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THE MARINE RECORD. JULY 26, 1900. DETROIT. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. Capt. William Covers is master of the new steamer Simon J. Murphy of the Shaw-Eddy fleet and Henry Annett 1s chief engineer. The steamer Northern Wave broke a bucket on her pro- peller wheel leaving Cleveland harbor. She put in here to . receive a new wheel. The breaking of the steering gear of the Mahoning, at the Lime Kilns Saturday morning, will prove a costly accident before the steamer clears from Detroit. While coming through the Welland canal Saturday the steamer Nipigon damaged her stem. She is being repaired at the Orleans street yard of the Detroit Ship Building Co. The steamer City of Cleveland and consort Sandusky, bound down with ore, struck on the rocks abreast of Amherstburg. The steamer damaged her steering gear and was towed to Cleveland. The little steamer Sakie Sheperd, which was badly damag- ed by fire two years agoin Detroit, is being rebuilt at Ma- rine City. She is being lenghthened eighteen feet. The ‘Shepherd had been lying in the Detroit river until taken over by John Stevenson. This will be the most quiet season in many years in lum- ‘ber shipments from Marinette and Menominee. It is said that some who purchased lumber from local dealers at the high price last year will not take the lumber at all, being unable to pay for it without ruining themselves. Next Saturday afternoon the wooden schooner which ‘Capt. Davidson is building as an addition to his fleet will be launched at the Davidson shipyard, West Bay City. Her dimensions are 350 feet long, 45 feet beam and 24 feet deep. Work on the steamer No. 95 will be completed at the David- son yard about October 1. The new steamer S. J. Murphy left the dock of the Detroit Ship Building Co. last week for the head of the lakes. Capt. William Cavers was in charge and Henry Annett was chief engineer. The big steamer represents an outlay of $300.000, It is expected that her average speed loaded will ‘be twelve miles and light fifteen miles. The first steel steamer drawing fourteen feet of water, in- tended to navigate the canal system, is lying in Lachine locks at Montreal, loading a cargo of pipes at the works of the Canada Pipe Co., for Ft. William. The vessel is under the charge of Capt. Chestnut, who brought her out from England with a salt water crew who have left her, and the captain is now engaging a Canadian crew to take her up the canals to the upper lakes. Her voyage will be the first real test of the efficiency of the canal system. Within the last 10 days the Milwaukee rate on.coal has fallen twice—first from 65 cents to 55 cents, and then to 50 cents. The Lake Superior rate is 4o cents, and the grain rates, while still steady, are in a fair way to tumble. Rocke- feller managed to hold up the ore rate because he controls practically all the boats that are carrying that commodity. However, he found it impossible to keep the wild rate up, and now by turning his idle boats into the coal and grain . trade he threathens to smash the tolerably good prices that are being paid. Itis now rumored that the stockholders of the White Star line are planning to build a new propeller for the Detroit- Port Huron route. The White Starline has long had an ambition to control that branch of the lake traffic, and the Tashmoo is not entirely sufficient to take care of the traffic offered her. The boat comtemplated would carry about 1,- 200 people and several hundred tons of freight, at about the same speed as the Tashmoo. Such a boat wouldadd greatly to the accommodations between Port Huron and Detroit, and is thought would be a paying venture. Penoyer Bros., of Bay City, have sold to the Calumet & Hecla Mining Co. all the pine lands owned by the Shell- drake Lumber Co. in Chippewa and Luce counties, though all but a few 40s are in the former. The tract is estimated to cut 120,000,000 feet. The deal is one of the largest ever made in upper Michigan, and the consideration was $650,000. - It also includes the mill plant and docks at Shelldrake. This sale follows close on the heels of another deal by the Calumet & Hecla Co. in the eastern part of the peninsula a few weeks ago, in which the consideration was a quarter of a million, F. W. Wheeler is interested with Penoyer Bros. in the deal. - Vesselmen have been complaining about the channel in “the Detroit river abreast of Amherstburg, where the con- tractors are at work not being properly marked. A number of vessels the masters of which claimed that they were right in the channel struck and some of them had to be docked. - Mr. C. Y. Dixon, who has charge of the work at Ambherst- burg, sends out the following dispatch: Three light floats are kept, marking the area being improved, and vessels - Ont. should pass to the westward of these lights, following the range on Elliot’s point, when dredge is not on work. Duff and Gatfield and a man stationed at the south end of Bois Blane island inform as to obstructions in time to prevent accidents. BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. The steel steamer Douglass Houghton arrived here this week with a cargo of 308,000 bushels of oats and 60,000 bushels of wheat, the largest cargo brought to this port. Coal men say that there will be no change in the situation during the next few weeks. On the other hand, brokers, as well as vessel owners feel like keeping freight rates where they were and in fact increasing the rate if possible. In the collision case of the tug Acme of the Great Lakes Towing Co. and the government steam yacht Gen. John M. Wilson, the licenses of Capt. Robert Maines, jr., and Capt. James Canniff were suspended for ten days. The board of steamboat inspectors found that both vessels were going too fast in a portion of the harbor where there is much danger of collision. Only eight coal cargoes have been shipped up through the Welland canal since the middle of May. This traffic, once so considerable, is practically gone. A shipper who hasa small lot of coal at Oswego, which he has been trying to get a vessel for, says that tonnage is soscarce there that he ex- pects to be obliged to send it by rail to Buffalo and forward it by water from here. The removal of vessel owner and broker John L. Crosth- waite to the coast, consequent on his organization last winter of the Atlantic Coast Steamship Co., will take place not far from the end of the present lake season. A fleet of ten or twelve steamers will be got together as soon as they can be obtained at reasonable figures. It looks now as though no more would be taken from the lakes, although if they could have been obtained satisfactorily they would have mostly been built or bought here. Capt. Frank J. McCabe died at his home last Monday evening. He had been ill for some time. Capt. McCabe was born in Buffalo fifty-four years ago and had followed the lakes since he was thirteen years old. He had been in the Western line for the last twelve years and sailed the steamers Chicago and Boston. Capt. McCabe was a member of the Shipmasters’ Association. Capt. McCabe was well known and highly respected by all with whom he was brought into contact. I have heard expressions of regret at his demise at all the offices that I have visited this week. As the excursion season advances the Saturday and Sun- day crowds that go on the boats to the several resorts hold very large. The half dozen boats that are in the business carry thousands of people to Crystal Beach, Woodlawn Beach, Elmwood Beach, the Bedell House, Port Colborne and other resorts. The warm weather makes a trip on the lake or river very enticing. There was a big load of excur- sionists on the handsome steamer City of Buffalo on the round trip to Dunkirk. This trip is increasing in popular- ity and attracts those who wish a long ride on a comfortable and speedy boat. The general decline of coal freights to all Lake Michigan ports is in line with the generally weak condition of all lake freights. But for the scarcity of tonnage all the season the comparatively high rates on coal could not have been main- tained so long. As it is vessels in the coal trade have made money. Freight rates are: Chicago, 50 cents; Duluth, 4o cents; Milwaukee, 50 cents; Portage, 50 cents; Ashland, 40 cents; Depere, 50cents; Racine, 60 cents; Gladstone, 4o cents; Sault, 50 cents; Toledo, 4o cents; Bay City, 40 cents; Mar- quette, 50 cents; Kenosha, 60 cents. The past week’s ship- ments amounted to 56,000 tons of which Chicago took 22,- ooo and the head of the lakes 15,000 tons. One of the most important wrecking jobs ever undertaken in deep water on the lakes will be the contract the Donnelly Wrecking & Salvage Co. has taken to raise the. steamer Oconto, The wreck lies in 105 feet of water, opposite the Thousand Islands park on the St. Lawrence river. At the time she was lost the Oconto was laden with general mer- chandise. She struck a shoal and then slid off into the deepest part of the river. That was ten years ago, and this is the first move to recover the steamer and cargo. The insurance was held by Smith, Davis & Co., who have just awarded the contract to the Donnelly company, of Kingston The Donnelly company is an old established firm and has done many good jobs of wrecking work. The founder of the firm, John Donnelly, died recently. His two sons Thomas and John, have been the active managers of the business for some time and will continue it. No railroad in the United States offers as fine an oppor- tunity for study of the old canal system of the East as the Lackawanna railroad. For miles its track follows the old Morris & Essex canal, built before the railroad was dreamed of for the purpose of transporting coal from the mountains to the great city of New York. "A canal in a mountainous region is a thing of wonder, and the traveler-has numerous opportunities of viewing the curious machinery by which the canal boats are drawn up the hills on railroads to strike the canal on a new level, or lowered from the canal from a higher level to continue farther down the mountain. ‘This old canal, though grass-covered and bordered by the most magnificent shrubbery, is still used, and the traveler sees from time to time one of the old boats moving slowly through the limpid waters, with : power, P » with sleepy mules for motive Be ee ,—m——C*C CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Grain rates remain at 2 cents, although one big ship- ping house was offering but 134 cents. Grain freights continue active on the basis of 2 cents on corn to Lake Erie ports and 1% cents to Port Huron and Sarnia. The steamer Sir William Siemens loaded 225,000 bushels - of corn at South Chicago, Saturday. This was one of the largest grain cargoes ever taken out of that port. The Graham & Morton Trans. Co’s. steamer Mary proved her excellent sea-going qualities whilst crossing Lake Mich- igan last Friday in one of the heaviest gales this season. The Calumet Grain and Elevator Co. is driving piles for a foundation to an extensive addition to their elevator be- tween Ninety-fifth and Ninety-sixth street, South Chicago. Work on the superstructure of the new Baltimore & Ohio bridge at Ninety-sixth street, South Chicago, has begun, The foundations are allin and the girders and other struc- tural material are already on the ground. The steamer Thomas Maytham, recently ashore off Mil- waukee, is in the Chicago Ship Building Company’s dock at South Chicago, for repairs. Sixteen of her bottom plates were broken, and repairs will approximate $8,000, Stocks of grain in Chicago public and private elevators decreased 2,331,0co bushels last week. The elevators now contain 26,118,000 bushels, as follows: Wheat, 14,255,000 bushels; corn, 7,486,000 bushels; oats, 4,027,000 bushels; rye, 350,000 bushels; barley, 50,0oco bushels. The steamer R. J. Gordon, Capt. Joseph Smith, master and owner, which was rebuilt by her owner after having been badly damaged by fire when laying at her dock at the lake front last fall, is now running between South Haven and Chicago in the fruit and passenger business. Contracts for the new bascule bridge at Ninety-fifth street, South Chicago, have been let by the city to Roemheld & Gallery for $98,500. City Engineer Walter Cahill has com- pleted the running of the base line for the structure, and Lydon & Drews are dredging and pulling cut the old piling. J. S. Morton, secretary of the Graham & Morton Trans. Co., is now attending to the East shore business of the com- pany. President J. H. Graham is devoting the greater part - of his attention to the establishment of the line to Kenosha and Waukegan and to the Lincoln Park run of the steamer May Graham. The tow line of the Lehigh Valley liner Tuscarora parted just as she was swinging at Collision bend, near Twenty-third street on Wednesday, and the steamer crashed into the tug F. O. Earnshaw, lying at the dock. The tug was damaged to the extent of $200. The accident was due to the current in the south branch. The Great Lakes Towing Co. has paid the first fine ever collected from a tug owner by the city of Chicago out of the hundreds of cases brought under the smoke ordinance. The trust handed over $15 assessed against the tug Dickenson for making everything black on the river the other day. During the past decade the numberless fines assessed against tugs have been appealed and were never heard of again. Capt. Myles Barry’s schooner Sophia Minch, has been’ at last released from the beach off Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio, and will be towed to Cleveland and go into dry-dock. She was released by Capt. James Reid, the well known wrecker of Bay City, after having been on the beach about one year. Several thousand dollars have been spent in releasing her. The Minch formerly belonged to the Minch Transit Co. and was purchased by Capt. Barry after she went ashore. Geo, B. Carpenter & Co., 202-208 South Water street, Chicago, Ill., the pioneer shipchandlers and sailmakers, of this city, and the largest house in that line on the Great Lakes, are circulating some very elaborately illustrated cata- logues which give the extensive line of goods that company manufacture and deal in—consisting of sails, tents, anchors, capstans, swings, nets, folding chairs, etc. They do a large business outside of their immediate territory, as is shown by the fact that they make shipments to all parts of the country and abroad. They are also large contractors for govern- ment work, such as tents, etc., their first contract being for tents used during the Mexican war, and the last, which was received a few days since, was for 75,coo pairs of army leggings for shipment to the Philippines. This house was established as far back as 1840. ‘Business in the carrying of ties, cedar posts and poles from the north shore of Lake Superior to Duluth is booming, and more lumber has been sold in the last week on Lake Superior to go to Lake Erie than for any previous week in six months,’’ said S. R. Chamberlain, who has just returned from a ten days’ business trip through the northwest. ‘‘They are paying Io cents for carrying ties sixty to 120 miles along the north shore into Duluth, and they can get all the men they want to load them at 25 cents per hour. On this lake the best we can get for carrying ties 325 miles, from Cheboy- gan to Chicago, is 6 cents, and we have to pay 60 cents per hour for handling. I have put my tow into the lumber car- rying trade from Lake Superior to Lake Erie, and the boats will not be seen on Take Michigan again this year. The trade on this lake seems absolutely dead.’’ Seer a ees