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THE MARINE RECORD. _ Jury 25, 1901. Kitt kk ‘DETROIT. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. Miss Catherine Whipple Sibley, of Detroit, a lineal de- scendant of Commodore John P. Whipple, has been chosen to christen the torpedo boat Whipple at Baltimore, Aug. 15. Among those present at the Lumber Carriers’ meeting this week were: F. W. Gilchrist, Edward Hines, J. A. Calbick, O. W. Blodgett, H. E. Runnells, C. H. Prescott, E. F. Fisher and William Teare. The Buffalo Dry Dock Co. have libeled the schooner Maria Martin for some $200 work on the boat. She is in the river here» but on the Canadian side and the libel is not plastered on her mainmast as yet. Capt. James Davidson, seeing there was nothing else for it, gave way to the union tugboatmen and discharged his non-unionists. His entire fleet was threatened with deten- tion otherwise. Cleveland and Ashtabula lodges of marine engineers have been granted charters.in the Longshoremen’s Association, and other branches. of the M. E. B. A. have their petitions now before the council for action to be taken thereon. If the Indian legend, regarding a dry moon, is to be taken into account, viz., when the lower horn of the new moon is tilted just sufficiently to hang a powder flask on, it will be a dry. month, then the present weather is assured for we had just such a form in the new moon this month. Secretary Gage has filled the vacancy in the office of inspector of hulls at Detroit by selecting Capt. Joseph P. Cottrell of Detroit, on certification by the civil service com- mission. Capt. Cottrell has been temporarily in charge of the office here since the first of April. The salary is $1,800 ayear. Capt. Sidney Millen formerly held the position. After about 20 years of busy work the old Fletcher saw mill at Alpena is being dismantled. The mill was built by Fletcher, Pack & Co., afterwards sold to Geo. N. Fletcher & Sons...Its capacity. was 25,000,000 feet of apes per year, and.it was frequently run night and day. This is an indica- tion of how the lumber industry is petering out at Lake Huron ports. The movement of lumber by water out of Saginaw river has dwindled into insignificant proportions. During June only 790,000 feet were shipped from Bay City and none from Saginaw. The total shipments from the opening of naviga- tion to date were 3,530,619 feet. Receipts of lumber in the river by water during the month were 10,555,421 feet, and for the season to date 21,043,626. The Detroit Ship Building Co. has just closed a contract with Seattle parties for a triple expansion engine 11x18x31, with a twenty-inch stroke. The contract also includes con- densers and pumps. The prestige attained by the Detroit Ship Building Co. is world-wide, and markedly so in the special skill for designing and constructing ice breakers and large, speedy passenger steamers. , _The now ancient report that Capt. Davidson will establish a steel shipbuilding plant for the construction of ships, en- gines and boilers has been revamped this week, also that Dunford & Son, successors to Dunford & Alverson, Port Huron, will do the same. Well! of course they may but those. most nearly interested cdn’t place anything. like the exact date when they will be ready to figure on their first order. _A prominent and experienced vesselman here when asked what he thought of the Chicago Atlantic boats said “Of course I don’t want to handle the other fellow’s boats but _ the sooner that they get them off their hands and turn them into coasters the less money they will stand to lose. With another 1600 feet, of construction put into the four of them they. would be fairly good lake carriers, but they are neither Pg thing nor the other in their present trade.”’ , The indications so far are that a Detroit yacht will be chosen to defend the championship of the Great Lakes this year against the Canadian boat, Invader, which is to come over the boundary to win back the challenge cup lost by the Canada, then the pride of the Dominion yachtsmen, two years ago. Chicago has put more money into the building and equipment of racing yachts than Detroit has spent, but Detroit seems likely to hold its position asa great port for fast sailing yachting craft. Major W. L. Fisk, in charge of river and harbor work in the Detroit district, recommends the following appropria- tions above $25,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903: Saginaw river, $50,000 for improvement; harbor of refuge, Sand Bzach, Lake Huron, $60,000 to complete improvement; Black river, Port Huron, $28,000.. Colonel G. J. Lydecker, in his annual report concerning the river and harbor work in his charge, recommends the following appropriations in excess of $25,000 for the next fiscal year: Hay Lake Channel, St. Mary’s river, Michigan, $144,115; Detroit river, $136,500 to complete improvement. ————— i oi oe BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. The Ogdensburg longshoremen recently refused to unload a lumber barge until the boat had paid a fine of $86, levied by Oswego branch, for loading with non-union men. The fine was paid. The Army and Navy Journal, New York, says:—Lewis Nixon is said to have a ‘‘lead-pipe cinch’’ on the Tammany nomination for next mayor of New York. Mr. Nixon, who is a graduate of the Naval Academy, would make an excel- lent mayor, and, if nominated, should bea hard man to beat. For his own good, however, we hope that he will stick to building ships for others instead of launching his own craft on the troubled sea of politics. The Montreal harbor commissioners instructed their secretary to communicate with Capt. Wolvin and his associates, with the Grand Trunk, the Canada Atlantic, and Canadian Pacific Railway Companies, and any other large transportation companies, with a view to ascertaining on what terms they would operate an elevator and terminal facilities at Windmill Point, should the commissioners obtain a cancellation of the Conners contract. Marine men are watching with considerable interest the workings of the new pneumatic scoops which were put in at the elevators at Ogdensburg. The scoop is controlled by a pneumatic device in the handle, and it will carry 1,350 pounds at a scoop. Twelve men in the hold, working with the steam shovels, will accomplish as much work as forty or fifty with hand scoops. It is claimed that the machine is suited to ore and coal as well as grain. Everybody in Buffalo, whose opinion is not influenced by selfish considerations, will applaud the effort of the Harbor Commission to secure the control of the Bird Island pier dockage for the city’s uses and disposition. It is the duty of the Harbor Commission to recover and re-convert to pub- lic uses as much as possible of the original water front and the sameis true regarding this situation at all other lake ports, the larger the port the greater the necessity fot such action being taken. Evidently the United States has some work to do in clear- ing the St. Lawrence river of obstructions as Major J. W. Symons, Corps of Engineers, asks foran appropriation of $150,0-0 to complete improvements in the vicinity of Cape Vincent and $40,000. to remove shoals between Ogdensburg and Lake O ‘tario. Inthe meantime the Canadian survey boat, Jessie Bain, is on the ground with engineers Chaplieu and Dufreseme, who are ,making a survey of the river from Kingston to Prescott with a view to removing obstructions in the channel so as to make a 14-ft. channel throughout. Capt. Gaskin, of Kingston, and Capt. Battem, the chief pilot of the mail line, will go over the route with the engineers. These pilots are supposed to be acquainted. with every spot in the river channel. uae There are now two six-masted schooners afloat, viz.; the George W. Wells and the EKleanor A. Percy. The first and only seven-masted schooner of nearly 400 feet in length is to be built of steel, and how to name her seventh stick is a poser for the sages of marine nomenclature to unravel, so far, ringtail has been suggested, which would be an old word undera new form. This would give us fore, main, mizen, spanker, jigger, driver and ringtail masts. As the spars and canvas are each of the same dimensions and meant to be interchangeable, a doubling of the old terms would distinguish a whole dozen of masts. For instance, foremast, after foremast, mainmast, after mainmast, mizen, after mizenmast, spanker, after spankermast, driver and after drivermast, and finally, the little wee stick in the boat abaft all. CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Vessel room for 400,000 bushels of wheat and corn was taken here on Monday. The new smoke consumer which a New York! company has been trying on the tugs of the Great Lakes Towlsg: Co. By has not proved a success. Whether to be congratulated or not, Barry Bros. have see cured the two fine wooden steamers, Badger State and Em- pire State, now lying at-Lorain, O. After a thorough overs hauling, they will be placed on the route between hef@ pets Milwaukee. | $€9QGS8 JO The log of the whaleback modeled passenger stetinods Christopher Columbus shows that she made the run from Chicago to St. Joseph in three hours and two minutes in- stead of three hours: and twelve minutes as had been ~ supposed. The steamer Puritan, ef the Graham & Morton e Line, will therefore have to try Faget as her late passage was madein three hours and eleven minutes. The Ship Owners Dry Dock Co. are making great im- provements on the old property of the late Miller’s plant, anditis in the future toséea busy shipyard as well as modern dry docks established at this point.. The business warrants and the future demands just what the well-advised and experienced stockholders in the Ship Owners Dry Dock. Co. are now engaged in carrying out, and, in fact, the changes ought to have been made long ago. Nine yachts reached here ready to defend the Canada’ s cup against the Canadian boat Invader on August 10. The yachts are: Orion and Milwaukee, of Milwaukee; Detroit and Cadillac, of Detroit; and Illinois, Yankee, Minota, Prairie and Briar, of Chicago. The Genesee is the boat which took the cup two years ago against the Canadian yacht Beaver off Toronto. The course is triangular, seven nautical miles to the leg. Since the races on Saturday last the list is being beautifully reduced and yachtsmen’s notions of speedy forms of hulls as regularly exploded. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge at South Chi- cago is being roundly cursed by all interests connected with trade and business on the Calumet river, though chiefly so by vesselmen. It has become so common to obstruct and harass lake shipping at. this port that it appears the same tactics are being introduced at South Chicago. It is flatly stated that the engineer officer who permitted the obstruc- tion to be placed in the river allowed himself to lean all in favor of the railroad company. The Secretary of War has approved an order authorizing the current in. the Chicago drainage canal to be increased from 200,000 to 300,000 cubic feet an hour between the hours of four o’clock in the afternoon and twelve o’clock midnight. The flowage formerly was 300,000 feet, but was decreased upon complaint of vessel owners that such a flowage made the current of the Chicago river too swift and inter- fered with commerce. It is claimed that there are not: many boats moving on the river between the hours named, so that the new order is in the form of a compromise. 3 Captain G. E. Atkinson, has resigned his charge as mas- ter of the Northwestern, ik reason for doing so was the long voyage, although ‘he says the trip could be made inside of two months’ after everything wasin working order. He said that he would probably:mot be the only one to decline a second voyage, as he expected Captain C. E. Ross, of the Northman, to do the same, but not on account of anything pertaining to the qualities of the steamers. According to last week’s RECORD Atkinson said he could makeithe voyage in 49 days, now he wants everything to go right.and do itn 60 days. As a matter of practice, fact and experience Atkin- son has discovered that the little boats are not-Atlantic lin- ers, also can he count in, or rather he can’t count at all; on canal lockages, fogs, gales, tides, dry docking and. a few other little items like the foregoing whieh may prevent schedule time being made. rel Charles Counselman, president of the ellen eébears Steam- ship Co., trading from this port across the Atlantic, says: “Tt is most too early to determine what the outcome of this venture will be. We have had many things not to our liking to contend with in our early experience, but it has been clearly demonstrated that a line of ships can be operated between here and Europe with perfect safety and dispatch. No doubt it will take a long time to establish the fact with insurance companies that there is no more risk in navigating the rivers and canals to the seaboard than there is. in sailing the lakes,, If anything prevents the success of the venttre it will be the insurance rates. They are now $1.25 per $rco on the cargoes, as against a rate of from I5 to 20 cents from