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ESTABLISHED 1878. Published Every Thursday by THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Incorporated. C, 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., OCTOBER 38, 1901. ee DISABLED VESSEL—RESCUING LIVES. There seems to be an impression prevailing in lake ma- rine circles that a passing vessel is bound to take care of anything disabled which she may come across irrespective of weather conditions or other considerations. This feature has been brought prominently to the front during the past week or two, within which, at least two shipmasters have been morally censured for not taking unwilling passengers aboard their craft. It should be clearly: understood that salving floating prop- erty is clearly at the option of the passing vessel, which, after all, resolves itself according to the judgment of the man incharge. On the other hand, the question of rescuing lives must be placed on a broad, humanitarian basis, calling for the exercise of all the skill known to the craft and risks second only to the probable loss of life in rescuing other lives. Conditions may, and often do, present themselves, where it is simple foolhardiness and stupidity to attempt to rescue even life, much less to act the part of salvors. A shipmas- ter should be guided by his best possible experience as well as that of others, in making well-advised, strenuous and su- preme efforts to alleviate distress, but it is not. advisable to risk life against life, or sacrifice a number i in an abortive at- tempt to rescue. The men temporarily under a ban may rest assured that the better judgment will eventually prevail and the first law of nature be still held in good repute. The waters of the earth gives daily evidence of brave, he- roic acts performed thereon. Suilors, like the very poor, will give their all to those in dire distress and trust in provi- dence to carry them through at a later period. The only question that can ever arise may be solved by the query, Was, or is, the action, or inaction, well advised ? i or on . POINT PELEE PASSAGE. Commander Andrew Dunlap, U.S.N., inspector of the 1o:h Light House District, stationed at Buffalo, joins with M sjor T. W. Symons, Corps of Engineers, U. S.A., engineer of the same district in desiring an expression of opinion from the sailing fraternity regarding the best aid to naviga- tion and pilotage to be placed on South East Shoal, Point- au-Pelee Passage, Lake Erie. It is desirous to learn whether a light-ship or light-house at that point would best subserve the interests of lake commerce, and we hope that in the multiplicity of counsel there will be wisdom found to further the establishment of the best aid necessary in the locality. To this end we ask that lake shipmasters and pilots promptly correspond with the government officials at Buffalo. THE MARINE RECORD. LIGHT-H USE OR LIGHT-SHIP. The Lake Carriers’ Association has written to the Light- House Board asking for an investigation of the necessity of a light-house or light-ship on the Southeast Shoal, Point au Pelee Passage, Lake Erie, and the letter has been referred to Major T. W. Symons, Engineer, and Commander Andrew Dunlap, Inspector of the roth Light House District at Buf- falo, New Vork, for investigation and report. The letter is written with the hope that during the coming session of Congress money may be appropriated for the erec tion of the needed aid to navigation. The officers making the investigation are very desirous of receiving any information bearing upon the su j ct, and as well, the views of mariners and people interested in the nay- igation through this passage, as'to which is preferable, a light-house or a light-ship. Any communication addressed to either one of the officers named bearing upon this subj-ct will be gladly received and noted. or or corr THE U. S. CRUISER CLEVELAND. The U. S. cruiser Cleveland, launch: d on Saturday last at Bath, Me., and christened by the daughter of the junior Senator from Ohio, was appropriately named for the chief city on Lake Erie. We publish particulars of construction, equipment, etc. in this issue and it now remains for the municipality of Cleveland to present a fitting tribute to its namesake so ' that the prestige of name and fame may be worthily borne over the seas which unite all nations. MEXICAN-UNITED STATES STEAMSHIP LINE. Consul Kindrick, of Ciudad Juarez, transmits the terms of a concession granted for a new steamship line to run be- tween Mexico and United States ports, in which the follow- ing are the chief clauses: The Atlantic and Mexican Gulf, Steamships Co., to conduct a service of steam navigation between M »bile, Pensacola, or some other Atlantic port of the United States and one or more Mexican Gulf ports, its steamers making at least two round trips every month. When the service or traffic demands it, the company may, after presentation of the sailing schedule to the de- partment of communications and public works for its approval, increase the number of trips, steamers, and ports of call; with the understanding that the additional steamers must be the company’s property, or chartered by it for a period for at least six month. ]—[]—$—$_$<$< <<a ea — — ——— LAKE FREIGHTS. Iron ore rates advanced 10-cents from the head of Lake Superior andjmarked the first change in freights for the sea- son. Vessels fixed ahead are carrying ore at former rates, but better figures are looked for at the expiration of charters. Murquette offered 75 cents, an advance of 5 cents; Escanaba at former quotations. Coal rates show an advance of to cents from Lake Erie to Chicago, and 70 cents was paid from Buffalo to the South ‘Branch, Chicago, also Racine, with charterers after tonnage and vessels holding firm for better rates. Erie to Milwau- kee, 60 cents; Lake Superior rate unchanged. Lumber carriers are in great demand at Lake Superior ports, with some charters having been made at $2.75, an advance of twenty-five cents. Other owners are holding for $3. It looks as if they would have to content themselves with the $275 rate for a while. The grain movement has hard y started yet, and the 2 cent rate holds firm. Lumber rates advanced from $2 50 to $2.75 from the head of the lakes and a likely advance of another 25 cents by the end of the week. It would appear that future charters will not be fixed at less than $3 and a still better rate of 25 cents will be paid towards the close of lumber carrying. Grain rates from Chicago advanced ¥% cent during the week, but are again quoted at 134 cents on wheat and 14 on corn to Lake Erie ports. Duluth and Fort William 2% cents on wheat to Baffilo, with % cent offered for later loading this month and on mixed cargoes immediate load- ing. This isa little better than 90 cents on ore. On Octo- er 1 rail rates on grain from Buffalo to New York go up as follows: Corn, from 3% to 4 cents; wheat, 334 to 4% cents. —_—_—_$—$$$$ rn The ice crusher Algoma, used last year in Green Bay, Mich., has been sold to Mr. F. H. Clergue, of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and wil] be used this winter in endeavoring to keep a channel open between Montreal and the Gulf of St. Lawrence for at least a little later than formerly. OCTOBER 3, I90I. THE SET AND DRIFT OF OCEAN CURRENTS. The Hydrographic Office, Bureau of Equipment, Navy De- partment, persistently follow up the set and drift of ocean currents and by this means seek to establish the economy and laws of the rotation or movement of the seas in all lati- tudes. The work has now reached such proportions that results may be considered conclusive and we may look for the is- suance of a current chart of the world at no distant date. The entire work has been carried on chiefly by flosting bottle papers, although the set and drift of derelicts and other flotsam has been duly and carefully tabulated in all instances, and especially so in the North Atlantic. The general rules observed in determining the motion of surface waters, is to place on board ship a number of bottles containing printed slips. The vessels are asked to note carefully the latitude and longitude of the location where | they were cast adrift, and the ship that picks them up is asked to note carefully the position of the place where they were picked up, and to estimate the probable distance they have traveled. In this the co-operation of the Russian government has teen secured; instructions have been issued to each hydrograthic: ffice to report any bottles picked up at sea by a ship of any other nationality, and the mercantile and naval marine of both countries are expected to note the locality of these cfficial bottles, ‘and after observing the original place they started from to allow them to pruceed on their way, after adding their qiota of infurmation and re- sealing the silent recorders. The velocity of the daily drift varies considerably; ina recent current chart published by the department the aver- age of the seventy bottles which landed on the coast of Europe was five miles; those thrown overboard in the north equatorial drift aversged 10.8 miles a day, and those travel- ig along the north coast of South: Am«erica averaged 21 miles. The most remarkable drift of ail was that of a bottle > that went seventy miles in two days, or at the rate of 35 miles a day; while another traveled 200 miles in eight days, at the rate of 25.8 miles a day, and still another 3,100 miles in 164 days, at the rate of ten milesaday. This last was the quickest drift for long distance of any bottle reported. Long distance drifting is naturally in the Pacific Ocean. A bottle thrown over from the Rockhurst in March, 1897, drifted 742 days before its wanderings ca ne toa close, and in that period had covered ina direct line 8,100 miles, the distance from San Francisco to China. lis average rate was 2.9 knots per day. Another bottle thrown overboard on / October 10, 1896, and reported June 24, 1899, had traveled at the rate of 7.7 knots a day, over 7,600 miles; and still another is reported after a voyage of fourteen months, as having covered a distance of 5,200 miles at the rate of 12.3 knots a day. “The main features indicated in the drift are that bottles thrown into the sea near the equatorial and trade wind regions trend to the westward and usually bring up in the West Indies or on the Mexican coast, as evidenced by the numerous bottles cast adrift between Madeira and Cepe San Roque, off the coast of Brazil. Along the American coast and north of the 4oth parallel these conditions are re- versed. Here the general set of the waters is to the north- ward and eastward, and bottles put into the sea in that region usually find their way to the north coast cf Ireland, or even farther north. This is unquestionably due to the influence of the Gulf stream, which takes an easterly and northerly direction after spreading out inmid-ocean. Here, too, the velocity is much less than in the equatorial regions.’’ The experiments thus conducted doubtless have important results from a scientific point of view, and prove an invalu- able source of information tothe navigator. The particu- lars gained from all sources of observation are embodied in the Atlantic. and Pacific pilot charts issued monthly by the Hydrographic Office. re The second competition for the Aathony Pollock prize of $20,000, founded in memory of the Bourgogne disaster, show- ing 328 competitors of all nationalities, and the jury began at once to examine the different classes of inventions to pre- vent collisions at sea to save the ship in the event of collis- ion and to save the crew and passengers in case the ship be lost. Among the more peculiar inventions was a M yo life- boat of cylindrical form with an elongated barre) aud a hang- ing floor inside, which holds 50 peuple. _ Another one 1s to facilitate the launching of a boat inafog. I. has a kind of torpedo, which rem .ins in connection with the ship and sig- nals when it comes in contact with anything,