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. Milwaukee, against the steamer C. F. Bielman. SEPTEMBER 27, 1900. THE MARINE RECORD. MJ SSS rrrrcnerereeeeeereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneeeeeeereeee eee CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Grain freights settled on Monday at one and one-half cents on corn, with a half dozen charters made. The lumber trade is taking care of more vessels and there is a better demand for tonnage in that trade than there has been any time this season. On Tuesday the grain rates advanced to 15g on corn and 134 cents on wheat. Considerable business was done in whéat that was not reported. The steamer Andrew Carnegie loaded on Monday the big- gest cargo of grain ever taken out of the Chicago river. Two hundred and thirty thousand bushels of corn was taken on at the Illinois Central elevators. The Western liner Montana collided with the Canada-At- lantic liner George N. Orr, at Chicago Friday. The Orr’s stockless anchor caught in one of the Montana’s gangways and a severe break in the latter’s quickwork resulted. It is announced that extensive alterations will be made on the steamer City of Milwaukee during the coming winter. She will be laid up November 1, and it is intended to make hera duplicate of the City of Chicago, with the extra upper deck and additional show room. The Michigan City line will close its business for the sea- son next Sunday, when the America and A. B. Taylor will be sent to Grand Haven for the winter. General manager Duubar says that the traffic for the season has been the most satisfactory.since the line was established. The movement of grain from Chicago is comparatively heavy, all of the boats that arrive easily finding cargoes, the supply of tonnage having been cut down by the delays at Port Huron owing to the wrecks, and by the recent storms which are keeping the boats under shelter. Major Willis Moore, chief of the Weather Bureau, has selected a site on the old life-saving pier at the mouth of the Calumet river, for the erection of a storm signal tower. The Department of Agriculture has ordered that the work on the tower be begun at once. It will have alight powerful enough to be visible fifteen miles out on the lake. Owing to dredging above the dam at Joliet there will be only two and one-half feet of water passing over the bear- trap dam at Lockport. This will cut down the current in the Chicago river to about two and one-half miles an hour. Sanitary district officials say the work which has caused stoppage in the flow will be rapidly pushed until completed. A claim for salvage, the amount of which was not men- tioned, was filed in the United States Court this week, at The survey on the Bielman showed that the total cost of stranding on Fisherman’s Shoal would be about $18,000, of which $8,000 is the cost of wrecking and the value of coal cargo jetti- soned. It is now stated that navigation on the Chicago river will be more satisfactory for the next few weeks. The current is to be materially checked, and the handling of big steamers will be greatly facilitated. There will be less danger of col- lisions with bridges and other boats, and the boats that have kept away from the river of late owing to the swiftness of the current need have no fear. The steamer Wawatam, leaving Chicago witha cargo of grain for Buffalo, struck on La Salle street tunnel shortly after I p.m. Monday. She was in tow of the tug Dickinson. After a brief spell of hard pulling she was released by the tug. The water stood 17.9 feet when she went on the tun- nel, and would have cleared the subway had it not been for two vessels incoming, who crowded her to the south side of the river. In Joliet, Ill., the dam which holds backwater from the drainage canal, which has just been completed by a com- any for the operation of a large water-power electric plant, is causing much uneasiness to the engineers, who had con- templated putting it to use by this date. A sand pocket or hole, 10 feet deep and 20 feet across, has been discovered immediately below the center of the over-pour from the dam, and it is feared that a heavy concrete apron will have to be built on the lower side, the whole length of the dam. It is stated that the four steamers ordered from the Amer- ican Ship Building Co. for the Northwestern Transportation -Co., headed by Charles Counselman, the grain shipper, are intended for the nucleus of a grain line between Chicago and Liverpool. Mr. Counselmen is in New York, and no one in his office would discuss the matter. On talking toa prominent vessel agent on the matter, he said, these boats may unload at Montreal and reach Quebec, but there is no pas teatic trade for them either now or in the near uture, - Grain shipments per lakes for the week ending Saturday last from the port of Chicago, which includes the Calumet, reached the unusually large total of 6,718,984 bushels. This was carried away by sixty-seven ships, or an average of nearly ten each day. Of this grand total about one-half was corn, the figures being 3,387,889 bushels. There were 1,444,749 bushels of wheat, 1,791,709 bushels of oats and 94,637 bushels of flaxseed. Some of the large freighters of the lake fleet came after grain cargoes owing to the dullness in iron ore shipments. They were not all loaded at South Chicago, the Curry and Aurania loading in the South branch of the Chicago river. The Chicago Brass Co., Kenosha, Wis., since their new regime went into effect, have been branching out considera- bly in the way of manufacture of new products. The plant has been thoroughly overhauled since the advent of the new superintendent, Mr. Fletcher, and they are now contemplat- ing the manufacture of brass pipe in connection with their reed output. J. D. Hackstaff, a mechanical engineer, con- nected with the Rockwell Engineering Co., of New York, has had the new work in charge and has completed his labors. It is said that the move will result in quite a large increase in the working force of the plant. The steamer Richmond was tied up this week at Miller’s shipyard by the sheriff, om:a. writ of attachment issued by the Superior Court in favor of Armour & Co. for $400. The boat is owned by Hulburt O. Wilson, of St. Joseph, Mich., and the claim is for supplies furnished the boat at that place. The Richmond has been running at St. Joseph for years as a fishing boat in winter and as a ferry boat between the twin cities in the summer. Capt. Wilson brought the boat to this city to sell her to Chicago parties, and the writ of attach- ment was immediately secured to head off a sale which might possibly be ina measure fraudulent to the supply dealers and others. Capt. Mulholland of the Bradley line steel steamer Alva, has invented a new fastener for hatch covers, which was ex- amined on Monday, by a number of underwriters and ship- masters. It was pronounced the best thing of its kind ever brought to the notice of the underwriters. Capt. J. J. Reardon was particularly enthusiastic, pronouncing the de- vice one which would give much greater security to vessels in storms than any of the hatch fasteners now in use. Capt. Mulholland has tried the new fastener thoroughly on the Alva. New devices are coming out each season, and the latest appears to be the best. Mulholland may have some- thing handy and secure, and then again, another notion may prove superior. There ought to be no difficulty in shipbuild- ers finding a proper hatch fastener. Two boats left South Chicago with more than two complete railroad trains for cargoes. The boats are the car ferry barges No. 1 and No. 2. of the Lake Michigan Car Ferry Trans- portation Co., and are being towed by the big tug J. C. Ames. The barges will have on them two complete locomotives set up and ready for running forty cars of the flat variety and two passenger coaches. They are bound for the harbor at Michipicoten, which is on the north shore of Lake Super- ior about Sault St. Marie. They will be used on the Algo- ma Central Railway, which is now a line twelve miles long, but which some day, say the promoters, will link Lake Su- perior with the great Hudson Bay. The harbor at Michi- picoten is now without any rail connection with the outside world, and so all supplies are shipped in by boat. The car ferry barges being designed for this work with tracks on their decks were chartered and loaded the outfit at the Calu- met. The cars were built by the Pullman Co., and the loco- motives atthe Baldwin works at Philadelphia. On barge No. 1 are twenty freight cars and two passenger coaches, while the locomotives and twenty freight cars occupy the space on barge No. 2. The Algoma Central Railway is the line connecting Michipicoten iron mines with water com- merce at Lake Superior. The mines were opened up this year and apparently they contain inexhaustible deposits of the ore. Docks have been constructed in the harbor, and several English tramp steamers have been brought to the lakes to haul the ore down to Desoronto and other Canadian furnaces on Lake Ontario. The enterprise is owned by Philadelphia capitalists, headed by Francis J. Clergue. They also have the water power concessions at the rapids in St. Mary’s river at Sault Ste. Marie, where large pulp mills are being erected. Oo BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. The receipts of lumber in the Tonawandas since Saturday night exceed the arrivals.so far this season and break all previous records. Twenty lumber boats arrived, carrying 14,000,000 feet. There are signs of a grain blockade. All the active elevators are, at this writing, congested, and the railways complain of shortage of cars. Vesselmen are commencing to grumble at delays. The steamer Gen. O. M. Poe arrived at Buffalo Monday from Manitowoc with one of the mammoth cargoes of the season. It consisted of 64,000 bushels of corn, 225,700 bush- els of oats and 50,500 bushels of wheat. Weare not entirely without some shipbuilding here this week. The unrigged canal barge of 387 tons No. 98 besides the Annie J. Guinean of 105 tons and the canal boat Fred C. Peckham, 103 tons, built at Plattsburg, N. Y., are to our credit. Special types of boilers constructed by the Fitzgibbons Boiler Co., Oswego, N. Y., are described and illustrated in a handsome catalogue 9 by 12 in. in .size. A number of ex- cellent half-tone engravings show the several types, and a number of sizes of this well-known boiler, and a large sec- tional view in connection with the very complete descriptive matter, makes the catologue of much value. A Canadian court was called upon to decide the value of a new suspension bridge between Queenstown and Lewis- town Heights in Niagara, Ont., township recently. This grew out of a dispute regarding tax valuation, and the bridge company claimed that the only tax value the bridge had was that of old scrap iron should it be torn down. The scrap iron position was considered untenable, though the advance- ee of the proposition resulted in a material reduction of axes, - v Tuesday evening the big freighter Gen. Orlando M. Poe, while being brought into Buffalo harbor by the tugs Acme and Cheney, took a sheer and crashed into the steamer Pasa- dena, lying atthe Bennett elevator dock. The Poe had been taken outside to wind and was being towed back stern first, which, taken in connection with the strong current, doubtless was responsible in a measure for the accident. Damage to the Pasadena was inflicted to her starboard quar- ter, and consists of a bad break, which is entirely above the water line. She was towed to the Anchor line docks and is discharging her cargo. Estimated expenses for repairs run from $1,500 to $2,000. The Pasadenais owned by M. A. Bradley. Three members of the crew of the steamer North West were arrested here last Friday night on the charge of being implicated in the robberies which took place on the steamer North Land when she came down on her last trip and also of having been concerned in stealings on board of the North West. These three are the stewart, the chef and the head waiter. The waiter is said to have confessed that the three secured two large trunks full of silverware, fancy canned goods and other articles of value. Their alleged intention was to ship the goods to Cleveland where they intended to opena restaurant. When the North West left Buffalo on her last trip up the head waiter was left behind. As some stuff had been missed, the waiter was watched. His com- panions were supposed to be on the boat attending to bus- iness. Itis said that the wife of one of them discovered that something was wrong and took the train for Mackinac, where she met the boat and warned her husband that the plan was suspected and that it was known that the three had moved the two trunks on the previous landing at Buffalo. The man, it is said, laughed at the fears of his wife, and is now in jail. oo oo FLOTSAM, JETSAM AND LAGAN. Lydon & Drews, the contractors on the straight channel at Toledo, have put two dredges to work cutting away the 1,600 foot bar at the outer can buoy, where vessels have been grounding recently. The Belle Isle ferry boats are laid up for the season. The Promise and Fortune will keep steam up in case of an emer- gency, as their services are often in demand at the close of the season, when freighters get into trouble. The U.S. Monitor Wyoming was successfully launched from the yards of the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, Cal., on Sept. 8. The launching was managed without a hitch, by Superintendent Dickie, of the Union Iron Works. The steamers City of Racine and Atlanta, of the Goodrich Transportation Co., have been placed on the Chicago-Mus- kegon route, and the Iowa and Indiana, which have been on that route all summer, have been put on the west shore line. The Lake Michigan Car Ferry Co. has sued E. G. Crosby & Co., of Milwaukee, to recover $4,500 damages for the sinking of the barge A in Racine harbor, May 15. The barge was leased by the plaintiff to the defendant, and the allega- tion is careless handling. The amount of lake shipments from Buffalo last week was 35,880 tons, distributed as follows: Chicago, 18,500 tons; Milwaukee, 6,600 tons; Duluth-Superior, 3,500 tons; Racine, 1,880 tons; Lake Linden, 1,700 tons; Monitowoc, 1,200 tons; Gladstone, 700 tons; Toledo, 700 tons; Green Bay, 600 tons; Sault, 580 tons. After a lapse of nearly a year another victim of the wrecked yacht Chiquita, which went ashore at the head of Lake Michigan on Nov. 2 last, a total wreck, has been found. The body was that of the wife of Capt. D.S. Way, and was found buried in the sand two miles west of the wreckage near Mil- ler Station, Ind. It was well preserved. : Officials of the Pere Marquette Railway here say that Mus- kegon, Mich., is to beabandoned by that company as a freight receiving point about the time the new car ferry is delivered. The new company wishes to concentrate all its business on the east shore to Ludington, where the general offices 0! the road are, and its Milwaukee business will gradually be diverted to that port. At present the car ferry Pere Mar- quette runs from Manitowoc to Ludington, and the Muske- gon from Milwaukee to Muskegon. When the new ship is delivered the Muskegon will run from Milwaukee to Luding- ton, and the new vessel will be put on the Manitowoc run to help relieve the Pere Marquette, which has been obliged to make two trips daily. ———____qq-~2e—_—_ PATENTS ON MARINE INVENTIONS ISSUED. 657,943. Tide-motor, F. R. Kimball, Salem, Mass. 657,980. Pile-holder for pile-driving machines. Falcon, Evanston, Ill. 658,043. Hand-propelled boat D. M. Pfaust, Philadelphia, Pa., assignor of three-fourths to C. F. Maize, Josiah Dearn- ley, J. F. Reichardt, B. D. Rearick, J. EK. Challenger, John Binkin, Jr. C. J. McDougall, A. B. Metzler, and J. W. Burr, same place, and C. HE. Metzler, Landsdale, Pa. eee 658,202. Vessel for carrying passengers. A. W. Bibby, Liverpool, England. 658,265. Pneumatic propelling and steering device. Constantin Janczarski, Hughesovka, Russia. 658,297. Water-wheel. J. W. Taylor, Atlanta, Ga., as- signor to the Taylor Manufacturing Co., Lynchburg, Va.