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Ein 1897, _ tons. _ year by the Roumania. FEBRUARY 20, 1902, ; CLEVELAND. Special Corresbondence to The Marine Record. . A few days ago the announcement was sent out from Toledo, of the sale of the barge Crete. Since that time it has been learned that the new owners are W. C. Richardson -and Capt. L. S. Sullivan, of Toledo. ‘The barge came out and measures 2,040 gross tons, and carries 3,500 She went for $6,500, and will be towed during the Capt. George Williams, of Oswego, was in command of the Crete last season. It is learned that C. A. Morgan has accepted a position with the Pittsburg Coal Co., in the fuel department and promised that the Advance will be one of the will be with it during the year. Mr. Morgan is one of the best known marine men in the city. He was con- nected for several years with the Cleveland Tug Co., own- ed by L. P. & J. A. Smith, and at the same time was in- terested in their dredging plant. While manager of the _ tugs, he came into contact with most of the vessel own- ers and obtained a wide acquaintance. A dispatch from Columbus says that the Advance Lum- ber Co., of Cleveland, capital stock $225,000 has been in- cofporated. This is said to be a mere starter, and it is t biggest lumber companies in the country. Yards are to be oner- ated in all large cities and mills placed in Wisconsin, West Virginia, Kentucky and Alabama. It is said M. E. Christy, of Buffalo, and of the Kirk-Christy Lumber Co., of Cleve- land, will be the president of the company. Messrs. Pickands, Mather & Co. will hereafter look after the handling of the coal moved by the Sunday Creek Coal Co. from the Hocking district. The product of that company’s mines is sent forward from Toledo and will amount to about 1,500,000 tons during the coming season. This, with the coal the local firm ships from the Pittsburg district, will make them the largest shippers in the business outside the trust. Nothing has been done in coal freights and very little attention has been given the matter by either the vesselmen or shippers. ~ Harbormaster Lynch is notifying all the vessel owners and masters of vessels tied un in the main river to fasten their boats more securely, as a freshet may be expected in the near future. The lumber dealers of the flats sent a request to Mayor Johnson, asking that several vessels be removed from close proximity to the bridges, and that the fire tugs and tugs of the Great Lakes Towing Co., be located at advantageous points so as to be available in case of any ice gorge. Capt. Lynch says that the reason that more fastenings are required is because of the rotten condition of some of the wharves. The Corrigan Transit Co. got a judgment for $10,434.66 against the Chicago Insurance Co., on Thursday last, from ja jury in Judge Dissette’s court. The verdict knocks out the ice clause in marine insurance. Capt. James Corrigan lost a barge, the Northwest, while she was being towed through the Straits of Mackinaw, a large ice floe striking her. ‘The insurance company put up as defense that there could be no claim for damages from ice unless the boat was protected by special plating. ‘The jury does not seem to have agreed with them in this. Before leaving for the South, J. C. Gilchrist closed a deal whereby he purchased the barges Tyrone and Antrim, but the price paid is not told. ‘The purchase was from Drake & Maytham, of Buffalo. The boats are medium- sized craft, the kind that are in. most demand this year, being able to carry about 4,000 tons each. The 'yron was built at the old Globe yard of the American Ship Building Co., in 1897, and has a gross tonnage of 2,117 tons. ‘The Antrim was built at the same yard in 1895, and measures 3,200 gross tons. ‘The two boats give Mr. Gilchrist prob- ably the largest independent fleet, so called, on the chain of lakes. The meeting of the coal men, which was to have been held in Cleveland the latter part of last week, to fix on the price of coal that is to be sold in the Northwest this year, will be held this week. This meeting, it is expected, will last through two or three days, and it is altogether possible that some of the new factors in the situation may «make -some changes from what was originally planned to be the result, namely, the assessing of a better price for the coal to be sold. Following this meeting the coal shippers, as ‘soon as they have sold their coal, will be in position to fix the rate of carriage, upon which one of the liveliest con- tests of years is expected. | , - The steamer Minnetonka, which is being built at the ‘Old Globe shipyard of the American Ship Building Co., for service on the Atlantic, and which was launched a short time ago, has been cut in two in one of the drydocks, and her bulkheads have about been adjusted into the halves of the boat. She will be taken out of the dock in a few days, and will then be ready for removal to the coast. It is expected that her sister ship, which is submitting to a similar operation, will likewise be ready in a comparatively short time. When this work has been done on the two Steamers mentioned they will be sent to the coast imme- diately upon the opening of the season of navigation. A short time ago Major Kingman, Corps of Engineers, $. A., engineer of rivers and harbors in this district, ‘a framed.a set of rules to govern the swinging of the bridges THE MARINE RECORD. over the Cuyahoga river. He submitted them to the rail- roads, to the city officials, to the vessel owners, and the masters of lake steamers for their approval, or for sugges- tions of changes. At the same time he appointed a time when all interested might meet and discuss the rules, All interested will be given a chance to say what they have to say at the hearing which is to be held in, the library of the Chamber of Commerce, on Friday morning. Af this time Major Kingman will preside at the meeting to be held, and the result of the hearing will be the recommendation of the Secretary of War as to the rules. Whatever the Secretary decrees after this hearing will have the force of laws, the violation of which will be punishable by a very heavy fine. When the season of navigation opens this spring there will be no channels to important ore receiving or coal load- ing ports in the Cuyahoga district which will be obstructed by a bar across their mouths. Maj. Kingman has provided against that matter with characteristic energy and fore- thought. He recently applied to the authorities at Wash- ington for the privilege to advertise for bids from the dredging concerns to remove the bars which habitually form during the winter at Ashtabula, Fairport, and Con- neaut. Permission has been obtained to do this work. Major Kingman has promised the dredging companies that there shall be at least 10,000 yards of material to dredge away, thus making it worth their while to bid, while it is possible that some of the bars may amount to 15,000 yards. At any rate, as soon as the ice is out of the various harbors the dredgers will start to work and will make the channels clean cut and of universal depth. —_—<<$ $$ or a BUFFALO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Adam Hartman, of Tonawanda, has bought the remain- ing half of the schooner Saveland of C. H Ripson of Os- wego. ‘he Holland syndicate, to which Capt Hartman be- longs, owns-half of the Saveland. She has been obtained in order to tow behind the steamer Kittie’ Forbes with the Brunette. John J. Boland, the vessel broker, has been’ selected to confer with the lumber-shovers’ union in conjunction with Chairman Alfred Baines, of the Lumber Exchange, on the question of ijumber handling from barges. ‘This port is badly handicapped by high charges, which are from one to two shillings more than Tonawanda pays. The plan to deal with the union direct, as other ports do, is gaining strength. The steamer Nottingham, the third of a fleet of five building for the United States Navigation Co., will be launched at the Buffalo yard of the American Ship Build- ing Co. during the next week. She will be sailed by Capt. C. D. Woodward, who has sailed the steamer George Presley for a number of seasons. ‘The new ship will be completed and ready for business by the opening of navi- gation. A special from Ottawa says that Col. Hughes, M. P., will move in the House of Commons to-morow for .a com- mission to réport upon the division of waters between Canada and the United States, and to investigate the con- ditions, rise and fall, etc., of the waters adjacent to the boundary line between Canada and the United States including all waters of lakes and rivers whose waters flow by the St. Lawrence river to the Atlantic ocean. There is an immense body of ice in the harbor here. Although the fireboats have kept the channel open there is so much ice forming that it shovés under the broken parts, and is said to be fairly on the bottom, especially at the Blackwell, where the tugs cannot now tow a vessel. ‘The trust has two tugs under steam, and is preparing to steam up two more, as Manager Vroman is afraid that there will be a bad freshet as soon as the warmer weather sets in, and he wants to be ready for it. The opposition line also has one tug ready. Strong support for the canal bill calling for the ex- penditure of $28,000,000 in the enlargement and improve- ment of the Erie Canal, was mustered at the hearing given this afternoon by the Canal committee of the Senate. Dele- gations from leading commerce and trade organizations from all sections of the state were present to urge legis- lation on the canal proposition as outlined in the message of Governor Odell. Despite the report that there would be no canal legislation this year, the canal advocates were enthusiastic today, and after the hearing,.many of them expressed their firm belief that the proposition would go through. Henry B. Herbert, of the Canal Association of Greater New York, seemed. to voice the sentiments of all in favor of the enlargement of the canals when he said to the committee: “The Governor’s proposittion or nothing; $28,000,000 for canals and not one cent less.” A feature of the hearing was the presentation of a letter to the Canal Committee from Andrew Carnegie, in which he strongly advocated the improvement of canals. The arguments against the canal proposition were presented by Senator Ambler, who believes in Federal control of the State water- ways, and who introduced the concurrent resolution pro- posing an amendment to the Constitution permitting the sale or lease of the canals. DULUTH-SUPERIOR. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record: —, A. Booth Co. have purchased the steamer America, a fast and commodious steel. freight and passenger steamer, to ply between Duluth and Port Arthur and. Isle Bogle next summer. The America is a comparatively new boat. This will be her third season. She was built by the De- troit Dry’ Dock Co. as an excursion boat, and she was I an as such last season between Buffalo and Niagara alls. Capt. F. A. Fick has been appointed to the command of. the second steamer building at West Superior for G. A. Tomlinson, of Duluth, which will be named Senora. Capt. Fick has followed the lakes since he was eleven years old. His first command was the steamer Henry Howard. For twelve years after that he was master of a number of river Ne In 1881 he was appointed master of the steamer cona. ‘ It is now reported that Capt. W. H. Singer, of the White Line Transportation Co., is negotiating for the purchase of the steamer Chippewa, now on Lake Michigan, to run between Duluth and Port Arthur and Isle Royale. She is a very fine freight and passenger boat, and is speedy. It is known that Capt. Singer is negotiating for a boat of this kind to run out of Duluth, but it could not be éon- firmed that it is the Chippewa. ; All of the commercial bituminous coal at the head of the lakes is exhausted and that which remains on the docks belongs to the railroads. ‘he coal managers have been tel- ling of the shortage of soft coal, but many consumers thought that the conditions were exaggerated. At least they thought that the shortage would not be acute before March 1 or 15. But the end of the supplies of soft commercial coal has arrived and the railroads, always forehanded. in providing for their own wants, control all that remains. Since A. B. Wolvin and the harbor board of Quebec got together to talk business about a terminal there for the new lake and ocean line, the harbor board of Montreal has awakened to the situation. Formerlv they were ‘a little backward about helping Mr. Wolvin out, acting upon. the advice of Minister Tarte, who said that Canada could float her own enterprises. The Montreal board has now ap- pealed to Mr. Wolvin to establish his terminal there, and has also offered him the site he wanted before for the elevator. Mr. Wolvin has made the reply that he is now negotiating with the people of Quebec and sees no reason why he should change his plans, inasmuch as that city seems to be alive to the situation and to mean business. Capt. D. D. Gaillard, United States engineer in charge of government improvements on Lake Superior, who has been in Washington to appear before the rivers and harbors committee, has returned. His presence was desired to go over the present proposed work for Lake Superior for the coming season. Capt. Gaillard says: ‘(Congressman Morris and I appeared on two occasions before the committee in connection with matters connected with improvements for the Duluth-Superior harbor: I was given a thorough hear- ing and we went over all improvements on this lake. I met Congressman Jenkins, in whose district Superior: is situated and talked with him also in reference to the head of the lake improvements. Congressman Morris is a very busy man and painstaking representative.” The Licensed Tugmen’s Protective Association, of Port- age Lake, held a meeting recently, when the schedule of wages was made out for the coming season. The national association deviated from the ordinary custom this. year, and allowed the local association to make the scale. ‘The schedule which will be in effect for this year, is as follows: Dredge and outside tugs—Captains, $115; engineers, $100. Inside tugs, classed as harbor tugs, ferry boats or yachts— Captains, $100; engineers, $105. Fish tugs—Captains, $100; engineers, $100. Vessel towing tugs—Captains, $125; engineers, $105. Mates on outside boats and dredge tugs, $70; engineers, $70. This scale nf wages is practic- ally the same as that made by the Duluth union. The association includes in its membership nearly all of the tug men on Partage Lake. The last great body of white pine for sale in Wisconsin, and the last in the market with the exception of one on the north shore, that is tributary to the mills of the Duluth- Superior harbor, or Ashland, has just:passéed into the hands of the Edward Hines Lumber Co:, of Chicago, now said to be the biggest lumber operators in the United States. The tract referred to is situated eight or ten miles south of South Superior, and lies to the east of Dedham, on the Eastern Minnesota road. It was owned by Messrs. Weyerhaeuser and Sauntry, and was sold for $2,000,000. There are about 300,000,000 feet of pine in the tract, and fully 95 per cent. is of the white variety. It is said to’be the greatest and finest body of this timber in the Northwest, and it will be manufactured at the head of the lakes. It was reported a few weeks ago that the Clark-Jackson Lum- ber Co. had purchased it, and negotiations were in fact, in progress, but now it is reliably stated-that the big :Chicago concern has secured the pine. ‘The price per thousand feet was about $7. It is understood that the aggregate consid- eration was something more than $2,000,000. The char- acter of the pine may be understood from the fact that the bulk of the timber will cut from two to eight logs ‘to the thousand.