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a's THE MARINE RECORD. . MARCH I, Igoo. wk hkkks* BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The labor trouble at the Union Dry Dock seems to be no nearer a settlement than it was last week. The men met on Tuesday and decided to hold out for the advance in wages they demand. Buffalo is going to be considerable of an ore receiving point next season. The Minnesota ore dock handled about three-quarters of a million tons last year and will double their facilities for the coming season, having leased the 1,200 feet river frontage of the Buffalo Dock Co. The Minnesota Co, will also do a large fueling business. Nothing has so far been made public by the underwriters about hull or cargo insurance rates. The opinion, however, is that the hull rates will be about the same as last year. Some of the vesselmen claim that the rates are too high, but the agents of underwriters seem disposed to maintain them even to the point of a slight advance again this season. The Tonawanda tugmen have organized branch No. 7 of the Licensed Tugmen’s Protective Association and elected the following officers: President, James Buxton; vice- president, Fred Kibler ; treasurer, Frank Hartman; record- ing secretary, A. C. Gillie; financial secretary, George Bacon; corresponding secretary, Edward Staley; tyler, Charles Bacon. The branch now. has'a membership of thirty-five pilots and engineers. The Buffalo Dry Dock Co. is doing a large amount of work. The Western liner Montana is out of the dock, following the Vanderbilt of the same line, both of them having received large repairs. The steamer C. F. Curtis has also been given steel arches, keelsons and planking. . The steamer D. C. Whitney has received a rebuild to the extent of about $6,000, and the Majestic is having her upper deck raised up flush with her rail. Mr. P. G. Cook, secretary of the Western Elevating Asso- ciation, said in conversation recently: ‘‘Buffalo is doing her share, and more than her share, in holding the grain for- warding trade for the Buffalo-New York route, but at the same time Buffalo cannot control the continent, If New York city wants the grain trade she must help Buffaloto put a large fleet on the lakes for that purpose, or else buy a con- trolling interest in all the railroads now carrying the western produce to the Atlantic seaboard.”’ From the middle part of last season up to the present, _ fully 200 vessels have changed hands and some of them the largest and best class of steel steamers. Several parties have been here this week looking at vessels laid up with a view to purchase, and Cleveland parties closed on the J..H. Schrigley at a cost, it is reported, of over $30,000, and they will lay out about $5,000 more on her as she is to be given new decks, etc., besides calking all over, as soon as a con- sort is bought they will be put in the lumber trade for their “owners. The Great Lakes Towing Co. will operate all the tugs of Tonawanda this season. ‘The five tugs at that port are small boats and the price was about $30,000.. With the exception of Toledo and Milwaukee the Great Lakes Towing Co. now _ has tugs at all the leading ports, and will later on increase - the service. port intend giving the syndicate tug boats a good whirl in The independent or opposition line at this the competition for patronage this season. The probable result of this will be better service and at lower rates than _ tugging has ever been done here before. There are five branches of the Hydrographic Office, U.S.N., on the lakes, preparing charts, etc. Opposition has developed in Congress to appropriating the full amount requested by ‘the Hydrographic Office for carrying on the work this year, and marine insurance men and others interested are anxious to overcome the opposition, On Monday members of the _ Buffalo Merchants’ Exchange met and passed a resolution instructing Secretary Keep to wire Buffalo’s representatives a request to support the estimates sent in by the Hydrographic Office. Similar action I learn has been taken at other ports. Coal shipments will open up brisk and early: The coal ‘tonnage last year of the Pittsburg district was 16,000,000 tons. This year it will be increased to 20,000,000 tons, 7,000,000 of which will go via the lakes. The coal ‘‘combine,”’ it is said, have three-year contracts for almost its entire ton- nage at prices which will enable the operators to pay wages that will prevent strikes by the miners. Cargoes have al- ready been shipped sos to relieve the railroad cars, and as tonnage can be secured more of it will be put -aboard., The middle of April is now talked of as the opening of naviga- _ tion, while last season it was early in May, and about half a _ million tons that was intended to be waterborne had to reach its destination by rail. A good authority and one connected with lake interests _ says: “If the Corliss dam bill were passed, any scheme to ___ use the waters of the Great Lakes for power purposes would be excusable, for promotors would declare that the dam would regulate the levels of the lakes and navigable rivers contiguous, and that therefore no harm would be done to navigation. I can imagine that the men behind the Chicago drainage canal would be very well pleased if the Corliss dam would be constructed, for they could then push the exten- sion of their canal to the southern seaboard as rapidly as they wish to. Yes, the Corliss dam scheme may really be the offspring of the Chicago drainage canal project as well as that of the ‘‘Soo’’ power canal.’’ Mr. E. T. Evans, superintendent of the Erie and Western Transportation Co., better known as the Anchor Line, con- firms the rumor that the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. has pur- chased the stock of the Anchor Line and now owns it. He said that the purchase would make no difference with the business of the Anchor Line, and that there would be no change in the organization of the office. Statements that the Pennsylvania Co, has heretofore been a shareholder in the Anchor Line are untrue. The Anchor Line was organ- ized about thirty years ago, shortly after the completion of the Philadelphia & Erie railroad to Erie, Pa. This road is the property of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. All of its lake freights have been handled by the Anchor Line and have been transfered at Erie. Said one of the best informed members of the River and Harbor Committee, at the hearing last week on the Corliss bill, and lake level question: ‘‘Don’t use my name in con- nection with the statement, but I do not hesitate to say that the people need have no particular fear that the Niagara dam will be authorized by the present Congress, nor for a long time to come. If it is ever built it will be some years in the future. And yet I believe such a dam as is now pro- posed, will be built at some future time. Iam not yet familiar enough with the situation to say whether or not I think it should ever be built, but I cannot escape the belief that the boy is now living who will see the dam built and in opera- tion.’’. Of course the boy is living, and a good chunky size of a boy at that. Give us afew more drainage and ship canals, and not only will a dam be necessary at Niagara, to keep the water backed up in Lake Erie, but the Straits of Mackinac will need to be spanned: and lock gates placed in the St. Clair and Detroit rivers, possibly, also in St. Mary’s river so as to keep the natural supply from flowing through the projected Hurontario ship canal in its course from Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario. ; ee DETROIT. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. This has been quite a hard week for the ferries and rail- road car transfers crossing the river. It took the C. P. R. transfer nine hours to cross to Windsor on one of her trips through being stopped with the ice. The police board mention in their supplementary esti- mates, a police patrol tug to cost $8,000. ’ The boat as pro- posed is to be aspeedy steam craft of 5% feet draught, about 75 feet in length and modeled after New York harbor patrol boats. The plan is to have the boat fitted with a powerful searchlight and other modernappliances. It is the desire of the board to have a boat which will be adequate to protect the entire river front from thieves and to rescue persons in danger of drowning, and pull big steamers out of the way of dock fires, etc. Those having property along the river front and marine men, are very much in favor of the police patrol boat as endorsed by the board of police. The grain shoveling problem is as far frem solution as ever. A member of the Lake Carriers’ Association says that the elevators will find their mistake if they go to insisting on the rate of $1.35 for the shovels, which was made to the annual meeting at Detroit. The committee does not propose to accept it, when the rate last season was only $1.20. Why should any more be paid now? No meet- ing appears to be set by the committee and there will be no need of one until an acceptable rate can be got from the elevators, Meanwhile, the plan of letting the work seems to be as far from settlement as ever, although individual members of the grain shoveling committee are no doubt working to some end in preparing for a regular meeting. The tug Maggie Ashton was wrecked on Burnt Cabin Reef in Lake Huron, October 6 last. Her owners, Henry Wine- man, Jr., John O. Teagan and William T. Teagan, claim that what remains of her is worth only $50. Levi Brown has be- gun suit in the Justices’ Courts against the owners, claiming $300 for wrecking services alleged to have been rendered. This week the owners petitioned the United States District Court for an order limiting their liability to the present value of the craft. Judge Swan made an order for the sale of the craft and appointed Luther S. Trowbridge, Jr., trustee. The question will be fought out on the petition to limit the liabil- ity. The procedure, under such circumstances, is said to be an unusual one. Wisner & Harvey are proctors for the pe- titioners. Capt. Reid says that he has several wrecking operations on hand for the coming season, the most important of which are the Cayuga and Minch. The Minch is an old wooden schooner ashore near Ashtabula. She has already been placed on jacks and, barring accidents, she will be raised early in the season. The Cayuga will be raised for a cer- tainty some time during the coming season. The wrecking operations on her have been the most celebrated in the his- tory of marine disasters on the lakes. Leading wreckers have heretofore thought it impossible, but from present indi- cations she will be afloat and in dry dock before the next season of navigation is over. The Weather Bureau here has been particularly exact in its predictions recently, and the recent cold snap was well heralded. On the whole. the weather maker here is more careful of us than at some of the other lake ports. . DULUTH—SUPERIOR. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Last year the first boat to arrive here was the Waldo, on May 2nd, although she had been in sight at the _harbor 48 hours previously. This year everyone is figuring on an earlier opening, and there is every reason from present indi- cations to think it will be much earlier. It is reported that the ice is about six inches in thickness and very firm off Two Harbors extending along up towards the entrance here. L appear formidable, it is said that it will take considerable warm spring weather to honeycomb the light ice sufficiently for safe navigation. Lumber shippers are beginning to be somewhat anxious over the shipping outlook for next season. It is said, however, that no charters have been made as yet unless they have been made on the quiet. Some dealers say that they expect the first charters to be made at the rate of $3 per thousand. On the other hand, it is known that vessels are asking $3.50 per M. feet. The headquarters of the Superior Ship Building Company, the head of the lakes shipyards of the American Ship Build- ing Company, will now be in Duluth, The operating offi- ces of the shipbuilding company will continue at the yard at West Superior. The headquarters of the company, how- ever, will be in Duluth for convenience in handling the bus- iness of the company. The change is slated to take place April 1. oat Capt. L. E. King, of Duluth was commissioned by Duluth people to go down the lakes and treat for the purchase of a steamboat and consort for the lumber trade. He has re- turned, but he bought no boats. He reports that lumber tonnage has advanced from 50 to 75 percent. during the past three or four months and that there is great strife among the big lumber dealers to obtain the tonnage in order that they may protect themselves as far as possible against extremely high rates for transporting their commodity, which is not a re- mote possibility this year by any means. The quiet spell in lumber circles at the head of the lakes has been broken. Two sales amounting to a little over 16,- 000,000 feet have been made by Duluth firms to some Al- bany dealers. Twelve million feet of the stock sold belongs to Richardson & Avery and is being sawed at the Scott- Holston mill. The other 4,000,000 feet is Merrill-Ring stock and is to be sawed in the spring. Another large deal is that of Knight & Vilas selling 6,500,000 feet of lumber to Rettinghaus & Embree, Chicago. Thearrangements were made through J. EK. Byrnes, the representative here of Ret- tinger & Embree’s interests. The Soper Lumber Co., Chi- cago, have also purchased 2,000,000 feet through Messrs. Comstock & Davis. An option only was taken on the sec- ond million feet, butit is now thought that this has been closed. It is probable that lumber shipments from the head of the lakes for 1900 will aggregate 500,000,000 feet, and may even exceed that amount, as considerable may go forward on rail. The shipments by lake will be upwards of 400,000,000 feet despite the high freight rates that will probably have to be paid. The lumber sales that have been closed by Ashland lumbermen for Chequamegon bay lumber are said to make, a total over three times as great as those of any one year previous. The estimated totalis 227,000,000 feet, which is said to be rather under than over the true amount. Among the big sales reported are those by the Keystone Lumber Company of 50,000,000 feet; the John O’Brien Lumber Com- pany 30,000,000 feet; ‘W. H. Gilbert for the Murray mill cut 25,000,000 feet; Bigelow & Co., 26,000,000 feet, and numer- ous others ranging from one million to fifteen millions. The little town of Port Wing, on the south shore, at the mouth of Flag river, and about 30 miles east of Superior, is likely to be improved in the near future, so as to make it quite a shipping point. U.S. A., has visited the place on one or two occasions, and reports that ‘The citizens of the place have expended some $19,000 in building piers and dredging out between them and for 1,000 feet or soinside. This channel, though nar- row, is in good navigable condition and permits vessels drawing 13 feet to get in and lie up alongside the lumber dock. A substantial saw mill is in active operation. It can cut 75,000 or 80,000 feet B. M, of lumber a day of twenty- four hours, and its capacity can be easily and cheaply in- creased by putting in an additional saw. This mill is re- ported to have cut during the past summer 8,500,000 feet B. M. and it is claimed that some 9,000,000 feet B. M. of lum- ber have been shipped since the establishment of the port. Clinton B. Sears, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., in charge of the conservancy and improvements of rivers and harbors within this district, has just completed his annual and com- parative report concerning the receipts and shipments of the ports of Superior and Duluth. The report shows the receipts and shipments of the entire harbor for five years past and during that period they have nearly doubled in bulk. The comparative statement for the five years is as follows: Receipts and Shipments Valuation RSX It Rc teal Ste ice gai ee aa pa 6,325,351 $ 95,000,000 MOOG hdmi cena che oan ce waar 7,886,833 111,676,900 IWS 19)7/ J Repu Rana agony AMER A ae eon Cen, 8,475,224 118,551,185 DSO ip Mir gee a hue Nd elton 10,127,261 142,643,020 MOQ eur tar Na eae wah re cRen ON ee ek 11,608,088 157,143,966 Of this amount, the report shows that Superior’s ship- ments amounted in value to $57,464,014 and Duluth’s ship- ments amounted to $59,486,131. The iron ore and lumber Although thethickness of ice does not | Major Sears, Corps of Engineers, |