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10 ESTABLISHED 1878. Published Every Thursday 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, - - 92.00 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., MAY 17, 1900. WHEN the appointment of harbor masters, bridge tenders and similar positions are made at lake ports, it would be quite in order for the city officials to give the preference to those who have previously earned their living afloat. —————— ee OS Port Huron’s canal to drain Black river will be 6,645 feet long and the average excavation will be 30 feet. Four bridges will be necessary, each 1,000 feet long. The ques tion arises, if the bottom of the canal is several feet lower than the bottom of the lake, what will be the effect on the flow through the mouth of St. Clair river opposite Port Huron? DD Olle THE late Capt. Thos. Wilson bequeathed half of his fort- tune, estimated ata million dollars, for the establishment of a home for aged couples, in all cases preference is to be given to sailors on the Great Lakes. Mrs. Wilson was deeply interested in her late husband’s charitable work, and while no exact period was specified for the opening of the Wilson Home for aged couples, it is believed that Mrs. Wil- son will see that the institution is placed in proper working order, ro oo THE Cuyahoga customs district, including Cleveland and minor adjacent ports, registered in July last 293 vessels, while Buffalo Creek, in which Buffalo and neighboring ports are included, registered 315 vessels, or 22 vessels more than Cleveland. The Buffalo tonnage aggregated 184,967 gross and the Cuyahoga 332,190 tons, so that while the Buffalo district registered a larger number of vessels, the tonnage of the Cleveland district was 147,223 tons in excess of that owned in the Buffalo Creek district. SS ee OnE of the weakest linksin the chain of lakes will be taken care of through the Emergency Bill reported by the River and Harbor Committee. We refer to the St. Clair canal, There is a provision embodied in the measure for the survey of the St. Clair ship canal, with the view of in- creasing the width to double the present capacity, or build- ing a second canal parallel with the present channel and of equal width, so that upbound vessels may take one route and down-bound craft the other, thus obviating the possibility of collision, and an interruption of navigation. We can’t but think that the good offices, representations, and recom- mendation of Col. Lydecker, Corps of Engineers, U.S. A., in charge of the district, has had much to do with the ac- complishment of this absolutely necessary improvement. We say accomplishmeut, because a recognition of the pro- ject is equivalent to an appropriation to defray the cost of a parallel channel at the St. Clair Flats canal. THE MARINE RECORD. TaxInc into consideration the several groundings and minor collisions which have occurred this week, perhaps the case of the steamer Roumania at Buffalo is the most notable. In this instance a moderate sized steamer, grain laden, was entering the port with the assistance of a tug, when she met with so strong a current as to ground her heavily enough to defy the pulling power of half a dozen tug boats, and light- ering was found necessary before she could be floated. It is said that there is so much uncertainty about the force of the current at the entrance to the Buffalo harbor, that tug- men and vesselmen find it impossible to avert accidents. The current is caused by the ice pack, and flows inside the breakwater sometimes with a strength that upsets the nicest calculations of the oldest pilots. This is rather a hard char- acter to give the much frequented port of Buffalo, and, when such conditions are found to exist it would be in line with discretion to employ extra steam assistance on entering the | harbor. The current took charge of the Western Line steam- er Vanderbilt in the south branch of the Chicago river on Monday, in much the same manner, but then we can expect nothing much different there now. Vessels have also grounded at one or two other ports, until it begins to look as if lake commerce is to be retarded through inefficient har- bor arrangements more than from any other cause. ——$— $i a ee A RESOLUTION has been reported favorably by Chairman Grosvenor of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, for the establishment of a new steamboat inspec- tion district,at Toledo. During the last year there were 323 steamerslexamined having an aggregate tonnage of 243,486. Of this number 93 were inspected in the Toledo and San- dusky districts, and of these 93 steamers, 47 were in the To- ledo district and 46 in the Sandusky district. The total number of officers licensed was 1,336, nearly one-third of whom are femployed in. the Toledo and Sandusky districts. It is pointed out that because all the inspection of boats and the examination and licensing of men must take place at Cleveland there is delay and unnecessary expense entailed that would otherwise be avoided. The Supervising Inspec- tor-General of the Steamboat Inspection Service, James A. Dumont, favors the creation of the new district. A peculiar mystery about the licensing and inspection service is, that the officers, from the district supervising inspectors down to the clerks, are not permitted to divulge the name of a candi- date to whom they may have granted a license throughout the year. This is quite in line, though, with some of the other asinine rulings of the Board of Supervising Inspectors of the U. S. Steamboat Inspection Service. or THE old and true aphorism, ‘‘better late than never,”’ is exemplified by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs re- porting favorably on the resolution authorizing the President to appoint the United States members of an international committee to determine the best means of maintaining lake levels, and also to ascertain if the lakes are being robbed through the present artificial outlets, and the effect which several similar projects will have on the mean levels, The Toronto World in an editorial on Wednesday said in part : “This is a question in which Canada is vitally interested. The United States Government engineers, after an examina- tion into the probable effect of the Chicago drainage canal, have come to the conclusion that the lowering of the lakes may be as much as eight inches. | This isa very serious mat- ter when the expense of dredging is taken into considera- tion. The resolution referred to authorizes the President to invite Great Britain to join in the work of such a commis- sion, each Government to appoint four members. In addi- tion to the Chicago drainage canal, the enquiry is designed to ascertain the effect of the improvement of the Welland and St. Mary’s canals. It will cover the entire lake region.” a ee CHIcaGo is fast feeling the effects of making the port an unsafe one for general marine traffic. Mayor Harrison may fret and fume and go into’ hysterics if he pleases anent the lowering of the several tunnels crossing the river, he may also turn his attention to the center3pier obstructions dam- ming up the free flow of water to the drainage canal, all of this may be done and the evils eradicated in course of time, but by that time, Chicago will have partly lost its hold on lake traffic, and, in the light of past experiences, it will never regain it, or rather, never being an inclusive and positive word, let us say not for a decade or two at least, if then. The Calumet river in the suburban district of South Chicago appears to be the future port of the head of Lake Michigan, while the old Chicago creek can be turned into a sluiceway for the drainage canal, MAY 17, 1900, H— to pay and no pitch hot is about the situation vessel masters find themselves in these times in Chicago creek, The Secretary of War should furnish the pitch and the Chicago municipality—do the paying, more than that, nothing can be payed before calking. Between the War De- partment and the Drainage Canal Commissioners, the com- mercial marine has been nicely bamboozled. Major Mar- shall, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., for some years stationed at Chicago, repeatedly warned all interests concerned that if a current was created in Chicago river it would be almost impossible to use the river for navigable purposes, and al- ready the port is being shunned, but then, Chicago is a great railroad center, and, Chicago asa municipality, doesn’t care for its creek anyway, being bridged at every block was al- ways a nuisance to the average citizen, hence South Chicago had better be utilized for the purposes of lake commerce. “0. ose ______ SECRETARY Roo?’ gave a hearing at the War Department on Wednesday, to representatives of the Lake Carriers’ As- sociation, the trustees of the Chicago drainage canal and the municipality of Chicago with a view to prompt action for the protection of navigation interests against loss or damage as the result of the opening and operation of the drainage canal. Remarks were made by Messrs. Harvey D. Goulder, Frank J. Firth, and J. G. Keith, representing the Lake Car- riers’ Association; Mr. Springer, representing the canal trustees, and F. J. McGann, representing the Mayor of Chi- cago. All were agreed as to the immediate necessity of reg- ulating the flow of water in the canal so as to permit of safe and easy navigation, but there was a diversity of opinion as to the method of procedure. — SOO OEE LUMBER shippers are holding off chartering on account of a paltry 25 cents or 50 cents per M feet as asked for by ves- sel owners and brokers. This is a very temporary and short sighted policy. With so great a portion of the lake tonnage chartered for ore, coal ang grain, it is quite assured that the boats remaining in the lumber trade will have more than they can attend to before the close of the year. There is more lumber to be brought down the lakes, less boats to do the carrying, and the natural result will be higher rates as the season advances. On the other hand, it can fairly be stated that lumber dealers, and large consumers secured considerable tonnage last winter so as to handle their own cargoes, others would do well to get their lumber from the mills as early as possible, at least, such is the present outlook. or THREE members of Lloyd’s underwriting committee are now in the States on a tour of inspection. The deputation is made up of Mr. James Dixon, London; R. S. Allen, Liv- erpool; and J. B. Adam, of Newcastle-on-Tyne. These gen- tlemen will visit the Eastern seaboard, the principal lake ports, including Toronto, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Toledo and Detroit, they will also go to San Francisco. Their ob- ject is to visit the shipbuilding centers of the United States, to see the American surveyors to Lloyds’ Register and to re- port generally on the shipbuilding situation in the United States. It may be remarked that these gentlemen are mem- bers of Lloyds’ Committee, not surveyors, or in other words, they are principals and not subordinates. —_——— re Ir was left for the whalebacks, managed in the office of the | Bessemer Steamship Co., to accept the ¥ cent reduction on grain freights out of Chicago this week. These two boats were taken off the market on Saturday when rates went to 134 cents, the Rockefeller people saying they would not take less than two cents, Telegraph orders were afterward for- warded to place the boats at the reduced rate, and they were chartered at the lower figure. That the Rockefeller inter- ests which took such an immense quantity of tonnage on season contracts at high rates last falland winter should now be employing their own boats at these low rates is considered significant as regards iron ore interests. ror oo Oo Iris high time that a national naval reserve should be formed and the service become an auxiliary to the U.S. Navy. This beating about the bush, making State grants, detailing practice ships, etc., is all balderdash. Naval re- serves are an arm of the National service or nothing. Naval militia is a misnomer, unless by that term a corps of marines is meant. Let all Reserves join the Navy, be given trans- portation and subsistence to a point for annual or periodical drill, and held strictly to the call of the Secretary of the Navy by the issuance of an annual retaining fee of say $50.