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THE MARINE RECORD. DECEMBER 13, 1900, BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. The Great Eastern elevator will be rebuilt during the winter. A mortgage of $350,000 was filed by the elevator company today to the Fidelity Trust & Guarantee Co. and an issue of bonds for alike sum will be made by the com- pany to cover the mortgage. “Phe display of storm warnings on Lakes Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario will be discontinued for the season after December 15, 1900, and on Lake Superior when the locks in the canal at Sault Ste. Marie are closed. The display of storm warnings on Lake Peppin was discontinued after November 30, 1900. The case of the Bessemer Steamship Company against the Northern Steamship Company for the collision between the North Star and the Siemens and Holly will be heard before Judge Hezel, at this port. The collision took place Novem- ber 27, 1899, in St. Mary’s River. Ths libelant claims $30,000 damages, and the cross-libel is for $15,000. The Wabash Line steamers Russell Sage and John C. Gault and the other two steamers of the line will lay up for the winter at Buffalo. Both vessels will be rebuilt durizg the winter months, and when they start next spring they will be practically new boats. They are wooden vessels, twenty years old, but they have been well kept up and given everything they needed each season. : The Buffalo correspondent of the Black Diamond says: The collapse of the old coal dock, formerly used by H. K. Wick & Co. for harbor fueling, is a great calamity, espec- ially as there was loss of life with it. The dock has been used this season by Pickands, Mather & Co. for stocking iron ore as well as fueling. The ore was laid on too heavy, and it has gone down into the ground, displacing every- thing about it with a rush. The suit for the sinking of the schooner John Martin in St. Clair river was filed against the steamer Yuma. Damages to the amount. of $36,500 are demanded. The date for the hearing has not been set. The case of the Bessemer Steam- ship Company against the Northern Steamship Co. for the collision between the North Star and the Siemens and Holly will be heard before Judge Hazelton Tuesday. The collision took place Nov. 27, 1899, in St. Mary’s river. The libelant claims $30,000 damages, and the cross libel is for $15,000. A Buffalo shipper, who has been through the West, says that he is surprised at the condition of the docks, little coal ashe expected to find there. As a rule the smaller ports are pretty well cleaned out; and such big receivers as Mil- waukee have only just enough to meet the local city trade. The custom house figures show a further increase in water shipments, though it is plain that an entire recovery of bus- iness is not to take place this fall. The amount shipped last, week was 66,840 tons, of which 29,300 tons went to’ Duluth-Superior, 27,400 tons to Chicago, 6,500 tons to Mil- waukee, 1,600 tons to Racine, 1,000 tons to Toledo, 800 tons to the Sault, and 240 tons (soft) to Port Dover. The’Conners syndicate now declares that the Montreal elevators will be built by next season and shows some heat at the adverse criticism leveled at it by the harbor commis- sioners on account of the delay. G. T. Smith of the Con- ners syndicate states that he is of the opinion that he would be able to satisfy the harbor commissioners that no time had . been wasted in prosecuting operations on the new elevator. The‘board of harbor commissioners recently sent a written communication to the syndicate asking for definite informa- tion-as to contracts and as to the expected time of comple- tion: Mr. Smith said that he was replying immediately to the Commissioners. His answer will be received at the next-meeting of the board. ‘‘Of course, we will have the - elevatot finished in 1901,’ said’ Mr. Smith. running order within three months of the opening of navi- gation.”’ The syndicate insists that it is and has been working as many machines on the pile driving, i. e., two, notwithstanding Engineer Kennedy’s statement that more could be used. ; ‘ ta = " I ——<p- ES <=--——____ -ALE ‘ —s _ An automatic stoker for steamships is now being consid- ered as a labor-saving device. The sweltering, fire-blistered stoker of other days is now in danger of getting out of the frying pan. A machine has been tested at Tacoma, that, according to report, has proven a success, and engineers think will help to solve the problem of cheap navigation. It is claimed that it effects a large saving in coal as well as in the cost of labor. It is fed with pulverized coal and it can be placed in a steamboat or any place where a heat- ‘generating apparatus is used. To any one who, for once in his life, has descended into the infernal regions of an ocean steamship and escaped therefrom with nothing but a bath in his own perspiration, this machine will be above reproach, and to the fireman himself, if he loses his job, he saves his eyes. We can only hope that the report is not a pipe dream,—The Age of Steel. _ 4 “Tt will be in ~ CLEVELAND. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The Cleveland Pneumatic Tool Co., of Cleveland, has in- creased its capital from $25,000 to $75,c00. The first steamer of the recent Gilchrist order will. be launched at the Lorain yards of the American Ship Building Co., on Saturday. She will be christened the Saturn. The Iron Ore Association, which is composed of the concerns which own ore properties in the Lake Superior district, will not fix the price of ore for next year’s deliveries until the 25th of January, when a meeting will held here for that pur- pose. Capt. Gould opens his nautical school this week as an- nounced in the advertising columns, Quitea large number of students are already booked, and the outlook is that the captain will have all that he can attend to until navigation opens next spring. The local lodge of the Shipmasters’ Association will hold the first meeting of the season on Friday. The annual meet- ing, when officers will be elected, will be held Friday, Dec. 28. The grand lodge will meet at Port Huron the last Tuesday in January. The collision between the steamer George J. Gould and the passenger steamer State of New York at Toledo, Nov. 4, be being carefully investigated by the local inspectors at. Tole- do. Capt. Walter M. Crottrell, of the Gould, and Capt. John McAlpine, of the State of New York, were summoned to To- ledo to tell their version of the accident before the local board of steamboat inspectors. A message has been received at the office of Capt. George P. McKay, treasurer of the Lake Carriers’ Association,to the effect that the lights at Bar Point and the Limekilns have been taken in for the winter. This leaves the worst passage about Lake Erie without lights at night, and vessels plying back and forth will find it to advantage, as they have done in former years, to lay up and wait for daylight before try- ing to proceed. Two Cleveland tugs, the Selah Chamberlain and the William Rollar, owned by the Standard Contracting Co., were tied up by the United States authorities this week on the charge of violating the rules of the War Department in not dumping refuse within the limits designated for that purpose. It is claimed that on Nov. 13. they deposited dumpage to close the breakwater and outside of the prescrib- ed dumping grounds. The penalty for the violation of the rules is a fine of from $500 to $2,500. When the steamer City of Cleveland, of the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co., left here on Monday night, the season was over for thecompany. This ends one of the best seasons that the line has ever known, both from the point of passengers and freight carried. The season was especial- ly strong for excursions, including the daylight boat and the short rides. The season really ends with the annual dinner of general manager Carter, which will be given on board the steamer City of Detroit, at Detroit. The announcement was made that William A. Thorpe, the chief steward of the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co., has tendered his resignation, to take effect January 1, and that C. C. Shantz, now manager of the Oriental Hotel, at De- troit, will succeed him. Mr. Thorpe, it is said, has decided to go to Buffalo and take charge of one of the new hotels that is going up there to take care of the Pan-American Ex- position trade. Mr. Shantz used to be steward of the City of Cleveland, and is an old hand at dining-room service on ship board. After having served well as United States engineer in charge of the River and Harbor work of the Cleveland dis- trict for a period of nine years, and after having been wined and dined, and bade farewell in every manner known toa cordial people, and followed by many personal good wishes, Col. Jared A Smith, accompanied by his wife, left here this week to assume his new duties at the head of the work at San Francisco. Col. Smith had remained here several days to close up somie accounts which he had opened in behalf of the Government. The officers of the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co., T. F. Newman, general manager, and W. F. Herman, general passenger agent, have just returned from Buffalo,. where they looked over the prospects for business next season for the Pan-American Exposition. They have been making the preliminary arrangements for handling their passengers from the boats to the exposition grounds, and while nothing has been done, it is said that the C. &.B. people are ex- pecting to do a business next year about 100 per cent. larger than the company has ever handled. The first regular meeting of Harbor No. 42, of the Ameri- can Association of Mastersand Pilots will be held next Mon- day evening at their hall on Superior street. At that time they will arrange for an open meeting to be held Tuesday evening, at which they will have an address by Grand Capt.| John G, Siler, of Hast Providence, R. I., who has announced his intention of paying the harbor a visit at that time. It is expected that other addresses will be made. ‘The meeting is open to all of the masters and pilots in the city, and an effort is to be made to have a large turnout. A decision was reached this week by the Maytham Towin Co., to maintain an office in this city all winter, the object. being to continue the competition to the Great Lakes Tow- ing Co. Instead of the small boats now in operation, the decision is to have two big tugs, and the Maxwell A., will be brought back from Buffalo for winter work. Capt. Lauten- slager announces that negotiations are in progress for other tugs, which will be added to the fleet here in the spring. It g| (engineers. is further stated from another scource that the Maytham Co., is looking to place a contract for six new tugs to be ready for service by the opening of navigation. : ; The schooner Charles Foster, built in 1876, foundered ff . Erie, Pa., last Saturday, with the loss of all hands. A few years ago the vessel was owned by Valentine Fries, of Milen, O., from whom the boat was purchased by Capt. James Cor- rigan. ‘The vessel’s gross tonnage was 997, net 947. The Fostor had a 227-foot keel and a 36-foot beam. The loss of the Foster’s crew runs the number of lives lost on the lakes this season up to 118.’ The previous total of 110 was already the largest for many seasons. The Foster went down not far from the scene of the loss of the steamer John B. Lyon, earlier in the season, when nine men were drowned. » Ata meeting of the executive committee of the Lake Car- ries’ Association, a date for the annual meeting was fixed. The meeting will be called at the Cadillac hotel at Detroit Jan. 16 and will probably last for three days. All the light- house officers and the river and harbor engineers will be in- vited to attend the meeting. An effort will also be made to get the Canadian vessel owners to join the association. A resolution by Capt. M. M. Drake, of Buffalo, urging the New York state officials to improve the Erie canal was adopted. President W. C. Farington, Secretary C. H. Keep, Capt. J. J. H. Brown and Capt. M. M. Drake, of Buffalo, were the only out-of-town members that attended the meeting. The season of navigation for 1900 is practically over and while a number of boats are stillin service the amount of business transacted will not cut much figure, and there will be no change in carrying charges: There are still a number of vessels to load ore at $1 and coal at 75 cents, and a few more charters may be made at the figures named if the pre- dicted freeze up does notecome. All will depend on the weather and some of the charters that have been made may be canceled. ‘The ore movement will not be near as heavy as was predicted at the opening of the season. The general opinion at’ the start was that the shipments for the year would reach 20,000,000 tons by the lake. Movement will be nearly 1,500,000 tons below that figure. OOO De DULUTH—SUPERIOR. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The cut of the mills on the Duluth-Superior harbor in 1899 was 423,000,000 feet and the cut during the season just closed 416,326,coo feet. It had been supposed a month ago that the final returns from the lumber mills would show that there was a slight increase over 1899, but it transpires, from the figures furnished by C. H. Bradley & Co., that there is a slight shortage. This is due to the lack of logs in the early part of the season, in turn due tolow waterin the rivers, and to a certain amount of curtailment by the nrills when the price of lumber threatened to collapse last June. ’ Arrangements are already under way for the underwriting of the stock of the Cramp Ontario Steel Co., Ltd., which. proposes to erect blast furnaces and a steel plant at Colling- wood, on Georgian Bay, in the Province of Ontario, Can. The capital stock is to be $5,coo,000, of which $2,000,000 is to be 7 per cent. cumulative preferred stock. Walter Ken- nedy, of Pittsburg, has been engaged as the consulting en- gineer, but matters have not progressed sufficiently to per-. mit a statement in detail as to what will be built. It is al- most a certainty that one or two blast furnaces will be erected. Capt. B. B. Inman left here for Montreal, where he will on next Wednesday explain before the Chamber of Commerce of that city his proposed ice crushing boat. Capt. Inman. claims that with this craft it will be possible to keep naviga- tion open on the Great Lakes the yeararound. A company was formed some time ago by New York, Detroit and Otta- wa capitalists for the purpose of building boats of this de- scription, and $1,000,000 was subscribed for that purpose, but the great advance of price of material caused the aband- onment of the enterprise at that time. The proposed boats, each some 500 feet long, will not be simply ice breackers. They will be constructed of iron, at a slight advance over the ordinary cost of similarsized craft, and will be able to do a general passenger and freight transportation business. The Duluth Licensed Tugmen’s Protective Association held its first meeting of the season last Friday night. ‘There was alarge attendance, and, beginning next Wednesday, the meetings will be held regularly. The question receiving the most consideration was the probable disposition of the case brought by Capt. Walter Woods, former pilot of the tug Cas- tle, against engineers F,. W. Lee and Tracy Warren, which marine men are following closely. Capt. Woods complained to the government authorities that Lee and Warren refused to do their duty on the Castle because he was not a member of the tugmen’s association, with the result that he lost his position. When the case came before the local steamboat... inspectors, Inspector Monaghan decided in favor of Capt. Woods, holding in effect that a licenséd engineer or officer was recreant to his oath to the government when he took the . obligation accepted by all members of the tugmen’s associa- tion, and he also reccommended that the license of the en- gineers be suspended for six months. Inspector Chalk took | a different view of the situation, and decided in favor of the 1 ; Supervising Inspector Sloan, of Dubuque. Ta * will arrive at Duluth to hear the case. If he decides ay =: the men, the association will appeal to the highest autho Supervising General Inspector Dumont. The associatio feels that the settlement of this case means a great deal to” its organization, and members intimate that the men may have had other reasons for not working with Woods, in ad- dition to the fact of his not being a member of the association.