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THE MARINE RECORD. OcTOBER 18, Ka akk* > CLEVELAND. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The keel for the second Gilchrist steamer was laid at Lo- rain this week. A force of new men numbering 130 has been hired during the past two weeks, and the work on hand at the shipyard is to be pushed rapidly forward. The first of the steamers building for Capt. John Mitchell at this port will be launched November 3. She will be christened John J. Albright, after a leading coal and iron man of Buffalo. The new boat will be operated by the Etna Steamship Co. The steamer Paraguay, 2,201 gross and 1,323 tons net, built at the yards of the American Ship Building Co., at Lorain, O., hails from this port, according to the official numbers and signal letters granted by the Bureau of Naviga- tion, this week. : Mr. William Johnson, a Liverpool shipowner, was here this week and called on the officials of the American Ship Building Co. Mr. Johnson didnot make known his busi- ness, but he is apparently much interested in the Welland canal trade and inquired about vessels of that class. Cleveland’s grain trade is growing steadily, and the Cleve- land Grain Co. has decided to double its elevator capacity. The house operated by that company for the past few years is 500,000 bushels, and it is to be increased to 1,000,000 bushels, Work on the addition to the elevator will be com- pleted before the close of navigation. A vessel manager said this week that owners would make money by canceling their insurance and laying their boats up Noy. I. All the vessels that will be thrown on the mar- ket when the season ore contracts expire will be unable to find cargoes, and considerable tonnage will be forced to lay up for the winter unless freights come to a fair living rate. The Cleveland & Toledo line comes out with the an? nouncement that an excursion will be run to Toledo for $1 and the C. B. line announces another to Niagara Falls for $1.50. These rates to the two places have never been equaled and are occasioned by the desire of the management of the two companies to induce travel now that the regular business has fallen away. Some of the shippers reported that coal is coming forward a little more freely, but offerings of tonnage are liberal and the feeling is easy at 25 cents to Chicago and Milwaukee and- 30 cents to Lake Superior ports. Ore rates are steady, and it is not likely that there will be much change, as there is not enough wild business to cut any figure. A little business was done in lumber yesterday at $2.50 from the head of Lake Superior. The lake vessels are taking care of the iron ore movement with ease and despatch. September makes another good showing. .Ore shipments from all ports for the month were 2,519,043 tons, making the total movement to October I, 14,885,065. For September last year the shipments were 2,394,406 tons, and for the season to October 1, 13,044,874 tons. The increase in the shipments to October I are there- fore 1,840,191 tons. At a meeting of the board of directors of the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co., on Wednesday it was decided that anew boat should be provided forthe line between Cleveland and Buffalo to take care of the Pan-American Exposition busi. ness. Just what steameris to be obtained, or whether one isto be built, does not appear now, but the advices of Gen- eral Manager T, F. Newman are that she will be capable of carrying both passengers and freight. ; ‘The coal and ore freight market is very dull, but no fur ‘ther change in rates is noted. Offerings of. coal tonnage Brats ‘ general approval it received. are liberal, and shippers to the leading Lake Michigan ports ‘are getting all the boats they want at the cut rate of Satur- day. A big shipper said yesterday that the rate should be left at 30 cents and that it was a mistake to break it to 25 cents. The rate to Portage and the head of Lake Superior is unchanged at 30 cents. Very little chartering is being done in the ore trade. Commodore George Gardner’s suggestion of a school ship for the lakes, in combination with a shore school was made several years ago, and was vigorously pushed by him at the time, with a strong hope of its being adopted, because of the ; It wss a wise suggestion, and had it been carried into effect there would long before this have been a store of trained seamen to draw upon for the lake merchant marine, or for the United States Navy, sup- plying a need strongly felt in the latter service at the pres- enttime. — A correspondent from Egypt writing to the Engineering ‘News says: While we write we see pieces of six steam coal hoists being discharged on the Alexandria quay, and notice that they are made by the Brown Hoisting and Con- veying Machine Company of Cleveland. These machines, called by the makers “independent truss bridge tramways,” are designed to unload coal from the holds of ships or into trucks—2,160 tons of coal in a day of ten hours. Working their hardest, the coal men have hitherto been able to dis- charge only 984 tons in a long day. This is again a novelty as far as Egypt is concerned. The Jenks Ship Building Co., of Port Huron, has undoubt- edly turned out a very good boat in the steel steamer Capt. Thomas Wilson, their first big freighter. On the first trip she loaded 6,282 gross tons of ore at Ashland for South Chi- cago. Her draught was a little less than eighteen feet. A report from the steamer on her up trip said that she made the run across Lake Huron from Fort Gratiot Light to De- tour, a distance of 225 miles, in seventeen hours, being nearly thirteen and one-half miles per hour, and when on Lake Superior for three and a half hours logged fourteen and one-half miles per hour, with engines turning ninety- four and ninety-five revolutions. The American, Ship Windlass Co. within the past thirty days have received from the American Ship Building Co. on the lakes the following orders for windlasses, capstans and towing machines: 1 No. 9 steam capstan windlass to handle 2-inch chain, 21 No. 8 steam capstan windlasses to handle 17%-inch chain, 2 No. 6 steam capstan windlasses to handle 15-inch chain, 10 No. E steam capstans with 6x8 inch brass link reversing engines, 11 No. F steam capstans with 7 x 8-inch brass link reversing engines, 2 No. 2 steam towing machines, It is certain that this is quitean endorse- ment for the ‘‘Providence’’ windlasses, as there are no more intelligent users of machines than on the lakes. The lake vessel owners are wide awake and know just what they are doing about every time. The Iron Trade Review says this week: A smaller ore movement than that of September is the estimate for Octo- ber, of those who are keeping close track of shipments. Most of the contracts for ore tonnage expire November I, and with the majority of shippers the ore movement will be practically ended on that date. Whatever the outcome of the election, it is conceded that ore buying is over for this year, except for the possibility of obtaining odd lots from the docks. There is no object to furnacemen in paying this year’s price for ore and selling the iron on the basis of next year’s ore prices. Furnaces short on ore will therefore choose to remain idle and await ore shipments of Ig9oI. Further reductions of mining forces on the Gogebic range were made recently, and on the Mesabi range the Duluth mine suspended shipments for the season because of storm damage. : a oo DULUTH—SUPERIOR. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The steel tow barge Liberty, 1,944 gross and 1,762 net tons, built at West Superior, Wis., and hailing from Duluth, Minn. has been granted official numbers this week by the Bareau of Navigation, Treasury Department, Washington, D. C. The iron mines of the Lake Superior region are preparing for winter, and have commenced to curtail shipments. It looks as though there would be small shipments of ore east- ward during November, and no -movement to speak of in December. The steam yacht Wacouta, owned by James J. Hill, presi- dent of the Great Northern Railway Co., is now at the yards of the Eastern Ship Building Co., New London, Conn. She will be laid up for winter and over hauled and afew changes made in the spring. Since sending that item about shoals at Stannard’s Rock and Rocky Island, on Lake Superior, which appeared in last issue of RECORD, I find that I made a slight mistake in direction of Stannard’s Rock shoal. Itshould be almost due west from the light-house instead of about west-south-west. The coal trade of the head of the lakes has grown to wonderful proportions in the past decade of years. The great advance in the volume of business has come in the past few years. It has been said that Duluth, Chicago and Milwaukee receive and distribute more coal than any other ports in the world. There are now enrolled at Duluth a total of 283 vessels of all kinds. Gross tonnage, 363,648, as against 192,748 tons a year ago. A majority of the vessels enrolled this year are large steel steamers, the increase for the year of that type of vessel being thirty-four, making a total of sixty-four steel or iron and eighty-nine wooden vessels. The steel barge Liberty and Loyalty, belonging the Inter- national Steamship Co., chiefly controlled by Capt. A. B. Wolvin, will be enrolled at Duluth and the preliminary pa- pers were filed at the customs office this week. The vessels are sister ships and were built in the Superior shipyards this summer, They are 246 feet in length, 42 beam and 21 in depth. Their gross tonnage is 1,944 tons and net 1,762. These vessels are two masted schooners and are designed for the coast trade, possibly between New York and the West In- dies. They will go to the seaboard by the way of the ‘‘Soo”’ and the Welland canaland then down the St. Lawrence They are the full size that can be put through the locks of the Welland canal, and on account of the depth of water at this canal are restricted to a draft of 15 feet. Assoon as these two vessels are completed work will commence imme- diately on two others to be built for D. R. Hanna & Co., of Cleveland and intended for lake traffic. The barge com- pany employs about 425 men, ; _ feet 10 inches tall and weighed about 180 pounds. DETROIT. Special Correspondence to. the Marine Record. At an auction sale at Port Huron on Monday the tug Li zie was bid in by C. D. Thompson of Port Huron for ¢ The bills against the boat amount to about $900. Eddy Bros. & Co. is another Michigan lumber firm th has been obliged by the Ontario log law to move their m over to Georgian Bay. They will erect mills at Blind ri John Herman, for thirteen years keeper of the Wang chance light-house, died of heart failure Monday, ag forty-one years. He was unmarried and when off duty m his home with hissister, Mrs. Thomas Gallagher, at Mackin Island. ; sion The steamer Senator was tied up by the sheriff at Toledo, on Monday, on a claim for $10,000 made by Margaret G, Knapp. William P. Knapp, her husband, fell into the hold and was killed. His wife, as administratrix for the estate, makes the suit. The steamer was bonded. ia According to the report of Supervising Inspector of Steam Vessels, Capt. Westcott 1,001,518 passengers arrived at and left the port of Detroit on steamers 1n August of this year, — That surpasses the record for any monthin the history of the — service, and 123,000 more than in August, 1899. ie Contractor Sullivan has begun blasting away the stern of ~ the Fontana. From indications he will not blow up the forward part which lies in sixty feet of water, whereas the “spuds” of his dredge reach down but thirty-two feet. Thus far he has not rescued any of her ore cargo, nor is he likely to, fall, owing to the lateness of the season and the danger of losing the structure. It is completed and anchored at Am- herstburg, at the mouth of the river, and will be placed next spring. See The new fireboat named the James Battle was success- — fully launched from the Wyandotte yards of the Detroit — Ship Building Co. this week. She is 122 feet in length, 25 a feet beam and 13 feet deep, she will be brought here for — completion. It is understood that the Battle is one of the © best and strongest fireboats afloat. An unknown fireman on the steamer Huron City com- mitted suicide by jumping overboard Saturday morning, — The steamer was then ten miles below the dummy, in Lake © Erie. Every effort was made to rescue him, but he sank before aid could reach him. When he shipped ‘at Erie on Friday, he gave the name of ‘‘Jim ——.’’ He was about 5 Probably the most interesting features of canal reports — from Sault Ste. Marie regarding Lake Superior commerce are the figures dealing with the coal movement. Hard coal shipments are, of course, less than they were a year ago, on account of the miners’ strike. The total to Oct. 1 is only — 422,375 net tons against 565,301 tons on Oct. I a year ago. September shipments of soft coal were 114,251 tons less than in August, but the aggregate to Oct. I is 3,178,113 tons. against 2,202, 321 tons on Oct. 1, 1899, and 2,550,452 tons on Oct. 1, 1898. a Dredgers this week while at work removing boulders from the bottom of the Limekiln Crossing brought up a rudder that belonged to the sidewheel steamer EK. K. Collins. This steamer burned to the water’s edge in the fifties, with a loss of 150 to 200 lives. The rudder found is of the shape used by sidewheelers in those days, has the heavy stock, also a characteristic, and the latter is burned off at the upper end. In spite of its long immersion it was ina fair condition when brought to the surface. That is to say that the timber was quite sound, although of course water-logged. Because of a misunderstanding of signals, the steamer D. C. Whitney, owned by the Whitney Transportation Co., was recently adjudged by the treasury officials to have yio- lated the navigation laws on the St. Mary’s river, anda penalty of $500 was assessed against the company. Acting Secretary Spaulding taking the matter under consideration decided that there was no intention on the part of either the owner or the captain of the vessel to violate any law-or rule, and so the penalty was mitigated to $15, and Collector Rich, of Detroit, was so notified by Secretary Spaulding. Steamer F, EK. Spinner was sunk by collision with the steamer H. D. Coffinberry in St. Mary’s river on Monday. The crew of the Spinner all escaped. Their boat was bound down, loaded with lumber. Between nine mile point and the dyke, according to Capt. J. H. Madden, the boat Rhodes passed the Spinner, causing the latter to sheer in her course, when the Coffinberry, which was also astern, struck the Spinner on the port side near the bow, crushing in the timbers, Capt. Madden immediately headed his boat for shoal water, and she finally settled to the bottom in sey- enteen feet of water. The Coffinberry continued on her course, and was apparently uninjured by the collision. The Spinner is owned by David J. Ranson, of Sault Ste. Marie. She was of 777 net tons, and measured 186 feet keel by 35 * feet beam. She was built in 1874. ihe eat Sir Thomas Lipton will challenge the New York Yacht. Club for another series of races for the America’s cup. The letter challenging contains a suggestion as to the date of the race, which it is understood will bein August. It is reported that the challenging yacht will be built on the Thames, and she will be named Shamrock.