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THE MARINE RECORD. NOVEMBER 29, 1900, 0 ie ee Se ee Ee St KK KKK | CHICAGO. | Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The going rate at 2% cents on corn is likely to be main- tained. : Three cents was freely offered on wheat all day Tuesday for loading in November, but vesselmen were able to secure few boats to place at that figure. With favorable weather there bids fair to be’a big business during early December. By request of Supervising Inspector C. H. Westcott, of the Highth district, U. S. Inspectors Richardson and Moore, local inspectors at Chicago, on Saturday last took the testi- mony of the master, chief engineer, second mate, wheelman and watchman of the steamer H. P. Wilbur, in refetence to, her collision with the barge Martha, on Lake St. Clair, on October 26th last. Johnson Knudson & Co., shipbuilders, are giving the: barge Massasoit new deck beams, decks and coverings, also new stanchions, stringers, covering board and rail, floor and recalking and two new pole spars, they are also giving the tug Wm. Maxwell a thorough rebuild trom the water line up and will also supply her with anew boiler and have her machinery rebuilt. Manitowoc, Nov..29.—The survey. on the steamer F. E. Spinner, which recentley was sunk by collision in the Soo, -was finished to-day. Capt. Drake of Buffalo represented the insurance companies; Capt. Gibbs of Milwaukee the owners and.Capt. Lindley of Chicago acted asumpire. The surveyors left for Chicago afterward and will hold a conference there ‘tomorrow. ‘There is a difference of opinion as to damages. The owners place them at $15,000 and the insurance com- panies think they are about $10,000. The officials of the Holland & Chicago line annouce the details of the steel passenger steamer which they are having _ built at the yards of the Craig Ship Building Co., in Toledo. The new boat will be ready in the spring, and will measure 240 feet in length, and 4o feet beam The engines will be triple-expansion, with cylinders 21, 34 and 58 inches in dia- meter, with a stroke of 40 inches. Steam will be provided _ by four water tube bollers, and this equipment will give the boat.a speed of 18 miles an hour, it is believed. The cabin arrangements will be elaborate, and the capacity of the state roomis will be 200 persons. Vesselmen and brokers are boycotting the grain which Phillips and his shippers in the corn corner are trying to move by lake before the close of navigation. The row over the cargoes of the Pabst and Armenia at South Chicago, - which held these boats in port forty-eight hours, have made vesselmen fearful of a repetition of the troubles so late in the season, which might easily cost vessels a trip. There is a deadlock over every cargo offered, regarding grade, and it is probable that as the result very little of the corn will be moved in November. It is possible that before the boats stop running in December Phillips may get some of it from the elevators. Andrew Crawford “died suddenly Thursday afternoon, November 22d, in his office, 1016 Ashland Block, of heart failure while in conference with his partner, J. H. Graham, of the Graham & Morton Transportation Co. The deceased was born at Ayrshire, Scotland, December 1, 1831. He came to the United States when 20 years of age and settled at Genesee, Ills. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1858. Thirty years ago Mr. Crawford was the leading ae in forming. the steamer line and the Messenger was the first steamer owned by the company. The steel side wheel steamers City of Chicago and City of Milwaukee and peller wheel steamer City of Louisville are now owned by them. The death of Mr. Crawford will not affect the busi- ness of the company, although his advice will be greatly missed. He leaves a widow, two sons and three daughters. ‘The funeral was held Saturday at 10 o’clock at his residence ‘109 Pine Grove avenue. The interment at Genesee, IIl. ». James L. Higgee died Friday, November 234, at his resi- dence, 4933 Ellis avenue, Chicago, of paralysis, in his 65th year. He was born at Fifeshire, Scotland, and came to Kenosha in 1847, when Wisconsin was yet a territory, and remained there 3 years employed in breaking upa new farm. In 1850 he left there and went to Racine and com- -menced sailing on the lakes with his brother-in-law, the late Capt. David Dall, and about 3 years later became master of the schooner Lewis C. Irwin as his first command. In 1858 he came to reside in Chicago and became engaged in the vessel agency business with the late Henry Halsted and soon became a prominent vessel owner. In 1871 he organ- -ized the Vessel Owners Towing Company, and-was president of the company the greatest part of the time until 1895, when the company went out of business, and the deceased sold out his vessel property and went into the real estate ‘business: He leaves a widow and ten children. He was ‘a member of the Masonic fraternity. The funeral took place Tuesday morning at Rose Hill cemetery. Many old marine men attended. . the middle of the channel. DETROIT. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. The matter of building a new steel steamer is to be decided by the directors of the Northern Michigan Transportation Company in January. Capt. James L. Higgie, one of the oldest tug captains of the lakes, died Friday evening at his residence in Chicago of a complication of diseases, F. W. Fletcher has’ purchased the wreck of the burned steamer St. Paul, which was abandoned to the underwriters by her owners. The work of raising her will be begun at ounce. The tug John Owen has gone out to look for the derelict schooner, Alvira, which was abandoned by her crew off Sturgeon Point on Monday. The vessel is water-logged, but is loaded with lumber, which keeps her afloat. Being without lights, the derelict forms a dangerous menace to passing vessels, as she lies in the track between the upper lakes and Port Huron. The fast new steam yacht Presto, owned by John S. New- berry, has been hauled out on the Oades marine railway and a house will be built over her for the winter. The en- gines and boilers have been taken out, and in the spring she will be given an entire overhauling. There is little doubt, now that the Lotus has gone, that the Presto is the fastest thing that floats on fresh water. The movement for the improvement of the Grosse Ile American channel of the Detroit river is gathering impetus. Large property owners along the river front want to bring the matter to the immediate attention of the Michigan Con- gressmen, The belief prevails that a large majority of Con- gressmen do not understand that when they vote for appro- priations for Detroit river improvement the money is expend- ed in Canadian waters. When the steamer North Star arrived heré, Capt. Frank Stewart, her master, was’ carried from the boat and sent to his home in a carriage. Capt. Stewart was taken ill in Buf- falo with what at first appeared to be an attack of the grip. Later he seemed to be threatened with typhoid fever and it was thought advisable to bring him to hishome. It is not believed that Capt. Stewart is dangerously ill. Capt. George A. Minar of the North West isin command of the North Star this trip. For the first time in the history of labor organization on the lakes, a conference is to be held between the managers and the longshoremen, Dec. 3, to determine the winter wage scale for ore handling and dock work. The conference will be held in the offices of M. A. Hanna & Co. Cleveland. The businesslike methods of the longshoremen during the past season have led the managers to prefer to deal with the association instead of with the men independently. More than 10,000 men are affected by the scale this year. Capt. Frank Hackett of the tug Home Rule, which made such active attempts to rescue the crew of the schooner Maumee Valley from the vessel’s rigging, declares that the schooner would not have gone on the shoal ifthe Canadian government had alight burning on the Dummy. He regards the Maumee Valley as a seaworthy craft before she went aground in the storm. The coal cargo of the schooner ‘Reuben Doud, ashore on Pelee Island, will be lightered by a sand sucker. Capt. James Reid has the work. The Doud ue ap seven feet of water and has five feet of water in her old. : The propeller Ogemaw and consort Kate Darley were chartered to bring lumber from Ashland to Detroit for Kotcher & Co. Bad weather was encountered all the way, and they were three weeks on the trip. On the arrival there they found the lumber had been shipped, as it could not wait, and there was nothing todo but strip there for the winter. However, they will be on the ground fora load of lumber in the spring at rates much higher than will pre- vail later on; so, as they will have that advantage of lumber craft laid up below and bound up, what they have lost on this trip they will to some extent make up at the opening of navigation. raat : Capt. C. E. Fuller, of the steamer E. P. Wilbur gives an account of that vessel’s collision with the schooner Martha, differing in many points from the statement prepared by the attorneys for the owners of the latter boat in the libel suit now pending. Heclaims that the steamer Mariposa, tow- ing the Martha, was coming down the center of the channel; that the Wilbur and the Troy; which was abreast of her, passed to the east of the Mariposa, and that the schooner was then seen to be to the eastward of thecenter of the channel. Seeing that he could not turn out to starboard because of the nearness of the Troy, nor go between the Mariposa and her consort, Capt. Fuller says he attempted to check, but found his vessel unmanageable. In support of his state- ment he cites the fact that, after sinking, the Martha lay in It is argued that, as the force of the Wilbur’s bow striking her on the port side would naturally, under the circumstances, have driven her to the westward, she must have been in the position stated, and right in the Wilbur’s course. ‘‘I’m not worrying about the suit,’? said Capt. Fuller. ‘I did the only thing I could and that will be plainly shown in court. —$—$<—— $e Supt. Kimball of the life-saving department says the sta- tions on the upper lakes will probably be closed about De- cember 1, but that those on Lakes Erie and Ontario may be _ kept in commission until the middle of December. BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. The tug Queen has been sold by Capt. J. Suter, to George C. Boldt, of New York. The price paid was $4,900. The tug will be taken to Cape Vincent. Captains of incoming boats report that the gas buoys at_ Southeast shoal and the Middle ground at Pelee Passage | have been taken in and they are loud in their dissatisfaction over the action of the Canadian government in removing these aids to navigation while boats are so generally running. There seems to be but little hope for the vesselmen in the — Each boat will be delayed from five - to fifteen days, according to which house she is consigned, grain blockade here. is the consensus of opinion. The railroads are badly con- gested, and until the cars arrive more freely the boats must line up and wait. The survey on the steamer F. E. Spinner, which recently was sunk by collision in the Soo, has been completed. Capt. Drake, of Buffalo, represented the insurance compan- ies; Capt. Gibbs, of Milwaukee, the owners, and Capt. Lindley, of Chicago, acted as umpire. The surveyors left for Chicago and will hold a general meeting there. There is a difference of opinion as to damages. The owners place them at $15,000 and the insurance companies think they are about $10,000. ' Steamer Wilkesbarre, built at the Union Dry Dock Co.’s yard for the Lehigh Valley line, will be launched on Decem- ber 1. As soon as she in the water the keel for the Mauch Chunk, a sister ship, will be laid. It is said that a new 400-foot steamer will follow for the Union Transit Co, The two Buffalo drydocks are now consolidated and the major portion of the workmen are at the Bnffalo Shipbuilding Co. This gives the concern four dry docks, one 487 feet long, two 350 feet long and one 300 feet long. William Watter- son, formerly of the Ship Owners’ Dry Dock Co., of Cleve- land, is appointed superintendent under General Manager Edward Gaskin. The schooner Chicago Board of Trade, which went on Niagara reef last Wednesday, has broken up on the unlucky shoal, in the prevailing high seas. On sighting signals the steamer Secor managed to land alongside, and take aboard the crew. The steamer Schutte has been engaged in lighter- ing the ill-fated vessel of her cargo of coal. The rescued crew consist of Capt. Bonnah, of Port Huron; Jonas Hayes, of Chicago; Richard Baxter, of Marinette; William Moore, of Port Huron; William Demster, of Toledo; T. W. Reville, of Coleman; and the cook, Annie Ryan, of Buffalo. The boat is one of the oldest on the lakes. She is a Toledo craft, and one of the last of the old guard. Lafe Sullivan, of To- ledo, is her owner. The vessel is insured. The great storm of Tuesday played havoc with the outer harbor breakwater, causing a loss estimated by Major Thomas W. Symons, United States Corps of Engineers, at - $200,000. The full effect of the hurricane on the harbor im- provements was not known until late yesterday, when Major Symons. returned from an official inspection of the new Goy- ernment breakwater. The government engineer in charge of the work was almost amazed at the extent of the storm’s fury. Whole sections of the wall were displaced and entirely washed away, some sections being washed ashore on the south beach, all broken, twisted, and shattered. This latest injury to Buffalo’s new $4,000,000 outer harbor-protecting — wall, following so closely upon the injury wrought by the September gale, has set back the work of completing the whole extension one entire season, it is stated by contractors and marine men. After viewing the damage done by the storm of Tuesday, Major Symons gave a rough estimate of the loss at about $200,000, and declared it would take six months to repair the damage. Early last session Representative Alexander, of Buffalo, was asked to have the west channel of Niagara river marked with _lights or beacons, to be located on Canadian territory and along the west side of Grand Island. The Light-House Board, in charge of all such matters, could not take action until after Col. Alexander had secured from the Canadian government its consent for such marking. The consent was secured through Secretary of State Hay, and then came a ‘long discnssion of the best methods of marking. The re- quest had been for targets along the shore, but the Light- House Board suggested that spar buoys might be better, ‘so the matter was left for the Board to finally determine. Con- gressman Alexander has just received from the Board.a letter announcing the decision, which is that the spar buoys will be placed early next spring,and if not found satsfactory, replaced later by the shore targets or beacons. commerce of Niagara river goes through the west channel, all interested in that commerce will be glad to know that the Buffalo Congressman has succeeded in arranging for the marking of that channel. eet The gas buoys in the Pelee Passage have been ordered in by the Canadian government, according to advices received from William Anderson, in charge of the marine and fish- eries department of the Canadian government. This will make it difficult for boats to pass there at night from now on. This is drawing the lines down sooner than has been done in the history of the lakes for years back. The report has it that the lights at the Straits will not be taken in until about December 10, but the owners will soon find that the beacons have been withdrawn so generally that boats will be forced for their own protection to proceed by daylight, as they did late last fall, or stop entirely. i As all the . MeN eR gee MERON aT ES ee ey ee og TNT gly SiGe abs aria