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THE MARINE RECORD. CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. Grain freights advanced, on Monday, to 1% cents on corn to Buffalo. “The steamer Baltimore is the latest craft to swing athwart the current and block traffic on the river, she was hung up at Main street, Thursday night, and not released until the next day. The sale of tug Torrent by the Saginaw Bay Towing Co., to George D. Nau of Green Bay has been recorded. The tug is to take the place of the tug George D. Nau, sold to the Maythams this season. The Torrent was sold for $4,500. The Barry Bros., and Joseph Lamoreaux filed their answer at Chicago Tuesday in the suit brought by the Great Lakes Towing Co., denying that they are starting upa new tug company in opposition to the trust, known as the Great Lakes Towing Co. The steamer A. McVittie struck a projecting timber when going through South Halsted street bridge on Tuesday. It caught in the after gangway, tearing out several stanchions and outside planking. The break is all above the water line and the cargo is not damaged. The new steamyacht Gloriana built for A. W. Goodrich, president of the Goodrich Line of steamers has just been completed. Her fore and aft compound engine is nickel plated aud she has a tubulous boiler. She will be kept at Harbor Springs where Mr. Goodrich has his summer resi- dence. The Sault Ste. Marie News says the steamer Marina and schooner Marcia were too tight a fit for the Weitzel lock, and when the water raised the rail of the Marina caught the top layer of stones of the north wall and tore them up for about twenty-five feet. The stones were cut away and replaced with concrete. The Lake Carriers’ Association, of which nearly all the vessel owners of the lakes are members, has filed with the Chicago drainage board, through Capt. John G. Keith, an official notification that claims for damages ‘‘because of the premature opening of the drainage canal” are accumulating, and asking the board to designate some proper. person con- nected with the board who shall receive these claims for official consideration. After three conferences were held at Milwaukee on Satur- day between the striking union sailors and the owners of the lumber schooners, the men won their point, and will be paid $2 per day, which is 25 certs more than the vesselmen wished to give and the same amount more than the members of the Chicago union are paid. Monday morning thirty-five schooners, which were held for upwards of a month, all set sail, The fight was waged stubbornly by both sides, but the men never abated a single point from the outset. Plans for the widening of Chicago river to 200 feet and dredging to a depth of 30 feet have been practically agreed upon by the drainage trustees. On Wednesday the board will convene and pass the necessary ordinances to acquire possession of the property needed. Thecost of the land passed upon is estimated at $2,000,000. ‘To‘acquire the land necessary for the improvement of the river from the lake to Twelvth street will necessitate a further expenditure of ap- proximately $8,000,000, making a total cost of $10,c00,000, ‘The shafts and boiler are being removed from the hull of the old steamer Muskegon at Manitowoc. The hull is to be towed upon the beach and allowed to goto destruction. The old side-wheeler was built for the Goodrich Line in 1871. In 1897 she.fell through herself, through being improperly blocked in dry dock at Milwaukee. The dock company paid the damage and the Muskegon has done nothingsince. She was quite a boat in her day on the west shore route, and has been in charge of Capts. Gallagher, Dorsey, Stein, Munger and Carus. ~ The steel schooner barge Bryn Mawr building at the Calu- thet shipyards of the American Ship Building Co., for the Pittsburg Steamship Co., the Carnegie fleet, will be launch- ed next Tuesday afternoon at 3 o’clock. The vessel will cost $245,000, and measures 4oo feet in length, 50 feet beam, and 27 feet depth of hold. She will carry 7,500 gross tons on a draft of 18 feet and will go into the iron ore trade. The Cor- nell, a steamer of the same fleet, will be launched July r. This craft measures 454 feet in length, 50 feet beam, and 29% feet depth. — : Vesselmen at Chicago and South Chicago are signing’a pe- tition addressed to Major Willard, government engineer, calling attention to what is termed the obstruction of the navigable waters of the United States at South Chicago. The etition says: ‘‘Whether it is lawful or not is perhaps not or the undersigned to say, but our opinion is that a great outrage is being committed. Just north of the Illinois Steel Co’s. private harbor at South Chicago several train loads of cindersare dumped daily. Within ten days past this dump has grown to mammoth dimensions, and it is rapidly grow- ing larger yet. The strip is already about a mile long, and reaches fully a quarter of a mile out into the navigable wa- ters of the United States. The cinders come from the Illi- nois Steel Co.’s steel work but as to who the parties are who order then dumped into the water we are not informed.’’ The Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co. reports increasing busi- ness in the foreign field. President J. W. Duntley, of that company, cables from Europe reporting fresh orders for 1,000 tools. The company has also just made shipment of a complete compressed air plant for the Kawasaki Dock Yards, Japan. This shipment includes a large electrically driven air compressor, pneumatic hammers, drills, shell riveters, etc, Commenting on the order which this company received to supply the Russian navy yards with pneumatic tools, the Implement and Machinery Review, a foreign paper says: “British machine tool makers will be disposed to inquire why it is that the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co. has secured an order for 1,000 pneumatic toolsfor the Russian navy yards, said to represent a value of about £60,000.’’ The Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co. replies that the Implement and Machinery Review does not seem to be aware of the fact that 98 per cent. of all the pneumatic tools used in Europe are the product of the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co.’s factor- ies, although they may be sold by large foreign houses, who handle these tools. i oO oe CLEVELAND. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Capt. Maytham, of the firm of Drake & Maytham, of Buf- falo, visited this port on Monday. The steamer Harvard is to be delivered to her owners, the Pittsburg Steamship Co., about June 25. Lorain received more cargoes of iron ore during May than ever had been discharged at that port in any one month in its previous history. Some Japanese civil engineers were here this week in- specting the new addition to the east breakwater and other harbor improvements. It is reported that the Maytham Towing and Wrecking Co. will send three tugs here to work with the Independent Tug Co. in competition with the Great Lakes Towing Co. The Maxwell A. of the Maytham Towing and Wrecking Co., has been stationed at Ashtabula this week and two others are slated to go there to compete with the tugs of the (syndi- cate) Great Lakes Towing Co. It is reported that some Chicago véssel brokers charter free, when given the option to insure the cargoes that they procure for vessels. Milwaukee repudiates such deals and Chicago brokers deny that it is customary there. The steamer City of Mackinaw will make a couple of trips between here and Detroit in place of the City of Detroit. A large party will go up on her Friday night for the Dewey celebration Saturday. A special rate has been made. Mr. A. M. Carpenter, general manager of the Jenks Ship Ship Building Co., of Port Huron, was in the city yesterday. It is expected that the steel steamer Capt. Thomas Wilson will be launched from the Port Huron yards in August, The Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co. announces that on account of the visit of Admiral Dewey to Detroit on Saturday an excursion will be run from here to that city on Friday night. Arrangements have been made to carrya large party. The D. & C. side-wheel steamer City of the Straits, Capt. McLachlan, will be down next Sunday and will inaugurate the daily service to Put-in-Bay, and the daily double service to Toledo. It is also the intention to run the first moonlight excursion next Monday. A meeting of the Lake Carriers’ Association will be held at the office of Capt. James Corrigan, Friday morning, to make final arrangements to take the members of the Senate committee on commerce and the river and harbor committee of the House up the lakes. Col. Jared A. Smith, Corps of Engineers, U.S. A., in charge of the improvement and conservancy of rivers and harbors within this district, is now making preliminary sur- veys at the harbors of Ashtabula, Fairport and Conneaut, with a view to having the bars removed at the mouth of those harbors as soon as ever funds are available for that purpose. Keels for the two Canadian canal sized steamers are to be ‘laid at the Lorain yards of the American Ship Building Co., on the ground made vacant by the launching of the steamer Lafayette. These boats will be capable of carrying 75,000 bushels of wheat. They can also be used in ocean traffic. Two barges of the same size are to be built at West Superior. The steamers will have triple expansion engines and Bab- cock & Wilcox boilers. The steamer Urania, of the Lake Erie Navigation Co., Bartlett & Tinker, River street, general freight and passen- ger agents, will make seven trips a week across the lake this season, four of them being to Rondeau in the day and three of them will be night trips to Port Stanley. This is the line that is to give Cleveland the direct connection with the Canadian Pacific Railroad, practically allowing that road an entrance into this city. As an excursion or tourists route this line is unsurpassed, while every courtesy and attention is offered the traveling public. On Monday morning, while the fog was heavy over th shore line, the steamer Clarion tried to make port towing the Schuylkill. The Schuylkill was coming here fora new wheel, and the Clarion to discharge a cargo. The master of the Clarion missed the mouth of the river, and instead ran on the beach near the Otis Steel Works. She was not too hard aground to prevent her getting afloat again without requiring the assistance of a tug. : ; i OOS 5 BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The strike at the Union Dry Dock Co. has at last been settled. The men were out seventeen weeks, The North West and North Land, of the Northern Steam- ship Co. will begin passenger trips between Buffalo and Du- luth about June 18. Coal shipment last week were heavier to Duluth than Chicago, and this has been so for the season. Large tonnage don’t want to tackle the swift current in Chicago creek. It has been hinted that if the coal supply diminished, a lower freight rate will be looked for. The general opinion is that present rates are firm and will be paid in any case. The annual election of the grain shovelers’s union at Buf- falo was held last Friday, in St. Bridget’s annex, and when the ballots were counted it was found that P. J. McMahon had been elected president. John M. Hennessy contested the office, though it was claimed by the present officers at the caucus held a week ago that he was not regularly nomi- nated. Wreckers who claimed they were employed by Smith, Davis & Co., insurers of the coal cargo of the sunken schooner Howland, removed 150 tons of coalon Wednesday. The owners of the Howland objected to the removal of the cargo until the boat had been raised. The work of raising the schooner will be begun as soon as the wrecking outfit arrives. H. McMorran, of Port Huron, has the contract for rais- ing the schooner Thomas I,. Howland, sunk off Windmill Point. He expects to commence operations this week. The plan is to raise the bridge with pontoons and bring her into the harbor to have her repaired and drydocked, if necessary. Her cargo of coal will not be removed before raising. The wrecking bill will be about $5,000. Capt. Dugald Buie, mate of the Lackawanna liner Scran- ton, fell into the hold of that vessel on Lake Erie last Wed- nesday, and suffered a sprain of the back and other injuries. He is now in the hospital here. Capt. Buie is an old master of steam vessels. For many years he was connected with the Western Transit line, giving up his position as com- mander of the steamer Boston, of that line three years ago. Freights paid on coal for the week were quoted at 80 cents Waukegan and Racine; 75 cents, Chicago; Milwaukee, Man- itowoc, Green Bay, 70; Lake Linden, 55 cents; Duluth, 50 cents and Port Huron, 4o cents and other minor ports at comparative rates. Hard coal shipments from Oswego to Chicago is at $1.10, the same asallseason. The rates here always rule the Oswego market, but only about 24,000 net tons has been shipped through the Welland canal. A ‘“‘mind your own business tone’’ marks the competition between the tug trust and the independent lines headed by Capt. Maytham. At almost every port along the lakes both syndicates have strong boats, and the keenest rivalry is shown when it comes to racing for a tow. However, this spirit is shown only by the tug captains and port managers, The heads of the big companies are showing no disposition as yet to open active warfare. Maytham is constantly add- ing to his fleet, and at many ports he now has as fine and as many boats as the trust. At other cities where he is still in- ferior he is taking measures to get on an even basis. There is no need of taking a pessimistic view of the lake carrying trade. Last year coal freights started at 30 cents and did not raise to 70 cents until August 12th. Grain is as good this year as last, and ore is better. Lumber is the only article that is out of the market. Although the running expenses of boats are 15 per cent. higher, yet the rates are up to the raise. Last year the trade did not begin to boom until July and August. This year the rush came at the start and held fairly good until a couple of weeks ago. There are so few boats free to charter this season on account of the contract to carry ore, that rates are not likely to go any lower, but more likely to recover and increase by the middle of the season, especially in view of the present Rock- efeller tactics in taking tonnage off the market. The Knapp roller boat has been the subject of much speculation ever since its construction a couple of years ago, At that time an Ottawa capitalist was backing the undertak- ing but the first trial did not prove much of a success and it looked very much as if the man of money~ would lose the thirty odd thousand dollars he had invested. Since then, however, Mr. Knapp, Canadian inventor, has been busily engaged perfecting the boat; not from the first did he lose faith in its practical utility as a means of overcoming many of the disadvantages of the present day navigation. All © last winter Mr. Knapp spent a great deal of his time in furthering the interests of his enterprise. That he has suc- ceeded to some extent is apparent from the fact that a new. test is to be had of the boat at Prescott before a number of Montreal capitalists who have expressed interest in the craft. Recently the boat has undergone extensive alterations in Prescott, Ont., and everything is now ready for the con- templated trial.