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Le” ea ET _ the St. Lawrence system of-canals. THE MARINE RECORD. DECEMBER 14, 1899. ESTABLISHED 1878. Published Every Thursday by THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Incorporated. C, E, RUSKIN, - - - - Manager. CAPT. JOHN SWAINSON, ~— - - - Editor. CLEVELAND, CHICAGO, Western Reserve Building. Royal Insurance Building. SUBSCRIPTION. One Copy, one year, postage paid, - - $2.00 One Copy, one year, to foreign countries, - = $3.00 Invariably in advance. ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. ~All communications should be addressed to the Cleveland office. THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Western Reserve Building, Cleveland, O. Entered at Cleveland Postoffice as second-class mail matter. CLEVELAND, O., DECEMBER 14, 1899. THE Erie canal should be improved without loss of time so as to offset the advantages offered by the new route via Traffic once turned to Canadian channels may remain there and increase, all of * which would be to the detriment of our coast ports, and the State of New York in particular. umn onwr — ———_ A DISPATCH from Houghton Mich., dated Dec. 9, states that the last vessel has passed through Torch Lake for the season and the range lights have been discontinued. The local traders Bon Voyage and City of Marquette will return to Duluth tomorrow and lay up for the season. ‘They would remain in commission longer if insurance for the cargoes could be obtained. en oe THE lake trade furnished, or could have given to marine underwriters the richest harvest in the world during the past week. The opportunity was not taken, or only par- tially so, and commerce was, to that extent, paralyzed. It is now coming to the time when the Omnipotent will close navigation on the lakes instead of general marine insurance agents and their clerkly help. OO OO DEE THE gale duly heralded by the Weather Bureau for Tues- day came along with great force. At Buffalo the register - showed a velocity of sixty-five miles an hour from the south - west, recorded as the heaviest blow of the season. Owing to the early advices of the Weather Bureau it is quite safe to state that a large amount of floating property was saved from destruction, it is also probable that many lives were saved. : OO Oe THE old annual kick is being registered on account of the Light-House Board ordering light-ships, buoys, beacons, etc., in off their stations while navigation is still being carried on. The weather is wintry, the insurance limit has expired, a Detroit judge decided when, or rather, on what date lake navigation ceased. Notwithstanding all this there is still a large fleet at work with every present probability of sailing being continued for at least a week later. OO Oe THE Weather Bureau publishes, this week, the first snow and ice bulletin of the season. ‘This chart is issued weekly on Tuesdays during the winter season, based upon data from regular weather bureau stations, supplemented. by reports from selected voluntary observers. So far as the lake ma- ’ rine interests are concerned this is one of the most valuable publications issued by the Weather Bureau. In the late fall, and more particularly in the early spring, official and au- ‘thentic reports regarding ice conditions at the various points on the lakes are invaluable. DETROIT RIVER BRIDGE AGAIN. Representative Corliss has re-introduced his bill in Con- gress to permit the Detroit Union Bridge Co. to erect a bridge across the river at Detroit. It is provided that the bridge shall be high enough to permit vessels to pass under and that it shall have not more than three continuous spans with an open space of 1,100 feet in clear width between the masonry piers in the main channel. The contention has always been upon permitting any piers to be built in the channel at all. The current of the river is swift and the lake traffic enormous. It should be clearly understood that many propellers have two or more consorts and there is always danger in the swift stream of one of the consorts fouling the pier. Per- mission, however, has already been obtained from the Cana- dian government to build the bridge, and all that is lacking is the sanction of the American government. There is an abundance of opposition to the project. The vessel interests are strongly opposed to bridging the stream and a vigorous’ fight may be expected. If the river could be bridged with a single span there would be no objection to the project and sucha structure may become one of the engineering triumphs of the future. It is extremely improable that the Govern- ment will ever permit piers to be put in the Detroit river. ————— ri a ae Ir is possible that damming Niagara river may be a good thing; it is also probable that it may be a damaging step to take. A structure to control lake levels must control, other- wise the million dollars for its cost will be money wasted. The Secretary of War says: ‘‘The Deep Waterway Board informs me that the structure will not cost over $1,000,000 at the most, and probably not more than $800,000, Yet this dam will save the government over $1,000,000 already ap- propriated for deepening harbors and channels in Lake Erie and Detroit river. The Deep Waterways Board has informed me that by their plans and surveys’ they will recommend a dam that will raise the lower end of Lake Erie from two and one-half to three feet. ‘This will deepen all the harbors on that lake about that much and will add from twenty inches to two feet to the depth of the water at the Limekiln Cross- ing. It will even raise the water of St. Clair Flats and Lake St. Clair about a foot, and will tend to hold back any per- manent lowering of the level of Lake Huron by the washing out of St. Clair river, a process which has already done much damage. The dam will do away with the necessity for appropriations for deepening channels and harbors which have been growing greater and greater from year to year. For the Detroit river alone an appropriation of over $500,000 is now awaiting expenditure, and we are led to believe by recent publications that this is merely the beginning of an unending expenditure for dredging and blasting,” aE THE Bureau Veritas ‘‘Repertoire General’’ for 1899-1900, the thirtieth annual edition, has been published during the last month. The great advantage claimed for the ‘‘Reper- toire General’ is that as it describes all merchant vessels afloat, no matter where classed, its subscribers are saved the trouble of searching through the varions classification regis- ters, for it shows at once whether or not each vessel is, or has been, classed in any of the principal registers. ————$ i oa ae THE year has witnessed the completion of the great four- teen-foot channel by the Canadian government between Lake Erie and deep water at Montreal, on which over $70,000, - ooo has been expended in completing the work. ror ior CANADIAN LUMBER. The tariff of $2 a thousand feet on Canadian lumber does not keep it out of the United States. During the season just closing an immense quantity of lumber has come to this country from the Dominion, a quantity so large as to fairly stagger the people who thought the tariff would be practically prohibitive. The Bay City Tribune has frequent- ly called attention to the enormous shipments from Canada arriving at that port, but few realized the magnitude of the trade. The receipts at Bay City during the season will not be far from 140,000,000 feet from Canada alone. ‘This lum- ber has paid a duty of $27,719.07. The Saginaw customs office has collected about $2,800, so the total receipts from Canada will not be far from 150,000,000 feet. This quantity of lumber is largely in excess of the shipments from Bay City in a single season for several years. It is also indepen- dent of the receipts from other ports on which duty is not paid, and which will swell the total of lumber received at Bay City to over 200,000,000 feet. MARINE LEGISLATION. The annual convention of the International Seaman’s Union was held in Chicago last week, and that body com- pleted the draft of a bill which will be laid before Congress in January to better the condition of American seamen and improve the personnel of the merchant marine. The bill provides for the inspection of sailing ships of 200 tons and over instead of 700 tons according to the present requirements; prohibits the employment of Asiatics on American ships, compels the construction of larger and bet- ter furnished quarters for the men, names a scale for man- ning sailing ships and steamers according to tonnage and makes regulations for the liberation of sailors on shore from the boarding house keepers and crimps. Sailors, while at sea, are to be divided into two watches to be kept on deck alternately for the performance of ordin- ary work incident to the sailing and management of the ves- sel, but this shall in no way limit either the authority of the master or officer or the obedience of the sailors, when in the judgment of the master or other officer the whole crew is needed for the maneuvering of the vessel or the performance of the work necessary for the safety of the vessel orits cargo. While the vessel is in a safe harbor no seamen shall be re- quired to do any unnecessary work on Sundays or legal holidays and nine hours, inclusive of the anchor watch, shal constitute aday’s work. On all classes of ships, it is held the lookouts at present are not efficient because they do not get needed rest and thereby endanger other craft as well as their own ship. The Elbe and La Bourgogne disasters are attributed to this cause. The employment of Asiatics is covered as follows: No Asiatics, Chinese, Japanese, Malay, Lascar, shall be employ- ed in any capacity on board of any vessel in the United States. Failure to comply with the requirements of this statue shall make the vessel so failing liable to a penalty of $100 each effective hand less then the full and required com- plement and for each Asiatic employed. It is held that the employment of Asiatics is an unjust dis- crimination against American seamen, and directly opposed to the understanding that the merchant marine should be the nursery of the naval reserves. The employment of the Asiatics is a menace to the lives and property of travelers and shippers, it is claimed, because of their notorious unrelia- bility in times of emergency, a fact that has already been recognized by other governments in restrictive legislation. or ro _ COAL. Coal shipments from Buffalo up to Dec. 1 exceeded those of last year by nearly 300,000 tons. They are only 90,000 tons less than the banner year of 1892, when 2,852,330 tons were carried out of Buffalo. “Chicago is about 300,000 tons short on coal this winter,’’ said Mr. O.S. Richardson, the well known coal dealer. “The season for lake shipments is at an end and we are able to get some idea of where we stand. Lake receipts have fallen off materially owing to the ships being diverted into the iron ore trade and the light call for grain boats here, but the railroads have brought in more than usual to make up somewhat the deficit. The docks were cleaned out last spring, for stocks a year ago were 200,000 tons short of what they should have been, This leaves the shortage just about 300,000 tons. ‘This can be made up during the winter months by the all rail haul, but of course the consumer must pay the extra freight. I do not anticipate so much trouble for next year. Freight rates by lake, I believe, will be lower than they were this year. If the grain trade does not bring enough boats to Chicago to load coal on the up trips we must fall back on the railroads. There will be coal enough in any event. Dealers at the head of Lake Superior are complaining of a serious shortage of soft coal. They have enough hard coal, but the railroads have been unable to deliver the bituminous coal at the Lake Erie ports for shipment by lake in sufficient quantities all through the fall.” —— or oe A NEW CONTRACT PLACED. The Craig Ship Building Co., of Toledo, has closed a con- tract with the Arnold Transportation Co., for a steel passen- ger steamer to take the place of the Minnie M. on the Mackinac-‘‘Soo’’ route. The new boat will be very fast.. She will be 185 feet long, 34 feet beam and thirteen feet: deep. She will have triple-expansion engines, cylinders 20, 33 and 54 inches, with 36 inch stroke. Work on her will be rushed and she will be completed as soon as possible.