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AUGUST 2, I9g00. THE MARINE RECORD. 7 a eeeeeeeeereeeeeeeeemnemememennmemmmmenmeemmmmnees memeene nee eee een BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. The grain trade is dull and but few boats are being chartered. The rate out of Chicago has not changed, but the market is weakening, and it is conceded that the break in the coal freights, as showing a weakness in that market, will be none too invigorating on the grain freights. ~ Singular ruling was that by Justice Kenefick this week, whereby others can appropriate your own dock space if their’s is not large enough. According to his decision anyone re- quiring 500 feet of dockage would be safe on calculating on purchasing, say, half that frontage in the future. Shippers received a dispatch on Tuesday that there had been a fire in the second hatch of the Rockefeller steamer John Ericsson, and some grain had been damaged. Capt. John Perew, representing the underwriters, was sent to Par- ry Sound, where the Ericsson is unloading. The fire is sup- posed to have been caused by electric wires. About one o’clock Saturday morning, Patrolman Gunn, of the Dominion police, on duty at the west end of the Welland canal near the tunnel, saw two men coming up towards him. He called on them to halt. Whereupon two shots from a revolver were fired at him. Gunn fired one shot in return and the men disappeared. Marks of blood were found and it is believed Gunn hit one of the men. The losses of marine underwriters between Lake Erie and Lake Huron have been as much this season as on all the rest of the lakes and river channels put together. This has been due in a large degree to the crowded condition of the water- way, the major part of the strandings having resulted from boats getting into crowded quarters. The collision between the James Watt and Maruba Saturday morning in Detroit river was due wholly to this cause, and if the Watt and Ta- coma had not gone down the river side by side the collision would not have happened. Freight rates on lumber by canal have again taken an upward tendency. For some time the prevailing rates on lumber by canal were $1.15 to Albany and $1.50 to New York. These were very low figures, considering that the season opened at $1.50 and $2 to these places respectively, and the boatmen whose boats were here waiting for loads declined to load at such prices. The rates now being offered are $1.35 to Albany and $1.75 to New York. It is expected in some quarters that there will bea still further increase, and that the rates will again reach $1.50 to Albany and $2 to New York. ° As the elevator business in the harbor stands now the Kellogg and the Watson are doing what they can to stand up against the pool. The Kellogg might have gone into the pool, but the Watson, not having any rail connection, is restricted to canal business. So when it began to do business in the spring the pool houses at once commenced to handle all canal grain free. With the Kellogg on the other side of the harbor and able to load cars, it was then necessary to take much of the rail grain for nothing also, so that it turns out that the greater part of the grain handled here pays nothing for transfer. The recent contract covering the movement of a block of ore from Marquette to Buffalo at $1, has revived the interest in the movement of ore. The contract has been, in part, explained. The ore is to be taken to Buffalo furnace, which is a good ways up the creek. Buffalo furnace, how- ever, does not usually take a differential, so this'not explain it altogether. The ore is owned by Carnegie, and was left over from last year. It must be moved at once, and rather than set aside any of his own boats for that purpose Carnegie paid the advance rate. Shippers cons‘dered this as a feature of what the market is going to be before that ore has all been moved. There was a general falling off of lake shipments during the past week. The amount shipped was 35,210 tons, by custom house report, distributed as follows: Chicago, 6,300 tons; Green Bay, 4,825 tons; Waukegan, 3,380 tons; Mil- waukee, 4,200 tons; Manitowoc, 2,000 tons; Bay City, 1,700 tons; Duluth, 5,550 tons; Fort William, 1,400 tons; Portage, 1,225 tons; Toledo, 1,165 tons; Kenosha, 1,000 tons; Racine, 925 tons; Hancock, 850 tons; Port Colborne, 650 tons; Al- pena, 549 tons; Gladstone, 500 tons, all anthracite but the cargo to Port Colborne. Freight rates all down to 40 cents, everyone of the above mentioned being at that figure, but Toledo, which is at 30 cents; Port Colborne, 25 cents. The Government labor inspector has been after the crews of the Folger line steamers, at Ogdensburg, and caused the discharge of twenty Canadians, who were employed on the boats. This is done under the alien contract labor law. It is a universal law and custom that sailors of any nationality can ship on board of any craft, at any time, otherwise com- merce would be interfered with. As it occurs to me, just as an illustration, an American, or rather, a United States crew, ships for London, England. They all desert, few Americans are ashore there now, how long will the ship remain there to get another crew? Even if she was 300 feet in length it might take her 300 days to pick up say 20 to 30 native or naturalized Americans, or, citizens of the United States. Relative to the marine community, this labor element is all off. ee THE Thew Automatic Shovel Co., of Lorain, shipped a steam ore shovel to Ashtabula during the latter part of the week to be used in loading ore from the stock piles into cars. DULUTH—SUPERIOR. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The coal supply at Duluth the coming winter will be the largest in the history of the city. Already the supply is 800,000 tons, or nearly as much asin ordinary years at the close of navigation. Since navigation opened Duluth has received over 1,500,000 tons, but has sent the balance for- ward to interior points by rail. Of the stock now on hand 200,000 tons are anthracite and 6co,000 bituminous, ‘This is about the usual proportion. The largest sale of lumber made on Chequamegon bay this summer was. consummated last Thursday, when the Edward Hines Lumber Co., of Chicago, sold 11,000,000 feet of white pine lumber to the Robinson Lumber Co., of North Tonawanda. Edward Hines and Mr. Robinson negotiated the deal. The stock was sold at $16 per thousand and in- volved a financial consideration of about $176,600. Another deal forthe purchase of 75,000,000 feet of timber is now being negotiated by the Hines firm’ and will probably be closed up this week. The looked-for slump in the freight rates has set in all right and all lines of trade feel it. The lumber market is too slow for any use, the coal rates have dropped, ore may be cut any day, and the only favorable feature in the grain trade isthe bigcrop. The cut in coal amounts to 25 cents in the last three weeks between Cleveland and Milwaukee and Cleveland and Gladstone. Lumber is now $2.25 from the head of the lakes to Buffalo and to Chicago. Iron ore is $1, go cents and 70 cents from the head of the lakes, Marquette, and Escanaba respectively. The news from here is that the freight rate keeps slipping down and is now a flat 134 cts. on wheat, with rumors of 1% cts. having been accepted for a small lot, but this could not be confirmed. The rate from here now is 3c. under Chicago, a condition that can be only temporary. The weakness is due to the fact that there is little or no demand for grain tonnage, and an entire absence of demand for wild ore tonnage, in spite of the fact that something over 40 of the Rockefeller boats are lying at anchor around the lakes. The season’s capacity of these boats would be close to 4,000,000 tons of ore, and itis not hard to imagine what rates would do if they were all moving. ee ee ee CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. All attempts to break the two-cent rate on corn to Lake Erie were given up, and at this writing the market is firm at that figure and likely to remain so. It is reported that the vessel agency of Gibbs & Joys, Mil- waukee, was dissolved this week, after two years of part- nership. Capt. Albert Gibbs, it is understood, will continue the business. The steamer Mary H. Boyce, bound in with a cargo of coal on Saturday, got across the river at Twelfth street. Tugs released her late at night. The accident was due to the current in the river. Seven expensive strandings at the Limekiln Crossing, where the Detroit river flows into Lake Erie, having come in quick succession, marks that as the most dangerous point, at present, to navigation on the entire chain of lakes. The losses from these strandings will exceed $100,000. Some marine men are favoring the establishment of regulations by the general government for the navigation of the cut at the Limekilns with the hope of lessening the danger to vessels. This, however, is an insurance agent’s view, and not that of a general navigator on the lakes. Rates on Chicago grain have been maintained during the month, but in all other lines of lake traffic there has been a material decline. The figures on the three principal grains Wheat. Corn. Oats. NOOO aoe rai maras cae ce ies 1,280,124 13,521,310 3,430,621 TOQQR ees oe Reel tes 1,002,002 10,925,213 613,414 TBOQSie an see Sees 273,000 8,507,848 3,321,546 TOGA eee eee ces 592,800 12,711,564 4,639,865 TOOG cone imenicdise Cae ese 1,050,870 8,166, 766 3,847,877 rr ee CLEVELAND. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The grain rates at Chicago continue stiff with a fair de- mand. On the whole, however, the tonnage is rather light. Iron ore and other rates remain about the same. Coal rates have settled at 35 cents to Milwaukee, Escanaba and the head of Lake Superiorand 4o cents to Portage. The ore rate from the head of Lake Superior to Ohio ports, which has held steady at $1 for the past two months, was cut 10 cents this week. Escanaba still holds at 70 cents. The movement of iron ore continues to be light, a few cargoes occasionally being sent down from Escanaba and Marquette. In general, the wild movement has about died down, although the owners expect a revival of it in a short time, when the ore, which is now being sold, starts to move down the lake. : H. C. Doville, who was formerly in the vessel brokerage business in the Perry-Payne building, but who gave up his position to go ona farm with his father in the vicinity of Cleveland, has returned to his old line of work. ‘‘Harry”’ is generally well liked and will no doubt soon re-establish his connection in the marine business. Mr. Klock, assistant shore engineer for the Hamburg- American line, has been in Cleveland during the past week looking into the several devices for loading and discharging cargo. Mr. Klock believes that with the information which he has already obtained, a large quantity of Cleve- land machinery will be ordered for Hamburg in the near future. The steamer James Watt, which was in a collision in the Detroit river a few days ago, came into this port on Monday, having been temporarily repaired for the purpose of making the trip across the lake. So far it is not known how exten- sive her injuries are and they can only be determined when her cargo has been discharged and she has been placed in dry dock under survey. The Lake Superior coal rate is weak. The freights have not been reduced to thirty-five cents, but unless a change is soon seen nothing can prevent it going down. Reports are constantly being heard that the coal rate has dropped to thirty-five cents to Duluth, but this has not been confirmed by charters reported. In the meantime, owners and brokers are fighting for a fair living rate to the head of the lakes. Word was received on Wednesday afternoon by Capt. J. C. Gilchrist that the C. B. Lockwood, grounded at the Limekiln Crossing a few days ago, while trying to steer clear of a schooner, has been released and is on her way down. She was not raised without a great deal of hard work, as it has taken about five days to get her afloat again. She will be sent at once to Lorain to discharge her cargo, and may go into dry-dock there for repairs. —————e Dea FLOTSAM, JETSAM AND LAGAN. All three of the big automatic ore unloaders at Conneaut harbor built for the Carne gie company are now completed. David Herman of Buffalo, engineer of the Western line steamer Syracuse, died this week at Milwaukee, presuma- bly from disease of the heart. Business is booming at Ashtabula. Some of the steamers had to wait for a dock an entire day on account of the large number of vessels in port this week. Dredge No. 7, from Cleveland, is now at Ashtabula ready to begin the work of removing the bar near the entrance to the piers at that port. The work is to be begun at once. G. H. Breyman, of Toledo, has finished his government dredging contract on Saginaw river. Hisdredge removed the shoals at the mouth of the river, The work started last August and has been prosecuted every day since when the weather would permit. The amount of his contract was $30,000. The tower at Big Point Sable is now a very conspicuous object to vessels passing on Lake Michigan. It has been painted in alternate circular streaks of white and black, presenting a most striking appearance. As a further pio- tection against the weather, the tower has been entirely sheathed over with iron. : A large anchor and several fathoms of chain were found on Monday last by Smith Bros., fishermen, near Port Wash- ington, Wis., and were brought to shore where they excited great interest. It is supposed the anchor belonged to the passenzer steamer Toledo, which was lust in the vicinity in 1857. There was but one survivor out of a large number of passengers. The firemen and linemen on the Milwaukee tugs who struck for an advance of wages of $10a month won their ~ clause after being out a day. Their demands were granted by the owners of thetugs on Wednesday and the increase was granted to allthe firemen and deck hands. Several engineers and captains were discharged for refusing to serve temporarily, as firemen and deck hands, and these will be reinstated. The Canadian government has decided to put alight on the middle ground on Point Pelee, to replace the one which was burned last April. After that was burned,the passage was marked by a buoy. This left that vicinity poorly lighted, and it was necessary for boats that were uncertain as to the passage, to lie at anchor there until daylight. The agitation over the matter has persuaded the Canadian government to place another light there, which will be done as soon as a light-house can be built. The time is at hand when the government will have to prescribe regulations on Detroit river the same as at the “Soo.’’ It is hazardous for our big ships to run down that river at full speed in a bunch, trusting to luck that they will get through all right. Ships should be prohibited from passing each other when going in the same direction between certain points where a proper distance between them should be maintained. Until that is done we may expect repeated strandings and collisions. It is somewhat odd that the last three ships suffering heavy loss in the Detroit river have not been covered by insurance. ro ior Interruption of Voyage by Cargo Owner—Damages Re- coverable.—Where the cargo owner takes the cargo from a vessel before the completion of her voyage, under circum- stances which do not entitle her to exemplary damages, she can recover only such damages as will compensate her for the net injury suffered, and from the estimated net freight she would have earned is to be deducted the net amount she earned, or should reasonably have earned, during the time it would have taken her to complete the voyage. The Eliza Lines, 102 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 184.