks awaiting shipment by rail, as tonnage can’t be secured. The tug Carrington lost two scows loaded with lumber camp supplies on the south shore of Lake Superior on Sun- day morning. A gale prevailed all night from the north- east and in the heavy sea the tow line parted. Nothing could be done to save them and they went ashore. The cargoes of the scows are valued at $4,000, all of which how- ever will not be lost. The Merrill-Ring Lumber Co. has just purchased of Grat- wick, Smith & Freyer 13,000 acres of pine timber land in Lake county, Minn. The consideration is withheld, but will approximate half a million dollars. The purchase joins 7,000 acres the Merrill-Ring Co. recently purchased from Burrows & Rust, of Saginaw, and the total purchase gives the buyer 200,000,000 feet of timber with which to stock its large mill at Duluth, All of the flouring mills at the head of the lakes, except the Imperial at Duluth, are shut down. The Superior mills are selling no flour, as they cannot get boats for shipment, and they are all stocked up to the limit. A little more flour could be made if a lot of shifting of that already stored were ‘done, but it is thought that this would not be a paying roposition. The shipments of flour have been rather light or some time past, and there is some talk that all-rail ship- . ments will be very frequent the coming winter, The Duluth board of local steamboat inspectors has sum- moned the masters of the tugs Industry, Buffalo and Mystic to appear Oct. 16, and tell what they know as to the blame ‘for the sinking of the steamer Peerless, by the barge Stew- art. The outcome of the investigation will serve to deter- mine who will have to stand the damage. The Lake Michi- gan and Lake Superior Transportation Co., of Chicago, has libeled all three tugs, and the application for an investiga- tion was made on behalf of D. EK. Stevens, of the Stevens . Towing Co. Norman B. Conger, marine agent on the Great. Lakes for the Weather Bureau, Department of Agriculture, is at pres- ent engaged in a tour of inspection of the wind signal sta- tions on Lake Superior between Duluth and Kewaunee Point. -Asa result of his visit to Duluth, Mr. Conger will recommend that the night signals at Duluth be increased in power. Mr. Conger has also decided to recommend that at all of the wind signal stations on Lake Superior between Duluth and Keweenaw electricity be used for displaying wind signals at night. He says that the power is available at the several points except at the Portage ship canal and Eagle harbor. Foley Bros., of St. Paul, Minn., have been awarded the contract for the erection of the largest iron ore dock in the world, to be built by J. J. Hill, at Allouez Bay, work will be- gin very soon, and the structure will be completed before the opening of navigation in the spring. The cost will bein the neighborhood of $200,000, The dock will be several feet higher than any other dock at the head of Lake Superior, so that the largest class of vessels will be able to load, even when the water is at a very high stage. The pockets are to have a capacity of 250 tonseach, and thetotal capacity of the dock will be 62,000 tons. The neccessary dredging has already been done. The average dates of the opening and closing of navigation at this point since 1871 are as follows: The average opening is May 1, and the average closing is December 5. The earliest, in 1878, was on April12. The latest opening was May 24, 1873. The earliest close of- general navigation was November 14, 1878, and the latest close was December 27, 1881. The shortest season of general navigation was 185 days in 1873 and the longest season of general navigation here was last season, 243 days. The figures are based on the first arrival of a boat from the lower lakes in the spring and the last arrival or the last departure from or to the lower lakes in the fall. The figures are calculated to show the length of the season of general navigation for each year, together with the average length for the period since 1871. $e Down to Charles II’s time it was customary to name and baptize a ship after she was launched—sometimes a week or two after. The old Tudor method used for men-of-war was stillin use. Pepys’ diary shows that. The ship was safely got afloat, after which some high personage went on board with a special silver ‘‘standing cup”’ or ‘“‘flaggon’’ of wine, out of which he drank, naming the ship, and poured a liba- tion on the quarter-deck. The cup was generally given to the dock-yard master-shipwright asa memento. When did the present system of naming and baptizing a ship before she is sent afloat come in? I trace the last explicit mention of the old method to 1664, when the Royal Katherine was launched (see Pepys). The first mention of smashing a bottle of wine on the bows of a British man-of-war that I have found is in a contemporary newspaper cutting of May, 1780, describing the christening of H. M.S. Magnanime at Deptford, but nothing is hinted that it was then a new custom.—English Notes and Queries. FLOTSAM, JETSAM AND LAGAN. The appointment of a joint American and Canadian com- mission to examine into a question of maintaining the levels of the lake in the interest of navigation, is proposed.—The Grain Dealers Journal, Chicago, Another shipyard is projected to be built and operated by the Seaboard Iron & Steel Co., capital, $1,500,000 ; prohable site, Whitestone, L,I. The iron and steel plant there will be.greatly enlarged. They want material. The Spanish Government has sold the Havana floating dock for $600,000 to a syndicate of Vera Cruz merchants. Several New York firms have been asked for terms for con- veying the dock to Vera Cruz. The purchasers wish to tak it away about the beginning of next month. It is likely that the Royal Canadian Yacht Club will send a challenge to Chicago for the Canada’s cup immediate- ly after the annual meeting this fall, Comodore Jarvis is in New York and may commission W. Fife, who is also there with the Shamrock, to build the boat. It is already announc- ed that Mr. Jarvis will sail the new Fife challenger. ~ The Hydrographic Office of the Navy Department has published a new chart of the world showing the ocean tracks with distances given in nautical miles. The longest steamer route given on the mapis that connecting New York and Esquimault by way of Cape Horn, 16,290 miles. This is ex- ceeded by the track used by sailing vessels connecting New York and Yokohama via the Cape of Good Hope. This is 16,900 miles in length. Farragut’s old flagship, the Hartford, on which Admiral Dewey served with the first admiral, has been placed in commission at the Mare Island navy yard, California. She will be used asa training ship for landsmeai under Com- ~ mander Joseph S. Hawley, U.S.N. The Hartford will makea voyage from San Francisco to New York by way of the Straits of Magellan. She has been thoroughly overhauled and been made practically into a new ship at a cost of $600,000. A kick is now going the rounds regarding the Port Huron life-saving station, located eight miles up the shore with ab- solutely no modern means of communication between the city and station. There is no telephone or telegraphic com- munication provided, the only .way to get word there or back being by. messenger on horse or vehicle and over a road, a great portion of which is deep sand. The chief of the life- saving service had the situation pointed out to him, when he built the station last year, but for some reason would not alter the location. : A dispatch from Fairport says: ‘‘The whaleback barge 127 struck on a new shoal in Lake Erie, on Monday morn- ing, and’ as aresult was brought into port leaking. The barge was proceeding on the course from Cleveland to Fair- » port, and when she brought up was two anda half miles from shore and four. miles west of the piers at this place, The barge passed over the obstruction and immediately afterward pieces of wreckage came to the surface. The lead line indicated 40 feet of water, and it is believed the wreck of the dredge lost off this port several days ago was the ob- ject she found. The proposition to build elevators at Montreal, which has been kept before the Canadian Government by W. J. Con- ners and Harvey D. Goulder, is as follows: If the Govern- ment and Harbor Commissioners will grant them 99 year lease of part of the Windmill Point pier for the site of an . elevator and for usual berths and part of the pier south of it for store room, and will guarantee a depth of water equiva- lent to the depth in the Harbor and in the river between” Montreal and Quebec, they will invest one million dollars and over in elevators, permanent sheds and barges. They . profess their willingness to agree to any conditions that may be though desirable to ensure equality of use of their facili- ties by all parties, and prevent danger from monopoly. : é LETTERS AT DETROIT MARINE POST OFFICE. OCTOBER 18th, 1899. To get any of these letters, addressees or their authorized agents will apply at the general delivery window or write to the postmaster at Detroit, calling for ‘“‘advertised’’ matter, giving the date of this list and paying one cent. Advertised matter is previously held one week awaiting delivery. It is held two weeks before it goes to the Dead Letter Office at Washington, D. C. : Booker, Sam, Minch Jordan, W. M., 2, Andaste Baldwin, J. J.. H. Houghton Jackson, G. R., Wright Brake, Mary, 2, Tempest Larsen, Andrew, 2, Michigan Brown, Henry, Saviland Lambert, Leonard, Law Bartlett, Owen, Pabst Landers, Jno., Panther. Cartright, Geo.,I.H.Ketchum Mulcahy, Bert Cluckey, John Miller, Ira D., Choctaw Duby, Thos., Savidge McCarthy, G. H., America Deremo, Clark, Ketchum McMann, F., M. Hopkins Durrant, S. O., Sauber Rano, Wm., Ketchum Gordon, Chas, Rowe, Robt., Rhodes Grogan, Wm., Mariposa Russell, Omer, Brake Grimsby, Frank, Bradley Sulley, J. Hamringa, K. L., Mona Stapleton, M., Rhodes Hughes, John, C., Ketchum Taylor, Geo., Siemens Hall, S. l., Donaldson Tisdale, Herb., 2, Rhodes Hart, Tony, Donaldson Woods, Chas., Bradley