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10 THE MARINE RECORD. JANUARY 25, 1900. | ESTABLISHED 1878. Published ‘Byes Thuniday, 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, - = $3.00 Invariably in advance. ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. - All communications should be addressed to the Cleveland office, THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Western Reserve Building, Cleveland, O. Entered at Cleveland Postoffice as second-class mail matter. CLEVELAND, O., JANUARY 25, 1900. So many lake vessel owners are bound across the Atlantic on their usual annual vacations that we may understand the balance has been struck on the proper side of the ledger. In other years,a couple of weeks at Old Point Comfort, ora month in Florida or California was considered a fair chance at relaxation, but witha good season in 1899, anda better one in view for 1900, a few spondoolicks won’t be missed. D —$—$————————— a WE are pleased to take this means of thanking our numer- ous friends and patrons, also our exchanges, for their many pleasing congratulations on our issue of the 18th instant which contained the address of the president and Board of Managers of the Lake Carriers’ Association as well asa full report of the proceedings of the annual meeting, incidentally, and at the same time, the RECORD doubled its ordinary size and volume in commemoration of its 22nd year of publica- tion. : oor io C. H. Keep, Eso., Secretary of the Lake Carriers’ As- sociation, announced while in Detroit attending the an- nual meeting, that he had received several new applications for membership in the association this season. These accretions help to. swell the total, and, from present in- dications, every ton of the better class of floating property willeventually be enrolled in the membership of the as- sociation. Individual, and, or, personal considerations, etc., excepted. ; —————uuqooa — —— THE Weather Bureau has lost one of its most distinguished members in the death this week of Prof. Henry A. Hazen. The late professor was well known among meteorologists and scientific men. He was born in India fifty years ago. He was graduated from Dartmouth college and then was _ connected with the scientific department of Yale university for nine years. He joined the United States Signal Service, U.S. Army, in 1881 and remained with the Weather Bureau, now in the Department of Agriculture, ever since. ro - _ THERE seemed to be an inclination at the recent annual meeting of the Lake Carriers’ Association to continue the president in office for another and a consecutive term, several members spoke iv. favor of such a revision of the clause in the by-laws, and the question remains open on the motion of Mr. Coulby, Cleveland, since the meeting of a year ago. The members present were fairly divided on the subject so that the two-thirds vote necessary to carry an amendment to the by-laws was not in evidence, and accord- ingly the motion waslost. The re-election of a past pres- ident was admitted as a probability in the future, but never for a consecutive term of office. It surprised quite a few to hear from the lips of a prominent member and earnest worker, that he would not officiate if nominated, his Caneer _ at least, must be admired.’ NAVAL TRAINING SHIPS. In line with the U. S. S. Chesapeake, built expressly as a training ship for boys and green hands destined for service in the United States Navy, it is now on the tapis in several countries to establish training ships for youths desirous of serving in the mercantile marine. A few years ago a parliamentary royal commission on British merchant shipping recommended the establisnment of sea-going training ships as nurseries for lads entering the merchant service. It was suggested that such ships should be stationed at the principal sea-ports in the United King- dom. The project, however, has not yet been taken advant- age of, and this part of the commission’s report remains a dead letter. We now learn that the North German Lloyd Company in- tends to set up a training ship for cadets. This decision is regarded in Germany as of great importance, in view of the increasing scarcity of officers and seamen, and of the need of giving a sound training to those who are destined for a maritime career. A large sailing ship is to be procured, which will take voyages to different parts of the world asa training vessel. The cadets will serve for one year as ship’s boys, fora second as ordinary seamen, and for a third as able bodied sea- men. It is proposed to accept twenty or thirty cadets every year, so that the number under instruction at any given time will vary from sixty toeighty. The training ship will be commanded by a captain of great experience, who will have under him, in addition to his crew of cadets, four offi- cers, two.teachers, a doctor, and a sufficient number of boat- swains, carpenters, seamen, cooks, etc. It is assumed that the cadets will already have received, a good education, while on the training ship, in addition to navigation, they will be taught foreign languages and general knowledge. At the end of the three years’ training on board the sailing ship, the cadets will be placed on board the steamships of the North German Lloyd, as either junior or warrant offi- cers. Itis intended to charge the sum of 600 marks per annum in return for the training, teaching, board and kit, which will be furnished by the company. It is also announc- ed that a sailing ship was selected on the express ground that it was only on board such a vessel that the necessary qualities of courage, quick perception, and decision, with bodily agility, could be acquired. ooo THERE seems to be rather peculiar means used to inflate statistics of tonnage ownedin the United States. For in- stance, we find that an official number has just been assigned to the canal boat Nutmeg, 141 tons, built in Schuylkill, Pa., in 1870 and now owned in New York. This craft is about aged enough to vote, she has evidently attained her majority, yet, it would appear that she has escaped being officially known for the period of thirty years, It is hardly a logical proceeding, for our statistical enumerators of national owned tonnage, to ignore all fractions up to 99-100, on the measur- ments of new vessels, and then to seek out almost antedilu- vian craft, of questionable seaworthiness, from five tons and upwards, to swell the grand annual aggregate. How many of such craft as the above mentioned are included in this year’s tonnage list, we have not the patience or leisure to deter- mine, but, a country that takes thirty years, more or less, to officially learn about, record and make known its domes- tic tonnage, is rather too slow for this age and generation. An act of Congress has make it mandatory to list all vessels of five tons and upwards, though it appears to have been much of a dead letter until the present energetic and gener- ally well-advised Commissioner of Navigation ‘‘put his hand to the plow”’ and took charge of that department. That 2,- 614,869 tons of Atlantic and Gulf coast tonnage will soon become susceptible of revision and re-classification, if we are to havea fair, practical and half-comprehensive idea of what the actual tonnage consists of. Other geographical divisions likewise. : or See SENATOR HANNA is championing the cause of the postal clerks in service on the Detroit river. These men are out in all kinds of weather and take the same risk as life savers; they are therefore deserving of a trifle more recompense than the ordinary letter carrier and the junior senator from Ohio is going to see what he can do for them in this respect. The Lake Carriers’ Association was asked to endorse an applica- tion for an increase of pay for the men in this service, but that body i is inclined to be conservative in its endorsements, and not to go outside of its own particular functions, THE amount of tonnage chartered by the British govern ment in connection with the war in South Africa is almos < incredible, and the Boers must be credited with being qui ea ‘a big toad in the puddle” after all. The lengthy lists of high-classed bottoms which the Imperial government has % been obliged to charter, now exceeds, in the aggregate, 1,000,000 tons. According to the old-fashioned way of figu ing up a paying charter, viz.: $500 per Ioo tons per month, this calls for an outlay of a neat $5,000,000 for each month — the charters are in existence, but a couple of million dollars ce more can probably be added for the transportation of troops,. ‘§ stores, etc., and vessels not under government charter, reg z ular liners and miscellaneous supplies forwarded in connec- q tion with the war. Asa matter of fact, some of the charters» My, made by the British government were made at $7 per ton — per month. The suggestion occurs at this time, that if a . million tons were withdrawn from the lake service, or say — upwards of two-thirds of the total craft afloat, lake commerce a would be about paralyzed, and, if all the vessels on the Pacific. q Coast, as well as the Western rivers, were taken under a time ; charter, the charterer would still lack nearly 200,000 tons of a the million required, as evidenced in the transport service of. y the British government. Yet, such is the volume of the over-sea tonnage owned in the United Kingdom, that the © Atlantic ferry, as well as a majority of other large steam — lines, are in no wise inconvenienced in their regular sailings, and steamers in the general cargo carrying trade, or tramps, are not reaping a very rich harvest on account of receiving a abnormally high freights, as they are still changing ports 4 and seeking cargoes the world over; besides, chartering is so — light, except in the River Plate and one or two other quar- © ters, that the owners of tramp steamers must still charter at ~ bare working rates, or lay their boats up for awhile. This ; condition, however, is a generally chronic one, but in war ; times, and with a million tons of vessel property taken out of . the freight market for an indefinite time, ordinary cargo © steamers ought to be wallowing in prosperity. : . or ro ; The shipbuilding and commerce of the lakes is phenom- ; enal in number and volume, as compared with other © divisions of the country. According to the last report of © the Commissioner of Navigation for the fiscal year 1899, the lake tonnage, above 5 tons and upwards, documented 1,446,- — 348 gross tons. The Pacific coast and Western rivers com- — bined, figure up to 803,021 gross tons,so that the lake tonnage ~ exceeds that of the Pacific coast, and the Western rivers by 643,327 gross tons, or, is 906,411 tons greater than that of the — entire Pacific coast, and 1,183,264 gross tons more than that of the Western rivers, all of which is of course very gratify- — ing to lake interests. However, ‘‘lest we forget” in the — plentitude of our prosperity, what other maritime countries — are doing, we quote the output of British shipyards for the © year just closed, at 1,763,914 tons. We learn from these figures that there was launched last year from shipyards in - the United Kingdom alone more tonnage tHan is owned, con- | tained or afloat on the entire chain of lakes and Western — rivers combined, and this too, by 54,482 tons in favor of the © annual British output. Furthermore, if all the tonnage owned on the lakes and the Pacific coast was gathered together, it . would only exceed the year’s launching from British ship- — yards by about 222,000 tons, or less than the year’s building | on the river Wear, on the north-east coast of England. It is just as well that these figures should occasionally be given due publicity, notin derogation of the work of Ameri- — can shipyards, nor by any means asa kill joy, but just asa — matter of correct official information on shipbuilding statis- tics, and, in a measure, so that we need not get our ideas un- _ duly inflated during the preliminary stages of steel ship- building in the United States. rr CONSIDERING the many prominent Weather Bureau sta- tions now established on the lakes, it passeth understanding why Mr. James Berry, Chief of Climate and Crop Division, Washington, D. C., can’t find space for more than a couple of lines in his nee) weekly bulletin, to tell us about the ice conditions on the lakes, on the rivers and harbors. We gather : from a table under date of the 22nd. instant that there was only a trace of ice in Grand Haven, Saginaw, Sheboygan, Green Bay, St. Ignace and Duluth Buffalo catches 2 inches . and Sandusky, the only Ohio port mentioned, is credited { with 3 inches, this looks like an abnormally mild season for the above latitudes, but, perhaps the information is compiled more properly for the agricultural division and with a dis- tinct relation to the condition of the crops, regarding which the ice on the lakes, and in the rivers and harbors has not _ the slightest influence or bearing.