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ESTABLISHED 1878. VOL. XXIII, No. 34 CLEVELAND---AUGUST 23, 1900---CHICAGO. $2.00 Per Year. LAKE CARRIERS’ ASSOCIATION. Toconsider and take action uponall general questions relating to the navigation and carrying business of the Great Lakes, maintain necessary shipping offices and in general to protect the common interests of Lake Car- riers, and improve the character of the service rendered to the public. PRESIDENT. W. C. FARRINGTON, Buffalo. : 1ST VICE-PRESIDENT Capr. J. G. KEITH, Chicago. SECRETARY. CHARLES H. KEEP, Buffalo. TREASURER. GEORGE P. McKay, Cleveland. COUNSEL. HARVEY D. GouLDER, Cleveland. EXECUTIVE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE. JAMES CoRRIGAN, Chairman, Cleveland. COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. Grsson L,. Doucias, Chairman, Buffalo. COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION. GEORGE P. McKay, Chairman, Cleveland. LAKE SUPERIOR HISTORY. When Lief, the son of Eric, sailed away from his Iceland home, and, sailing ever west, finally reached the coast of Labrador, it seemed to his hardy Norse companions as if they had gone as far as could be asked of even the boldest daring. It seemed that even a Viking could go no further. But not far to the south lay the mouth of the St. Lawrence river. Had Lief and his companions persevered until this was reached they would have found the gateway to the very heart of the new continent. But this was not to be; and for six more centuries the great chain of lakes with Gitche Gumee at their head slumbered beneath their sun-reflected busoms unruffled save by the breath of the Spirit Manitou and by the bark canoe of the red man. It was not until near the beginning of the 17th century that Du Luth, sailing on beyond the seething waters of the Sault, came to land at the head of the longest, broadest and deepest of the Great Lakes. Following him came the French voyagers, keeping time to their songs with the stroke of their paddles. Not far behind were the priests and mission- aries of the Catholic church. In 1660 Father Mesnard lost his life on the Black river, whose picturesque surroundings and precipitate fall of 100 feet must have appealed with great force to the mind of the Chippewa who. ‘‘saw God in the cloud and heard his voice in the wind.”’ From the earliest days the fur traders had established a station on Minnesota point. Later, one was established on what is now known as the Sweitzer tract. Here was located the old fort. Going on up the weird and winding waters of the St. Louis river, another post had been established at Fond du Lac. All this time no soundings, no charts, no maps had been made. Safety in sailing depended upon the individual skill of the sailor. In 1829 the British government ordered soundings and a survey of the harbors and bays at the head of Lake Superior. This was done under the direction of Capt. Bayfield, for whom Bayfield city and county have since been named. The charts made by Capt. Bayfield have been in use from that time to this—71 years—and may be seen to-day upon the lake steamers. During the 30’s and 4o’s sailing schooners and vessels passed between Wisconsin and Minnesota points and entered Superior bay from time to time. Among them was the Al- gonquin, whose hull now lies beside the L, avenue dock in Gentral Park. Another was the Ford, and a third the Nep- tune. In 1853 the city of Superior sprang into existence and reg- ular lines of steamships plied between the head of the lakes and Chicago and Cleveland. The times were lively and money was plentiful. Thus far no important work had been done on the harbor and the boats were compelled to hunt their way in and out the circuitous channel as best they might. Among the steamers for which Superior was the last port of call were the Elgin, North Star, Illinois, Kee- wana and Iron City. One of these was commanded by Capt. Alexander McDougall, who, even then, was a familiar figure on the streets of Old Superior. Often times excursions were run to the head of Lake Su- perior and a boat lay over for a day of two. Brass bands sometimes accompanied the visitors and parades passed along the streets of the new town. In 1860 a detachment from the marine engineering corps made soundings and a survey of the various bays and inlets constituting the harbor of Superior. The party came in the steamship Search, and was in command of George H. Meade, afterwards major-general in the United States Army and the hero of the field of Gettysburg. General Meade was here for two seasons and his friendly manner and affable ways made him extremely popular with the people of Superior. The general placed wooden stations on the headlands and es- tablished the base line on Minnesota point, since used in all descriptions of land in this vicinity. Kighteen hundred and sixty came and with it the war of the rebellion, Duty called, and the gallant general sailed away. In 1868 Col. Wheeler made surveys and improved the piers. Soon after, Congress made an appropriation for dredging the channel. : In 1870 provision was made for the Duluth canal and dike. Under the present continuous contract work is progress- ing upon the channel to be 21 feet deep and 4o0 feet wide. The officer in charge is Major Clinton B. Sears, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., to whose able supervision the head of the lakes is deeply indebted.—Evening Telegram, Superior, Wis. : oO Ds BIDS FOR ARMOR PLATE. The Acting Secretary of the Navy on August 10 opened bids at the Navy Department for armor: for the battleships and cruisers authorized for construction. The circular call- ing for bids requested that prices be given for armor suffi- cient to cover all of the vessels either under construction or authorized for construction.. As we stated last week, the Bethlehem and Carnegie Steel Companies submitted identi- cal bids: $445 a ton with $45 a ton for royalty, for armor of class A, and for class B $400 a ton. The bids of these com- panies specified that the deliveries of the armor would com- mence in six months and would continue at the rate of 300 tonsa month. Each of the companies bid for half of the entirecontract. A new competitor, the Midvale Steel Co., bid this year for the contract. They, as we also stated, bid $436 a ton for all armor of class A. The bid for armor of class B was $380 a ton, but was conditioned upon a portion of the bid on class A. Unless an award of 20,000 tons was made the company, it did not undertake to accept the con- tract. Also, the Midvale company did not agree to make any deliveries for a much longer period than the other two companies. The Acting Secretary of the Navy rejected all of the above bids on the ground that they were not favorable to the gov- ernment. ‘This does not mean that the Department will ac- cept the alternative and erect an armor plant, but it will is- sue another advertisement calling for new bids on the armor. The reason assigned for the rejection of the bids is the de- mand made by all of the bidders for too large a proportion of the amount of armor plate. The new bids will be opened at the Navy Department on October 2. 5c. Single Copy STATEMENT OF NAVAL CONSTRUCTION The degree of completion of vessels under construction for the U. S. Navy as shown by the records of the Bureau of Construction and Repair for Aug. 1, 1900, is as follows: Battleships—I1linois, 84 per cent.; Alabama, 98 per cent.; Wisconsin, 94 per cent ; Maine, 32 per cent.; Missouri, 9 per cent.; Ohio, 23 per cent. Sheathed protected cruisers.— Denver, 20 per cent.; Des Moines, 4 per cent.; Chattanooga, 7 per cent.; Galveston, oper cent.; Tacoma, oper cent.; Cleveland, 8 per cent. Monitors—Arkansas, 34 per cent.; Connecticut, 60 per cent.; Florida, 43 per cent.; Wyoming, 48 per cent. Torpedo boat destroyers—Bainbridge, 71 per cent.; Barry, 70 per cent.; Chauncey, 70 per cent.; Dale, 80 per cent.; Decatur, 77 per cent.; Hopkins, 63 per cent.; Hull 63 per cent ; Lawrence, 96 per cent.; MacDonough, 94 per cent.; Paul Jones, 75 per cent.; Perry, 75 per cent.; Preble, 75 per cent.; Stewart, 31 per cent.; Truxton, 28 per cent.; Whipple, 28 per cent.; Worden, 28 per cent. Torpedo boats— Stringham, 98 per cent.; Goldsborough, 99 per cent.; Bailey 95 per cent.; Bagley, 73 per cent.; Carney, 93 per cent.; Biddle, 53 per cent.; Blakely, 90 per cent.; DeLong, go per cent.; Nicholson, 70 per :cent.; O’Brien, 73 per cent.; Shu- brick, 89 per cent.; Stockton, 94 per cent.; Thornton, 87 per cent.; Tingey, 61 per cent.; Wilkes, 53 per cent. Submarine torpedo boat—Plunger 85 per cent. a ee ce FOR SHIPOWNERS AND BUILDERS. The following has been forwarded to us by Commissioner of Navigation E. T. Chamberlain, with the very pertinent remark that there may be also an opportunity for American shipowners. In the same report of the British Acting Consul-General at Rio, it is urged that British shipowners should note that there is an almost complete want of small or middle-sized sailing vessels at ports on the Brazilian coast, say vessels of 300 to 700 tons deadweight, so much so that exporters have been obliged to ship by steamers’ cargoes for wi@ich sailers were preferred, as, for instance, salted hides for British and Continental ports for which very high freights would be paid; say 35s. per ton. For coffee, also for the South Afri- can ports, extremely high freights are paid, and a very brisk business is expected with these quarters as soon as peace is re-established. It is also stated that vessels loading 6,000 to 10,000 bags (360 to 600 tons or 1,009 kilogs, each) will find employment at freights of £600 to £1,000 or more,— From the Board of Trade Journal, London, August 2, 1900. —_——— rr a MORE FACILITIES AT THE ‘‘SOO.”’ The declaration by Chairman Burton, at Duluth, that there will have to be a new and larger lock at the Sault, is proof that the committee now realizes the great importance of the canal. He favors a lock of twice the dimensions of the present lock, and stands for immediate action on the proposition. It will take years to complete a new lock, and in the meantime vessels will be built that can utilize the new interlake channels to their utmost. It will therefore be wise to make the new lock as commodious as possible. ‘The committeemen who have been visiting the ports of Lake Superior have become so deeply impressed with the importance of the lake shipping trade that it ought to be an easy matter to win their support for any reasonable project calculated to improve the shipping facilities of Milwaukee. It would be asking too much to request a deepening of our rivers at government expense. Only Chicagoans have the assurance to go that far. But the government should make the outer harbor, and the channel between the harbor piers, equal to the demands of the commerce of the psesent and that of the near future.—Evening Wisconsin. bl ical