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eo we SS roa ee SEPTEMBER 12, Igol. THE MARINE RECORD. / STRANDING AND COLLISION IN FOG. (Communicated. ) A Liverpool shipowner, on the supposition that ‘‘there is nothing so dangerous to a ship as a fog, because it may lead to almost any kind of dangér, such as collisions or running ashore,’’ wants it to “‘be made imperative, that no man gets command of a ship who does not have a most thorough knowledge of meteorology,’’ asserting, that ‘‘the examinations passed by sea captains to-day are crude in the extreme, and therefore the need is greater for constant study of weather charts.’’ In other words, the errors in navigation are to be corrected by meteorology, according to the fancy of this man. | In making these accusations and complaints he is evi- dently oblivious of the fact, that a low standard of examina- tion is maintained in favor of ship owners, to increase the number of officers of the merchant marine, and keep their \ ages down to the lowest mark; the appointment of foreign- ers to command British vessels working in the same direc- tion. It isthe greed of shipowners, that makes a low standard in pecuniary, as well as, scientific respects. Not willing to pay high wages, and compensate captains for the time and outlays required for a thorough study of navigation, miediocrity prevails, and the savings on this score are more han offset by the payment of high insurance premiums, to make good the losses consequent upon insufficient training of officers. Two-thirds of all losses of vessels at sea are due to strand- ‘ag, caused by the use of defective methods for finding the ylace the ship is in, for, if these methods werenot defective vessels would not get stranded in fog and thick weather. Cherefore, ignorance of the place the ship isin, or, a mis- taken identity of place, is the cause of stranding, and not ignorance of the weather, or weather forecasts. A ‘‘constant study of weather charts’’ presupposes a con- ‘tinual stay of vesselsin port, in order to get those charts. Sut as vessels are built to earn some money, they have to: ve under way the greater part of the time, and have to put ip with all kinds of weather, fogs not excepted. Likewise, ave they to suffer the penalty of running ashore, attached to the use of defective methods for ascertaining position, no natter whether they do, or do not study weather charts, »'orm warnings excepted. One of the principal causes of stranding is the use of the floating or patent log, in determining position, by the assist- ance of any known point of departure. This log partakes of the set and drift of currents, and therefore gives only the distance run on the water, and not the distance over the ground. The position by this log is always so much in vror as the current sets during the run; and as in thick eather observations for the place the ship isin are want- ing, vessels are unable to correct the error, and in the vicinity of land meet with disaster. In clear weather, the errors in position due to the use of defective methods are generally detected and corrected by the lookout, therefore the lookout is the main stay of all hunglers in navigation; but when the lookout fails, especially in fog and thick weather, stranding is the conse- quence. The safety of vessels nowadays, depends entirely on the lookout, instead of on a correct reckoning. The only correct log, not influenced by currents is the -round log, correcting courses for leeway and current, and ing distances made good; but the ground log is not found used aboard any ship; so that it rightly may be said, minal negligence, and not fog, is the cause of all strand- 1gs. That defective methods for finding the position of a vessel sea are used by the score—the floating log is only a single -ahce—is not the fault of sea captains, but the fault of ay. of examination and wreck-courts, by whom those uc wwods are approved; whose rules and decisions are law, and who alone are responsible for the great number of strandings. ; As to collisions in fog, we find from statistical data (see »»otocol of the International Marine Conference, 1889, page *hat the danger of collision is greater in the daytime san St nights; from which may be inferred, that fog does not increase the danger of collision. So much is certain, that no collisions of any consequence would occur if all vessels acted in conformity with article 16 of the International Rules, which reads: ‘‘Rvery vessel shall, in a fog, mist, falling snow, or heavy rain storms, go at a moderate speed, having careful regard to the existing circumstances and conditions. “‘A steam vessel hearing, apparently forward of her beam, the fog signal of a vessel, the position of which is not ascer- tained, shall so far as the circumstances of the case admit, stop her engines, and then navigate with caution until danger of collision is over.”’ The Liverpool shipowner, therefore, may rest assured that gross negligence and defective methcds for ascertain- ing positions are the causes of all disasters at sea in fog, and that the study of meteorology would not in the least improve prevailing conditions. JOHN MAURICE, Chicago, Aug. Igor. Civil Engineer and Naut. Expert. ee MUST ASSIST AFTER COLLIDING. The steamer Alexander McDougall, belonging to the Pittsburg Steamship Co., (United States Steel Corporation), has been fined $1,000 by Collector of Customs Willcuts, of Duluth, for not stopping to assist in the rescue of passengers after sinking the ferry’ steamer Steuben at Fort Gratiot, Aug. 21, The McDougall had another boat in tow and collided with the ferryboat a short distance from her dock, from the effects of which she sank at once. A number of passengers were on the boat, but there was no loss of life, a tug and several small boats picking up everybody in the water. Capt. W. H. Kilby, of the McDougall, did not stop to assist inthe rescue, asjthe law demanded that he should do, but instead got out of the way as soon as possible. In his report to the government inspectors of steam vessels Capt. Kilby explained that after colliding with the ferry he saw that a number of small boats had put out from the dock and that. he could accomplish the most good by getting his boats out of the way of the rescuers as soon as possible, which he did, The law, however, does not recognize con- tingencies and a fine must be imposed, subject to a rebate at the hands of the Treasury Department if it is found that the violation is. excusable. The matter was reported to Collector Willcuts from the Port Huron district. Fort Gratiot is about a mile above Port Huron. oo CONTRACT FOR CARGO STEAMER. The Craig Ship Building Co., of Toledo, O., has closed a contract for a freight steamer of about 5,500 tons capacity. The order was placed by Capt. Colin McLachlan, of Port Huron, who is managing owner of the steamer Kittie M. Forbes and the schooner Mary E. McLachlan. The new boat will be the largest ever turned out at the Toledo yard. She will be 390 feet over all, 370 feet.keel, 48 feet beam and 28 feet deep. She will have triple expansion engines with cylinders 22, 38 and 59 inch with 42 inch stroke. She will have three Scotch type boilers, to be allowed 170 pounds of steam. The new boat will cost about $230,000. Work will be started on her at once, and she will be ready for business at the opening of navigation next spring. The Toledo firm has builta numberof Welland canal sized steemers, for coastal service and has turned out several fast passenger boats, but this is the first order for a 5,000-ton steel steamer that has been placed with Craig’s. The Mclachlan boat is the only craft. that the Craig Ship Building Co. has under contract for 1902 delivery. The Toledo firm, however, is figuring with Lake Michigan parties for a passenger steamer, and another deal may be closed in a short time. Two steamships for the Atlantic coast fruit trade are now being built and are well along towards completion. . or or A NEW IRON ORE MINE. Nineteen years ago George Wagner discovered a fine iron ore property in Canada, about 24 miles from the ‘‘Soo.”” It was secured from the Canadian government, but when the parties behind Wagner undertook to build a railroad they found it would cost not less than $1,000,000, and the project was abandoned. ’ Now it is only one and one-half miles from Wilde station on the Algoma Central & Hudson’s Bay railway. The Breitung Iron Co. has been organized by the original owners, with Mr. Wagner as president, and development work is in progress. The property comprises 1,000’ acres, and is described as a mountain of specular ore similar to that in Negaunee, running 60 per cent. pure on the surface, with a practically inexhaustible supply. Mr. Wagner was a member of the State Legislature four terms and has many friends through the State of Michigan who will be glad to hear of his fine prospects. SHIPPING AND MARINE JUDICIAL: DECISIONS. | (COLLABORATED SPECIALLY FOR THE MARINE RECORD. Collision—Steamer and Sailing Vessel—Presumption of Fault.—In case of a collision at sea between a steamer and a sailing vessel, the prestmption is that the steamer was in — fault, since it was her duty to keep out of ‘the way; and the burden rests upon her to rebut such presumption by evidence showing that she kept an efficient lookout, and took all reasonable precautions to prevent the collision. Merchants & Miners’ Transp. Co. vs. Hopkins et al., 108 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 8o0. : * Wharves—Liability for Injury to Vessel—Unauthorized Removal—A dock owner is: liable to the owner of a steam canal boat for injury caused by its resting at low water on an uneven bottom in a slip, into which it was moved, by the dock superintendent’s orders, in the absence of the master, who had previously protested against the removal on the ground of the danger from such cause, which he had ascertained by soundings. Smith vs. Yellow Pine Co., 108 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 881. Maritime Liens—Wages—Master of Dredge.—A master of a dredge, which is incapable of being navigated, and therefore earns no money which passes through his hands, and who is, in effect, only a superintendent of the work, having charge of the dredge and the men thereon, and himself performing the’ duties of engineer, fireman, arid general deck hand, is entitled to’a lien on the”vessel for his wages, the same. as any seaman. The John McDer- mott, 109 Fed. Rep. (U..S) go. Abandonment of Ship.—The abandonment of a stranded vessel and her cargo by the owners to the insurers is not an abandonment, within the meaning of the maritime law, which terminates the voyage, but results merely in a change of owners; and the duty of master and seamen to stand by the vessel and cargo is unaffected by such change, and services thereafter rendered by them in that regard are not salvage services which can be compensated as such by the courts, however meritorious they may have been. The Ci F. Biclman, 108 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 878. RAR Violation of Rules—Failure to Sound Fog Horn.—Under the navigation rules (26 Stat. 320), which requires sailing ves els to use the fog horn ‘‘in fog, mist, falling snow or. heavy rain storm, whether by day or night,” a schooner which fails to observe such requirement while sailing be- fore a sixty-mile wind on a dark and rainy night must be held guilty of contributory fault for a collision with a meeting steamer, unless it affirmatively appears that the neglect could not have contributed to the disaster. Mer chants & Miners’ Transp. Co. vs. Hopkins et al, 108 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 8¢0. Eyidence of Custom.—A charter, which by its term required the charterer to “provide and furnish the vessel a full and complete cargo of coal,” cannot be held to exempt him from such requirement on account of a strike among coal miners, merely upon the testimony of coal operators that such was the custom of the port where no provision to the contrary was made in the charter, when no one of the witnesses ever knew of a case in which a charterer had been so relieved, and as against the testimony of other witnesses of longer experience that no such custom existed. Continental Coal Co. vs. Birdsall, 1o8 Fed, Rep. (U. S.) 882. : Shipping—Injury to Cargo from Defective Refrigerator —Limitation of Liability by Bill of Lading.—An agreement in a bill of lading for dressed meats to be transported across the Atlantic, that the carrier shall not be responsible for any loss or damage arising from breakdown or injury to the ship’s refrigerator or its machinery, even though arising from defect existing at or previous to’ the com- mencement of the voyage, is one which it is competent for the parties to make, and it relieves the carrier from liabil- ity for loss arising from such causes unless negligence is shown, the burden of proving which rests ‘upon the shipper. The Southwark. 108 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 880. Collision—Tow and Anchored Steamship—Insufficient Lookout.—An incoming steamship reaching New York too late at night to pass quarantine anchored for the night only not far from the quarantine wharf on Staten Island, being about one-fourth the distance from Staten Island to the ‘Long Island shore. She was not within the official anchoring grounds but was not in a place. to obstruct navigation by vessels coming up or .down. the ordinary channel way. She carried a good anchor light, and the night was not dark. During the night scows coming in tow on a course substantially to the “westward of the or- dinary one came into collision with the steamer and in- jured her. Held, that she could not be charged with fault for the collision because of her anchoring outside the grounds for so brief a time, under the circumstances, but the tug must be held solely in fault for being out of the usual course without maintaining a’ proper lookout; it ap- pearing that she could readily have seen and avoided the steamer, had such lookout been: kept. The Municipal, 108 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 895.