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AUGUST I, I90I. THE MARINE RECORD. CHICAGO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. C. W. Williams, president of the Williams Transportation: Co., says that the steamer Easton has not been sold. The cruising yacht Kid, Vernon Seaver, owner, valued at $6,000, was destroyed by fire while filling her gasoline tanks at the Columbia Yacht Club House on Tuesday. Orders already placed with the mills on specifications for shipbuilding material have been figured on for two or three months ahead, so that contracts for new tonnage will call for months of delay beyond a usual or ordinary time of de- livery. The passenger steamer Easton, owned by the Williams Transportation Co., has been sold to Milwaukee parties and will be delivered to her new owners September 1. ton was purchased from-a company at Baltimore, Md., this spring and brought to the lakes. _ According to the advertisement in British marine papers, the Northwestern will leave Manchester August 5 and Liverpool five days later, but she won’t. She’ll be in luck even to smell salt water at, on or about that date. As the RECORD has consistently stated, these boats have no reason for being on the Chicago-Atlantic route. There is considerable talk going on at times regarding the union affiliations, which masters and pilots, as well as en- gineers, willenter upon at the close of navigation, but as a good deal of it is a matter of personal views, there is little good to be attained by repeating the talk. Evidently sal- aried men are guessing how best to secure and improve their positions. The talk about changing the route of the large passenger steamers North West and North Land next season is not cred ited here. An official of the company stated that while he had not heard of the matter being discussed, he saw no rea- son why any change should be made and that everything pointed towards the boats being kept on the Chicago-Buf- falo route for another season at least. The ripple made recently in stating that the Northwestern Steamship Co., Counselman et al, would lay keels for a fleet of ten steel steamers for, the Chicago-Atlantic route has flattened out and this is no longer considered the direction from which a bolus of new tonnage may spring. It is thought though, that Capt. Wolvin and his business associ- ates may have something of this nature up their sleeves for late delivery next season. Mr. John Paterson, representing one of the largest ship- building plants in Scotland, isin this country inspecting the various ship yards and steel works, especially their equipment. On his visit to the various plants, where pneu- matic tools and appliances are extensively used, he was favorably impressed with those manufactured by the Chi- cago Pneumatic ‘Tool Company, and visited their plant at Olney, Philadelphia, and the Boyer Machine Company, Ltd., at Detroit. The steamer Tampico, built at Toledo for coast service, is now on her passage to the Pacific coast via the Straits of Ma- gellan. A letter just received from Capt. K. A. Jenson, States that he put into Monte Video for some hull repairs after which he would proceed on his passage. The Tampico is rated Ar in Inland Lloyd’s and given an insurance yal- uation of $155,000. It is understood by all parties interested that her purchaser is enquiring about the price of other lake-built steamers, though he is not talking about build- ing as contracts are now placed well ahead at all lake ship- yards. The Canadian yacht Invader, Capt. Jarvis, has been ship- ped by rail from Toronto andis due here now. Several days will be spent in getting her into proper racing trim and then all she asks is wind and enough of it. In the meantime the two Detroit yachts, the Milwaukee and the Illinois, are belting at it to prove or show who is the conqueror and which one will be told off to meet the Invader. There is as much interest manifested in even the trial races as was evi- denced in the old times between the passages of China tea clippers, if such a comparison will stand for it. there is as much sailorizing being done all around. Major J. H. Willard, Corps of Engineers, U.S. A., in his annual report ‘on rivers and harbors for the district of Chicago, recommends legislation to secure a navigable depth of twenty-six feet in both the inner and outer harbors, which will insure heavily loaded vessels against pounding on the bottom in a swell, He recommends the dumping ground in the lake to be moved in accordance with the views of the health department. Major Willard makes the following es- timates: Dredging harbor and river to Rush street, Chicago, Certainly The Has- : - good in no other direction. $230,000; construction of turning basins in Chicago river, $75,000; Calumet harbor, Chicago, continuing improvements, $419,480; Calumet river, Chicago, continuing improvements, $510,000; Illinois river, $257,000; Illinois and Mississippi canal, to complete project, $778, 250. ee a ‘CLEVELAND. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Mr. J. C. Gilchrist is spending a few days at Atlantic City and is expected to return early next week. Toledo may be a safe enough harbor by this time but the masters and owners of the Cadillac will hardly think so after her fetching up there on Saturday last. Conneaut ore receipts amounted to 600,000 tons last month, but even that quantity has been exceeded in July by 2,000 tons and the ore is fast piling up on the docks. At a meeting of the directors of the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co., held on Monday, the regular quarterly dividend of 1% per cent., payable August 1, was declared. The handsome steam yacht Say When, owned by the Hon. W. J. White, is now on her way to Bar Harbor, Me. Capt. George Fleming piloted her from Oswego to Montreal. A notice has been posted in the river custom house stating that hereafter no more sailors will be vaccinated at that place, but that any seamen wishing to be vaccinated might call at the U. S. Marine Hospital. The labor trouble about handling general cargoes in the line boats is about being brought to a close. The Anchor Line is the exception and its managers don’t appear to want to get mixed in with the latest union rulings, Major Dan C. Kingman, Corps of Engineers, U.S. A., has ordered a 34-foot launch from the Detroit Motor Works for delivery at this station within 30 days. The launch will be used for patrol, inspection and surveying duties. The steel trust has kept iron ore rates steady if it has done The opening rate which they first offered is still maintained and all comers taken care of at that. Of course the rate is a low one but the best despatch possible is given at both loading and discharging ports. In entering Ashtabula on Monday the Venezuela, Capt. W. Maltby, walked into the Kahne block, a three-story brick. The vessel had no tug and failed to make the bend in the river below the swing bridge. Repairs to the building ‘will cost more than the services of atug would have amounted to. Itis said that Capt. James Davidson means business and is now ready to go ahead with the establishment of a steel shipyard second to none on the lakes. He seems to center his mind on a location somewhere east of Cleveland and it is known that other capitalists are closely interested in his deliberations. . It is learned that the two 5,o00-ton steamers, for which contracts were closed with the American Ship Building Co- a few weeks ago, are for C, G. Tomlinson, the Duluth vessel broker, and Frank Seither, Cleveland. Mr. Seither is manager of the Union Dairy Co., and is managing owner of the steamer V. K. Ketcham. The new boats will be deliv- ered early next season. A long, strong pull will be made by all interests at the next session of Congress in favor of large appropriations in the river and harbor bill. It is well known that Senator Hanna’s views regarding the extension of the local break- water are not entirely in consonance with those of Hon. T. E. Burton, M. C. for this district and chairman of the River and Harbor Committee, who entertains the same opinion as the U. S. Engineer in charge of the district. The International Steamship Co., A. B. Wolvin, of Duluth, president, has sold the steamer Paraguay to eastern parties. The price paid for the boat is placed at $250,000, but the name of the purchaser is not learned. The Paraguay was built at the Lorain yards of the American Ship Building Co., was sent to the coast last fall and brought back to the lakes early this season to be placed in the ore trade. She will be converted into a bulk oil carrier or tank steamer. The Paraguay, built last year for service on the coast, is now at Lorain being converted into a bulk oil carrier. It is proposed to put her into service carrying oil from the Texas oil field. When completed she will have two large steam pumps to pump oil. Double bulkheads and a fore-and-aft bulkhead and six lines of pipe will be run through. Four of the lines will be 7 inches and two g inches. It will prob- ably take about three months to make the change. The following meteorologital observations are furnished by the office of the U. S. Weather Bureau for the week énd- ing July 31: ‘Prevailing wind direction during the week, S.; highest velocity, 46 W., on the 29th; mean temperature for week, 77; highest temperature, 92, on July 29; lowest; 68, on July 27. Sunrise and: sunset data, computed for local time at Cleveland: Aug. 2, sun rises 4:53, sets 7:18; Aug. 5, sun rises 4:56, sets 7:14; Aug 8, sun rises 4:59, sets 7:11. Mr. Harry Rodgers who is well known in steamboat and railroad circles has accepted the position of general freight. agent of the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co. Mr. Rogers held that position until five years ago when he resigned to go with the B. & O. railroad as commercial freight agent. The change will take place Sept. 1. Before the C. & B. line was started Mr. Rodgers was freight agent for the D. & C. line, under the successful tutelage of Mr. T. F. Newman, general manager of the C. & B. line and president of the. Great Lakes Towing Co. ‘ It is asked in down town offices why the Modoc whistle of the fireboat should so frequently be brought into use. It appears that the fire chief has established a code, principally to warn the crew of the viaduct bridge and incidentally him- self, according to the following system : fire on the east side ; one long and one short, a warning to the viaduct that apparatus may be required from the west side; three long blasts, fire to the west or south; three long and one short blast notifies the viaduct crew that apparatus will probably pass from east to west and must be given the right of way. What is known as the ‘‘Fordyce Contract,”’ upon which Cleveland capitalists are promoting the Miami & Erie Canal Transportation Co., has been made the basis of certain reflections against prominent state officials and the promoters of the company. The newspapers in the southern part of Ohio have been serious in their denunciation of the grant, most of them basing their charges upon the idea that the Governor and Attorney- -General had given the Miami & Erie canal to Fordyce for the construction of an electric railroad through to Toledo. Cleveland officers of the Miami & Erie Canal Co, have made an emphatic denial of the charge ‘that they are attempting to steal the canal bank for an electric Any attempt in this direction would be The company has been ’ passenger business. at the jeopardy of their franchise. One long blast, | organized and its bonds underwritten on the sole representa- tion that it was to engage in the business of towing canal — boats. ee i FLOTSAM. JETSAM AND LAGAN. . The steamer Simon J. Murphy, which has been under charter to the Coastwise Steamship Co. of Newport News - and New York, has been sold tothe M.S. Dollar Co. of . San. Francisco, and will soon leave for the Pacific. The story that the steamer City of Louisville has been sold by the Harts of Green Bay is denied. They have, how- ever, sold for $7,000 the steamer C. W. Moore to Chicago parties, who intend to run her on the Chicago-Benton Har- bor route in the passenger and general carrying trade. The Lookout, in the Daily Commercial News and Ship- ping List, San Francisco, is accountable for the following: ‘“‘Woman’’ remarked the cynic ‘needs disciplining. If I had a wife she would get a sound spanking every little while.’* ‘You would have to do it behind her back,’ in- dignantly protested a young lady listener. ‘‘Of course, where else should I?’’ was the imperturbable answer. In advocating the change of terms port or starboard to left and right, the New York Marine Journal says ‘‘we can see no reason why the change should not be popular with mariners of all nations. We take it for granted that every one—landsman as well as seaman—knows what right or left means, and for those who first start on a sea career it makes two exclusively sea terms, ‘‘port’’ and ‘“‘starboard,’’ easily understood when left and right are used in the stead. We are living in an age of advancement and improvement. There is no good reason for clinging to old-fashioned terms and conditions on shipboard when they can be simplified and better understood through a more apt application of language or invention.’’ This is along the lines of the ideas of the naval freak who wanted to change the compass terms so as to number from N to 360° around by Kast. The only shipshape notion expressed therein wasin going around east about, though to complete the freakish innovation the advocacy might have been to reckon left handed, and west about, or from the South polar point Kast about. The Ma- rine Journal should know betterthan to attempt to make sailors into landsmen, or vice versa. Steering as used in the pilotage of narrow waters is as frequently indicated by hand motion as it is by word of mouth. Instance, adialogue between deck officerand helmsman. ‘‘Is your wheel left? no sir it istight, ah? right is not right I want it left; he leaves it, etc.