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6 THE MARINE RECORD. CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The barge D. L. Filer is in one of Miller Bros. dry docks for repairs and calking. Chief engineer Wm. Nichols is fitting out the machinery of the steamer W. P. Ketcham. Capt. Smith sold his steambarge Myrtie Ross to W. E. Hall, of Mount Clemens, Mich. The machinists employed at the Chicago Ship Building Co.’s yard and shops, numbering over Ioo men, struck and left work on Tuesday. j S. R. Gill, for several years steward on the steamer Peer- less, has been appointed steward on the steamer Monarch of the Beatty line of Sarnia, Ont. Capt. Peter Petersen is expending $500 on the schooner Horace Taber, giving her 100 feet of new stringers and rail, new stanchions, bows and knight heads and other general repairs. Capt. Jacob Jacobson has given the schooner Thos. How- land new hatch coamings and hatches, eight new deck beams, entire new decks, some new outside plank and re- calked ceiling and floor. There has been no charters for grain for some time and the 23{ cent rate on corn to Buffalo may take a raise as there is not more than 500,000 bushels of vessel capacity here remaining unchartered. Capt. Martin Johnson has given the schooner Iver Lawson 20 new stanchions forward, 35 feet of new stringers and rail, 40 feet new covering board forward and 3 new planks 40 feet long on the starboard bow. An independent tug line, with Miles Barry, manager, and Peter Barry, superintendent, has been started here in oppo- sition to the Great Lakes Towing Co. The new line will have five first-class tugs in commission soon. Capt. George Tebo has resigned his position as solicitor to the New Kentucky Coal Co. The captain has been associat- ed with the several companies carrying on the fueling business at the Central slip C coal dock ever since 1890 and has been very successful. Capt. W. E. Moore arrived here Tuesday from Cleveland to do necessary repairs and fit out the barge Shawnee, recently purchased by J. N. Haun, of Cleveland, from the Hines Lumber Co. The Shawnee is to be the consort of the steamer James H. Shrigley the coming season. Capt. Sam’] R. Chamberlain obtained judgment in Judge Kohlsatt’s court last week for $2,500 against the Lehigh Valley Transportation Co. for damages to his barge John B. Wilbor, caused by a collision with the company’s steamer Saranac at the Illinois Central slip B in September last. The Barry Bros. Transportation Co. who recently pur- ' chased the steamer City of Grand Rapids, at South Haven, ' will bring her here as soon as the ice breaks up there. Capt. Thos. Barry is fitting her out. She is to run between Milwaukee and Sturgeon Bay, connecting with the com- pany’s steamers F. & P. M. No. 1 and City of Fremont at ‘Milwaukee. Capt. Joseph F. Smith, of Grand Haven, has purchased the passenger steamer R. J. Gordon and is giving her a thorough rebuild and converting her into a steambarge, with a carrying capacity of about 200,000 feet of lumber. She will have her pilot house forward and living rooms below deck aft to give her lots of deck space. Capt. Joe is a great hustler. Tue Canada Atlantic Transit Co. have removed their ° office to’ No. 4 Sherman street, on the ground floor. G. J. Harris, general western agent, has bad a busy time getting _ the new office put in shape, which has been done in excel- lent taste under his direction. t l The company will run five steamships with a carrying capacity for the season of ~ Io00,000 tons more than last season. - Miles Barry, manager of the Chicago & Muskegon Trans- portation Co, has purchased the steamer Mabel Bradshaw ‘from Hugh Bradshaw. The Bradshaw will run between Chicago and Muskegon in the passenger and freight busi- ness in connection with the steamer State of Michigan, recently purchased by the company at Detroit, until a larger steamer which they are negotiating for is procured. Dutch Fritz, the diver, succeeded in putting two chains forward and aft under the tug Tom Brown, sunk off this ‘port, last Thursday and Friday and two pile drivers raised ‘her from the bottom and all were towed into the basin by the tug Sill, on Saturday. The Brown’s pilot house, smoke - stack, whistle and exhaust pipe had been carried away and _ the frames on the port side for seven or eight feet are pushed in and broken. ~ -and Buffalo parties. The Graham & Morton Transportation Co.’s steamer City of Louisville, Capt. John Stewart in command, made her first appearance here this season last Saturday evening with passengers and freight from Benton Harbor and St. Joseph. She left early Sunday morning with a full cargo of mer- chandise. She arrived again Tuesday morning and will for awhile make tri-weekly trips on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays to St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. The Northern Michigan Transpartation Co. have made the following appointments to their steamers: Illinois, Capt. Wm. Finucan, Chief Eng. Thomas Collins; Purser E. A. Weston; Steward Richard Donnelly. City of Charlevoix, Capt. Peter McGuiggan; Chief Eng. James W. Myers; Stew- ard Frank McQuillan; purser not yet appointed. The Com- pany will commence to receive freight here on March 2oth and will start running their steamers as early in April as the ice goes away from Northern Michigan ports. The Goodrich Transportation Co. intend to put three boats on the east shore route the coming season, the new service to leave Chicago for Grand Haven every morning and come direct back every night, thereby enabling the boat leaving here at night to return from Muskegon direct without touching at Grand Haven as formerly, which will be of considerable benefit to the shippers by getting their green stuff and fruit on the market here in the morning. This business is increasing rapidly and has become a very important factor. The L. M. & L. S. Transportation Co., of which Chas. F. A. Spencer is now general passenger agent, secretary and treasurer, will remove to the Globe dock at 530 North Water street, where they are building a new suite of offices and having the dock enlarged. They have made the following appointments: Steamer Peerless, Capt. H. C. Page; Chief Eng. John R. Bennett; Purser Hawkin Brooks; Steward James Dorsey. City of Traverse, Capt. John M. Twichell; Chief Eng. Edward Mee; Purser C. L. Simmons; Steward T. Matthews. Osceola, Capt. Joseph White; Chief Eng. James Oag. Jay Gould, Capt. Chas.’ Wilson; Chief Eng. Henry Chalk; Purser A. M. Luckett. The first of aseries of organization mass meetings was recently held by the Milwaukee branch of the Lake Seamen’s Union. ports and it is expected that as a result of this agitation the union will increase its membership to 15,000 seamen. It is claimed by the sailors that lake vessels are undermanned; that the crews are too small to handle the vessels properly even in fair weather, and that the large. number of accidents and wrecks is largely due to the fact that in heavy weather the demands upon the small crews of lake craft are too great. The union will call attention of tbe marine insurance com- panies to the false economy which, it is claimed, is practiced by the vessel owners. The special legislation which will first be advocated is a bill about to be introduced into Con- gress known as the Manning bill. It provides that a vessel on the Great Lakes. shall be compelled to carry a sufficient number of men to properly handle it in fair or foul weather; that the number of men required by various sized vessels shall be fixed by law, and that all men carried for handling vessels shall be expert seamen. It is claimed that many of the sailors now on lake vessels are landlubbers who do not know how to launch a boat or the rudiments of a sailor’s craft. ; ‘ ——<—$—$—$_<_ eae CLEVELAND. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. When bids were opened for the new lighthouse at Toledo the lowest was $98,000. As the appropriation is only $75,000 this amount will have to be increased or plans be prepared for a less costly structure. The Tyrone Transportation Co., which operate the steel barges Antrim and Tyrone, has been organized by Cleveland The vessels will be handled by Drake & Maytham, of Buffalo. The capital stock of the company is $300,000. Mr. Al. Peter, Toledo, has purchased the barge Sunshine from the estate of the late C. R. Jones, of this port. The price paid was about $3,000. She will enter the lumber trade between Georgian Bay and Toledo and will be towed by the steamer Saginaw. Troubles have already commenced in moving the big ves- sels through Chicago river on account of the current which has been caused by the opening of the drainage canal. A gloomy view is taken by some vesselmen of the prospect of doirg business at all in Chicago river after the winter fleet gets away. i The American Ship Building Co. has been asked to make estimates upon the construction of two new passenger steamers for service between Buffalo and Detroit. Wilbur E. Houpt and John Gordon, of Buffalo, are back of the project and it is proposed to construct vessels 470 feet in length over all, 50 feet beam and 29 feet molded depth, with triple expansion engines of 4,000 h. p. The Brown Hoisting & Conveying Machine Co. is at work on a‘very complete coal handling plant for the Egyptian State Railway. The plant will cost upwards of $300,000 and will constitute one of the largest machinery shipments ever made from this country. It will be installed at Alex- andria. There are six machines capable of handling 3,000 tons of coal in a day of to hours. The Brown company has also just made a large shipment to Austria and is filling important orders for firms in China, Brazil and Sweden. Similar meetings will be heldinall of the lake Samuel Mather, H. G. Dalton and other members of the © firm of Pickands, Mather & Co., have presented to the Ontario provincial legislature a bill providing for the incor-, poration of the Mineral Range railroad, The line is designed to open up the newly discovered Michipicoten mining district and provide an outlet for the ore from that — eS section to a shipping port on Lake Superior. : yee Plans for the cruiser Cleveland have been completed, ma- he terial is being ordered and her construction will soon be begun by the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Me. The cruiser will be launched in the summer.of 1901, and will be christened by some Cleveland girl, chosen by the Secretary of the © Navy. About fifteen.months will be required to complete — the vessel after she has been launched, and she will go into commission in the fall of 1902. At that time, if the custom of other cities in whose honor warships have been named is — followed, Cleveland will present the cruiser with a silver service. A meeting of the central passenger association will be held — in Chicago on Thursday of this week. One of the matters to come up for consideration is reduced rates for sailors going to join their boats. Last year, at the close of the season of navigation, a rate of one-half fare was allowed to all of the sailors going home from the port of discharge, provided the sailor had a certificate from his master, or his ship’s husband, and countersigned by the secretary of the Lake Carriers’ Association. about the same rate, under the same conditions, will be made for the sailors going from their homes to the shipping port. 4 A contract was closed by the Wellman-Seaver Engineer- ing Co., this week, to construct for the Nickel Steel Co., of Hamilton, Ont., a plant that will rival many on this side the line. The site selected is adjacent to the City of, Ham- ilton and located directly upon Hamilton Bay. of land is a large one, and not only are the railroad facilities excellent but the depth of water is such as to enable ore carrying vessels to unload at the plant. It is the present intention to commence the construction of the buildings as soon as the frost is out of the ground and work will be pushed, although no date for the probable completion of the work is given.—Iron Trade Review. The tenth annual report of the grand lodge, Shipmasters’ Association, has just been issued. In the report, President Leisk submitted from George L. McCurdy, of Chicago, a letter directing attention to the undertaking of Chaplain Malcolm McNeil, of No. 149 Weed street, Chicago, for the establishment of a permanent farm home, in which, accord- ing to the chaplain’s plans, aged and disabled seafarers and the widows and orphans of seafarers will be able to sustain theniselves by their labor in cultivating the land or busying themselves in some of the many other avenues which the care of the home provides. There were also submitted to the grand lodge copies of letters from President McKinley and from Admiral Dewey commending the undertaking, It was resolved that the grand secretary should direct the attention of subordinate lodges to this worthy charity, with a view to aiding in subscriptions. The managers of the docks at the ore unloading ports on Lake Erie have been in conference during the week with representatives of the labor organizations and indications now are that an amicable adjustment of all the principal points under consideration will be reached. The Iron Trade Review says the ore unloaders will be paid at the rate of 14 cents a ton as against 12% cents at the close of the sea- son last year. The unloading charge for vessels will be ad- vanced from 16 to 20 cents. This apparent disparity in the advance is due to the fact that when the longshoremen were given an advance of 14 cents per ton last summer the dock managers did not feel justified in advancing the charge for vessel interests. The transportation situation is devoid of developments. Little of the ore still on the market has been covered within the past seven days and there isa growing certainty that vessslmen who have not tied. up are waiting for the ‘‘wild’”’ market. Collingwood, the oldest port on the Georgian Bay, has just concluded arrangements with the Cramps, of Philadel- phia, by which they agree to establish at that point blast furnaces for the production of iron and steel. The capacity of the plant will be 200 tons per day and will be taken direct from the furnaces and manufactured into sheets, ingots and structural iron. They agree for certain con- cessions given them by the town to establish a plant costing not less than one and a half million dollars and to employ not less than 6v0 men continuously for thirty years. The gentlemen composing the company have been going over the ground in Canada, examining the different points, and have come to the conclusion that Collingwood is the best location at which to establish this industry. Canadian ores will be used, and this means the opening up of the vast iron ore deposits to the north of that point, more especially the deposits lately discovered at Michipicoten. Taken in con- junction with the large steel shipbuilding yards which are now in course of construction by Alexander McDougall, of Duluth, at that point, the machinery,for which is now on the track and which will be capable of building four of the largest steel steamships at one time, the outlook for Colling- — wood becoming a large iron working center is very bright. | This shipyard will employ about 500 men. oo oro WINTER navigation across Green Bay seems to have Leen abandoned for this season. The Algomah and one of the Ann Arbors are still frozen in about mid-way a ross Green Bay, and it will take a powerful ice breaker to release them. It is expected that this spring The tract gee Ns Re eee re ar eee fe Fhe! ges Shee, ee pes oh