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PORT HURON. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record: Capt. James Davidson is in favor of, and gives his entire | _ patronage to the Great Lakes Towing Co. at every port where the syndicate has tugs. ; Twice last week lumber-laden steamers bound for Tona- ° wanda struck on what appears to be a new sandbar formed | recently in the channel of the Niagara river, half way be- | tween the foot of Squaw Island and the head of Strawberry Island. @ The Anchor line steamer Conestoga, Capt. Henry Cronk- hite, sunk at Chicago this week through running foul of a ely submerged crib and stoving in her bows during a og. Damage to cargo is estimated at $50,000.and $10,000 for hull repairs and detention. ie é The Weather Bureau agent at Detroit wants electric lights to replace oil lamps at Sturgeon Bay, a telephone estab- lished at Death’s Door, layinga cable to Plum Island for the life-saving service to connect with Washington and Pilot Island, and goodness only knows what else he don’t ‘want, with, or without reason. There will be a large quantity of coal shipped to the head of the lakes by rail this winter as the shippers have been un- unable to send coal forward and there is a shortage all round. ‘The mines and railroads, not the facilities for trans- ortation by lake, are responsible for the low stocks, and it is now too late to supply the demand except by rail through the winter months. It is understood here that the St. Joseph firm of Graham & Morton paid $15,000 cash for the little passenger steamer Mary, and at that figure they secured a bargain, considering the way véssel property is held now. The Mary was built _ at Marine City in 1882, is 117 tons net and classed for insur- ance purposes as A2 with a valuation of $15,000. Owned by Burnham and others. She hailed from St. Clair. Immigrant Inspector Petit, arrested two Canadians who had crossed the border under a contract to go to Manistee to work in the lumber woods. They will be held and proceed- ings brought against the parties with whom they had made the contracts. The United States law imposes a fine of $1,000 for each individual violation of the law in the. case. And the firm bringing these aliens to work in the United. States will be meted out the full penalty of the law. eeoe On Nov. 30 the people of Collingwood, Ont., will vote on the proposition to donate a bonus of $50,000 to Capt. Alex- ander, of Duluth, and his associates for the establishment of a shipbuilding plant there. The money is to be paid in an- nual installments of $2,891.51. The proposition is quite opular in Collingwood, and there now seems no doubt of its carrying. A shipyard such as Capt. McDougall and his friends would give to Collingwood ought to guarantee the expenditure by the citizens of that port of so moderate a bonus as that named. Mr. lL. C. Sabin and his staff of engineers, who are con- nected with the survey of the Great Lakes, are about closing up their season’s work in this vicinity. Engineer Sabin” says: ‘‘The velocity of the water at the rapids is 6%4 feet per second, or about 4% miles an hour. At Dunford & Alver- son’s dry dock the velocity is in the neighborhood of 3% miles per hour. When once our data is completed it will be an easy matter at all times to determine the matter of water “running through St. Clair river. The object of the survey _at this point is toascertain the amount of water which dis- charges from the river during 24 hours. It is expected that the Chicago drainage canal will take at least 10,000 cubic feet of water a second. This is about 5 per. cent. of the amount which passes through the St. Clair river. If it is found that the water necessary to supply the drainage canal is liable to lower the lakes it is probably that the marine. interests will petition Congress to prevent the use of such water. It is our work to find out exactly how the loss of. this amount of water would affect the levels.’ Mr, Sabin has on exhibition in his office in the custom house a number of charts which show the rise and fall of the water in the’ river. The charts reveal the fact that some days the water. will rise 15 inches in one hour, especially if the wind is in the southwest. On other days it will lower in the same length of time. The water in September this year was 3% inches lower than it was in September, 1898, and nearly one foot lower than in September, 1896. rn THE Cramp Ship Building Co. has decided to use pneu- matic tools in a wholesale way for its yards and shops. Contracts aggregating $50,000 have already been awarded ‘to the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company for riveters, ham- mers and other tools driven by compressed air. In all $100,000 will be expended on additional equipments. : THE WARINE RECORD. CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The Chicago Ship Building Co. are completing the enlarg-’ ing of their dry dock. Capt. James Reed, of Bay City, the well known wrecker, was in Chicago Tuesday. The schooners Sophia J. Luff, Stafford, Thos. Howland, Lotus Bradley, L. M. Mason, and Z. Simmons are stripped and will go into winter quarters. The Lake Seamen’s Union, of Chicago, will give their ‘twentieth annual ball on Saturday, December gth, at the Aurora Turner Hall, Huron street and Milwaukee avenue. The Northern Michigan Transportation Co. has been noti- fied that a fine has been lodged against the company of $8,- 150 for failure to comply with the provisions of the Illinois trust law. As a preventive of fires on board steamers like the Patria, ex-Steamboat Inpector Guthrie strongly advocates the plac- ing of tanks containing carbonic acid gas below the decks lof all ships. The steamer Auburn of the Western Transit line has been libeled at the instance of the owners of the tug E. G. Crosby for damages to the tug in Chicago river on Oct.5. The claim is for $850. The steamer gave a bond of $1,000 and was not detained. | It is the usual’ weekly or almost daily occurrence for something to run foul of one of our numerous bridges. This week the old well-known schooner Rouse Simmons had a bout with the Adanis street bridge, losing her boom and foremast. The lL. M. & P. S. Trans. Co.’s steamer Peerless has been placed in winter quarters here. The is the first of the com- pany’s fleet to lay up this season, their steamers City of Traverse, Jay Gould, and Osceola will lay up on their arrival from Lake Superior. At Miller Bros.’ shipyard the steamer Imperial is in dry- dock for a new stern, new steel arches, some new bottom plank, calking and ironing. A schooner is at the derrick to receive new fore and main masts and jibboom, also two new deck beams and some new deck. The steamer Santa Maria, Capt. Walter Hamilton, and con- sorts Wayne, Marvin and Shawnee arrived here Tuesday morning from Lake Superior, with 3,500,000 feet of lumber for their owners, the Hines Lumber Co. This is the largest quantity of lumber ever brought here in one tow. The Wayne, Marvin and Shawnee will go into winter quarters, Johnson & Knudson, ship carpenters, are converting the hull of the old schooner Radical into a floating workshop. They are erecting a shop on deck 24 feet in width and Ioo feet in length which will be fitted out with an engine and boiler and rip, band and circular saws andaplaner. The firm will have everything in working order before the sea- son ends so as to be ready for repair work during the winter. The new tug which is being built at Burger & Burger’s shipyard at Manitowoc, for Capts. Peter Barry and Joe Lamoreaux, of Chicago, is nearly completed and will soon be launched. . Her dimensions are 95 feet over all, 21 feet beam.and 8 feet hold; engine, high pressure, 19 by 20; Scotch: boiler 8% by 1334, to be allowed 160 pounds steam pressure. She is built solid forward and will have heavy steel plating for use in thick ice. She is to be named the Comfort. The Anchor line steamer Conestoga, Capt. Cronkhite, collided with the new 5-mile intake crib last Thursday in a dense fog and smashed in her stem and bow from the sail to the forefoot, causing her to leak so badly that she sank at the entrance of Chicago river with her main deck about 3 feet under water. The Dunham Wrecking Co. with tugs and scows, pumps and divers, began work on her Thursday morning, raised her and towed her to the l.M.& L.S. Co.’s dock Saturday morning, where her cargo was unloaded by noon on Monday. The sale of the steamer Mary of Port Huron to Graham & Morton, has caused considerable speculation on the part of the passenger agents and firms on Lake Michigan. It is known that the Graham & Morton Co. has contracted for the building of a steel steamer about of the diminsions of the Mary and with similar speed. As the company refuses to divulge its plans for next year, all sorts of routes have been mapped out for the two boats. The Mary can easily make 20 miles an hour, although her passenger capacity is limited to.less than 600 people. It is belived that the com- pany will establish some short shore line in connection with their. larger boats, and enter more largely into the passen- ger service on Lake Michigan, although the Goodrich line as rather the swing now and they have held it for many years, Lieut. Gelm, U.S. N., in charge of the naval hydro- graphic office here, is preparing a statement showing the average date of the formation of ice and its maximum thick- ness at all the ports on Lake Michigan, Straits of Mackinac and the Michigan shore of Lake Huron, This looks more - like weather work than hydrographic. The Weather Bureau, a branch of the Department of Agriculture, fools around with marine work on the lakes, presumably in the interests of farmers, agriculturists or what not. The Weather Bureau should be kept under its own department and not attempt to interfere with or make a burlesque of marine work. Cap- tains are annoyed by requests to take observations and fur- nish information to both departments, but, as a master tells NovEMBER 23, 1899. me this week, sailors can’t guess right for farmers, or, there isa difference between plowing the lakes and plowing the land. It is now definitely announced from Toronto by Hon. Richard Harcourt, treasurer of Ontario, that the Dominion government has given consent to the construction at Mon- treal and Port Colborne of large elevators, to be built by the Connors’ syndicate of Buffalo. The syndicate will spend $4,500,000 on modern elevators, and a fleet of 12 vessels, full canal size, at the Bertram yards, in Toronto, at least three by the new Collingwood ship builders and three at Three Rivers. The expectation is that 100,000,000 bushels of grain will be eventually delivered yearly to Montreal and the amount will go on increasing. All here welcome the new outlet to the coast as an offset to the squeeze by the railroads and the Erie canal traffic. In any case, the railroads seemed to play checkers with the Erie canal transportation whenever it was desirable to-do so. — — i oO DULUTH—SUPERIOR. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The wheat rate went up % cent this week, and for Monday brisk chartering was done at 3 cents. Itis now estimated that the ports at the head of Lake Superior will go into the winter with a coal shortage of 300,- ooo tons, of which 200,000 tons will be bituminous and t1oo,- ooo tons anthracite. While taking the mainmast out of the schooner Adriatic on Friday last, D. D. Hill, second mate, and Joseph Dubey, A. B., fell from aloft and were seriously injured. Mr. Hill’s home is at Angola, N. Y., and Dubey lived at Bay City. There will be considerable lumber left at the head of- the lakes, which would have been sent forward this season if tonnage had been more plentiful. It is now thought that a good deal will be shipped east by rail during the winter months, and that there will be brisk chartering in the spring as well as through the early portion of next season. The Northern Pacific road shipped per the steamer Troy 18,680 cases of salmon, consisting ef 28 car loads, each case containing 44 cans, making $21,920 cansin all. Some of the salmon were for export. The Northern Pacific road has received 250,000 cases of salmon this year to Noy. 1, and further shipments will come to hand before the close of nav- igation. The head of the lakes freight line association held its annual meeting here this week when the freight situation was fully discussed. The members are: F. M. Guthrie, Lehigh Valley line; Frank Fairchild, Erie line; Edward H. Eden, Delaware & Lackawanna line; Frank Davidson, Wis- consin Central line; Harry Hurdon, Reading Despatch line; M. J.-Allen, Baltimore & Ohio line; Charles O. Applehagen, Empire Fast Freight line; Daniel Christie, Star Union line; and S. J. Bigelow, Blue line. Duluth grain shippers assert that they do not now expect much of arush of grain out of that port before the closing of navigation this year. Despite the fact that the storage rooms there will be increased from 20,000,000 to 30,- 000,000 bushels during the winter, it is expected by grain men there that it will be filled by the opening of navigation next spring. If the present fine weather continues the ore shipments from Duluth for November will break all records. Steaming is resorted to keep the ore from freezing in the pockets of the oredocks. It is expected that the total ship- ments of ore from Duluth for the month will be 600,000 tons * and from Two Harbors about 300,000 tons. The recent slump in freights has brought out several blocks of ore that that otherwise would not have been shipped until next season. The head of the lakes railroads are said to be much con- cerned over the prospective shortage of grain elevator ca- pacity for the coming winter. The comparatively small movement of grain to Duluth this fall is supposed to fore- shadow a big volume of grain to be moved this winter. Un- less there is something done to relieve the situation the ele- vators at the head of the lakes will probably all be filled by Jan. 1. There was nearly 8,000,000 bushels of wheat in store last Saturday, together with about 3,000,000 bushels of other grain. With the close of navigation only two weeks off the situation is unusual and unless something is doue to relieve the situation the prospects of an early filling of the storage capacity is assured. ‘The idea now is to have several big fleets winter here so that they can be made ware- — houses of. The elevators can receive all the grain that comes along if terms can be made with vessels for winter storage and spring delivery at Buffalo and in connection good fair rates are to be offered. The Bessemer line is mentioned as a good fleet to lay up here for this purpose. ——— oO DOD A DISPATCH from Montreal says that the suspension of the coasting regulation upon the upper lakes has already result- ed in the diversion of trade from Buffalo to Canadian chan- nals, Instead of only a fifth, or less, of Canadian wheat being shipped by Canadian routes, as heretofore, itis not — too much to expect that in a year or two every bushel export- ed from Manitoba and the Northwest will be handled by Canadian railways. C. P. R., of course, has still its share of the business from Fort William, but the suspension of coast- ing regulations is throwing a vast amount of business into the hands of other roads as well. This testimony of the — Montreal Corn Exchange is, therefore, the justification of — the action of the government in that regard. has been ordered. Six of these will be built