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o ee Tron Mining Co. ~ §00,000 feet for the season. ‘DECEMBER 14, 1899. . __ A division of boats of the Lake Superior Iron Co., in which ‘the Oliver Iron Mining Co. and the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co. are interested has been made. ‘There are six steamers in the fleet, and the Andaste and Choctaw will hereafter be opera- ted by the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., and the Joliet, La Salle, Wawatam and Griffin will remain in the office of the Oliver The latter company bought three-fourths of the stock of the Lake Superior Co., and the Cleveland- Cliffs Iron Co. the balance. While the marine insurance policies of 1898 were liberal to vessel owners, the policies of the past season were drawn by the underwriters for their especial protection. Rates were higher than in 1898, and navigation was cut down from Dec. 12 to Dec. rand 5. There were a lot of provisionsin the policies, greatly to the disadvantage of the owners. In the end, however, the changes made no great difference, for the season has passed with no big total losses, and with perhaps less than one-quarter of the partial lossess of its predecessor. The double track system, or the up and down bound chan- nels, advocated by Capt. Thos. Wilson, is sure to prevail in the near future. The casualties of the present season in tho “Soo’’ river and at the St. Clair Flats canal point stronger than ever to the necessity for duplicate chan- nels in the connecting links of the lakes. Several vesselmen whose opinion on the subject I asked this week, said, that the project ought to be carried out as it has the safest and * best idea yet suggested, and that commerce would demand such facilities in the near future. rt DULUTH—SUPERIOR. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The Joliet loaded the last cargo of ore carried out of Mar- quette this season and a Minnesota boat the last from I'wo Harbors. The Empire City loaded here on Saturday, and this will probably be the last ore cargo of the season from Duluth. On Friday there were several clearances with grain. Ranged, according to the quantity of ore shipped, the several ports now rank as follows: Two Harbors, Escanaba, Duluth, Ashland, Marquette, Superior and Gladstone. White Bros., of West Superior, have commenced piling for the new Calumet & Hecla merchandise wharf at Lake Linden. The dock will be 4o feet wide and 1,500 feet long. While the winter fleet at Chicago will be a small one, the fleet at Duluth will be unusually large. It is estimated that the fleet here will have a wheat storage capacity of 2,500,- ooo bushels. Marquette has finished the biggest season in ore shipping in the history of that port. In round numbers there has been shipped 2,720,000 tons. This is the record total for that port and is nearly a half million tons in excess of what was done last year. ‘ j Coal is being shipped to Duluth all rail from Virginia. This is the first time in the history of the coal business in the Northwest that coal has ever been ordered to Duluth all tail. The shortage in coal at the head of the lakes has not been made up and there is a shortage of about 400,000 tons of soft coal requirements for the winter. The wisdom of Major Clinton B. Sears, Corps of Engin- eers, U. S. A., in advising that the harbor at the head of the lakes be unified and put under the continuous contract sys- tem has been widely endorsed. The deepest draft boats can now traverse the channels of the Duluth-Superior harbor on either the upper or the lower bay. There is 20 feet of water in all of the main channels from both the Duluth ship canal and the natural entry opposite Old Superior to all of the channels or slips leading to the principal points for the receiving or forwarding of freight. The Duluth, Missabe & Northern road has awarded a con- tract to Barnett & Record for the construction of a third ore dock in Duluth. The dock will be situated immediately west of the Missabe dock No. 2 and will be one-half the length of that dock. The new dock will have 192 pockets. This new ore dock will give Duluth the distinction of having the biggest ore dock plant on the lakes. No. 2 Missabe dock is the largest ore shipping dock on the lakes if not in the world. Its capacity is 69,120 tons. The new dock will increase the season shipping capacity of the Duluth docks more than 1,000,000 tons, Figuring the average freight rate on lumber the head of Lake Superior for all of the last season at $2.70, which is believed by the best posted lumber and freight men of Duluth to be very nearly accurate, the lumber carried by lake from Duluth, Superior and Two Harbors paid vessel interests $1,200,000 in freights. According to custom house reports the shipments from the three points named above were 414,- These figures are estimated to be 20, 000,000 below the actual shipments. Including the rail shipments it is figured that the head of the lake districts shipped 450,000,000 feet of lumber during the year. Ship- ments by lake alone from the head of lake ports were 60,- 000,000 feet more than that of last year. Of the total move- ment Duluth contributed 65,000,000 feet. oo “TR Shellbacks, by Alex. J. Boyd, just published by Brentano Bros., Union Square, New York, is a story of sea- life before the mast on an American ship in the sixties. It is edited by Archie Campbell, with an introduction by Mor- gan Robertson, the latter gentleman expatiating upon the despotic cruelty which has characterized and been somewhat _ typical of the past officers of American sailing ships. THE MARINE RECORD. ONS DETROIT. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The hull of the burned steamer Aurora will be rebuilt this winter at Port Huron. Port Huron wants to cut a canal from Lake Huron to flow through Black river, and asks the citizens to vote $75,000 for this purpose. The D. & C. line boats will be most elaborately refitted this winter. Special work will be put on the boats of the Lake Huron division. Mr. A. A. Parker, of the firm of Paker & Millen, has not been having the best of health during the past year or two but he is now in tip top style and feeling better than ever. The new steamer recently built at Wyandotte, by the De- troit Ship Building Co., and now under completion, will be named the Admiral, she has already been chartered for next season. Copper will be shipped by rail this winter from Houghton. The last lake shipments have gone, although navigation is still open. The shipments will be made as fast as the ore is smelted. It is regretted that Mr. Frank J. Firth, president of the Lake Carriers’ Association, wi]l not attend the coming an- nual meeting. Mr. Firth leaves Philadelphia for Europe in the course of a few days. Mr. Barter for the seventeenth time has been elected presi- dent of the Detroit Longshoremen’s Union. He will represent the International Longshoremen’s Association in the Amer- ican Federation of Labor convention. The Detroit Ship Building Co. will be one of the busiest firms in the city this winter. There is already enough work booked ahead to insure steady employment for a small army of men, and orders for new as well as extensive repair work are still being received. In order to secure a proper completion of their final re- port, the Deep Waterways Commission has written Senator McMillan that $20,000 additional appropriation will be needed, and it is asked that this be put in the deficiency bill at the coming session of Congress. The ice-crusher Algoma has been chartered by the Ann Arbor railway to run between Frankfort and Menominee during the coming winter to assist the car ferries in keeping the channel open via Sturgeon Bay, and also to carry package - freight. She will begin business Jan..1. Capt. Reaney, in charge of the Detroit office of the light- house service, has been informed that the following lights on the Great Lakes have been extinguished for the season: The old Lake St. Clair channel range, Spectacle Reef, Pas- sage Island, Isle Royale, Standnard Rock and Huron Point. A fire took place in the Wyandotte yards of the Detroit Ship Building Co., on Wednesday, the engine house and molding loft were destroyed. Although the actual loss is covered by insurance, many valuable models, patterns, etc., were lost.. The buildings will be replaced and work will be carried on as usual. Capt. J. S. Van Rensalaer, late of the barge Nasmyth, died at Marine City on Tuesday. The remains will be brought here. Capt. Van Rensalaer was 44 years of age. ‘He formerly owned and sailed the schooner’ Camden. He was a member of the Shipmasters’ Association, and several other fraternal orders. The keel of the wooden steamer building for Corrigan of Cleveland, has been laid at the Anderson shipyard at Marine City. The new boat will be 150 feet long, with a beam of 38 feet and 9 feet depth of hold. It is thought here that Capt. Corrigan is looking out for a little of the future Welland canal trade, and wants something that can go on down to Montreal when desired. John C. Shaw, Esq., and Wm.’B. Cady have been retained by the Northern Steamship Co. in the recent collision case between the North Star and Siemens. A trade journal, pub- ‘lished at Cleveland, blamed the Star for the casualty, but the ravings of a cobbler, or an ordinary newspaper reporter can’t be taken aboard as expert evidence in a collision case, even if someone told him what to say. Capt. Geo. England, of Detroit, and others, bought the steamer V. H. Ketcham, this week, from W. H. Mack, W. H. Becker and others, of Cleveland, for $55,000. The Ketchem was built by Lester, at Marine City, in 1874. The Mack-Becker combination bought her from Pickands, Mather & Co., about eight years ago, for the same price she sold at yesterday. The Ketchum is being laid up at this port. The south-west gale of Tuesday drifted the water below this port down to a neat sixteen feet, if not a little lower, the larger class of vessel had to wait for a raise and others shel- tered until the below was over. The fluctuation in levels being so large and various, the talked of obstruction at Niag- ara, to control surface levels is looked at with some degree of uneasiness and it is said that nothing less than lock gates and valves can regulate the depths. The articles of incorporation of the National Steamship Co. have been filed, and Saturday the stockholders met and elected their board of directors, John G. Keith, of Chicago, A. McVittie, M. EK. Farr, F. E. Kirby and B. C. Calder, of Detroit. The board then elected the following named as officers: President, A. McVittie; vice-president, J. G. Keith; secretary and treasurer, M. E. Farr. The steamers of Chicago. belonging to the corporation are the Ira H. Owen and the Parks Foster. Mr. McVittie will assume the general management of the new company. The articles of incorporation of the National Steamship Co, have been filed and the stockholders elected as their board of directors: John G. Keith, of Chicago; A. Mc- Vittie, M. EK. Farr, F. E. Kirby and C. B. Calder, of this city. The board then elected the following named as officers; President, A. McVittie; vice president, J. G. Keith; secre- tary and treasurer, M. E. Farr. The steamers belonging to the corporation are the Ira H. Owen and the Parks Foster, both steel freighters recently purchased from the Owen line Both are under charter to carry iron ore next season.. Mr. McVittie will assume the general management of the new company. sd Figuring the average freight rate on lumber from the head of Lake Superior for all of the last season at $2.70, which is believed by posted lumber and freight men of Duluth to be very nearly accurate, the lumber carried by lake from — Duluth, Superior and two Harbors paid vessel interests $1,- 200,000 in freights. According to custom house reports the shipments from the three points named above were 414,- 500,000 feet for the season. These figures are estimated to be 20,000,000 feet below the actual shipments. Including the rail shipments it is figured that the head of the lake dis- tricts shipped 450,000,000 feet of lumber during the year. Shipments by lake alone from the head of lake ports were 60,000,000 feet more than for last year. Of the total move- ment Duluth contributed 65,000,000 feet. Relative to the requirements of lake channels there are few men better posted than Mr. H. J. Livingston, ex-presi- dent of the Lake Carriers’ Association. Mr. George Y. Wisner, civil engineer and a member of the Deep Waterways Commission said this week. ‘‘Our work on the proposition to widen the channel through the lakes has been along the lines proposed by President Livingstone, in a speech before the International Deep Waterways Association in Cleveland in 1895. Mr. Livingstone outlined the needs of the new lake marine very carefully, so far as the Detroit river and the Lime Klins Crossing were concerned, and we have enlar- ged upon the outline, extending the proposed channel through the entire chain of lakes. With the exception of a few points in the St. Clair river, the channel in that stream above the Flats is of liberal width. We find it necessary to suggest the cutting off of a few projections at bends in the stream in order to make the channel as straight as pos- sible and to give a safe width.” a FLOTSAM, JETSAM AND LAGAN. There is a report that the Montreal Transportation Co. will purchase the Mooers Co, elevator at Kingston, Ont. ‘The elevator of the Montreal Transportation Co. has not sufficent capacity for the company’s grain trade. P. T. or private terms, means that the vessel has taken arate below the market and isashamed of it, or that the rate was above and the captain is unwilling to let his brother captains participate in a good thing.—American Shipbuilder, New York. It has been learned that the car ferry Shenango will run this winter between Conneaut and Rondeau instead of be- tween Conneaut and Port Stanley, as she did last year. The change is made to connect with the Lake Erie & Detroit Railroad, which has chartered the ferry. It is quite impossible for anybody not directly connected with the present. improvements of the Duluth-Superior harbor to comprehend the enormous extent of the improve- ments that are being accomplished in a comparatively short period. Under the continuous contracts for the improve- ment of the harbor as much will be accomplished in five years as would have been accomplished in a quarter of a century under the old system. ‘The total amount of material dredged from the Duluth-Superior harbor during the first three years of the continuous contract system, 1897, 1898 and 1899, is in round numbers about 10,000,000 cubic yards. It was in the harbor of Malta one day that a midshipman, of about 4 feet 8inches, addressed himself to the 6-foot-2 captain of his first seagoing ship. The captain looked down upon the boy, smiling, and good naturedly said: ‘Well, youngster, so you have come tojoin, eh?’ ‘Yes, if you please,’? meekly responded the youthful officer. ‘Is it the same old story, ‘sent the fool of the family to sea?’ ”’ “No sir,”? quickly responded the lad. ‘‘Oh no; things have changed since your time.”’ ‘‘Go away,” roared the captain, and the middy flew below as fast as his little legs could carry him.—Cornhill Magazine. The loss of the Canadian steamer Niagara with her entire crew on Lake Erie, brings the list of lives lost for the season in navigating the Great Lakes to 100, Of these fifty-one were lost by the foundering of ships, and thirty-two were lost overboard. Six received fatal injuries by falling through open hatchways. The season, although far below any other during the past decadein losses of property, ex- ceeds last year in the number of lives lost. The record is as follows: 1896, 66; 1897, 68; 1898, 95; 1899, Too. The Niag- ara furnishes the largest number in any one disaster, Other losses were: June 29, steamer Margaret Olwill, foundered on Lake Erie, 9 lives; Aug. 20, schooner Hunter Savidge, foundered on Lake Huron, 5 lives; Sept. 6, schooner Lisgar, foundered on Lake Huron, 5 lives; Oct. 14, schooner Typo, sunk by collision on Lake Huron, 4 lives; May 11, schooner Nelson, foundered on Lake Superior, 7 lives. Both are under charter to carry iron ore. .