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THE MARINE RECORD. MaAy3I, Igoo, ESTABLISHED 1878. Published Every Thursday by THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Incorporated. Cc, E, RUSKIN, - - oe Manager. CAPT. JOHN SWAINSON,-~— - - - Editor. CLEVELAND, CHICAGO, Western Reserve Building. Royal Insurance Building. SUBSCRIPTION. One Copy, one year, postage paid, - - One Copy, one year, to foreign countries, - 7 Invariably in advance. ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. $2.00 $3.00 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 31, 1900. a LABor troubles-still exist at several lake ports. Buffalo and Milwaukee are the two most marked; though disco1.tent and mutterings are heard at other ports. i oa BUSINESS is brisk with the various lines of lake passenger steamers, and it is generally expected that this season will show a larger traffic than has ever been known before. OOO Ol SS NOTWITHSTANDING his suspension from duty, we notice that Commander C. C. Todd, U. S. N. Hydrographer, still signs the hydrographic office ‘‘Notices to Mariners’? under date of May 26th. We hope that Commander Todd will come out of the inquiry started by J. G. Cannon, M. C. from Illinois, with flying colors, but at present the odds seem against him; still a naval officer ought to be given a little latitude to veer and haul upon the same as any other loyal: and patriotic citizen. —————a Se IN an official inquiry of a collision between an iron tug and another steamer held recently before Supervising In- spector Starbuck of New York, he put the question toa wit- ness, ‘‘Were there any bruises or surface wounds on the starboard side?’’ This sounds a good deal like the talk of an umpire after a pugilistic show. Bruises and wounds on the upper strake of a vessel’s shell-plating is delightfully unique phraseology inspeaking of the violent concussion caused by a collision. The Supervisor’s locals also took oath, or made affirmation, statement, or documentary assertiot in some old way or another, that the damage as described above was all on the starboard side, whereas a photograph taken shortly after the collision showed it to be on the port bow. And of such are the kingdom of experts. ——— ee In licensing pilots, the draft of water usually rules the grade of their license or branch, as for instance, a junior may not pilot a vessel drawing over say 12 or 14 feet, while a full branch pilot may take charge of any craft. It is the draft of water that counts and not the size of a hull. A large vessel in ballast trim will draw less water than a medium sized loaded vessel. The majority of modern built . lake steamers load to the same depth, say 17% feet, but lake pilots are licensed according to the length of the hull. In other words, it is no more difficult to ground a 4oo foot craft than it is one of 350 feet, providing they are both loaded to the same draft, but the local inspectors of steamboats, who are also the licensing board, can’t, or don’t, see it in that way, therefore, with some peculiar idea of protecting themselves from possible afterclaps, they exercise their functions in limiting the liability of a pilot to vessels of a certain length and tonnage. THER Marine Journal, New York, persists im calling the auxiliary branch of the U. S. Navy, Naval-Militia, a com- pound term which may be more commonly rendered in the vernacular as sailor-soldier. Naval Reserves may be known and understood as reserve forces of the navy and such is their raison-d’-etre, any other construction placed upon the term can be told to the marines as it wouldn’t be taken aboard by any one that could knot a ropeyarn. However, they seem to bea sort of a hybrid conglomeration anyway, as our contemporary has the following praiseworthy? remarks anent the corps in its last issue. ‘‘Whoever the fault may be with, there certainly seems to be something wrong for which there ought to bea remedy in regard to the fact of the Naval Militia of five states refus- ing this year to take their annual cruise on the shipsof the navy provided for that purpose. The organizations referred to are those of New York, Massachusetts, Florida, Maryland and South Carolina, although it has been published that some of the Maryland men were willing and anxious to go. The explanation given in our last issue from a New York man, that the battalion of this State refused to sail under naval officers because they had not been fairly treated, would seem to demand an explanation from the Navy De- partment. But if the Naval Militia, as a national force, receiving Congressional aid and having a regular naval ship: placed at their disposal for deep sea excercise, are not to be amenable to federal authority, itis time the nation knew it and the sooner that a national naval reserve is organized the better.” Well! on due consideration of the foregoing editorial utterance, p’raps Editor Norton is not so far to leeward in calling the naval novices, sailor-soldiers, thereby venting his satirical irony on a body of abortives, who refuse to sail under duly qualified naval officers and yet wish to retain the semblance of a national organization. We would like to point out further incongruities regarding the present forma- tion, etc., of the Naval Reserve Corps, but space forbids. There is no question, however, but that all right. thinking people will heartily coincide with the sentiment expressed by our contemporary in the last sentence of the quotation. ee TuE Chief Hydrographer, Commander Todd, U.S. N., has been suspended from duty pending an investigation by the Secretary of the Navy regarding some correspondence sent out from the Hydrographic Office, Washington, D.C. And supposed to have had more or less of a political bearing. The plain fact might as well be fully admitted, that naval or military officers are not fitted by education or training to make a good showing in the arena of politics, statesmanship» or as international diplomatists in statecraft. The country educates or trains them and then provides permanent em_ ployment ashore or afloat with fair compensation, up to the period of pensioning or superannuation, they should there- fore, eschew legislative log-rolling during their period of active service, and this, we understand, is aniron bound rule of the Navy Department. There has been far and away too much gush ventilated through cold type, emanating from members of both arms of the National Service during the past few months, and of which the Navy has had its full quota. The general public have been Slyly, Sampsonized, Hobsonized and Deweyized to repletion, therefore, we would say, let every man stick to his trade and the cobbler to his last, the sailor to his ship and the soldier to his musket, and each according to their calling. OO OO Ir is stated in the Meteorological Chart of the Lakes for May, published by the Weather Bureau, that the precipita- tion for the month of April and the first half: of May was generally deficient, not only in the Lake region, but also in much of the territory contiguous thereto. The snowfall of April in northern Minnesota, the upper peninsula of Mich- igan, and on the Canadian watershed of the upper Lakes was also considerably below the normal, and it had general- ly disappeared by the middle of the month. Roughly speak- ing the precipitation on both the American and the Canadian sides during the last eighty-one days (March 1 to May 21) has been only about 75 per cent. of the normal. The fore- going data considered in connection with contemporaneous statistics of rainfall for the Lake region seem to confirm the belief that the annual high water on all the Lakes would be reached sooner than usual, and that the general tendency would be toward lower levels, or oo FRoMa preliminary report of a Board of Engineers appoint- ed to make a survey and estimate of cost for the improve- ment of the Upper Illinois River and Lower Des Plaines River, in Illinois, with a view to the extension of navigation from the Illinois River to Lake Michigan at. or near Chica- go, the commission stated that the subject is of such extent and importance that it has been found impracticable to pre- sent a full report for the information of Congress during its present session, hence, a brief preliminary report has only been submitted. The trustees of the Chicago Drainage Canal strenuously maintain that nothing derogatory to the interests of navigation has taken place through the opening of the immense sewer. Quoting from the above report of the Board of Engineers, it is stated that: Han SU “The congested state of the Chicago River andthe increas- ed difficulty of navigating it in the strong reversed current caused by even the present limited flow into the drainage canal lead the Board to fear that the full flow of 10,000 cubic feet per second, which will soon be required by law, would make additional traffic through this river:impracticable.”’ The foregoing statement, emanating from suchia highly qualified, expert and scientific board of engineers, should go far towards strengthening the position of the special com- mittee of the Lake Carriers’ Association having in charge the present unnavigable condition of Chicago River. The re- port, signed by Col. J. W. Barlow, Major J. H. Willard, and Major C. McD. Townsend, of the Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., was submitted through the Chief of Engineers to the Secretary of War, Hon. Elihu Root, and thence transmitted to Congress through the Speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives. : —$—$—$<$ $$ Oe Now that an examination by the local inspectors of steam- boats is necessary, before a man can take charge of a sailing vessel of 700 tons and upwards, it would be in order to make the examination inclusive enough to cover steam as well as sail. A candidate for a master’s license should be master of his calling in all its branches, or not be entitled to a license at all. As the law now stands, a shipmaster may have held command, under canvas, for half a century, and yet not be eligible, or considered competent to shape the course of a steamboat until he had dragged around in one for several years. Wealso hear many complaints regarding the arbi- trary rulings of local inspectors in limiting licenses as re- gards tonnage, that is to say, an officer (pilot or engineer) is allowed to use his license on a 2,000 ton boat with say triple-expansion engines, but, he can’t sail on a 3,000 ton boat with quadruple-expansion engines, and all at the sweet will, notion or whim of the local inspectors for the district where the examination takes place. A case in point recently brought to our attention reflected sadly on the judgment of the localexaminer. In this instance, a junior officer had for several seasons kept the starboard watch ona boat, but on getting a higher grade of license he could notaccept a berth on a steamer a few hundred tons larger, on account of the discreet ? local examiner limiting the size of a boat he should sail in. This ludicrous limited license fad should be done away with, and be replaced by a proper technical ex- amination for masters and pilots, with a tradesman-like ex- amination for engineers. ea! —_— “> oe —____—_——_ In the navigation and handling of a vessel under sail, the ‘ master and officers of the sailing vessel are fully as conver- ~ sant with the duties of the officers of a steamer relative to the ‘‘Rules of the Road’’ and the proper action that the vessel under steam ought to take, asthey are of their own. The Supervising Inspectors, constituting the advisory board to the Secretary of the Treasury, appear not to know this. If we muster the Supervising Inspectors together and in- clude the Supervising Inspector General of steamboats, how many (if any,) of them could ‘‘heave a ship down” for calk- ing, or patching, step her spars and rig her from deck to truck, tack, wear, box-haul, club-haul, wear her short round on her-heel, or do anything at all with her, pshaw, they rather deteriorate the service and place stumbling blocks in the way of those desiring to advance in the laudable calling of shipmasters of the American merchant marine service. ; ee gd THE marine insurance companies have laid an embargo on flour exports through the port of New Orleans, by raising insurance rates to a prohibitive point. _The reason given for the raise is that two cargoes of flour were damaged, one by weevil and the other by being stored alongside of lumber, and thereby acquired a disagreeable flavor from the wood. The insurance companies were called on to make good the loss, and they have fixed the rates on flour shipped ‘through New Orleans about 150 per cent. higher than rates on ship- ments through Eastern ports. So that stopped all shipments of flour through New Orleans. Mr. Herbert. Bradley, the export agent of the milling interests of the Northwest, was in New Orleans recently to try to secure a resumption of the flour traffic. He says that at least five or six million barrels of flour ought to go annually through the Gulf: ports to foreign countries and the West Indies. oRA, Peete a Lene eee OI Tye eee Om.