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FEBRUARY 13, 1902. THE MARINE RECORD. SSS One of the most interesting developments of the last year on the Mesaba iron range has been the struggle of the Eastern Minnesota railroad, owned by James J.. Hill, to assure itself on a permanency for its ore traffic. With the formation of the United States Stee! Corporation, Mr. Hill saw that his investments in ore roads and terminals, as well as the exceedingly remunerative ore traffic itself, were menaced, for the reason that the two roads con: trolled by the steel corporation would handle all of its business and take from his road traffic from mines that were the property of concerns becoming constituents Jf the combination. In order to prevent béing put out of the ore business entirely, Hill se: about taking lands on the range, buying fees, and options on leases of every character. This policy is being continued, and is being pushed vigorously. The Eastern Minnesota road hag purchased outright a great many tracts on the formation, has explored and bought many more, and has taken lease right and left. “The reduction of 20 per cent. in the aggregate output i, an important loss to the rangers, and at a time of year when it is felt most acutely. Of course the 20 per cen:. held back will show up and more with it before the end of the shipping scason, but it will come at a time when there is plenty of work for everybody Jn winter it is different. Then it is that the greatest activity in the mines is desired in order that as many men as possible may be employed. It would bea great help to the range towns if the mines were free to work as heavy in winter as their opetators would like. The owners of .underground minés are ‘standing for a real tax on their mining property and for a personal property tax on their ore in stockpile. The open pit mines, which have no stockpiles, are taxed as rea! estate and that is the end of it. It is likely that ore shipping to the docks will begin as early as possible in the spring. Such cre as is moved from the stock piles be- fore May 1, will escape the personal tax assessment, but the ore that will be thus moved, will not be a very big item, and the companies may not move any for the pur- pose of escaping the tax. The steamers Bon Ami and Hunter are still. making trips along the north shore of Lake Superior. ‘The former belongs to the White line and the latter to the A. Booth Co. Ice is beginning to get plentiful in the lake and it is expected that in the course of a week or ten days the Du- luth-Superior harbor will be closed to the steamers. But that will not stop them from operating on the lake, and -when they can no longer reach Duluth they will run be tween Two Harbors and the other north shore ports that are still open. This arrangement will have the advan- tage of allowing them to run longer this winter and of starting out earlier in the spring. ‘wo Harbors is-us- ually open to navigation earlier than Duluth, as the north- east winds usually hold the heavy ice off that port until quite late. The Bon Ami laid up February 9 last winter. That was the date of her last arrival at Duluth on her last trip. She will easily ‘break this record the present year by running from Two Harbcrs, if the ice at the end of the lake shuts her out of Duluth. Eoth the Bon Ami and Hunter have done a very good business this winter. They have carried large quantities of supplies and many passengers. Messrs. Corrigan, McKinney & Co., of Cleveland, exten- sive independent iron ore operators, have added another property to their Mesaba range holdings. The property acquired is known as the Phoenix mine, though it has not been developed. The fee is owned by Hiram Sibley, of Rochester, N. Y., and the lease is owned by the Phoenix Mountain Iron Co., of which A. C. Hubbell and Thomas A. Merritt were the principals. . The lease was sold by them to Corrigan, McKinney & Co. for a bonus of about $r10,- 000, and the royalty is 20 cents. The minimum output for this year is said to be about 59,000 tons, and each yea1 thereafter 100,000 tons. Merritt and Hubbell have shown up a good deposit of about 3,000,000 tons of good Bessemer ore. The propery is situated a few miles east of Hibbing. It is learned that the Eastern Minnesota Great Northern interests are to increase their new ore dock:on Allouez Bay, Superior, 6,000 feet, adding 100 pockets, representing 30,000 gross tons, giving the entire dock a storage capacity 100,000 gross tons. This will make the dock the largest ore shipping structure in the world. It is also the high- est, being 72 feet from the water to the top of the rails. It is expected that the addition will be ready for receiving and shipping ore by June 1. The Eastern Minnesota road expects to ship 3,000,coo tons the coming season. Duluth, at present, has the largest ore docks in the world, two ex- actly alike, owned by the United States Steel Corporation. ee a ea" Three Sault Ste. Marie men, George O. Comb, H. E. Westlake and Harry Kemp, have been awarded $240 dam- ages by the United States district court at Washington, because of privations suffered on the steamer ‘Tacoma while en route from Nome to Seattle in the fall of 1900. They paid for first class accommodation, but instead were treated like steerage passengers, being compelled, they alleged, to sleep wherever they could find a place, and to eat unpalatable rations, which almost starved them, and caused them to lose flesh during the voyage, also made memorable by a serious storm. On reaching Seattle they libeled the boat, and then brought suit for damages, the case having just been decided. CLEVELAND. Special Corresbondence io The Marine Record. Some ore has been chartered this week at 80 cents from the head of Lake Superior. The big syndicate offers 75 cents and expects to get all the tonnage they require, at that figure. W. G. Spence & Bros. of Cleveland have purchased th schooner Celtic from D. City, consideration private. The Celtic was built by James Davidson in 1891, measures 680 tons and is rated At. Notwithstanding reports to the contrary, Mr. J. C. Wal- lace, president of the Drydock Association, says that the rates adopted. at the annual meeting held here in January are still in force and that no change has been made from last season’s charges. Capt. H. A. Hawgood went to West Bay City last Fri- day to attend on Saturday the launching of the steamer Etruria, for the Hawgood Transit Co. This. is the first one of the Hawgood boats now being built that will be set afloat this year. She will be ready for the season of nav- igation. Capt. W. C. Richardson and party has gone south to spend a month at the resorts of Florida. He will stop at Palm Beach first, and will then take in the whole line of Florida east coast resorts. With him will be his daugh- ter, Mrs. Payne, and Mrs. Haskell, of Ashtabula, and Capt. and Mrs. Herriman. Pickands Mather & Co., of this city, are not losing any time in getting facilities at the Lake Erie ports to take care of the big increase in business in the lake carrying trade. By the opening of navigation in 1903 they will have three new modern docks at Lake Erie ports equipped with the latest improved machinery for the rapid handling of ore and coal. Harbor Master Peter Lynch has received the following letter from- William J. Carter, chief engineer of the de- partment of public works: “Piease notify all vesselown- ers and interested parties that from February 6th to March 13, inclusive, the only bridges that will be opened after 3 p. m. until 7 a. m. are Main, Willow, Center and upper Seneca. s) William Livingstone, of Detroit, the president of the Lake Carriers’ Association, was in the city yesterday for a while. He was in conference with Capt. George P. Mc- Kay, the treasurer, most of the day, and was with some of the prominent vessel owners during the afternoon. ‘The matters under’ discussion pertained to the policy of the organization the coming year. > The statement was made by ‘TI. F. Newman, general man- ager of the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co., that they expect to make their first run to Buffalo this year about April 1.. The announcement is a little early, but Mr. New- man says he usually counts.upon being able to start on that date and keep going until December 1, and he pro- poses this year to keep as close to the precedent as possible. It is expected this year that the movement of ore will be about 22,000,000 tons. Of this amount the producers have tonnage to move about half. Two million tons have already been covered by contracts, leaving, therefore, wild on the lakes for which boat space is needed, 9,000,000 tons. Of this amount the steel corporation and those who are waiting for it to act control about 7,000,00¢ tons. The work on the new dock of the National Dock and Fuel Co., of Cleveland, is progressing so satisfactorily that it is now assured that it will be in operation by the open- ing of navigation. ‘This dock is to be situated on the lake front, just East of the Ellsworth plant, and will be fitted with a McMyler fast car dump of the most improved pat- tern. It is expected that the machinery will be able to load 1,000 tons an hour. ‘At. the annual meeting of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., held January 22, the following officers and directors were re-elected: President and treasurer, William G. Mather; vice president, J. H. Wade; secretary, J. H. Sheadle; auditor, R. C. Mann; J. H. Wade, Wm. G. Mather, J. H. McBride, E. R. Perkins, S. E. Williamson, W. S. Tyler, J. H. Hoyt, Samuel Mather, Peter White. The company has a paid-in capital stock of $3,814,700. Users of marine glasses should send for a copy of the booklet issued by the Warner & Swasey Co, ‘They will find ‘much information regarding the new prism glasses, and. they will be surprised at the value of these glasses for use in studying the stars at night. It is also particu- larly interesting to learn the manner in which the prism glasses are constructed and why they are so much more powerful than the former style of marine glasses. The following meteorological ohservations are furnished by the office of the United States Weather Bureau for the week ending, January 5th: Prevailing wind direction for the week, southwest: highest velocity, 42 miles from the west on the 2nd; mean temperature for the week, 15 de- grees; highest temperature, 28 degrees on the 2nd; lowest, 4 degrees on the 3rd. Sunrise and sunset data computed for local time: February 1oth, sun ‘rises, 7:02, sets, 5:28; February 13th, sun rises, 6:50, sets, 5:31. G. and Orrin Jackson of Bay February 7th sun rises, 7:06, sets, 5:23; Those who have been prominent in the endeavor to form a trust of the dredging companies have spent some time in Cleveland during the past week in an effort to ¢: together. They went away Wednesday night without hav- ing come to any conclusion further than that. the general. proposition is still an attractive one, and they will try to bring the organization to a head before the middle of the summer. The promoters are gradually getting rid of the things that have hindered the movement, and hope soon to get the big company formed. : The following meteorological observations are furnished by the office of the United States Weather Bureau for the week ending February 12th: Prevailing wind direction for the week, southwest; highest velocity, 37 miles from the southwest on the 7th; mean temperature for the week, 17 degrees; highest temperature, 27 degrees on the 7th; lowest, 7 degrees on the 8th. Sunrise and sunset data computed for local time: February 14th sun rises at 6:58, sets, 5:32; February 17th sun rises at 6:54, sets 5:35; Feb- ruary 20th sun rises at 6:50, sets 5:39. Connected with the appointments of the masters of the boats owned by the Pittsburg Steamship Co., of a few days - ago, was the announcement of the wages to be paid dur- ing the season. The Pittsburg fleet has put its masters upon yearly salaries, instead of paying them by the month, and the boats have been classified. Masters of steamers will obtain $1,800, $1,620 and $1,400 yearly respectively for first, second, and third class steamers. Masters of barges will be paid $: 200, $1,080, and $960 yearly respect- ively ror first, second and third class barges instead of $100 a month, as obtained last year. Major Kingman, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A. has writ- ten to the department at Washington for the privilege of advertising for bids to do the work of cleaning up the channels at the three ports of the district lying east of Cleveland, namely: Fairport, Ashtabula and Conneaut. - It is the desire of Major Kingman te have the permission to do this work that. the dredging companies may be under contract to start the work as soon as the weather permits. In taking this action Major Kingman is actuated by a desire to prevent, if possible, any delay to the vessel own- ers by reason of their boats not being able to get inte o- out of any of thise harbors. : - The stockholders of the Pioneer Steamship Co. and the Buckeve Steamship Co. held their annual meeting jast week and re-elected their former officers, as follows: Pioneer Steamship Co.—Directors. J. TI. Hutchinson, John B. Guthrie, Walton McGean, Thomas F. Griffin and Charles L. Hutchinson; president, J. T. Hutchinson; vice president, John B. Guthrie; secretary, Walton: McGean; treasurer and general manager, Charles 1,. Hutchinson. Buckeye Steamship Co.—Directors, W. S. Manuel, Mar-. tin Mullen, John B. Guthrie, Capt. John McNeff, Charles 1. Hutchinson; president, W. S. Manuel; vice president, John B. Guthrie; secretary, treasurer and general man- ager, Charles L. Hutchinson. Mr. Evan Jenkins, second vice president of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, returned on Tuesday from a trip to Lake Michigan, where he visited all the leading ports. He found the lodges to be in good shape and all the members that have made contracts for the coming season have signed at the rates adopted by the. association. The Goodrich ‘Transportation Co. has agreed: - to pay the engineers’ schedule and all the men of that line: have signed contracts for ro02. Mr. Jenkins said that. mest of the members of the association have made ar-- rangements for the coming season and that there is no’ indication of any trouble. A smoker will be given at the ~ local lodge rooms Saturday evening. ‘ The steel steamer Etruria, built to the order of the Hawgood ‘Transit Co., was successfully Jaunched from — the yards at West Bay City. She measured 434 feet over all; 414 feet keel, 50 feet beam; and is 28 feet deep. She will have triple expansion engines with cylinders 22x35 x5e inches and with a 42-inch stroke. She will have an Ellis & Eaves induced draft. The new steamer will be in charge of Capt. shomas C. Ellis and R. B. Buchanan, chief engineer. Capt. Ellis spent six years in the Servia and seven years in the Williams, as captain, and all the while under the Hawgoods. Last year the Williams was purchased by Capt. Gilchrist and Capt. Ellis was employed to handle her, but he has gone back to his old company, to take charge of the first boat out. He has been on the - lakes forty years and served three years in the government survey steamer, Search. The legality of the ice clause in marine insurance is at stake in a suit on trial in Judge Dissette’s court, in which the Corrigan Transit Co., is plaintiff and the Chicago In- surance Co, is defendant. On April 2, 1808, the schooner North West was struck by a larve cake of ice while be- ing towed through the Straits of Mackinaw by the steam- er Aurora. The schooner went down in four fathoms of water and the owners have sued for $18,000 insurance. The insurance company claimed that there is nothing due — because there is a clause holding the insurance company free from damages or loss incurred while navigating when such lamage or loss is sustained by or in consequelce of ice, unless the vessel is fitted to encounter ice. The claim is made that the North West was not plated to protect it against ice floes. Capt. Donaldson, master of the Aurora, told of the disaster to the North West.