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TREASURY DECISIONS. “WISITING LOCAL BOARDS ‘BY SUPERVISING INSPECTORS, i) 6%. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, November 16, 1900. ‘To,Supetvising Inspectors of Steamboats: * paiapesuis ng: inspectors. are; hereby.,instructed, that they ~“mmust,.so far ,.as.possiple, transact. the necessary official .busi- Huai week thomeeines tea thee oe ge es and their local boards of inspec- atoad bie written" correspondence through the mails, except jineeases where their personal ‘presence ‘is’ absolutely neces: MVzoy PP SUCh: cases, however, supervising’ inspectors cia state i vari’ personal expense. accounts,.when charg- mafeae or actual expenses connected with such visits, speeticredsbnsiinaking Such Visits necessary. It is suggested, however) that supverising inspectors Should formally visit, semi-annually, the local boards of in- ‘spectors located ata distance from the home port of the supervising ‘inspector, for the purpose of complying with ‘the requirements of section 4406, Revised Statutes, namely, of conferring with and examining into the doings of such local boards, and toinstruct them in the proper performance f their duties, and to visit any licensed vessels accessible at he home ports of such boards, to ‘‘examine into their con- dition,” for the purpose of ascertaining whether the pro- Yisions’? of the steamboat laws ‘‘have been observed and complied with, both .by the board of inspectors and the masters and owners’’ of such vessels. ; ae “Supervising inspectors, who for any reason are going to be absent from their home ports for more than forty-eight hours at any time; ‘must advise the Supervising Inspector- General of the fact, and of.their address during such. ab- sence, so that that officer may have prompt telegraphic communication with such supervising inspector if necessary. : I. J. GAGE, Secretary. LIGHTS: AND BALLS ON VESSELS. Red lights should be carried on both steam and sail vessels ,Mot under, command ,at night, and balls or shapes.in the daytime. « ,TREASURY DEPARTMENT’, BUREAU OF NAVIGATION, soe eae WASHINGTON, D. C., November 16, 1900. bSirr This office is in réceipt of your letter, dated the 12th instant, criticising the provisions of the act of Congress rela- tive te lights -carried by vessels under the rules.to prevent collisions at sea. You state that articles 4.and 11, relative tothe lights to be exhibited on vessels aground or disabled ita fairway, are ‘‘rather conflicting ‘and indefinite’ as re- gards the red lights for sailing vessels;’’ that article 4, re- wiring a steam vessel to carry two red lights, does not de- ine what a sailing vessel has to do, and that you ‘‘want to ktiow the requirements of the law on the points mentioned,” and also, ‘‘about the bldck balls for sailing vessels.”’ ‘You do not seem:to have read: the law with care. -The article states plainly that a ‘‘vessel’’ shall carry two, red lights, etc. The word ‘‘vessel’’ includes a sailing or a steam vessel, and the article embraces vessels of both kinds. It may be that you havé become confused by the provision in the article (a) which«states. that the two red lights are to: be.carried by a steam,vessel in lieu of a white light. This. limitation does not apply to the sailing vessels covered by _ the regulation, for the’ reason that they are not required to dition of the eastern freight market as follows: ; ; i <j 3 exhibit a white light when under way. The limitation as regards steam vessels does not in any way affect the general requirement of the article that the two red lights shall be carried both by sailing and by steam vessels. ._The two black balls or shapes you mention are to be ex- hibited in the daytime under the circumstarices set forth in the article, which requires that they shall-be 2 feet in diame- ter. The law does not describe them. further, but. it is evi- dent that they should be such as to fulfill the intention of. Congress in requiring their exhibition, and to satisfy any _ court before which a:case ‘involving’their use may’be tried, that they were so carried, and were of sucha character;’a to comply. with the requirements of the statute.. | ae Respectfully, E. T. CHAMBERLAIN, Commissioner, Mr.’A. T. Stusss, Bucksport, Me. <eeieel a TT IT ANAK AL AALS 2 . EASTERN FREIGHT REPORT.* Messrs: Funch, Edye & Co., New York, report the con-“ . The marked reduction in the volume of charters: reported this week, as compared with the preceding week’s business, » is largely referable in part of the gradual absorption of prompt tonnage and partly to the momentary absénce of any. pressing demand for. boats available after the cturn of the» year only, Thus, while grain steamers for early, December; loading can still find takers at from 3s 734d to 3s gd for, ickéd ports, the best obtainable offer for January steamers 8 38°3d; Cork f: 0. tonnage continues’ neglected:'A’ slight ~ revival of enquiry for tonnage from Southern cotton ports is... noticeable although the demand, in the uncertainty over; hanging’ further delivery of cotton on a fairly liberal scale, is by-no*means ‘general. Frieghts from the Gulf’ are fairly well..maintained for December steamers, tratisactions “for * Pe eeaathe being subject to. concessions .on-part-of:ewners.:: Timber charterers are again coming into the market.in con- _ Sequence of the easier tone for these freights. Time boat are. in limiited demand and‘ this business, in’ order to broaden will‘require further concessions from owners. The enquiry. for coal tonnage is very light and unequal ‘to the: task of favorably influencing the market by‘its ‘weight. ~ ; - Our market for sail ‘tonnage remdins firm and; on‘ the aoe unchanged. If anything, rates may be called a trifle” Steadier:>- 5 - ‘ THE MARINE RECORD. FLOTSAM JETSAM AND LAGAN... _,.There are on the stocks and,under way. at the Cramp ship- yard, over a dozen ships whose aggregate value approaches $25,000,000; oe Pie ee The schooher Vermont, which was scuttled at Garden Bay during a recent gale; has been pumped out and is ready to sailiagain. CES a TE Sip rey PS TRS ite SANZ IE ‘The New York Ship’ Building Co., has contracts for the building of two steel steamers, besides..the two for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Co. | : The steamer W.F. Sauber has taken out the last ore car- go for the present season from Ashland. The total of ship- ments is 2,629,946 tons, or about 73,501 tons less than last season, The Goodrich Line, Chicago, has made an official announce- ment that if the Barry line does not withdraw its service from Chicago ‘to the east shore, the cut rate of 1c per 100 pounds will be kept standing during the next season. — ‘The Black Diamond says that there is a good demand for soft coal, which is expected to’continue through the season, because there has been a wonderful revival in business, Shippers find it dificult to.get coal moved promptly and dis- like the new steel cars. Anthracite coal experiences the same strong demarid which has characterized it for some weeks. According to last week’s shipments of anthracite by lake, the smaller ports are evidently in some stress for coal. Shipments of coal by Jake from Buffalo aggregated 56,125 tons, distributed as follows: Milwaukee, 20,550 tons; Duluth Superior, 7,850 tons; Sheboygan, 7,750 tons; Chicago, 7,400; Manitowoc, 4,300 tons; Gladstone, 2;700 tons; Racine, 2,450 tons; Bay City, 1,225 tons; Toledo, 1,200 tons, and Garden Island, 700 tons of bituminous. - There will beno more reg- ular freight rates, though itis expected that further coal will be shipped to Lake Superior and Michigan. Work is to be commenced at once on an immense. dry dock at Hunter’s Point, in the. harbor. at San... Francisco. This dock is to be 750 ft. long, 122 ft. wide at the coping and 74 ft at the bottom, will have a depth at the entrance of 32% ft. below the coping and 28 ft. below ‘water level and its’ ultimate cost will be $550,000. It is to be excavated in-solid rock so that only a thin lining of concrete finishing will be necessary. Between the concrete lining and the rock surface there‘is to a water-proof ‘coating of asphalt. The entrance of the dock is to be closed by a steel caisson which will be 104 ft. 8ins. long with a moulded breath. of 22 ft. and a depth of 33 ft. 9 ius. from the bottom of the keel to the under side of the upper deck. The caisson itself will be reversible and divided into six watertight compartments. The, dock will be filled through the: caisson by means of thirteen 30.in. gate valves and will be emptied by a 3,000 gallon centrifugal pump. John P. Holland is fitting a submarine vessel at the ahip- yards of Lewis Nixon in which he intends to cross the Atlantic. Mr. Holland proposes to sail to Bermuda, then to Fayal in the Azores, then to Lisbon, Portugal, a trip of 3,496 miles. The voyage is expected to take 16 days, and is planned for. February, though no dateis set. The boat is known as ‘‘No. 7:’’? Her speed will approximate nine and one-half knots for the voyage, which will be mainly on the surface. Occasionally she will go under, and remain for thirty or forty miles, ata depth varying from 30 to 60 feet. Mr. Holland has the utmost confidence in the ability of No. 47 to make the trip in safety. He himself will bein command. Including the inveutor, there will be eight men aboard, and an extra crew willbe carried in a tender that'is to con-° voy No. 7, to protect the men against actual hardship. This tender will be a small tramp steamer. She will keep her consort constantly in sight if possible. In a newspaper report, a director of the; American Steel and Wire Co. is reported to,have said, after the board meet- ing, in New York on Tuesday of this week: ‘‘The com- pany’s tonnage for Novembet will be the largest in its his- tory. All records were broken by- October, which,’ consid- ' ering the period, was phenomenal. The board. was told that, while foreign trade had been diminished, owing to high ocean freight, yét’ the domestic business was better than had: been¢venshoped for. ‘Now that the company is relieved of its burdensome‘contracts for material, none will. be re- newed with the Federal Steel_or other companies, except at advantageous terms for us. We have an annual tonnage of 13500,d00 tons of oré from the mines to Cleveland, whence) it. is shipped\to Pittsburg, and, as it was, the transportation companies had us. atva disadvantage. ‘Last ‘year they jumped the rates. The outlay to purchase a dozen boats was over $5,000,c00. Many of them are over 500 feet long.”’ 4 : The annual convention of the International Seamen’s Union;-held at Boston, adopted a protest against the towing practiceas dangerous, and'-declaring* that only one cargo- carrying vessel shouldvbe!towed at any one time, unless the vessel: so, towed,. coujd,,be mmanagedoindependently of the “tow? either. under,sail,jorjsteams favoring afederation ore? amalgamation ‘of longshoremen and; sailors; requesting ‘the: board of inspectors of hylls:and.boilets, to 280 amend itheirs president, William Andetson, of San Francise treasurer, William. H. Frazier, of Boston; -leg mittee, Andrew J. Furnesth, of « an rani MeArthur,,of San Fra: , ili tong 8 eee - uae The Pittsburg Coal Co., of Pittsburg, has under advise- ment a plan for the éstablishtfient 6f G~fleet of coal carriers to ply the Atlantic, and for the_building of seaboard and foreign docks, so as to venter foreign “itiar ets on a larger scale with its product. Despite Gua fact that sapchiaf the product of this compat has’ been shipped abroad uring the past summer, the company Hus never assumed the re- Oye 41181 sponsibility of shipment beyond tide-watery alk quotations to foreign interests having been made on,that basis. , Fhe, uncertainty connected with securing bottoms for the ship- ment of bituminous coal has prevented the'company from chartering vessels. Some months ago the advisability of’ establishing such a fleet was looked into by John D. Nichol- son, a director of the company, and‘he returned enthusias-_ tic over the feasibility of the scheme. At the present time Pittsburg. coal is delivered in London, at something less’than } $6.50 a ton, which isalmost $1 more than the price of Bri- tish coal. Controlling its own’ fleet, however, the company can reduce considerably the cost of transportation and the Pittsburg product will be- better able to compete with Bri- tish coal. 2 Reman CR At the works of the Eastern Shipbuilding Co., Groton, Corin., work was begun last week'on the laying of the’ kéels* of two steel steamships to be built for the trade between the Pacific Coast and.Oriental: ports. in connection with the Great Northern railway. The new steamers will be 20,000 tons register and. 33,000 tons displacement,.or just.10;900 tons more displacement than the greyhound Deutschland. They will each be 630 feet in length, 73 feet beam -and,56 feet deep, and, when completed, they will cost fully $5,000, -* 000. They will have each five continuous decks, extending ° the whole length of the ship, with three additional partial” decks amidships. The.-carrying capacity ‘of ‘these ships is tremendous, and the holds are such that 28,000. tons of coal. can be carried. . The deadweight carrying capacity, at nor- mal draft, is stated as 20,000 tons. .Passengers will also be carried, and excellent accommodations are proyided for nearly 1,000 passengers in three classes. “The vessel will have twin screws, triple-expansion ‘engines and water tube ™ boilers. Although: designed to: be primarily: cargo-carriers* they will have a speed of 14 knots an hour and carryover; 4,000 tons of coalin bunkers. They are designed to.carry,. cattle, chilled or frozen meats in refrigerating chambers, fruit-or any kind of cargo that may appear for ‘transporta= — tion. . é veh oe tee Bol ebisais Pacey ‘Discussing the fact that his company has lately given co1-* tracts for two Jarge steamships to: the Maryland ‘Steel Gozo Sparrow’s- Point, Md., President B. N. Baker, of the Atlan-5. tic Transport Line, said: ‘‘This is only a beginning of what , we propose to do. Heretofore the ‘ships of this line have . been built in’ England and at Belfast, Iréland, where Har- * land & Wolff’s:plant. is located. Iam “an American ‘and > wou'd prefer to have ships built on this side, even if the cost: ; of construction is greater. The Republican platform prom- .. ises that the Republican’ party willin its legislation pass — measures to-help American merchant marine and American’ © shipbuilding. It is now up to Congress to pass laws which‘ will encourage the building of ships in\this country, and ,I.:; feel Congress will not fail to do.its duty in this matter, If, there iga proper legislation our merchant marine will grow _ to enotmous proportions and’ shipbuilding in the United’” States will become the great industry it ought tobe. What” we want is to,have shipyards established .that will be fully... equal to the great shipyards in Great Britain and elsewhere, _. True, we have not many first-class ship riveters here, but they can be easily secured and other mechanics can soon ‘be shown how to dothe:work:as well as those’who do it atany’ * of the great shipyards of the world.. I havenodoubt many. men would come here fromthe region of the lakes and-a ... number of skilled men from abroad.”’ The season for ore shipments from the Northwest.to,the . . Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois furnaces is about at an end. The blizzards during:thé past’ ten days'which froze the ore ” in the pockets at the docks.was an early warning to shippers’ © that operations should cease... The Vermillion range mines» » substantially finished their shipments some days ago; the, , : Missabe mines; shippitig to Duluth, are, many of them, still | in operation. ‘The Ashland’ and Marquette regions have about quit:.unloading from the: mines on account of the ore” freezing in the cars as well as.in the docks. There are still, efforts to continue shipments to close, up contracts, but esti... mates can tot’be made showing the enormous ore product © from the Northwest this séason. “The total shipments will” aggregate nearly 18,750,000 tons. This is half a million-tons |” in excess of the largest shipment heretofore, which was that’, of last season. The product for this year,is nearly.equal to .. . the total from the discovery of ore in the Northwest until . and! includitg the yéar 1883." Of the above shipments'of *” 18,750,000 tonsabout»5;0d0;000 tons were shipped tothe > Carnegie and Oliver. interests.at Pittsburg. It is stated by. the Cleveland shippers that all the ore brought down this... :; geason “Has acttially been sold to consuming furnaces, and rules as to. provide fora reasonable:tistie for: service dni sailing! that'for thé first time in‘ many years there has been no un- vessels, and an examination into-the:réal seanianship of allo applicants for licenses as officers. :The legislative.committee: was instructed to obtain from Congress’such amendments to the present merchant marine laws: as will provide for the proper cooking and serving-of food; . The following officers were elected: President, William Pange, of Chicago; vice- sold ore (brought. down and placed in storage on Lake: Erie’ *: ‘docks... Fhe ;lake.steamer carriers have reaped:a good har?! vest this year, the price for carrying ore this season being... $1.25 per ton. Last year the-price paid them was 6ocents per ton, inaking a differericein their. income this yéar of ~ about $12,000,000.