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. THE MARINE RECORD. ESTABLISHED 1878. Published Every Thursday by THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Incorporated. Cc. E. RUSKIN, - - - - Manager. CAPT. JOHN SWAINSON,~ - - - Editor. CLEVELAND, CHICAGO, Western Reserve Building. * Royal Insurance Building. SUBSCRIPTION. One Copy, one year, postage paid, - - $2.00 One Copy, one year, to foreign countries,. - - $3.00 Invariably in advance. ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. All communications should be addressed. to the Cleveland office, THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Western Reserve Building, Cleveland, O. Entered at Cleveland Postoffice as second-class mail matter. No attention is paid to anonymous communications, but the wishes of contributors as to the use of their names will be scrupulously regarded. : CLEVELAND, O., JUNE 6, 1901. EE - UNITED STATES AND CANADA COASTING LAWS. It is a matter for congratulation that the commerce of the lakes in so far as the United States and Canadian coasting laws are concerned is carried on without the slightest friction in any particular direction. As regards the bearing of an international commercial courtesy, it is a pleasure to note that there is a general feeling and expression of amity which goes far to foster agreeable relations and facilitate the essen- tially practical part of this interlake commerce as evidenced in the ordinary business transactions of the larger freight and passenger lines. A Dominion cabinet officer in a recent discussion on mat- ters connected with water transportation with the Montreal Harbor Commissioners and representatives of Montreal’s shipping and trade interests, asked whether they had con- sidered that there were not enough Canadian boats to carry any increase of traffic, and whether they favored allowing American vessels to do the business. The Toronto Globe in commenting upon the foregoing inquiry says: ‘‘We quite see that the question Mr. Tarte raises has more than one side, but when they are all considered the answer, we should say, must be that while the American coasting laws are in their present state we must maintain ours. wise we would virtually sign the death warrant of our inland marine. It is small now and it would never grow larger. The advantage which American vessels would have in being free to engage on both sides of the lakes, while our ship masters were confined to this side, would inevitable clear us off the lakes.’ Which is a very pertinent rendition of the facts, furthermore, the Globe goes on to say: ‘“‘As matters are now, a Canadian vessel has an advantage in carrying on the through trade to Montreal. It can carry cargo from either a Canadian port, or an American port, while an American vessel can only carry from an American port toa Canadian port. This happens because the eastern terminus of the route is Canadian. Uatil the value of the St. Lawrence route is made manifest Canadian capital may not be readily found to embark in the building of the larger ‘class of vessels which can now be used in thecanals, but that state of affairs will not last very long. With a monopoly of the Canadian trade and an equal chance at the international trade the prospect should be encouraging enough to stimulate the creation of a Canadian flzet, a fleet not only large enough to handle the traffic coming from the west to Fort William, but with vessels to spare to engagein theinternational trade. When the Americans abandon their coasting laws it will be _time enough for us to abandon ours.” There can be no question regarding the logical views advanced by the Globe in support of a continuation of the laws as at present observed in the interlake coasting trade. At the same time, we may say, that until such times as the Canadian lake marine is in a position to take care of the prospective St. Lawrence river, canal and gulf trade, it If we did other- | might be advisable to suspend that portion of the coasting laws relating to the clearances of American bottoms from and to Canadian ports. The advantages of a temporary sus- pension would be all in favor of Canada even without seek- ing reciprocal privileges and as the Globe says, the question has certainly more than one side to it. rr ror rr THE LAKE ERIE STEAMBOAT RACE. The test of speed in the trial racé of Tuesday last, between the side-wheel steamers City of Erie and the Tashmoo, (equipment particulars of which were given in our issue of May 30,) over acourse of nearly one hundred miles along the south shore of Lake Erie, resulted in a practical tie; but, with the actual advantage of a few lengths in favor of the larger boat. The question arises, what, if anything, has been learned from this interesting object lesson besides the satisfaction experienced by those who had individual leanings regarding the speed supremacy of either class of boats, for, let it be understood that the late competitors were by no means built for the same trade or service. The most talented and conscientious experts on the lakes could see no reason for rivalry between the light draft, speedy river steamer and the heavier, well-powered lake craft. Inthe form of hulls, equipment, engine and boiler power there was not a fighting chance for even figuring a superiority, nor does any exist. The Tashmoo is the speed- jest lake-built river steamer that ever smelled fresh water, and the same may be said of the passenger and cargo steamer City of Erie, in her lake service. Both vessels were in ex- cellent trim, and were steered as if they had been laid on railroad tracks, a speed test was the sole object in view, and as such, the craft are equal in smooth water of a certain depth. Outside then of a pride of ownership, or the mental or other influences engendered by local contact, etc., it has been amply demonstrated that the depth of water ruled these nineteen-knot river and lake competitors, so that each are the best adapted for their own particular service and for which they were designed, that is to say, given smooth water and both vessels in likely trim under full speed, each can be made to alter or maintain their bearings according to the depth of water, and this speaks volumes for the skill of their talented designer, their engine builders and their practical handling. The information to be gained by or from this recent ex- perience is by no means new, it has simply been brought more locally prominent and perhaps turned attention to the vertical wake, if we may so term it, as opposed, or in har- mony, with the surface or horizontal wake which onlookers are so prone to gaze at. Therefore, as we have said, the Tashmoo is the speediest shoal water craft, while the City of Erie excels on every other point which a vessel is called upon to bear or perform. ——_—_$ ore TRANSIMOGRIFIED NAVAL TERIIS. It is quite according to the usual lake practice to have scows, dredges, tugs, yachts and all sorts of, what may be termed, miscellaneous tonnage placed ‘‘in commission,’ or if swinging to an anchor, or tied up to the dock for a few days, awaiting the owner’s pleasure to sail or charter they are said to be ‘‘in ordinary.’’ Both of these terms belong essentially to the naval arm of a country’s service and are of national in lieu of commercial import; as a consequence they are altogether misplaced when used in connection with the vessels comprising the mercantile marine of this or any other country, and more markedly so, perhaps, when it comes to a question of inland, or canal, river and lake tonnage. There is a universal fitness in maritime phraseology as used in the naval and merchant service which, when mis- applied, is simply rasping, if not altogether obnoxious to the ears of those who may be said to have crawled in at the hawse-pipes and worked their way aft, and doubly so to those who are practicing their profession by virtue of dropping through the cabin skylight and thereafter exercis- ing an energetic, determined struggle of continued study to become masters of, or proficient in their chosen calling, and this more especially from the standpoint of the mercantile marine service as it differs from that of the navy. In the intermediate service, employment or pastime cov- ered by the word ‘‘yachting’’ a latitude of action and ex- pression jis evinced, allowable and generally accepted, even to the full limit of the stretch of courtesy, hence we have JUNE 6, IgoT. © seamen, A. B.’s, if you wish, of a peculiarly limited grade, and yet thoroughly efficient and singularly adapted for the duties that they are called upon to perform, the peers of any class of men extant and to be replaced only with the utmost difficulty, after a course of training, etc. So also do we have in this particular calling titles of prefixes, sanc- tioned by custom, whether honorary or otherwise, such as fleet captain, commodore, vice, rear and acting commodores, | each with his own special flag, so as to distinguish the rank _ ee, wherever the bunting is flown or exhibited. All this, we have said, is allowable and permissible in yachting circles,. partaking, as it does, of a semi-naval, elevated disciplinary and merchant service character in so far as the practicay handling of the fancy tonnage is exercised by the chiefs of the fleet when the bottoms are gathered in an immediate vicinity, in the form of a squadron under convoy, and this as it differs from the individual action of vessels in the merchant service, who each and severally go their own way irrespective of, or in the absence of any superior or cor- trolling authority to supervise their path to the point ob- jective. However, to come back to our subject of transmogrified naval terms, there isa notion in force at the present that the erstwhile master of a dugout or anything, on conducting a successful business ashore, should be dubbed by some other and more honorable (?) prefix than captain (a word which is only used by courtesy as regards service in the merchant marine) so, we transmogrify the expressive and . distinct term of shipmaster to captain, and by a stretch of the rules of courtesy, endorsed by custom, dub a man who | has been pronounced master of his business as captain, and now itis desired to go even a step wider from the mark by naming a master in actual service a commander, while, as we have said, those who have no longer a command, may be placed in the category of past admirals, all of which is the veriest possible rot and would stand frowning down or be- ing sat upon, for, if it’s titles, affixes or prefixes we are after, there is no law extant to prevent any one, at any time, using the whole alphabetical code to their signatures, pro- viding that they harm no person, place or thing by so doing. Commodore, the euphonious prefix that tinkles charmingly on the ears of yachtsmen in particular, is an epithet corrupted from the Spanish commendator, and, according to naval usage was the senior officer in command of a detached squadron. A captain finding five or six ships assembled, was formerly permitted to hoist his pennant and command as commodore; and a necessity arising for holding a court- martial, he ordered the said court to assemble. Again where an admiral dies in command, the senior captain hoists a first-class broad pennant and appoints a captain, secretary and flag-lieutenant, fulfills the duties of a rear-admiral and wears the uniform. Commodores of the second-class have no captain or pennant-lieutenant. A commodore rates with brigadier-generals, according to dates of commission (being of full colonel’s rank). He is next in command to a rear- admiral, but cannot hoist his broad pennant in the presence | of an admiral, or superior captain, without permission, etc., all of which goes to show the irregularity in nautical par- lance of calling the master of an ordinary cargo carrier, or, on his ‘‘swallowing the anchor,” an admiral, or commodore, and, as a matter of honest opinion good American citizens. are not absolutely struck on making populara transmogrified Spanish epithet anyway. The shipmaster in the merchant service when slated to remain ashore in the service of his ship-owning employer, is usually known as the overlooker, shore captain or ships’ husband, as a rule he is the senior master in the employ, or in the exceptional case, a master who has been found par- ticularly adapted for facilitating the transaction of a ship’s business while she isin port. His principal duties are ex- ecutive rather than commercial; he will see that the vessels in the fleet are keptin perfect order and condition from keel to truck (usually excluding the engine room depart- ment, which is under the direct supervision of the superin- tending or shore engineer); also that all subordinates are working in unison for the best interests of the owners as well as their own ships, in fact, his regular duties and prac- tices are those of a responsible, trusted and qualified care- taker, whose every act of any importance is submitted to the owners for approval, or to their commercial representa- tive acting as the general manager. From the foregoing it may be judged that it is somewhat extravagant diction to make of a shore captain, overlooker or ships’ husband a full-fledged commodore; moreover, it is traveling from the realms of reality to the confines of titled professional poppycock and assumptiveness, on lines, too, ‘where such a departure is totally uncalled for and to serve no earthly or heavenly purpose.