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THE MARINE RECORD. SEPTEMBER 26, IgOI. Ee kKhekknk se be ty DETROIT. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. The steel steamer Hugoma, building for the Morleys, at Wyandotte, will be launched on Wednesday next. She has been’ built for coast service. A new chart,.in colors, of Cleveland harbor and Cuyahoga river, Ohio, has just been issued and is now on sale at the U. S. Lake Survey Office, 33 Campau building, Detroit. A new chart, in colors, of the recent survey of South Fox Island Shoals has just been issued and is now on sale.at the U.S. Lake Survey Office, 33 Campau Building, at six cents per copy. The yacht Priscilla, which 15 years ago came within a few seconds of being America’s cup defender, is in the slip of the Michigan Yacht & Power Co. above Belle Isle bridge, and is now being laid up for the winter. The Grand Trunk elevator at Point Edward, which has stood for forty years, caught fire and burned. to the ground on, Monday. The steamer City of Collingwood had just fin- ished unloading a cargo of grain. The elevator was valued at $70,000 and was covered by insurance. Mrs. W. D. Ragan, of Port Huron, will send a friend to Wiarton, -Ont., to look for the body of her husband. Ragan who was owner of the schooner Jupiter, lost on Lake Huron last week, took out a $2, 500 accident. policy, with the Stand- ard Accident Co., before starting on the fatal trip, The company operating the Port Huron and Duluth line of steamers, has had plans prepared for the construction of a new steel steamer. The vessel will be 383 feet long, 50 feet beam and 30 feet deep. She will be named after J. E. Botsford, of Port Huron. ‘The contract will be placed as soon as the details of the plans have been perfected. When the steamer Cornell reached Detroit.on Monday afternoon, Capt. C. Z. Montague was informed that his son, Newton Montague, had died at Huron, O. Captain Mon- tague at once left the boat and proceeded to his home by rail, The steamer proceeded to her destination under com- mand of the mate. _ The following meteorological observations are furnished by the office of the U. S. Weather. Bureau, Detroit, for the week ending Sept. 24: Prevailing wind directions for the week, southwest; highest velocity 27 miles, south, Sept. 22; mean temperature for the week, 58; highest temperature, 78 on 23d; lowest, 40, on igth. | The wreckers who have been at work on the whaleback barge 202 , ashore above Port Huron, have made some prog- ress in the last few days. When the wind freshened up Tuesday, she was in seven feet of water. It was necessary to let water into her to keep her from being tossed higher on the beach, but when the wind goes down she will be pumped out again and towing will be resumed. The Canadian steamer Donnacona came out of dry dock this week and her place was taken by the Midland Queen; both are English-built craft and, this is their first season. The Queen’s hull for 100 feet along the bottom. is bent, many of the plates and frames being in such condition that they will have to be replaced. The Midland Queen grounded on a rock in the ‘‘Soo’’ canal and it is expected that every. one of the 24 plates struck will have to be taken out. The work will cost about $20,000, and will take two or three weeks. The Midland Queen belongs to Playfair Bros., of Midland, Georgian Bay, and hails from Dundee, Scotland, _ Capt Hansen, of the lost schooner Jupiter, who took tothe yawl with his family, and Mate Oleson, says that before he left the schooner, Mr. W. D. Ragan, the owner, went. into the cabin and, borrowing a pencil from, Mrs. Hansen, wrote a letter to his wife. This letter, with his eye-glasses and money, he put in a small glass jar and corked it tightly. He then put it into a pail of water to ascertain if it, would float, as.it proved todo. He then wrapped a piece of canvas around it, explainin g that the canvas was to protect the jar in the event that it was washed against the rocks. He doesn’ t know when Ragan set it adrift. which was picked up near Wiarton, Ont., last Saturday, ‘ This is the letter: BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Owing to the low stage of water in the river the launch of the Western Transit Line’s new steamer Chicago has been postponed until Saturday. The excursion steamer Crystal of the Crystal Beach line has been laid up for the winter. The Superior, spe is now making regular trips to the Beach. Coal chartering is’ brisk, but the rates don’t improve. Lake Superior 35.cents, and Lake Michigan 50 ‘cents, with the range between these figures to the minor ports. The position of superintending engineer of the Northern Steamship Co. has been done away with, and J. H. Tarney has been appointed marine e superintendent with headquar- ters at Buffalo. Arrangements have béen made for the funeral of Sherman G. Brooks,’ the wheelman on the lost steamer Hudson, whose body was picked up in Lake Superior last week... His body has been embalmed and will arrive on the steamer Troy from Sault Ste. Marie Wednesday, and the funeral will be held:on that day. Capt. Ed. Maytham is back in his store at the foot of Commercial street, after a long and painful illness, which threatened atone time to remove one of the best known marine men on the lower lakes. It was found necessary for Captain Maytham to submit to an operation for appendicitis, and following this he lay on his back for five weeks unable to move. His iron constitution brought him back to health, The officers of the’ Western, Transit Co. announced that it will provide for the families of the lost members of the crew of the steamer Hudson wherever it is found that assistance is necessary. .Care will be taken that none of those depend- ent on the men drowned in Lake Superior shall want. until permanent arrangements can be made for them. Several families will not want assistance. _ An official investigation is being made by the steamboat inspectors regarding the. loss through foundering on Lake Superior of the Western Transit Liner Hudson. “Only the evidence of persons sighting’ ‘the craft can be obtained so that actual evidence of the causes leading up to the casualty will not be brought forward. ‘This is the most serious cas- ualty of the season both in lives and monetary value. The inquiry is looked upon here as a'mere matter of form, no recommendations can be made and it will ae do harm nor good. Arrangements have been made for launching the new steamer building for the Western Transit Co., at the Buffalo yards of the American Ship Building Co. The new craft will be one of the finest freight boats on the lakes, being a sister ship ‘to the Troy and Buffalo. She will be named the Chicago.’ As the new sister ship is to be engaged in the Lake Michigan trade, it was considered very appropriate that she should bear the name of that great city on the shores of that lake. - To ‘enable it to so christen the steamer, the Western Transit Co., decided to change the name of the old boat to Troy. It is not believed that the new Chicago will be completed in time to go into service this season. = The new twin screw steamer Kronprinz Wilhelm arrived in New York’on Wednesday: She left Bremen on Septem- ber 17 and Southampton and Cherbourg the 18th. From the time of leaving Cherbourg harbor the steamer experi- enced head seas with heavy southwesterly gales. On the 24th she made 575 knots, which the chief engineer claimed to be the best day’s run ever made onan initial voyage.’ The Kronprinz is built on the lines of the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, but is 15 feet longer. Her dimensions are, length 663 feet, beam 66 feet and depth 43 feet. Her gross tonnage is 15,000 tons and’ displacement 21,300 tons. The time of passage was 6 days, 10 hours and.15 minutes. Total distance, 3,045 knots; average speed per hour, 19.74 knots, Michael Moran and John: Tracey, of New York city, who were passengers on the Barry steamer Hartford, say that the damage done to the Grand Trunk bridge across the Welland canal consisted of a slightly bent bar or brace, which was one of the supports of the bridge. . Capt. Barry was willing to make good the damage done, but refused to accede to the demand of the collector of canals that he deposit $500 to cover what damage the bridge suffered.. Capt. Barry prof- fered his card to the authorities, but they refused to accept it, saying that the money should be deposited. Inasmuch as the amount was considered exorbitant, and knowing that- the line was thoroughly responsible, the captain determined. to leave port despite the fact that the authorities‘had ordered the captain of the Petrel to fire on the Hartford should such an attempt be made. Capt. Barry’s determination to leave was further. augmented by the receipt of a telegram which advised him that his brother was dying. The assumption of authority shown by the Canadian government officials was entirely without precedent and wholly uncalled for, ac- cording to the passengers named, in view of the fact that the bridge is private property and not under the: control of the government. “A delegation of prominent citizens of Quebec, connected with harbor improvements, etc., visited here'a few days ago. They found that there are 38 grain elevators ‘in Buffalo, of a total storage capacity of over 21 million bushels, in addition to which 6 transfer towers and 8 floating elevators ; another big steel elevator is in construction, which gives a total of 53 elevating buildings, the transfer capacity of which is 5,090,000 bushels every 24hours. The most remarkable of those structures are the two huge steel tank elevators on the ship canal. A powerful and expeditious lifting mechanism for loading coal was shown to the visitors while in operation, by which a railway truck with its 20-ton load of coal was raised to an elevation of 30 feet and then tipped so as to dis- charge its.contents into a funnel-shaped bin, which was in its turn lifted up and then lowered.into the hatch of the vessel, where it automatically emptied itself. Thus, by rapid handling, the cost of coal is reduced to a minimum ; soft coal for fuel has been sold as low as $1.15 per ton in Buffalo delivered. The railways now own and control all the wharves on both shores of the river and the ship canal, but the city has recently succeeded, before the courts, in re- claiming a portion of the river front west of the extremity of Main street, and on the other hand the Federal Govern- ment has built two extensive breakwaters of an aggregate length of about two miles, about 24 feet wide on top. —< urea DULUTH-SUPERIOR. Special Correspondence to the Marine Record. Cargo insurance on lumber has been done at considerable loss,owing to the large number of disasters to lumber vessels, The whaleback barge 107 went into the West Superior dry dock, on Sunday, for repairs to her bottom. The steamer Corona is also at oe ship yards in’ West aie ge for repairs to her bow. Capt. Joseph Kidd went to Bayfield on Monday on busi- fiess in connection with the burning’ of the steamer Fedora. He will likely report to the owners and underwriters the condition of the burned hull and machinery.’ The 400 foot steamer Christopher, building at the Superior yard of the American Ship Building Co., for Milwaukee people, will be launched Saturday. This is the cab oe of the largest class to be ordered in Milwaukee. The colléctor of customs at Duluth has notified Capt. A. B. Wolvin, general manager of the Pittsburg Steamship Co., that the fine against the steamer Gen. O. M. Poe for viola tion of navigation laws for the ‘‘Soo’”’ river has been’ an ted by the department. - i A northeast gale, which attained the greatest velocity on ake Superior which has been recorded for some time swept all of the Upper Lakes on Tuesday. At Duluth the wind reached the 62 mile point for a short time and the greatest force attained after that was 40 miles during the forenoon. The steamer Fedora, which took fire and was beached, is considered a total loss. She was criginally owned by EB. D. Carter, of Erie, Pa., and later purchased by W. W. Brown, of Cleveland, her present owner. The name Fedora was taken from the title of Fannie Davenport’s great play, in which she wasstarring in 1889. Miss Davenport herself christened the vessel. Wreckage from the Hudson is drifting ashore along Ke- weenaw Point. The Western Transit Co. has announced that it will provide for the families of the lost members of the Hudson’s crew, wherever assistance is found to be nec- essaty. The body of Brooks, and any others. that may. be found, will be taken to Buffalo for burial or wherever the relatives may desire. . The first steel elevator at the head of the lakes, of pene cir- cular steel tank type, will be erected this winter on a site just north of the Peavey elevator with the two concrete an- nexes. This new elevator will have a capacity of 2,000,000 and will be erected: by a Minneapolis syndicate of which McCarthy Bros. are the local representatives. Itis also-re- ported that the Pioneer. Steel Elevator Co., of Minneapolis, will construct'a'grain elevator in Duluth this winter. There is a certain portion of Duluth where colored lights are exhibited at the entrance of the houses. These are gen- erally known to be danger signals, but last week a steamer wanted to nose her way in that direction thus endangering i $ :