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JUNE 7, Ig00. THE MARINE RECORD. 7 ‘ a SS DULUTH—SUPERIOR. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The grain rate is now 2% cents, going rate on iron ore $1, and lumber $2.50 per M feet. There is a brisk trade springing up along the north shore, both in freight and passenger traffic, large logging camps, settlements, etc., dot the shore line down to Isle Royale, and a couple of good, handy little steamers ought to find a paying route. Representatives of consignees at lower lake ports were here this week, doing their best to get the lumber shovers to agree to work at 50 cents per hour as last season. The rate started at 60 cents and it is not thought likely that the men will go back to the old figure, the question'is to be dealt with by the union officials. It is recommended that until work on the Duluth-Superior ship canal is finished most of the large out-going steamers should take tugs asa safeguard. ‘This, of course, according to the condition of the weather. The Queen City had a nar- row escape last week from doing heavy damage, and required the assistance of tugs to straigten her up at the north pier. A fleet of at least twenty ‘‘whalebacks”’ will be laid up here until ore freights improve and the going rate equals the figure paid on season charters. This isa Carnegie-Rocke- feller transaction, and means that the Bessemer line want $1.25 on the 1%4 million tons of ore which it has contracted to carry this season for Carnegie instead of the $1 rate now quoted. The yards of the Superior Ship Building Company will be kept quite busy during the year. The principal work at present is the building of three Welland canal sized boats that this company has contracts for at the present time. And it is stated that there will be other contracts assigned to the local yards of the American Ship Building Co. before the year is over. The shipments of iron ore from the head of the Lakes, Duluth, Two Harbors and Superior, for the season to June I have been 1,604,573 tons as compared with 900,851 tons to the same date last year. The first six weeks of the ship- ping season show an increase of more than 700,000 tons. It now seems quite certain that from this time on to the latest close of navigation there will be more ore shipped than ever before in the history of the head of the lakes. General manager Hulst, of the Oliver Iron Mining Co., Duluth, Minn., states that his company is employing 4,500 men in mining ore for Carnegie furnaces. The mines of the company will yield more than 6,000,000 tons this year, of which the Carnegie Steel Co. takes five-sixths and the Na- tional Steel Co. the remainder. The Carnegie Steel Co. has a vessel line that will be able to carry 2,000,000 tons in a sea- son, and hasa contract with John D. Rockefeller that takes care of 1,500,000 tons more. The rest is carried under charters. It was thought that the great Canadian shortage of 425,- 000,000 feet of lumber caused by the Ottawa-Hull fires would furnish a market for a good deal of the American product that otherwise would have to be held pending a resumption of buying in the east, but this is shut off by reports from Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota that droughts are hang- ing up 150,000,000 feet tributary to Duluth, and that forest fires are destroying a large amount elsewhere. Even in the Georgian Bay district 50,009,000 feet of logs are held up owing to low waterin the streams. Rockefeller’s fleet of ore carriers grow daily. On Tuesday the steamers Fairbairn and Eads and the barge Corliss, all big craft of the largest class, were tied up. This isin ad- dition to the twenty whalebacks. The boats are being held for lake freights to advance on iron ore to $1.25 per ton, and then they will.all load at that figure. Itis said that it will not be necessary to keep them tied up long, but simply a sufficient length of time to allow furnaces to getin full blast again, and then the tonnage may be turned loose with the prospect that all the boats will have all they care to do to move the cargoes that will be offered them. The apparently enforced resignation of Capt. B. B. Inman from the management of the tug syudicate or Duluth branch of the Great Lakes Towing Co. is no doubt a result of. the attempt to make larger tow barges employ two tugs to han- dle them. In any case he has been superseded and will now turn his attention to business on his own account. It is said-that the breach with Capt. Davidson has been covered and that the Union Towing Co. will again do all his work, and that it will be done as he wants it, not asthe tug men dictate.. Under certain conditions, several tugs would be re- quired for work that one could do under ordinary circum- stances and the majority of the tug men quite understand this. The two tug rule was only the notion of a small min- ority who must have had a touch of the swelled head at the time they made it. ‘There is sort of a triangular mix up on lumber rates o freight between shippers, consignees and vessels. Lumber dealers won’t reduce prices, consignees won’t pay going freight rates and owners of tonnage can’t see their way clear to carry and handle lumber at less than $2.50 per M. feet while strongly holding for $2.75. Some of the shippers ex- pect the rate to slump away to $1.75, while brokers and ves- sel owners rather look to see the rates advance to $2.75. Some indifferent or low-classed bottoms loaded at $2.25 for Lake Erie. Whichever way it is going to figure out, dock space is getting closed up and the season is passing. With an Eastern demand for lumber there would be no hesitation in consignees paying the 25 cents per M feet over the present rate and then plenty of tonnage could be secured, on the other hand, as the season advances freight rates certainly will, and there may be quite arush to get lumber Hast before the closing weeks of the season. Judge Lochren at Minneapolis has filed a decreein the libel suit of Cody & Addis against the tug K. T. Carrington, and the case is dismissed. The libelants brought suit to re- cover about $8,000 from the Carrington, the alleged value of a quantity of stores they were shipping to their lumber camps at a Lake Superior point, but which were lost en route. The tug was towing a scow in which the goods were carried, but before arriving at its destination a storm arose which resulted in the breaking of the towline and the loss of both scow and supplies. The company charged the managers and officers of the Carrington with being respon- sible for the accident by not exercising proper care. The case of the Union Towing & Wrecking Co. vs. Cody & Addis growing out of the same accident for the value of the scow, Bill Beeman, belonging to the libelants was continued by stipulation. In the case of the Marine Insurance Co. vs. the steamer Arabian, in which the respondent moved for a retrial, the motion was granted. -_ HH“ one ___—_—_—— DETROIT. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Ashley & Dustin will carry the United States mail from Detroit to Put-in-Bay on the steamer Frank E. Kirby. The steamer Unique, built for the Detroit-Port Huron route is advertised for sale under mortgage foreclosure at St. Clair, Mich., June 12. The sale includes fittings, furni- ture and all the boat’s belongings. An order for upwards of 300 steel tapes was recently received from England by the Lufkin Rule Co., of Saginaw, Mich. As illustrative of the turn which affairs are taking in industrial lines it may be mentioned that but a few years ago all the steel tapes used in this country were imported from England. Within a few days thecounter-libel on the steamer Sie- mens, as a result of the North Star-Siemens collision at the “Soo”’ last season, will be filed in the United States court. The Northern Steamship Co. will not file a cross-bill to the one filed by the Bessemer Steamship Co. at Utica, N. Y., but will file a new one at Detroit. Horace W. Avery, formerly vice president of the Detroit, Belle Isle & Windsor Ferry Co., is now in Madison, Wis., for the benefit of his health. Early in the winter a general break-down of his constitution compelled Mr. Avery to give up business and with his family he went to Madison, where he believed the climate would help him. The marine edition of the Postal News contains several excellent illustrations, also an account of the marine postal service and all the regulations and information that captains and others using the marine post office need to know. A feature of the issue is its short stories. One, ‘‘Some Fish,” recounts how carrier John Hammes rescued a cat that fell overboard from the Montana. David Ward, pioneer capitalist, luamberman, and owner of a fortune of upward of $25,000,000, died on May 29, at his home, in Pontiac, Mich. He had been ill for several months with brain trouble and general breaking down. Mr. Ward was identified since 1850 with leading lumber enterprises, and, with the exception perhaps of Frederick Wegerhouser, was the largest holder of white pine stumpage in America. Capt. Ferguson of the steamer Coffinberry, in speaking of the fog whistle on Thunder Bay Island, says the government should see that the necessary means are furnished to keep the engines well supplied with water, as with the present method, in spite of all the keepers can do, the whistle often ceases altogether, or is so faint that it sounds far off to boats near shore, making the masters think they are much farther out in the lake than they really are. Capt. James Davidson enters a denial to the report that he had sold out all his stock in the Great Lakes Towing Co., he says he has now no friction with the officials of the towing company and that he is still a member of the executive board. He has refused all offers for his stock in the company and will continue to hold it. ‘‘All ships controlled by me,” Capt. Davidson concludes, ‘‘are using the tugs of the Great Lakes Towing Co., at all lake ports, including Duluth.”’ Attorneys Shaw & Cady have been retained by the North ern Steamship Co. in the matter of the collision of the steamers Northern King and Black Rock, which occurred a week ago Sunday at the head of Belle Isle. The Northern King was damaged about the bows to the extent of $4,000, but the Black Rock got off unscathed. The crew of the King gave their testimony at Duluth a few days ago, and the testimony has just been received by the Detroit attorneys. With minor amendments, none of which affected the lake marine interests, the river and harbor emergency bill was passed by both houses, on Tuesday, after having been in conference during most of the day. Under the provisions of the bill, extensive improvements in St. Clair flats canal and at the ‘‘Soo”’ are provided for. It was found impossible to pass the ‘‘Soo’’ power canal bill at this session. This fact, however, will not prevent work being continued on the canal. The tug Genevieve, owned by Hingston & Woods, work- ing with dredge No. 10 on Portage Lake ship canal, was dis- covered to be on fire last Thursday by the watchman of dredge No. 10, who blew a distress signal which was re- sponded to by the ship canal life-saving crew, who did ex- cellent work in cutting away the bulkheads so as to get the hose to work on the fire from the tug Meldrum. The fire was soon extinguished. The damage to the tug will be sev- eral hundred dollars. ae The handsome new passenger steamer Pittsburg, building for the Windsor-Detroit-Soo line, at Collingwood, Ont:, will be ready for business in about two weeks. She is built of wood, strengthened by 25 tons of steel strapping, and will be one of the staunchest Canadian passenger steamers on the lakes. She will make weekly trips, leaving Cleveland every Tuesday, Detroit and Windsor Wednesday, and arriy- ing at the ‘‘Soo’’ on Friday mornings. The Pittsburg will be in command of Capt. Wm. Bemrose, for some years past mate of the Carmona. ’ The steamer struck by lightning at St. Clair, Mich., on Thursday last, was the Albert Mitchell, a new craft on the stocks in Langell & Sons’ yard and nearly ready for launch- ing. Of the three men killed Campbell and Morrison were in the cabin and Meldar was under the vessel. Five others were injured, but not seriously. Simon Langell saw the bolt strike the foremast. The lightning struck the top of the spar, broke it off twelve feet and then went down through and split the mast. The current then appeared to select the spikes in the deck and followed them down into the lower hold, where it secured an outlet through a copper pipe, which was torn from its fastenings in the plank. Nearly under the seacock sat Medlar on a block of wood. The current left no marks on him, but killed him by the shock. About seventy-five men were under or around the hull, all of whom were more or less shocked. The damage to the steamer is estimated at $300. Capt. James Reid is going to have another try to get the Cayuga by raising her with inflated rubber bags: The wealthy lumberman, Edmund Hall, has backed Reid already for all the boat is worth if she was now in dry dock. They are working on the old English Lloyd schedule of ‘‘no cure, no pay,’’ and, as she has been laying in deep water at the foot of Lake Michigan for several years it is not likely that anything will be made out of the job, even if by any chance she is floated. A number of.vesselmen scoff at the idea that the Cayuga will ever be floated, but Capt. Reid advises them to keep their opinions to themselves for a short time longer and then they will have no need of them. When a boat is sunk in tall water it is best for all hands to leave her there, being stranded or in shoal water is a different question alto- gether. It is well known that Capt. Reid will tackle a forlorn hope anyway and he has done some good work at wrecking, but I am not aware that he has raked in many doubloons on his latest ventures. About Aug 1, suitable arrangements can be made for the around-the-lakes trip of the Senate committee on commerce and the House committee on harbors and rivers. . The party will number about fifty. The first proposition, to gallop over the chain of lakes, in the large exclusively passenger steamers of the Northern Steamship Co., has been reconsid- ered, and the more rational plan of staying a day or two at each port adopted in its stead. The schedule now entertain- ed is to leave Buffalo in one of the C. & B. Line boats, spend a day or two in Cleveland and come on here by the D. & C. Line, thence to Duluth by the Northern Line of boats. After a day or two at the head of the lakes, the return trip may be made to take in Chicago, which, outside of the gen- eral channels, canals, breakwaters, etc., is one of the most ressing and important points for the delegation to visit. It is to be hoped that the drainage commisioners will have the full current turned down the drainage canal when the Con- gressional committee are inspecting the creek. ee Oe FLOTSAM, JETSAM AND LAGAN. Capt. Peter Tort, an old master, died at Bay City last Sat- urday. It is reported that the schooner Thomas H. Howland, sunk near Buffalo, was under charter for six cargoes of pig iron at $1.20 per ton. Martin Hogan and Henry J. Howard of Chicago have sold the 310-ton schooner O. J. Hale of Detroit to Sydney O., Samuel and Charles S. Neff of Milwaukee for $1,500. Plans for widening Chicago river to 200 feet and dredging to a depth of 30 feet have been practically agreed upon by the drainage trustees. The cost of the land passed upon is estimated at $2,000,000. Capt. Thomas Ledden of the steamer Sachem reports that his mate, Thomas B. McBride, met with a probably fatal accident at Duluth by falling from the steamer’s rail to the dock. His back was broken by the fall. Kewaunee is the name of a small freight steamer launched at Kewaunee, Wis. Her keel length is 90 feet, length over all 105 feet, beam 24 feet, hold depth 7 feet. Keeper, Smith & Kuhlman, of Kewaunee own her and will sail her. It is reported from East Tawas, Mich., that the parties who discovered the wreck of the ore laden sunken schooner Sum- mit on Monday, discovered two more hulls. One of them is loaded with copper ore. The Summit was lost about 30 years ago. ee A diver has examined the remains of the old steamer Northerner, which was burned at the dock at L’ Anse about eight years ago. Plans had been made to raise the old hull, but it was found to be in a worthless condition and the attempt will doubtless be abandoned.