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10 THE MARINE RECORD. ESTABLISHED 1878. Published Every Thursday by THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Incorporated. C. E. RUSKIN, ‘ : = CAPT. JOHN SWAINSON, ~ - 2 3 CLEVELAND, CHICAGO, Western Reserve Building. Royal Insurance Building. SUBSCRIPTION. One Copy, one year, postage paid, - - One Copy, one year, to foreign countries, - 53 Invariably in advance. Manager, Editor. $2.00 $3.00 ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. on All communications should be addressed to the Cleveland offite, THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., \ Western Reserve Building, Cleveland, 0. \ e —— Entered at Cleveland Postoffice as second-class mail matter. f No attention is paid to anonymous communications, but the wishes of contributors as to the-use of their names will be scrupulously regarded. es CLEVELAND, O., AUGUST 2, 1900. Sy LAKE NAVAL HISTORY.” A‘report recently submitted to Congress\in reference to the status of the agreement said to prohibit the building arming or maintainingof more than a single war vessej on the Great Lakes, was furnished in response toa House resolution presented in January requesting the subject mat ter for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. It em- bodies a full and interesting record of the agreement made between England and the United States relative to the con struction and maintenance of war vessels on the lakes. The report goes back into the early history of the government of the United States and says that after the restoration of peace between the United States and Great Britain by the treaty of Ghent, in 1814, several dangerous sources of disagreement between the two countries were found to exist in the restless and even hostile spirit of the Indians on the frontier, and unneighborly conduct of British officers in Canada, and in the maintenance by Great Britain of an excessive armament on the Great Lakes. From the report itis noted that all these matters were the occasion of frequent instructions by Mr. Monroe, then Secretary of State, to Mr. John Quincy Adams, minister to London, looking to their adjustment by some treaty or conventional arrangement. The first correspondence in the matter was made in 1815, when Mr. Adams, under date of August 29, transmitted to the Department of State some British newspapers in which it was announced that His Majesty’s cabinet had deter- mined, not only to maintain, but to augument its armed naval forces on the Great Lakes. Mr. Monroe’s reply dem- oustrates that this government was the first to offer a pro- posal tending to limit the number of armed boats on the lakes. A copy of the letter follows: : (Mr. Monroe to Mr. Adams, Nov. 16, 1815.) © The information you give of orders having been issued by the British government to increase its naval force on the lakes is confirmed by intelligence from that quarter of meas- ures having been actually adopted for the purpose. It is evident, if each party auguments its force there, with a view to obtain the ascendency over the other, that vast expense willbe incurred and the danger of collision augumented’ in like degree. The president is sincerely desirous to prevent an evil which it is presumed is equally to be deprecated by both governments. He therefore authorizes you to propose to the British government such an arrangement respecting. the naval force to be kept on the lakes by both governments as will demonstrate their pacific policy.and secure their peace, He is willing to confine it, on each side, to a certain moderate number of armed. vessels, and the smaller the. number the more agreeabe to him; or to abstain altogether. from.an armed force beyond.-that used for revenue. will bring this subject under the consideration of the British government immediately after the receipt of this letter. . Mr. Adams conferred with Lord Castlereagh, and, in his © reply to the State Department, said that the proposal he made conformably to instructions, he felt would not be ac- You. cepted. From the various letters and papers it is seen that when the treaty of Ghent was being drafted, England pro- posed that-all the waters and both shores of the lakes should be the property of one government, and naturally enough, their government. This was objected to by the United States, hence at this point England did not feel over-anxt- ous to agree to the terms of the proposal. Subsequent to this Mr. Adams sent a number of letters to Lord Castlereagh, and on March 30, 1816, he forwarded the following interesting letter to the State Department: [Mr. Adams to Mr. Monroe, March 30, 1816. | Lord Castlereagh has not yet replied to any other of my late notes. You may, however, consider it as certain that the proposal to disarm upon the lakes will not be accepted. In all the late debates in Parliament upon what they call their Military and Naval Peace Establishment the prospect of a new war with the United States has been distinctly held up by the Ministers and admitted by the Opposition as a solid reason for enormous and unparalleled expenditure and preparation in Canada and Nova Scotia. We hear nothing now about the five fir frigates and the bits of striped bunt- ing. The strain isina higher mood. Lord Castlereagh talks of the great and growing military power of the United States. The Marquis of Lansdowne, an Opposition leader and one of the loudest trumpeters for retrenchment and economy, still commends the Ministers for having been beaten into the policy of having a naval superiority upon the lakes. And one of: the Lords of the Admiralty told the House of Commons: last Monday, that bumboat expeditions /and pinchback administrations would no longer do for Can- ‘ada; that. Englishmen must lay they account for fighting battles in fleets of three-deckers on the North American lakes. All this is upon the principle of preserving peace by being prepared for war. But it shows to demonstration what will be the fate of the proposal for disarming. In those days of. slow communication between the two countries, two months elapsed before a dispatch reached its destination. Mr. Monroe still anticipated favorable results despite Mr Adams’ forebodings of failure, and while thus expressing himself to the government represen- tative, Lord Castlereagh had already acceded tothe pro- posal and had instructed the British minister at Washington to arrange the details. It was then agreed that the naval force of the lakes should be as follows: one vessel, not exceeding 100 tons burden and armed with one 18-pound cannon. On the upper lakes, three like ves_ sels, like armed. : Attention was next drawn to the matter in 1838 by the oc- curence of disturbances in Canada and the apprehension of organized hostilities against the authority of the crown on the part of the so-called ‘‘Canadian Patriots.’’ Alarmed at their strength, the British government began to increase its navalforce on the lakes. In the month of January, 1838, a considerable number of the Canadian Patriots gained possession of Navy Island (belonging to Canada), in the Niagara river, whence to make a descent upon the opposite Canadian shore. The British authorities hired two or three lake schooners and armed and manned them for the purpose of frustrating this threatened invasion. From reports it would seem that these vessels did not emerge into Lake Erie from the river while so armed and manned, but to have been discharged as soon as the danger, perti- nent to this point, had passed away. From the report of Gen. Scott it is learned that after the burning of the British merchant steamer, Sir Robert Peel, on the St. Lawrence, in 1828, and up until the close of navigation in that year, the Canadian authorities employed several steamers and barges, all armed and manned, cruising about Lake Ontario, but principally in the St. Lawrence.: Mr. Forsyth, then Secre- tary of State, invited the British minister, Mr. Fox, to a personal interview and called his attention to the violation of the conventional arrangements of 1817. Subsequently Mr. Fox wrote the State Department that he had been informed by Her Majesty’s authorities—Queen Victoria having succeeded to the throne—that ‘‘while they certainly do not apprehend any objection from the United States government, still, in order to prevent the possibility of misapprehension in any ‘quarter, think it expedient to assure you that the armament is equipped for the sole “purpose as.above expressed, and will be discontinued at the earliest possible moment upon the cessation of danger.’’ The note does not appear to have been answered by Mr. Forsyth or even acknowledged. . In reference to the follow- ing season, Gen. Scott’s report says that it was ‘‘a tranquil One,’’ and he did not hear of a single armed vessel on Lake Erie. The Canadian patriots subsided in the following winter. _ The matter came before the House of Representatives in 1841, in the shape of numerous resolutions embodied in the Fortification Act. It came to the attention of the State De- On Lake Ontario‘ AUGUST 2, I9CO. ~ partment that the British Government was constructing two boats of about 500 tons burden at Chippewa, and Daniel Webster, as Secretary of State, directed a note to Mr. Fox, calling his attention to the matter. To this note there was no reply, and two months later a more formal letter was sent, and Mr. Fox replied that ‘‘it was unfortunately notorious that Her Majesty’s territory was threatened by attacks sim- ilar to those of 1838, and that the vessels were for defensive purposes solely. The report does not show how this matter was settled, but the attention of the country was next called to the Great Lakes when the United States constructed the steamer Michigan, which is now an eyesore about the lakes. The Michigan was built in Pittsburgh and brought to Lake Erie in sections.’ She has a registered tonnage of 498 and is ca- pable of carrying two 8-inch guns and 32 carronades, and was floated in the summer of 1844. This drew forth a re- monstrance from the British Government. Secretary Hay’s letter, just delivered to the committee on Foreign Affairs, goes into the details of the matter and re- fers the committee to the Joint High Commission, whose work has been suspended without reaching a satisfactory re- sult. - The Government members of the United States were instructed that it was the sense of the country, or the Gov- ernment so regarded it, that the construction of naval vessels onthe Great Lakes for passage tothe Atlantic coast was not hostile to the agreement of 1817. It has been shown that the ports on the lakes in a number of instances have the facilities for the construction of naval vessels which give them advantages over seacoast cities. It is the desire of the Committee on Foreign Affairs to regulate matters so that this work can be carried out, and while the Secretary of State concurs in the. sentiment, and assures the committee that the Joint High Commission, he understood, had made some satisfactory progress, still their labors had been sus- pended without reaching a satisfactory result. OO Oe OFFICERS OF THE AMERICAN SHIP BUILDING \ COMPANY. At the annual meeting of the American Ship Building Co, whtich/ was “held Wednesday, Messrs. Samuel Mather, of Cleveland, Colgate Hoyt, of New York, and Gilbert N. Mc- Millan, of Detroit, retired from the board of directors and were succeeded by I. M. Bowers and John A. McGean, rep- resenting Rockefeller interests, and W. C. McMillan, of Detroit: Mr. Bowers was also elected to membership on the executive committee. The full list of officers is as fol- lows: Board of Directors—William L. Brown, H. H. Porter, Jr., Chicago; Robert Wallace, H. M. Hanna, Robert L. Ireland, L. M. Bowers, James C. Wallace, L.. C. Hanna, Luther Allen, J. A. McGean, all of Cleveland; William E. Fitzgerald, An- drew M. Joys, Milwaukee; Alexander McVittie, W. C Mc- Millan, Detroit; W. F. Coleman Carpenter, Jersey City. Executive Committee—Luther Allen, William E. Fitz- gerald, Robert L. Ireland, William L. Brown, Alexander McVittie, James C. Wallace, L. M. Bowers. Officers—William L,. Brown, president; Robert L. Ireland, vice-president; Russell C. Wetmore, seceetary and treasurer; James C. Wallace, general manager; William E. Fitzgerald, assistant general manager. Transfer Agents—Corporation Trust Co., New York and Jersey City, N. J. = Registrar of Stock—Central Trust Co. of New York. oS OO LAUNCH OF THE STEAMER RENSSALAER. A large crowd turned out to witness the launching of the big steamer Renssalaer at the old Globe yard, Cleveland, on Thursday afternoon last. The word was given on time and the big freighter went into the water on an even keel. The Renssalaer was christened by Miss Dorothy Hause, of Pitts- burg, daughter of William F. E. Hause, who is general superintendent of the Pittsburg, Bessemer & Lake Erie Railway Co. Instead of breaking a bottle of wine on the bow of the vessel Miss Hause liberated several doves. The new boat is an exact duplicate of the steamer Harvard, which is also owned by the Pittsburg Steamship Co. The -Renssalaer is 474 feet over all, 454 feet keel, 50 feet beam and 28% feet deep. She will have quadruple expansion engines; cylinders, 18, 263/, 41 and 63 inches, with a com- mon stroke of 4. inches. She will have Babcock & Wilcox ; water tube boilers. The new boat, which will be commanded by. Capt. E. T. Ratray, will be completed and ready for business about September 1. \ oS ib Mie hdl