The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

THE MARINE RECORD. MAy 30, Igol. KanmKkKk* a CLEVELAND. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Mr. M. A. Bradley, although not a betting man by any means, has placed $1,000 stakes in favor of the steamer City of Erie, against a like amount put aside by Mr. John Prid- geon, Jr., of Detroit, in favor of the Tashmoo. J. C. Giichrist has added to his fleet the steamer A. A. Parker and consort B. W. Parker. The boats were owned by the Parkers, of Detroit. The price paid was not named. Mr. Gilchrist will take over the management of the boats at once. The shore engineers of the Pittsburg Steamship Co., Messrs. Hayes, Smith and Frazer, have about all of the work they can attend to these times in keeping the engines of the great fleet turning over, but they are doing it in ex- cellent style. "Manager Newman is not saying very much derogatory to the boasted speed of the Tashmoo, nor is he splitting the wind with assertions about the power of the City of Erie, at the same time, it is generally conceded that the big boat will win and espe-ially so if there is any wind or sea on. The Detroit people who want to bet on the Tashmoo win- ning the race next Tuesday will have no trouble placing their money when they get here. A few bets were made this week, also money was sent to Detroit. There never was a pool of $50,000 made up in the Perry-Payne building to back the Erie. The executors of the late Capt. John W. Moore virtually closed up the estate this week. Recently the interests in three of the boats owned were sold to J. C. Gilchrist. This left but one boat, the J. W. Moore, which has been turned over to Drake & Bartow to handle. Capt. Richard Ne- ville is the managing owner. ‘The City of Erie continues her regular trip on the route from Cleveland to Buffalo, and when Manager Newman was asked the other day if he didn’t intend to have the Erie in drydock to have her bottom touched up, he replied that it wasn’t necessary, that she could win just as she is. Well! there’s nothing like having confidence. The steel steamer Grecian, Capt. P. L. Millen, fetched up on the Middle Ground, Pelee Passage, on Tuesday. She is neaped 18 inches forward anda foot aft. Immediate assis- tance was sent to her and her cargo of iron ore was being jettisoned. Oa account of a heavy sea being on she is likely to be badly damaged before getting afloat again. The following local meteorological observations are furnished by the office of the U. S. Weather Bureau for the “week ending May 28: Prevailing wind direction during week, N. E; highest velocity 42, N.E. on 24th. Mean temperature for week 56; highest temperature 77, on 24th; lowest 46, on 25th. Sunrise and sunset data, computed for local time at Cleveland: May 31, sun rises at 4:26, sets at 7:28; June 2nd, sun rises at 4:25, sets at 7:29; June 5th, sun rises at 4:24, sets at 7:31. Much sympathy is expressed for the near relatives of tne late’Capt. Place and his wife who were lost on Saturday last through the sinking of the steamer Baltimore (formerly Escanaba) on Lake Huron while running into port for shelter. Louis Lafrinier the aged carpenter who had shipped in her to make some repairs during the trip was well known hére, and although 84 years of age he was still handy with the tools. Messrs. P. H. Fleming & Co., her late owners, _ are having the beach patroled in the hopes of bodies of the crew being washed ashore. were picked up alive. With all the demand for steamers on account of the extra heavy traffic brought about through holding the Pan- American Exposition this summer at Buffalo and the in- creased passenger trade generally, itis a wonder that the two good old steamers Empire and Badger State are still laid up at Lorain. These boats recently underwent thorough repairs and overhauling, and surely ought to be able to turn over money in some trade. They have been well kept up. and are good sound wooden boats that, with perhaps new Only two out of a crew of 15° boilers would form the nucleus of a decent fleet. In any case the hulls would make good lumber barges. Another block of 100,000 tons of ore was covered this week on the same terms that most of the season contracts have been made by United States Steel Corporation, (Pitts- burg Steamship Co.), viz., 80 cents. Offerings of tonnage are light at Lake Superior ports, but at Escanaba the supply is equal tothe demand. Coal is moving freely at 40 cents to all the leading ports. Most of the vessels that will be ready to load this week are under charter. The feeling is steady and rates will probably hold at the present figures for some time. Vessel owners are at one in their expressed intention to hold coal rates to a fair paying basis, and say that the days when the commodity was carried gratuitously for ballast purposes are over. oe oo CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The tug company will pay for the damage done to Rush street bridge by the steamer Merida. Grain rates held at 134 cents on wheat with little charter- ing on Monday. Corn paid 1% cents to Buffalo. The coast steamer Easton, purchased at Philadelphia for the Chicago—South Haven route, is due here the latter part of this week. The steamer Boston, which was ashore near Cheboygan, will be repaired at the Milwaukee yards of the American Ship Building Co. A shipper has placed 300,000 bushels of wheat at 13 cents to Buffalo chiefly with the regular line boats and that is still the going rate, with 1% cents on corn. The accidents to the Northwestern and Northeastern have caused a sharp advance in insurance rates on vessels sailing for Europe. One, company has advanced its rates from 7% to 2 per cent. The Western Transit Liner Boston will be dry docked this week for survey and repairs, on account of her recent strand- ing in the Straits of Mackinac, she was not leaking on her arrival here, but bottom damage is anticipated, or rather known to be there. Officers of the new steamer Puritan of the Graham & Mor- ton line, have already been named and a portion of them are now at Toledo prepared to bring the boat out as soon as she is ready. Though good progress is being made, it is not now likely that she will be ready to go on her run between Chicago and Holland, Mich., before June 1o. The dates advertised in the shipping papers for the sail- ings of the boats of the Northwestern Steamship Co. from the other side read as follows: Northwestern from Ham- burg May 21, Northman from Liverpool May 23, North- eastern from London May 29, and the Northtown from Ham- burg May 31. It now looks as if their European agents G. W. Sheldon & Co. and H. C. Rover, of Hamburg, might as well change those dates to June, and then come nearer telling both consignees and shippers about what to expect. Messrs. P. H. Fleming & Co. were very much grieved at the loss of life through the wreck of their steamer Baltimore, and on receipt of the news telegraphed the vicinity that every attention should be given to the two men who were rescued and to appoint a beach patrol to look after any bodies that might be washed ashore from the wreck, The steamer was worth about $50,000 and was chartered ahead for the season. Capt Place, her master, had recently pur- chased an interest in the vessel and his wife sailed with him as stewardess on the last fateful trip. Nov. 12, last year, the car-ferry barges, No. 3 and No. 4, of the Lake Michigan line, in tow of the tug S. M. Fischer, sprung a leak and foundered. A heavy gale was blowing, and when signals of distress were shown from his consorts, Capt. Fred Johnson, of the tug Fischer, turned his boat about in the seas and took the crews off the barges, risking his own boat to do so, William Chambers and William Burkhardt, masters of the two barges, have petitioned Con- gressman Foss that he use his efforts to obtain a gold medal from Congress for Capt. Johnson for saving life under trying circumstances. Their petition has been circulated along the west shore of Lake Michigan and has found many signers. It is now in charge of Deputy Collector of Customs Smith at South Chicago. —o@o@roe—___ —_— A meeting was held in Boston on May 24 to make arrange- ments fora fair some time next October, to raise funds for rebuilding the old frigate Constitution, ‘‘Old Ironsides.”’ This meeting was under the auspices of the Massachusetts State Society, United States Daughters of 1812. DETROIT. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. Joseph A. Marks, of J. A. Marks & Co., has $500 to place on the Tashmoo, and Capt. Isaac Watts has $a50. Capt. William Dunn, of the mail delivery boat Florence B., will resign this week to take charge of the steamer T. S. Faxton. It is expected that all of 50,000,000 feet of lumber will be brought here this summer ex-lake; about half that amount is the usual season receipts. ; President Uhler, of the Marine Engineers’ Association, says he’s satisfied with the result of the strike, and that the engineers are stonger than ever. Col. Lydecker, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., opened bids on Tuesday for dredging and removing obstructions between the head of St. Clair and the mouth of Detroit rivers. Rep. Bland is going totry to push through his bill for another bridge from Detroit to Belle Isle. It has a referen- dum clause attached. Rep. Hunt says he will fight it. The White Star Line has just issued a very attractive book, the corner of which bears the title, ‘‘Daylight Trips on the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers,”’ and also a fine picture of the Tashmoo. The book contains much information in regard to the different points of interest and is filled with views taken of picturesque spots along the Detroit and St. Clair rivers. Good work was done on the steamer Fannie C. Hart, of ‘the Hart Line, on her trip with 200 passengers last Sunday from Escanaba to Menominee. A fire broke out in the boiler room and the passengers were getting very panicky, but-the discipline of the boat was such that all fear was al- layed and the fire drill stood in such good stead that the blaze was soon under control. Capt. Meno, of the steamer City of Holland, which passed near the survivors of the steamer Baltimore on Lake Huron Friday, denied that he saw any men clinging to the wreck- age after the Baltimore went to pieces. He kept the Hol. land four miles off Oscoda, and it was impossible to see any small object at any distance away. Capt. Meno says that Capt. Place and his wife succeeded in getting into a yawl- boat, but the yawl was subsequently picked up on the beach. On the morning of June 3 the Tashmoo will sail for Cleve- land. Manager Parker does not think she will be given a trial of speed before the race. Chief Engineer, DuBois has been in consultation with the management on different oc- casions recently, andit is taken as significant thatin the new booklet just issued by the Star Line people the speed of the Tashmoo is given at 24 miles an hour, followed by the further assertion that she is the fastest riyer boat in the world. The Senate Committee on banks and corporations has put the quietus to the bill introduced by Rep. Hunt which pro- vided that vessel property should be taxed where the prin- cipal business of the person or corporation owning the vessels isdone. The bill as the Senate committee leaves it makes no change in the present law. This law allows vessel owners to claim an office in a township usually adjoining a lake port, and where the taxes are much lower than in the city. The vessels are taxed in such townships. The Hanley Canada cup boat Cadillac is to be exactly the same length as the Wilds boat, building herein Detroit, 48 feet over all. She will be 27 feet 2 inches on the water line and’ 11 feet 2 inches beam. Her exact draft is not given, but it will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 inches, and she will carry something over 1,400 square feet of can- vas. Ifa centerboard boat is to win, Detroit will have the two extremities. When she was built, the Genesee wasa revelation with her wide beam, light draft and comparatively flat floors. In the Detroit, Wilds has carried the lightness of draft, width and flatness to the extreme. A bigger boat for her measurements, or a boat with flatter floors on much less draft would be hard to imagine. Marine men generally will be surprised and pained to learn of the serious illness of Capt. Andrew Hackett, of Bois Blanc Island. Capt. Hackett has had charge of the light- house on the island for the last thirty-five years and is known and liked by nearly every captain on the lakes. He was never ill in his life up to a few weeks ago, when he was attacked by heart failure, and the disease has taken such a hold that his family and friends have given up hope of his recovery. He is fifty-five years old and was born on the island, his father being light-house keeper before him. He is married to the youngest sister of William McGregor, ex- M. P. of Windsor, a most hospitable and estimable lady, liked by all whom she has ever met. Pe ND Rae Sa