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DECEMBER 14, 1899. A CHICAGO COMMISSION REPORTS. _ The report on river improvement offered by Alderman Raymer, chairman of the special commission, was referred _to the committee on harbors, viaducts and bridges. _ Thereport begins by showing the feasibility of the low- - ering of the tunnels from an engineering standpoint. Turning fromthe tnnnels to the problem of center pier bridges, the report shows that lake vessels of the size now _ being built, over 4oo feet long, can only make partial use of the river at present, and mentions the fact that the gov- ernment will not improve the river till the center pier bridges are removed, The commission makes the following rec- ommendations: These center pier bridges must be replaced with bridges of the bascule type, and of full width, for only by structures of this width can congestion of traffic over the river be avoided. The necessity of putting the river in a condition that it will be navigable for modern vessels is of such paramount importance that proper steps should be taken at once to se- cure legislation for the purpose of securing the necessary funds for this work. The rest of the report is devoted toa statement of the commercial argument in favor of the improvements recom- mended. After showing that the tonnage of the Chicago river is greater than that of the Suez canal or any other artificial waterway in the world except St. Mary’s canal, a table is given comparing the tonnage of the Chicago harbor with the foreign trade tonnage of the world’s greatest ports. ' Chicago’s tonnage of 11,364,223 for the year ending Dec. 31, 1897, isshown to be exceeded by the foreign trade of only three ports—London, New York and Autwerp. ‘‘What the Thames and Mersey rivers are to London and Ljiverpool,”’ it says, ‘‘the Chicago river is to Chicago.”’ The inroads into Chicago’s trade which lines of commerce have made in late years are next described, and the fierce- ness of the competition which Chicago must meet is shown. _ Summing up these facts, which are fully stated, the report says: On the north the all-rail and railand water lines are bending every effort to attract commerce from Chicago, and from Duluth and West Superior the rail lines running to the south and southwest are pushing farther and farther into Chicago territory; the all-rail lines to the seaboard - running south of Chicago are making greater and greater inroads upon traffic that belongs to Chicago, and finally, the gulf roads have pushed so far north that they, in conjunc- tion with the roads extending southwest from the head of Lake Superior, have almost, if not completely, shut out - Chicago from the territory west of the Missouri river, and have made very. serious inroads into the.traffic of the states east of this river. The report finds the cause of the decline of Chicago’s power, as thus shown, in the decadence of the Chicago river, and says that it is folly to hope that the railway sys- tems will go to the additional expense of building terminals on the Calumet. Rather than do this, it says, some of the railroads have already begun to divert commerce through - other ports or channels. The further argument is made that without a better harbor the price for Chicago consumption of such commodities as coal aud lumber will increase. The prediction is made that were water competition eliminated rail rates would quickly and appreciably advance. OO oo oe PLATE FOR NAVAL VESSELS. ‘The Secretary of the Navy has transmitted to the Senate a report made by Rear Admiral O’Neill upon the subject of armour plate for naval vessels. It goes into the subject of manufacture of armour plate in great detail and concludes by recommending that the restriction of price be removed. If the restriction is not removed the report asserts that it will be impossible to continue the construction of naval vessels. As to the establishment of government armour plate factory, it is asserted that, owing to the increase in the price of materials, it is necessary to add 30 per cent. to the estimate of $3,000,000 made heretofore as to the cost of the plant. + aa OO oe or At the last general meeting of the Institute of Mining _ Engineers the address of President Longdon was devoted to a pessimistic review of the exhaustion of British coal and iron. He said the evidence all pointed to the fact that fifty years hence we shall be practically dependent on the United States’ cheap coal, iron and steel. And our sons will find alliance with the United States for coaling imperative. THE MARINE RECORD. ERIE CANAL TRAFFIC. Figures have been compiled showing the total business done on the New York state canals for the season of 1899 just closed. The total tons carried was 3,686,509. Of this amount 2,425,292 tons were carried east, and 1,260,759 tons west. This tonnage was composed of 1,692,972 tons of through freight and 1,993,079 tons of way freight. Of the through freight 1,164,665 tons were carried east and 528,307 tons west. Of the way freight 1,260,627 tons were carried east and 732,452 tons west. The canal business of 1899 measured in tons was far greater than that of any year since 1894, with the exception of 1896, when a total of 3,714,894 tons were carried. The expenses of this department for the first eight months of 1899 are $127,458.76 less than for the same period one year ago, while the condition of the canal is better and safer now than it was at the opening of navigation. OBITUARY NOTICE. CAPT. JOSEPH PAGE. The many friends of Capt. Joseph Page will regret to hear that he died this week, at his home, 1743 Huron Street, Toledo, O. His acquaintanceship was wide among marine men. He wasborn in Rochester, N. Y., 63 years ago last August. He leaves a wife and two sons, Joseph E. and J. A. Page, and a daughter, wife of Dr. Marrow. He was the oldest tug man in Toledo. He owned the tugs Gallagher, George R. Hand, Lawrence, Syracuse, and Spinney. Some years ago he purchased a large farm in East Toledo, on which there are now producing oil wells. After living on the farm for four years he retired from active life. Capt. Page was a man of the strictest integrity, honorable, con- scientious, a good man and good citizen, of the type of man who give the highest character to the community in which they live. Capt. Page s father was one of the earliest settlers in the vicinity of Toledo, having located near Presq’ile when the Indians were yet in the Maumee valley. ooo or MARINE PATENTS. Patents issued Dec. 12, 1899. Reported specially for THE MARINE RECORD, complete copies of patents furnished at the rate of ten cents each. 638,883. Dredger. R.A. Perry, Oakland, Cal., assignor of one-half to the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Co., of West Virginia. 639,079. Apparatus for cleaning ships’ bottoms. Miles, Gray’s Summit, Mo. 639,134. Propeller. J. A. Belk, Wellington, New Zealand. a NOTICE TO MARINERS. LicHtT-HouUsE cron, gon Dist | B.S. OFFICE OF THE LIGHT-HOUSE INSPECTOR, 9TH DIsT., CHICAGO, IIl., Dec. 13, 1899. Notice is hereby given that Eleven Foot Shoal light vessel, No. 60, Green Bay, has left her station and gone into winter quarters. By order of the Light-Honse Board, F. M. Symonps, Commander U. S. Navy, Inspector Ninth Light-House District. ODO OO OT LETTERS AT DETROIT MARINE POST OFFICE. DECEMBER 13, 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. Best, Geo. Kemmis, Chris., C. H. Green Brewer, Chas., Magnetic King, J. L. Ball, Cise King, Jas., Berlin McLeod, D. L., Clinton McCarthy, Pat, Japan O’Donohue, M. J. O’Day, Thos., Wilbur Rumney, Herb, Appomattox Rattray, Geo., C. Campbell Rowe, M. W., Boscovel Rohnert, Ed., P. Sawyer Sear, Theo. Saunders, Harry, Empire City Sanders, Wm., Curry Strong, Capt., Bowman Stolp, Otto ; Smith, Dave, C. A. Eddy Gutch, Paul, 3, Volunteer Tyler, H. D., Jenness Hale, R. H., Sitka White, Bert, Mohegan Hendrickson, C. J., Hiawatha Wilson, Jno., India Hunt, Benj., Laura Williams, Mrs. Ida Jones, Harry Branrford, Jno., 3, Venezuela Bassett, Chas., Cherokee Bennett, Alozo, Wilhelm Craig, John, 2, Topeka Carsivell, Thos., Cumberland Christiansen, C., P. Sawyer Carrier, Louis Caragan, Thos., Empire City Curran, D. W., Pahlow Dwyer, Pete, 2, C. M. Eddy Dolan, Edw., Cumberland Ernest, Chas., China Elmer, Capt., Leader Graham, W. J. YACHT ASSOCIATION. At a meeting of the Lake Michigan Yachting Association, which comprises the prominent yacht clubs on the lake, the following officers were elected for 1900: President—W. R. Crawford, of the Chicago Yacht Club. _ Vice President—Alexander Mather, of the Milwaukee Yacht Club. Secretary—H. P. Finney, of the Chicago Yacht Club. Treasurer—W. S. Bougher, of the Columbia Yacht Club, Chicago. Among other business transacted resolutions were adopted restricting the dimensions for yachts in the twenty-one foot knockabout class. One of the first requirements laid down is that “‘a boat of this class is intended to be a seaworthy craft, the limit of twenty-one feet refers to the water-line length, which admits of yachts of from thirty to thirty-five feet over-all length. It was ruled that for center-board yachts of this class the draft shall be not less than three feet, and that for keel-boats the draft shall not be less than four feet six inches, and shall not exceed six feet. It is provided, also, that when a metal fin is used it shall be not less than half an inch in thickness. The sail area is not to exceed 600 square feet, of which not more than 480 square feet may be in the mainsail. No battens more than thirty inches in length will be allowable in the sails. Crews are to be limited to five persons, includ- ing the helmsman, who must be an amateur. Not more — than one of the five may bea professional. OO OO NOT AN AMERICAN CREW. ; I have just received the following communication relative to a notice which recently appeared in the RECORD. In jus- tice to the Hamburg-American line I take great pleastire in printing both statements. HAMBURG-AMERICAN LINE, 37 BROADWAY, NEw YORK, Dec. 12, ’g9. To the Editor of The Marine Record: ’ The following notice appeared in your issue of November 30th. I beg to call your attention to the fact that the state- ment as to the nationality of the crew on our steamer Patria has no foundation in fact. Ours is a German line, and we employ exclusively German crews. Yours very truly, Emir L. Boas, Gen’l. Mgr. Hamburg-American Line. “One of the most satisfactory statements in the report of the disaster to the Hamburg-American line steamer Patria, is the simple- note that most of the crew were Americans. This vessel, bound from New York to Hamburg, was burned on Wednesday, off Dover, Eng. So swift was the spread of the flames in the early morning that the passengers, includ- ing many women and children, six of the latter being babes in arms, had no time to secure their clothing before hurry- ing into the boats. The Buffalo Courier announces that no such scenes were enacted as attended the wreck of the Scots- man, and have disgraced humanity on other similar occa- sions. On the contrary, the discipline was splendid, and the crew behaved like heroes. All the passengers were saved. A large steamer later came up and offered to take off the captain of the Patria and his men, but as the latter were willing to stay by him, Capt. Froelich determined to en- deavor to put his ship ashore at some point of the coast where there would beachance of saving her hull. This plan evidently was attended with much danger, as the iron plates of the vessel were in places red hot. As the press dis- patch says, ‘the scheme is a bold one that does credit toa gallant crew.’ ”’ OO Oa A MODIFIED design of Yarrow’s water-tube boilers is be- ing adopted in large war vessels, including a cruiser built at Elswick, Eng., for the Portugese navy, in which twelve of these boilers are being fitted, indicating 12,000 h. p., while two Norwegian ironclads of 3,850 and 4,500 tons, building in the same yard, are to be fitted with the same type of boiler, which has been largely adopted by the Dutch goy- ernment in cruisers and battleships. Russia is also adopting this Yarrow boiler extensively. The chief difference be- tween these boilers and the ordinary Yarrow boiler is that the tubes are 1¥ in. in diameter and thicker than those in the earlier design, which are 1 in. in diameter. All the parts are made stronger, and the heating surface is increased from 2sq. ft. perih. p. to 2.5 sq. ft., and 1 in. to 1% in. of water represents an ordinary pressure for forced draft as against 2% in. or 3 in. : 8 OS Capr. WM. I). ANDRES, of the North Manitou life-saving station, has been transferred to Jackson Park, Chicago. Capt. St. Peter, now of the Jackson Park station, will go to the North Manitou.