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THE MARINE RECORD. DETROIT. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. The McMorran Wrecking Co. has secured the contract for raising the schooner H. W. Sage, sunk at Harsen’s Island. Comdr. J. C. Wilson, U.S. N., who has taken over the duty of I. H. Inspector for the 11th district, will probably remain until next spring, his headquarters being U. S. Public Building, Detroit. Capt. Anthony T. May, owner of the sunken schooner J. S. Richards, has no plans for raising his boat from the chan- nel off Walkerville. The underwriters of the cargo have done nothing as yet. The new steel steamer now in course of construction at the Jenks shipyard at Port Huron willsoon be completed. The vessel will be named Capt. Thomas Wilson, and will be the property of the Wilson Transit Co., of Cleveland. Maj. G. A. Marr, superintendent of Portage Lake water- ways, announces that the speed limit on vessels in Portage river has been removed. The revetments are completed and vessels may go through at full speed. The limit is still maintained in the upper ship canal, where work is going on. The new light at Point Pelee will be put up on the middle- ground in 14 feet of water and will be of stone at the base with a steel tower, fireproof throughout. A crib of piles will surround the stone base as a protection against ice and seas. The light will be a modern one of high power and a siren will also be installed. Work will be completed next spring. Passed Assistant Surgeon E. K. Sprague, of the Marine Hospital Service, has arrived here and reported to Surgeon Godfrey for duty. Dr. Sprague has been stationed at the United States consulate at Antwerp, Belgium, for some time. He is known as one of the best bacteriologists in America, and was at the hygienic laboratory in Washington prior to his being sent to Belgium. August 20 is the date of the Citizens’ Yachting Association regatta for the Pingree cup. This trophy has been up several years and must be won three times to belong to any yacht permanently. -The City of the Straits and the Sham- rock have each won it twice, and the Viking, of Toledo, has a third title to it. Both the Viking and the City are expect- ed to be’on hand this year, and there is much speculation as to the City’s chance of winning the cup for the third time. A recent treasury decision holds that pleasure yachts of five tons or more must report at the customs house after all trips to foreign countries. This especially applies to small yachts on the connecting waters of the Great Lakes, and on the Detroit river in particular. A yacht must clear to go to any Canadian port, and upon returning to this side must at once make entry as returning from a foreign port. The Jaw has heretofore been interpreted with leniency, and yachts- men have made a practice of running over to Wolfe’s and other resorts without troubling the customs office. The new - ruling will hold them to stricter account. The schooner Kingfisher, in tow of the steamer Samuel Marshall, coilided, on Monday, with the wreck of the schooner Fontana, which lies in the channel of Fort Gratiot. The Fontana’s foremast was carried away by the Kingfisher and other damage was done. The stern of the Fontana lies almost in the middle of the river. Wrecking masters from Detroit and Port Huron are practically agreed that they do not want the job of raising her, and, by reason of her location, she can hardly be raised except, perhaps, with pontoons. She lies just at the entrance to the rapids, alittle to the Canadian side of the center of the channel and some 200 feet below the light-house. Boats steering on the ranges willhit her. Boats having tows coming down stream are in constant danger of being thrown upon the wreck. Detroit’s exports for July amounted to $1,817,154, divided ‘as follows: To Belgium, $36,812; Germany, $16,007 ; Eng- land, $712,544; Scotland, $76,433; Ireland, $5,753; Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, $41,844; Quebec and Ontario, $879,469 ; British Columbia, $25,063 ; Japan, $264 ; Australia, $20,961. Of this steam cars and land vehicles carried away $1,6}0,469 worth. The rest was carried in vessels, of which the bulk were American. Canada our best customer, took $80,000 worth of farming implements, $111,900 worth of horses, $42,181 worth of corn, over $100,000 worth of cotton goods, nearly $100,000 worth of iron and steel, also lumber worth $50,000, and other commodities in like proportion. England took most of her exports in animal products: $35,000 worth of beef; bacon, $112,266; hams, $276,053; pickeled pork, $50,000; lard, $53,000, and ‘‘oleo’’ $11,655. Seeds, liquors and tobacco had practically no sale. The total is heavier than previous months; and beats July, 1899, by a large margin. Six months ago, says a Duluth dispatch, an iron mine was about as valuable a thing as a man could own, Everybody who could was getting hold of a piece of iron land ona lease or in any way possible, and anything that had a showing of iron on it was in good demand. The large iron interests were buying everything they could get. The iron ranges were covered with exploration parties. Every diamond drill in this section was at work and it was difficult to get work done except after much delay. To-day all the explor- ing parties are pulling off and the demand for properties is falling off. The big iron companies are said to be giving it out that they have got all the properties they want now and even more, and that they are not in the market for any more. The result is that those who have taken leases with the idea of developing the properties and selling them to the iron companies are themselves in a fair way to find no market for the properties which they are opening up and many of them will be dropped. Four steamers got into a mix up off Ecorse in Detroit river this week that will cost many thousands of dollars. The accident caused a blockade in the channel and at one time there were 16 boats held up around Grassy Island. The Bessemer steamer James Watt was bound down, loaded. She passed the Lehigh Valley Co’s. freighter Tacoma, and just as she went by the latter touched her stern, causing the Watt to sheer towards the Canadian side of the channel. Here was the Minnesota Steamship Co’s. steamer Maruba towing the Manda. The Watt had signaled to pass to port, and the Maruba had accepted the order. Just as the Watt sheered over the Maruba came up and caught the full force of the Bessemer boat’s momentum. The blow was glancing or the Maruba would have been badly damaged. As it was, the Watt’s bow punched ahole inthe Maruba’s port side amidships, making an opening six feet wide by ten feet long, all fortunately above the water line. There was no loss of life, and, with the cost of repairs, also the detention while making same, the causualty won’t amount to so much as at first anticipated. It is voted here that the working of the new steamer Simon J. Murphy of the Eddy-Shaw fleet, on her first round trip was pleasing to both buildersand owners. The Murphy left Detroit late in July for Duluth, light. At Duluth she loaded 247,000 bushels of wheat, a gross tonnage of 7,410 actual weight, anda net tonnage, government measure, of 6,616. She sailed from Duluth to Buffalo, unloaded and re- turned to Detroit, the amount of coal consumed in the trip of 2,000 miles being 190 tons. Her traveling time was 166 hours, an average of 12 milesan hourfor the round trip. She carried the load on the mean draft of 17 feet Io inches. and her machinery worked to perfection. Comparing her coal consumption with that of the Senator, launched in 1896 from the Detroit yards, the figures show a great advance- ment in economy. The Senator is gro feet over all, has 45-feet beam and is rated with a gross tonnage of 4,048. To the close of last season she made 69 trips between Buffalo and Duluth and had averaged 180 tons of coal foreach round trip, just 10 tons less per trip than the Murphy, which has a capacity of nearly 2,500 tons beyond that of the Senator. i Se TOLEDO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The yacht Viking left for Detroit this week with the fol- lowing party aboard: Capt. Bert Bortree, Henry Huffner, Jack Newton, Harry Helmer and Art Salm. The government work above the Fasset street bridge is progressing. The short haul of scows loaded with mud now dumped abreast of Wilcox’s and the Marine building, is a great help in the work of getting the mud from the dredge away rapidly. At Gilmore’s shipyard, the tug Uncle Sam is being rebuilt, The schooner Maumee Valley is on the drydock to be calked, bottom and top sides. The sand barge Commerce will go on the dock in a day or two to be calked, and the tug Shelly will have her repairs made. The Rabbitt & Sons Company will begin driving piles abreast of the Marine building, foot of Jefferson street, next week. This will prevent boats from landing at the old wharf from Adams street to the Traction Company’s build- ing near Monroe street, with the exception of foot of Madi- son street at J. N. Dewey & Co.s and foot of Jefferson street. Mr. Charles Lance, whose son, Lewis W. Lance, assistant engineer, became ill on the steamer Merida and died in a Duluth hospital, has received a letter from Capt. Ivers, of the Merida. The first Capt. Ivers knew of Lance’s death was when he received a letter from his father. Mr. Lance wishes to thank the Marine Engineers and other marine men of Duluth, and Mrs. Eugene Passono, wife of engineer Passono, as well as the many Toledo friends, for kindness shown while his son was ill and also after he died. R The Up-River Yacht Club, at its meeting held recently decided to postpone the race until August 19. This is to be one of the regular series of races for the Brown troph and point flags. In order to give added interest to the re- gatta, it is proposed to give special prizes in each class. A special invitation was received from the local committee of the National Union to participate ina sailing regatta to be held off Walbridge park August 16. So far as they are able to do so, the boats of the club will participate in that event. The regular meeting of the club next Friday evening will be of ela importance and every member is urged to be present. AUGUST 9, I900, DULUTH—SUPERIOR. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Inspector Norman B. Conger of the Weather Bureau has wired the White Line Transportation Co. to reserve berths for a party of six for Rock Harbor, Isle Royal. Wheat charters went to 1% cents here this week wi light chartering. It is thought that towards the en week shipping will be very brisk at the above-name, _ To the first of this month 214,000 tons of.coal reached ty E head of the lakes from Buffalo. This is only exceeded by Chicago, although Milwaukee reaches close up with her im- port of 202,000 tons. The steam yacht Wacouta will remain on Lake Superior for about a month, and it is reported that at the end of that time. she will return to the Atlantic with James J. Hill and family on board for a cruise to the West Indies. a : 3 3 Henry Nelson, agent at Duluth for the Lake Seamen’s — Union, is hustling day and night in the interest of his union, — He is securing a number of new members and has furnished employment for a number of men who desired to ship with boats who were short of men. This week the sailors on the yacht Waconta joined the union. By the bursting of a steam pipe on the steam yacht Wa- couta on Lake Superior this week two firemen were killed. They were standing near when the explosion occurred, and both were scalded to death. The Wacouta is a large ocean going steam yacht, and was recently purchased and brought to the lakes by James J. Hill, president of the Great North- — ern railroad. The steamer Theano of the Algoma Central Railway Steamship Line recently passed down through the Canadian canal at Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., with the first cargo of iron ore ever shipped from the Canadian shore of Lake Superior. © She had 2,153 tons, and was bound for Midland. From this out it is expected to ship three or four cargoes per week to the same place. The fine of $100 which wasimposed on Captain J. J. Hart- man, of the steamer North West, for running too fast through the St. Mary river about July 18, has been reduced to $15 by the government authorities. It was Hartman’s first trip on the steamer and his first offense, in view of which the Treasury Department made the reduction stated. The government rules require vessels over I00 tons to not exceed 9 miles an hour when traveling on the river. A sand wheel of very large size for the Calumet & Hecla Copper Mining Company is now being constructed at Wood- bury, N. Y. The wheel is to be 65 feet in diameter and will weigh more than 500 tons. It will have a face of 30 feet width and revolve upon an axle 5 feet in diameter. At- tached to the wheel will bea number of buckets to carry water and sand out of the mines. be constructed segmentally, and it will be assembled ina pit dug into the ground. The Carnegie Steel Company has taken a contract to supply the Russian government with 1,000 tons of armor plate at $560 per ton. Thedelivery must be made within a period of 14 months. This plate is to go on ships of the Russian navy to displace old compound armor on the vital parts, which no longer meets the requirements of modern war ordnance. The requisition includes turret and side armor of the newest Kruppized product. The plates will range from 4 to 11 inches in thickness. _The report is floating around here to the effect that the birth of a babe on the steamship North Land on her last trip to Duluth recalls the early offer of the Nothern Steam- ship Company of $500 as a present to any baby that might happen to be born upon either of the big white boats. This is the first time in the history of this line that a birth has occured on the line, and the question now arises whether this promise on the part of the steamship company is still in force, if indeed it was ever promised. The iron ore shipments from Minnesota to August 1 this year, show an increase over the shipments for the cor- responding period last year of 1,425,794 gross tons, which is regarded asa very heavy increase for the first three full months of the season, together with the moyement for the latter part of April. There has been some talk that the shipments for the season, which had been estimated early in the spring at 20,000,000 tons, would be curtailed. It now looks as if the season shipments will come up to the total mentioned in the early part of the year. President J. J. Hill’s scheme for a big steamship line to the Orient seems to have taken shape in articles of incor- poration filed with the Secretary of State by the Great Northern Steamship Co., with a capital stock of $6,000,000. The purpose of the company is stated to be the building and operating of steamships on the high seas and other navi- gable waters. The incorporators are James J. Hill, D. Miller, W. P. Clough, M. D. Grover and A. W. Clark, all officials of the Great Northern Railway Co. The officers are not named, but the date of the first annual meeting is fixed for February 1, in St. Paul, which will be the head- quarters of the company. The capital stock is divided into 60,0co shares of $100 each. The filing fee was over $3,000. The Hill system at present includes the lake steamship line between Buffalo and Duluth and the transcontinental rail- road. The new company will extend its business to the Orient. The wheel will, of course, .