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THE MARINE RECORD. FEBRUARY 8, Ig00. ESTABLISHED 1878. Published Boay Thursday by THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Incorporated. C. E. RUSKIN, é 2 : : Manager. CAPT. JOHN SWAINSON, - - - Editor. CLEVELAND, CHICAGO, Western Reserve Building. Royal Insurance Building. SUBSCRIPTION. One Copy, one year, postage paid, 2 s One Copy, one year, to foreign countries, = - Invariably in advance. $2.00 : $3.00 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., FEBRUARY 8, 1900. ee eee UU UE EUS EIEN SEEEESSE ESSERE! Tur thanks of the RECORD are due Capt. C. E. ' Benham, Special Deputy Collector of Customs, Cleveland, for courteous consideration during the past week. ei oo WE are pleased to acknowledge the receipt of a coastwise shipbuilding list to date, from the Hon. Eugene T. Chamber- lain, Commissioner of Navigation, Washington, D. C. orc . Tae RECORD herewith acknowledges the receipt of dupli- cate copies of the ‘‘Meteorological Chart of the Great Lakes,’» also other courtesies at the hands of the Chief of the Weather Bureau. Am rr We have to thank Major T.. W. Symons, Corps of Engineers, U.S. A., stationed at Buffalo, for a complimentary copy of the ‘‘Report of the Committee on Canals of New | York State,’ also for a duplicate copy from C. H. Keep, Hsq., __. Secretary of the Buffalo Merchants’ Exchange. i _ THE steamer John W. Gates, recently launched from the ~ -Yorain yards of the American Ship Building Co., is 497 feet * ‘over all, and not 500 feet, as erroneously stated in many _ publications. Other sources qualify the 500 feet length by making her within a few inches of that measurement. The - launch of the sister ship J. J. Hill takes place on Saturday, February 24th, from the Lorain yards of the American Ship Building Co. —_——— OO OOD ‘We found it convenient this week to request certain parti- ‘culars from subordinate officers of the Treasury Department, located at prominent lake ports. Some of these men re- sponded in a sensible manner, others acted after a senseless incomplete fashion, and one superior of a district requested 4 his subordinates in office to notify the press what the RECORD -was after, and he even went so far as to disclose our private correspondence written to his superior in office at Washington, D.C. ; thus committing a breach of good manners, to say the least. Wonder if this man is financially, or in any other way, interested in a marine news bureau—but, more anon. ; Ba Wer have this week received from the Hydrographic Office, Bureau of. Equipment, Navy Department, duplicate ‘miniature charts of the Great Lakes, forming an index to ‘coast, special and harbor charts issued: by the Hydrographic Office, Chief of Engineers, War Department, and the British Admiralty. The Hydrographic Office has issued in the past» pilot charts setting forth the occurrence and duration of fog, _ average times of the opening and closing of navigation, also information concerning the Canadian and United States ‘storm, and weather signals, canals, docks and the use of oil _ for calming stormy waters. The latter are compiled as _ general charts of the lakes. fx) + HARDLY A SAFE WATERWAY. It is not at all certain that a clean 14-foot waterway will be found at the opening of navigation via the St. Lawrence system of canals. There is shoal water and a foul bottom at several points yet. River pilots hold that the channel, where there are such strong cross currents as exists in Lake St. Louis, should have been six hundred feet wide to make it easy and safe to large fourteen-foot vessels in tows; to make it possible for navigation without considerable risk it should at least have been four hundred feet in width. By the new and.cheap method of grain transportation, two of these large vessels are towed by a third which is supplied with steam power. Of course where there are currents, the towing vessels are drawn to one side or other by the current. Every foot would be needed in a four hundred foot channel when these tows of vessels have to pass one another amid cross currents. The government engineers were of the opinion that three hundred feet was sufficient, and that is the width. However, the work has been roughly done, the sides of the channels have, it is said, been left rough and ragged, and this contributes an additional danger to the safe carriage of cargoes. a oo oo ICE REPORT FOR THE LAKES. It is a matter of congratulation that the RECORD is enabled to advise the entire marine interests of the lakes, that the Chief of the Weather Bureau, Prof. Willis lL. Moore, has made preparations for a more extensive system of ice reports on the Great Lakes for the remainder of the season prior to the opening of navigation. This information will no doubt be collaborated by the forecast official and marine agent Norman B. Conger, Detroit, and thence telegraphed to the principal lake ports. The RECORD isactually, positively and invariably modest in its utterances, is not the most widely quoted trade publication in the United States, because it is a class paper only, nor is it the most profusely illustrated with non- applicable pictures ; at the same time, we usually make our mark and feel free to state that our call upon the Chief of the Weather Bureau, according to the foregoing announce- ment, will redound to the best interests of vessel owning, shipping, chartering and underwriting circles. Now we will have regular, accurate, official and authentic ice reports at every change and from every point on the Great Lakes until the opening of navigation. OO oO eel A STRONG committee to represent the Lake Carriers’ Asso- ciation and general lake marine interests, is required in Washington next week. The counsel for the association is unremitting in his efforts to obtain and maintain the greatest good for the greatest number, but he isnot omnipotent nor omnipresent; moreover, he is not entirely adamant and can be worn away mentally, professionally aud physically, or rather, the last term argues for the two former. The standing committee of the House on Merchant Marine and Fisheries is in session, the important question of maintaining the level of the lakes is also to be threshed over. So we say again, more power to the representatives of the Lake Car- riers’ Association forming this Washington committee, and their valiant counsellor. _—$— $— rr SNOW AND ICE BULLETIN. (Weather Bureau. ) While over portions of the lake region, Northern New England and Upper Mississippi Valley, there is now more snow than at the corresponding date of 1899, there was, upon the whole, at that date a much larger area covered, and in portions of the upper lake region greater depths than there are at this time. } * Duluth, Minn., February 5.—Superior and St. Louis bays covered with ice ranging from 12 to 24 inches thick, a few fields drifting; thin ice in lake near Duluth and forming along shores: Notwithstanding the decided increase in ice formation during the past two weeks, there is still, with a few excep- tions, decidedly less ice than at the corresponding date of 1899, when there was, as a rule, from 7 to 10 inches more ice ° in the upper Mississippi aud upper Missouri rivers, and from I to 12 inches more in the lake region. eo OS A BILL, to grant an American register to the steamer Windward was introduced in the House of Representatives, on January 18. It authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to cause the foreign-built steamer Windward, owned by Engineer Robert EK. Peary, United States Navy, to be regis- tered as a vessel of the United States, provided that she shall not engage in the coast-wise trade of this republic. \ AVERSE TO THE DAM AT NIAGARA. In the sixteenth annual report of the Commissioners of the Niagara Reservation which has just been submitted to the New York State Legislature, several matters of interest are touched upon. Concerning proposed improvements for which an appropriation is asked, the report state | that: In 1890 a topographical survey of the falls was made under the direction of the State Engineer and Surveyor, and a valuable and exhaustive report submitted. During A the ten years that have elapsed since that time great masses = 2 ¥ i of rock have fallen from the crest of the falls, causing many changes in the contour of the cataract. The recession of the falls is a subject of great interest to the public, especially to scientists at home and abroad, and it is desirable that a re-survey should be made this year, so as to show the change in the past ten years, and have record- 7 ed the exact form, location and other topographical feat- o ures of the cataract at the close of the nineteenth century. A bill has been introduced to the Congress of the United States providing for the construction of a dam or jetties at the head of Niagara river, at Lake Erie, in order to raise the level of the water in the Great Lakes. As such an obstruc-. tion would be liable to diminish the volume of water flow- ing over the falls, and thus to injure the beauty of the na- tural scenery of Niagara, which the state of New York has expended its means and exerted its authority to protect, the proposed legislation by Congress is a matter of concern to the legislature and the people of the State, and to the public generally at home and abroad The necessity for legislation upon the subject, if any such necessity exists, is probably due to the excessive diversion of the water of the Great Lakes, thus referred toin the pre- vious report of this commission. The volume of the river and cataract of Niagara is of course dependent upon the water supply of the Great Lakes. The Niagara river is but the overflow of Lake Erie, into which flows the waters of other lakes. The lowering of the levels of these lakes would diminish the flow into Lake Erie and reduce the volume of the Niagara river. Any very large withdrawal or diversion of water from one or more of the Great Lakes would scarcely fail to be noticeable in a reduced flow at the cataract. The commissioners deem it advisable that the National Government be requested to appoint a commission to confer with a Canadian commission as to the means to be devised to prevent any excessive diversion of the waters of the Great Lakes, and consider the whole subject of the uses and con- trol of these waters, and to report its conclusions to Con- gress, with such recommendations as it may desire to submit. “Any measure of this kind, which threatens even remotely the investnient by the people, for the preservation of the beauty of the natural scenery of Niagara, should be closely questioned,’’ the commission declares. oe Oe Sav A NEW SHIPPING FIRM. A new organization, known as the Atlantic Coast Steam- ship Co., has among its officers a number of lake vesselmen. The company was originated in Buffalo by John L. Crosth- waite, who has been elected president, with Lewis A. Hall, vice-president; Wallace Flint, secretary and treasurer; and for directors the above and EK. B. Freeman and Charles R. Flint. The venture is an extension of the operations of the Export Lumber Co., of Bay Mills, Mich., to the coast. Lewis A. Hall is president of the Export Co. and also of the Atlantic Coast Lumber Co., which has immense yellow pine interests in South Carolina. He lives in New York. Wallace Flint is of the New York firm of Flint, Eddy & Co.; Charles R. Flint is the New York “rubber king;’’ E. B. Freeman is a capitalist of Georgetown, S.C. The company has exten- sive docks at Georgetown and is building a rail line to the interior of South Carolina, where it will connect with the leading roads and will easily reach its timber tracts. The steamer line will carry lumber from G-orgetown to the northern seaboard cities as far as Boston, the principal office being in New York. So far only two steamers have been ordered. One is building at the Craig yard in Toledo, to be ready July 15 next, and the other at the Union Dry Dock Co.’s yard in Buffalo. At present it is impossible to get more built for early delivery, but it is expected that each of these yards will be given another steamer. After that the coast yards will probably be ready for the work. The line is to consist of six steamers at present. The capital of the company is now fixed at $1,000,000, but it will be increased if necessary. The business for the line is all ready for it as soon as the steamers are completed, and its earnings are quite assured.