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10 THE MARINE RECORD. OCTOBER 4, I90 ESTABLISHED 1878. Published Every Thursday by THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., 7 Incorporated. Cc. E. RUSKIN, - - - - Manager. CAPT. JOHN SWAINSON, - . - Editor. CLEVELAND, CHICAGO, Western Reserve Building. Royal Insurance Building. SUBSCRIPTION. One Copy, one year, postage paid, - - $2.00 One Copy, one year, to foreign countries, - = $3.00 Invariably in advance. ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. All communications should be addressed to the Cleveland office, THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Western Reserve Building, Cleveland, O. Entered at Cleveland Postoffice as second-class mail matter. No attention is paid to anonymous communications, but the wishes of contributors as to the use of their names will be scrupulously regarded. CLEVELAND, O., OCTOBER 4, 1900. TO ENLARGE THE WEITZEL LOCK. At the next session of Congress a proposition will be ad- vanced looking to the immediate enlargement of the first (the Weitzel) lock in the ship canal at Sault Ste Marie. This is the smaller of the two locks through which pass the commerce of the northwest, and is 600 feet long. The Poe lock is 100 feet wide and 800 feet long. When the Poe lock was completed it was supposed the two would be am- ple to handle all commerce that could possibly arise on the lakes for the next several decades; but now it is necessary that there be twice as much room. The engineers have figured that the Weitzel lock must be increased in width to more than Ioo feet and lengthened to 1,500 or 1,600 feet and deepened to 25 feet over the sills. Authorization for this work will be asked next winter and there can be no doubt that it will be granted and the money appropriated. It will cost $9,000, 000. So great has been the increase in size of lake ships that the Weitzel lock, which used to hold two or three of the largest vessels at one lockage, now holds but one; while the Poe lock, big as it is, has'capacity for but two of the largest size. The proposed Weitzel lock will be big enough to pass at one time three of such ships as the Gates, Hill or Eden- born, with their 500 feet of length, and 52 feet of beam. The Poe lock of today is on the site of the canal of 1855 and the new Weitzel will occupy the room of the lock of 1885. OOOO eee HANDLING VESSELS IN THE CHICAGO RIVER. . The towing companies and others handling vessels in the Chicago river who have tried to guage the current have given it up.. They have at times thought that they would be able to get it down to a working basis, but a sudden change in the wind or the raising or lowering of the bear trap dam at Lockport has invariably upset all their figuring. When the wind gets around to the north or northeast, or is due east, it raises the level of the river and forces so much _water into it that in places, especially where the river is narrow, as around the bridges, it creates such a swift current that it is extremely difficult for tug men or vessel captains to handle their boats with safety. The Inter Ocean says: ‘‘Vesselmen suggest that the flow of water over the Lockport dams should be guaged and regulated in accordance with the change of the wind. This method, they believe, will make it more easy to calculate the force of the current and enable them to handle their boats with more security. It will also render them less likely to collide with the bridges. A very stiff current late - Monday night was the cause of two boats striking bridges. The steamer Pontiac, in tow of the tug O. B. Green, going * up the river, collided with the south protection to Harrison street bridge, doing about $30 damage, but failing to injure the steamer. The lumber schooner Cora A., coming 10, while in tow of the tug Rotta, ran into,,Clark street, bridge and lost her foremast and was. damaged: otherwise... The current was too swift for the tug to handle her, and..she be- came unmanageable. With a slower or regular current all such accidents might be avoided, so some of the vesselmen say.’’ ari oe YACHTING EXPENSES. The sums of money that our wealthy citizens annually devote to yachting are almost incomprehensible. Roughly speaking, the annual cost of running a steam yacht each season for three to five months, is about one-sixth of the original cost of the boat. Howard Gould spends about $125,- ooo a year on the Niagara. Mrs. Goelet and W. K. Vander- bilt each spend alike sum, and James Gordon Bennett as much, if not more. Of fully a score of the forty-nine most magnificant American yachts it may be said that each costs its owner $50,000 or moré each season. It is estimated that the cost of maintaining a large yacht is about $1,000 for each member of the crew, counting coal, provisions, repairs, etc. The Niagara’s crew numbereighty men, the Valiant’s eighty, the Nahama’s eighty, the Var- una’s seventy, the Josephine’s sixty, etc. But the $1,000 per man does not take in the owner’s princely entertain- ments on board, his champagne bills, and other forms of extravagance, and it is often the case that entertainments on yachts ‘are more lavish than on land. —— oo A CANADIAN ROUTE TO THE COAST. There is'a favorite project in Canada, more or less of a " private enterprise, for building a barge canal from Georgian bay up the French river to Lake Nipissing, then through a chain of very small lakes and across the divide to the Ottawa river, and dowr to Montreal... The Ottawa river can be quite easily canalized in its upper waters, and there would be con- siderable slack water navigation in the river itself. Some of the Canadian papers have been discussing the proposed American deep waterway and comparing it with the Ottawa river project.. The Canadian plan has been al- ways for a fourteen foot barge canal, and not for a deep waterway. Now there is a change in the sentiment in the Dominion press, and the Montreal Star suggests that the fourteen foot canal might not be so advisable as a twenty- one foot channel over the Ottawa route. The Star thinks that the United States will surely build the deep waterway. George Y. Wisner of Detroit of the deep waterway com- mission, speaking of the Ottawa river project, said: ‘Tt is a very short route. There are only 420 miles of canal and river between the Georgian Bay and Montreal. The route is so short that were it built it would make Mon- treal just as near Duluth and Chicago as Buffalo is now. ‘It would take a little more time for a vessel to go from Chicago or Duluth to Montreal by. that route than to Buffalo, because of the difference in speed in the canal and in the open waters of the lakes. But it is a short cut to the sea and there are no serious engineering difficulties to be overcome. However, I have no confidence in the scheme, froma busi- ness point of view. The bulk of the traffic of the lakes is in ore and coal, or between the eastern shippers and their wes- tern markets. Ore and‘coal must seek each other, so the Superior and Erie commerce would notbe affected. The only lake traffic that could be diverted to this short route to the sea would be in the export trade, and that is mainly in food- stuffs. There is good reason to believe that the export trade of the northwest in foodstuffs will decline and that each year the amount consumed at home, in eastern markets will in- crease, until practically a very small per cent. of the wheat crop of the northwest will find its way abroad. Admitting everything that can be said about the shortness of the route, and the readiness with which it can be constructed, I do not believe the canal would pay for the cost of construction, either as a deep waterway or as a barge canal, ————_ eae Our thanks are due the Maryland Steel Co., Sparrows Point, Md., for a courteous invitation to the launch of the dredging steamer Thomas on Oct. 2, built by the firm to the order of the Metropolitan Dredging Co. and Andrew Onderdonk, and at which time an elegant luncheon was served. Wemuch regret that the distance prevented our acceptance of the transportation facilities offered including other special favors, brightly. The Mayflower was struck on her starboard bow i LICENSE SUSPENDED. Steamboat Inspectors Monaghan and Chalk, of the lec Steamboat Inspection Service, of Duluth, have comple! their investigations as to the responsibility for the colli between. the ferry steamer Mayflower and the tug Geor, Emerson, on Sept. 15, by which the former was sunk in Duluth. bay. The inspectors find that S. B. Swank, t pilot,of,the Mayflower, was at fault, and his license is’sus- pended for 60 days. a The full decision is.as, follows: It appears in the testimony that the collision occurr or near the turn in the channel entering Tower slip. The — Mayflower was coming out from the ferry dock ata speed — of seven or eight miles an hour. Her pilot claims he did not see the Emerson’s lights until within 100 or 150 feet.of her. He then gave an alarm signal, and a signal to the en- gineer to back. The boats struck each other just as the Mayflower backed. The Emerson’s speed was checked to four or five miles an hour before passing the tug Gillen an scow, which were in the channel about half way between Barker’s dock and the lumber dock. The red light of the May flower was seen when this tow was passed, and she was then about 500 feet away. One whistle was blown at this time by the Emerson, and all her lights were burning — and, therefore, must have been crossing the bows of the Emerson at the time. : It is found that the pilot of the Mayflower was at fault — and neglectful of his duties in failing to see the Emerson’s- lights, or to hear and answer her passing signal in time to — avoid collision. | OlS ag For violation of Section 4450, Revised Statutes, the license — of Samuel B. Swank, pilot of the steamer Mayflower, is — hereby suspended for a period of sixty (60) days, commenc- ing September 28, 1900. ec (Signed) JoHN MONAGHAN. ead (Signed ) M. CHALK, Local inspectors, OO oO oe SHOOTING GANNON AT GLOUDS IN FRANCE. An effort is being made in this section of France to dis- sipate hail storms by firing cannon at the clouds. Fifty-two cannon, manned by 104 cannoneers and their chiefs, have been distributed over an area of 2,500 acres of rich vine land. For the expense of the experiment, the Government © appropriated 2,000 francs ($386), the departmental council 1,500 francs ($289), the National French Agricultural Society and a number of wealty wine growers added 12,000 francs ($2,316) and furnished fourteen more cannon. The Minister of War supplied powder for 234 cents per pound. A high point in the vine land to be covered by the experi- ments was selected as the central post of observation, and a signal code adopted. When a shot is heard from the central post all the cannon are fired, at first twice per minute; more slowly after the first ten shots. I translate the report of the first firing at the storm clouds this season: Te The farmers of Denice were aroused at 1.30 o’clock on th night of June 5-6. The storm was very severe. The artil- lerists, from 40 to 50 strong, fired their guns and stopped the thunder and lightning. In the neighboring communes, the people saw columns of flames rise 3co feet above the cannon when the shots were fired. At several places, wo- men recharged the cartridges. The wine growers are organizing to attack the hail storms in many of the great wine-growing regions of France. The two experiments thus far reported are pronounced success- ful. A writer in one of the wine-growers’ organs says: The results obtained from these experiments are such that organizations will be established at once in all the places that have heretofore been ravaged by hail. Iam told that the practice of shooting at the clouds was known in France over a hundred years ago, and that it ori- ginated in Italy. It is to be more extensively carried on this year than ever before. Joun C. COVERT, Consul, Lyons, June 25, 1900. oo oo or THE largest steam dredge ever built on the Pacific Coast is being constructed near Seattle. The craft when com- pleted will be 145 feet in length, 34 feet beam and 11% feet in depth. The work will be commenced in 26 feet of water. and will be continued for harbor purposes around the island to Steamboat Slough. The channel when completed will have a depth along its entire course of 26 feet at low tide, The purpose of this dredge will be to excavate 2,750,000 cubic yards of sand and mud from a channel, which will be 27,000 feet in length and from 100 to 200 feet in width, ‘The debris will be pumped to the shore through a huge pipe - resting on pontoons and deposited behind bulkheads, It will be brought to the surface by a centrifugal pump. :