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THE MARINE RECORD. NOVEMBER 8, 190 CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. While lying at the Rock Island dock Monday night the steamer Saranac was struck by the Arthur Orr, which was going down the river, and had seven or eight stanchions badly bent. Grain freights showed no life on Wednesday and rates held between 1 and 134 cents on corn to Lake Erie. To Georgian Bay there was some demand but vesselmen gener- ally were not disposed to go there at what is offered. Ship- ments for the first half of November will be the lightest of the season. Legal process has been procured against J. H. Sheadle, of Cleveland, owning the steamer Choctaw, which damaged the Canal street bridge so badly several days ago that it was temporarily put out of service. The amount of the damages is about $9,000. Bridge Engineer Wilmann has a gang of men at work repairing the bridge for the winter travel. The company will be obliged to settle the bill for repairs made by the city. The Milwaukee Forge & Iron Co., recently formed with a capital stock of $300,000, has completed its organization. Fred. C. Starke, formerly of the Sheriffs Mfg. Co., has been elected president. The company will manufacture steam- boat shafts and piston rods, dredging machinery and heavy forgings for machine work. Plans have been made for the new plant the company will build, and work will be started as soon as possible. It is stated this week that if vessel owners are to depend upon the Chicago grain trade to keep their boats going they might as well prepare to lay up a good part of the fleet. The call for vessels was extremely limited, and not much could be done. Rates were nominally 134 cents on corn. Buffalo brokers give no hope of a better movement in hard coal be- fore November 15. They say they will have difficulty in providing vessels, now bound down, with return cargoes, except they wait for them. The excursion steamer Minnie B has been fitted up by her owner, Capt. Louis Hohmann, to go down the canal and Illi- nois and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, making the third boat to leave for the gulf in many weeks. Capt. Hoh- mann is accompanied by his wife and Frank Hohmann and wife, of New York. At New Orleans the boat will be sold and the party will return by rail. The Minnie B is the lar-. gest boat that has attempted the trip. By placing the fuel forward a draft of five feet will be obtained, and rivermen think she can get through with that. It is said that a charter to take wheat to Buffalo was made at 13c on Monday. Thisis a dropof %c from the old rates and may indicate a decline in the corn rate to 14% c to-mor- row. A vessel broker states: ‘“‘There will not be much done in grain freights until the new corn crop begins to ar- rive. The premium of 3%c oncorn in October over No- vember brought out every bushel that could be shipped at that time. The advance in rail rates from Lake Hrie to the seaboard of 2c a bushel, which went into effect November 1, added to the premium on October corn, made a difference of 5%c a bushel.’ When this is taken into account it is easy to see why receipts of corn at Chicago have fallen to so low a figure this month. Lake rates, it seems to me, from now on will be based on what vesselmen figure they can run their boats at without too big a loss.”’ It is stated this week that the American Steel & Wire Co. is about to take over the American Steamship Co., a con- cern organized to own and operate the steel company’s ore boats. It is capitalized at $3,000,000 and most of the stock is owned by principal owners of steel and wire shares. It is understood that the steel company is to pay $175 a share for the stock of the steamship company, which allows a very handsome profit for the people who organized it. At that price the boat line will cost the steel and wire company $5,- 250,000. The officers of the steamship concern are all in- siders in steel and wire. John W. Gates is president and John Lambert vice president. The other officers and direc- tors are also connected officially with the big company, The deal looks like putting money from one pocket into the other as the capitalists are the same in each deal. OOD Oe A test was made in the model tank at the Washington: navy yard, Oct. 26, of a model of anew type of torpedo boat. The vessel is a combination of some of the features of the submarine boats and ordinary torpedo craft. All the vitals are below the water line and the small surface of the vessel showing above the water is protected by cellulose. The test was very favorable to the invention, the only ob- jectionable features beingithe low speed developed, fourteen knots, and a very perceptible wake. There will probably be another test after an attempt has been made to so rearrange eo as to meet the objections made by. the naval ex- perts. ‘ DETROIT. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. The steamer Swallow, brought to Detroit by the wreckers, will probably never be repaired. The Pere Marquette boats are carrying but little grain this fall, and no material increase in this business is looked for « until the close of navigation. Work on the wreck of the Fontana is progressing rapidly. The wrecking contractor will be able to save some of the equipment of the schooner. It will be possible to save the big steam windlass and gear, valued at about $8v0, also the two anchors. Itis not known when the work will be com- pleted. The following report for the period from September 16 to October 15, 1900, inclusive, of vessels passing through the Detroit river, was furnished by courtesy of Postmaster F. B. Dickerson, at Detroit, Mich. Number of vessels passing through during the day, 1,697; during the night, 1,300; total 2,997; for the season, since April 26, 1900, 18,530. - Capt. Davidson has begun laying up his fleet at his Bay City shipyard, the first craft tocome being the Bermuda. There are seventeen vessels in the Davidson fleet. Five of these will undergo various repairs during the winter. Several that do not need repairs will be wintered at Chicago. The new steamer known as No. 95 will be launched next Saturday. Surveyors in the employ of the Minnesota Steamship Co. proceeded, on Monday, to the scene of the Martha collision for the purpose of taking measurements for use in the ex- pected litigation with the Lehigh Valley Line, owners of the steamer BE. P. Wilbur, which sent the Martha to the bottom of Lake St. Clair. The case will be one of the most inter- esting tried on the lakes for a long time. U. S. government engineers are here taking soundings of this channel for the purpose of reporting to the government the advisability of deepening the channel and using it in- stead of the!Canadian one. The engineers state that as. far as they have gone the soundings indicate that it would be much cheaper to deepen the American channel than to finish the work on the Canadian channel, and also that it would make a better course for larger boats. Congressman Henry C.; Smith is deserving of great credit for pushing this matter. The Erie & Western line needs the services of the Wilbur badly just now, and gangs of men are at work night and day replacing her broken and bent platesand frames. Every piece that requires rerolling must be sent to the Wyandotte plant and back again, and every new piece must be shaped and punched and bent down there and sent up to Orleans street. Thisseems like a strong argument for that big dry- dock that has been built out of paper for so many years. It has been suggested as the most practical plan to construct the dry-dock at Wyandotte. The ground is not suitable for a 500-foot dock near the foot of Orleans street, while there is good land for it below. It is said that a dock big enough to hold the largest and able to quickly repair any kind of boat would bring an immense amount of business to Wyandotte that now goes to other ports. Warrants have been issued against Capt. May of the schooner Richards, and Capt. Baker of the tug Champion, for alleged violation of the United States statute in leaving the disabled schooner Richards lying in the channel near the lower end of. Belle Isle, Detroit river. The warrants have not been served, but the two defendants, with their attorney Fred C. Harvey, have been notified to attend before Commissioner Graves at Detroit. Capt. Baker, it is stated, asked Col. Lydecker’s permission to destroy the Richards with dynamite, and Col. Lydecker consented on condition that all the debris be removed. This condition had not been taken into consideration in counting the cost, and the plan had to be abandoned. It was thought by Capt. Baker that the pieces of wreck might be allowed to lie on the bottom, which is quite a distance below the surface at a point near where the wreck now lies. The Detroit & Cleveland boats have been awarded the contract by the government of carrying the mails between this port and Cleveland. This is probably the first time that United States mail has been carried by boat from Detroit to Cleveland, but it is said to be a great convenience and it is looked upon by the postmasters at Detroit and Cleveland with great favor. W.L. McGinnis, assistant superintendent of railway mail service, stationed at Washington, first con- ceived the idea of sending the mails by boat from Detroit, andthe D. & C. line was subsequently given the contract.. The mail which goes by train at 6 p.m. does not carry as much of the business correspondence as will be done by the boats, because many business letters are not posted until after hours and are too late for the train. _ With the boats, however, this will be different, as they donot go until Io p. m., thus giving business mena chance to mail their letters and have them delivered at Cleveland early in the morning. All matter mailed up to 9 p. m. will be in time for the Clevy- eland boat, and much delay will be necessarily avoided. The D. & C. contract is for the space of one year, and this winter the City of Cleveland and City of Detroit will have the regulation U.S. M. sign painted on the bows, giving them the right of way and making striking stevedores who refuse to unload the boats liable to the United States for de- laying’ the mail. —— Oona ee — Vicker’s Sons and Maxim, the shipbuilding and naval armament company at Barrow, England, have gun contracts on hand to keep that branch of the business going for five years. day, and this week will see quite a fleet tied up until next CLEVELAND. Special Correspondénce to The Marine Record. — The Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co., announces that on account of the number of applications received it intends to run another excursion to Buffalo and the Falls next Satur- day night. Placing vessels in winter quarters is now the order of the spring. The Bessemer and Wilson boats are quitting for the season. : Three more boats will be added to the winter fleet in Cleveland in the nextfew days. They are owned by’ the Republic Iron & Steel Co., and have been managed this year by M. A. Hanna & Co. The Corsica, the German and the Grecian now on the way hereto tie up are the three steamers to close their season. The Champion Rivet Co., of Cleveland, has closed a con- tract for all the boiler rivets required for the boilers for the 23 new vessels now being built by the American Ship Build- ing Co, These rivets are to be used in large Scotch marine boilers carrying from 200 to 250 pounds pressure. The lar- gest diameter rivet is 134 inches and the amount involved is 200 tons. : The total movement of iron ore for 1900 to date is 17,287,- 952, tons, as against 15,594,298 tons a year ago. The re- port shows that the total receipts to date have been about 2,000,000 tons in excess of the shipment last year. Itis confidently expected that the increases will stop here. . If the movement of ore down the lakes this year is to be 18,000,- ooo tons the boats have yet to bring down the lakes upwards of 700,000 tons, which will be easy work for the remainder of November and the first half of December, through which the boats will be operated. Capt. John Leonard, one of the most popular masters on the lakes, died at the residence of Mr. Philip Baum, No. 2 Franklin court, of paralysis on Tuesday evening. Capt. Leonard was sixty-eight years of age. His wife and three grown-up children survive him. The remains were taken to Ogdensburg, N. Y., for burial. Capt. Leonard was master of the steamer Tampa when she was driven ashore on Lake Superior a year ago last fall. He sailed the steamer Lloyd Porter this season, but had to leave the boat about two months ago. Capt. Leonard was a member of the local lodge of the Shipmasters’ Association, and was generally well liked by all with whom he was brought into ‘contact both ashore and afloat. ™ Coal tonnage is in fair demand, but otherwise the freight market is very dull and vesselmen do not look for much im- provement, and some ownersare placing their boats in winter quarters as fast as they can get down. Coal shippers to way ports are being forced to bid rates up to get boats, but shippers to the leading ports are in fair shape and are not pressed for tonnage. Forty cents was paid to Racine yester- day, which is an,advance of 10 cents. The lumber freight market is in about the sanie condition it was at the close of last week, vesselmen are holding for $3 from ports at the head of Lake Superior. Shippers are making a fight against paying it and no charters are’ being reported. The move- ment of wild ore will not cut any figure during the balance of the season. ah The ore question has been about settled for this year, . It was believed that certain sales of ore would be made that would prolong the ore shipping season, but these have fallen through owing to a disagreement as to the price, and from now on the movement of ore will be extremely light. No ore will be brought down from Lake Superior, but some of the contracts from Escanaba do not expire until November 15, and some of them will keep the boats going as long as the lakes are open. There will bea certain amount of ore moving as long as it can be obtained, for with conditions as they are $1.25 charters are not to be thrown over lightly. The ore movement is confined entirely to contract tonnage hence no market is possible, that having been fixed months ago. The only interest apparent is in keeping the boats moving rapidly and without delay. The grain trade is none too vigorous, and holds out no hopes for profitable employ- ment to the tonnage that might wish to engage in it after the end of the contract ore season. Of a necessity many boats will lay up. Boats are doing a good deal of running around, but aside from the contract tonnage are not making money. They are going further after a load than they have gone ina good many months, and the light trips are more numerous than those with cargoes. No ore has been sold for next year, and without such sales it is not feasible to fix the carrying rates. j ee While attempting toenter Ashtabulain a heavy sea on Monday afternoon the towline of the steamer Rosa Son- smith parted and before another line could be secured she drifted on to the beach, about 300 feet east of the east pier, where she is resting on bowlders. The crew of seven were taken off safely by the tug Kunkle Brothers. The Son- smith owned by L. P. Mason of Saginaw and has a registered’ tonnage of 766 tons gross. She was in command of Capt. John Goldsmith and was towing behind the steamer T. S. Christie. She carried about 1,600 tons of ore. The Son- smith was loaded at Escanaba by M. A. Hanna &Co. The ore cargo is insured, but the onwners have no insurance on the vessel. The Sonsmith was built at East Saginaw in 1882. . The steamer Christie, which had the stranded vessel in tow, got into Ashtabula all right. '