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FEBRUARY 27, 1992. TRANSFER OF VESSEL PROPERTY. Sales of vessel property have been more numerous this winter than for several winters past. ‘The prices obtained for the ships transferred are said to be fully up to what was paid last winter, although not as high as during the boom of the winter before. The principal demand has been for lumber carriers, and several old-time steamers whose usefulness in general trade was over on account of the great increase in the size of modern carriers, will be converted for the lumber trade. One of these was the steamer A. Folsom, which was sold by William Mitchell, of Bay City tothe Hines Lumber Co., of Chicago, for $30,- 000. The Folsom is at Manitowoc, and it is thought she will be cut down for the lumber trade at that point. Capt. J. A. Calbick has purchased the lumber barge Connelly Bros., and that boat will be towed behind one of his steam- ers.next season. In the sale of the steel schooners ‘I'yrone and, Antrim, to, J. C. Gilchrist, of Cleveland, the project of taking the Tyrone to the Gulf of Mexico for the oil trade came to an end. ‘The prospective purchasers went so far as to have the schooner measured for that traffic. Both boats will now remain on the lakes and be towed by some of the older Gilchrist boats. The. sellers were Drake & Maytham, of Buffalo. ' : At the rate the Detroit vesselowners are disposing of their property, they will not cut. much figure in the lake carrying trade at the close of another season. ‘The Merida and Marshall Transportation Cos. which formerly con- trolled the vessels of the Whitney estate and which were sold to J. C. Gilchrist last summer for $705,000, have passed out of existence, and a like fate awaits a number of the companies controlled by the A. A. & B. W. Parker inter- ests in the near future. As soon as outstanding affairs are settled the Pridgeon Transit Co., Parker Transportation Co., State Transit Co., Buffalo and Duluth Transportation Co., and the Swain Wrecking Co. will be things of the past, the boats owned by them having been disposed of to other interests. Out of a fleet a year ago consisting of six steamers and two barges, all that remains today controlled by the Parker interests is the steamer John Oades, owned by the Penin- sular Transit Co. All,the rest- have been disposed of at different times during the last year.. The latest sale is the John Pridgeon Jr., which. was last Saturday transferred to John J. Boland and others of Buffalo. ‘This leaves noth- ing in thé way of freighters now owned by the Parkers except the Oades, and in all probability she will be sold before the opening of navigation. While getting out of the freight-carrying end of the business they have been steadily incredsing their passenger facilities, and their passenger line—the White Star line—is now one of the finést on the lakes and for an exclusive day excursion line cannot be surpassed anywhere in the coun- try. With the coming out of the new Greyhound next spring the line will consist of the Tashmoo, Idlewild, City of Toledo, and tue new steamer, together with the Arundell for early season work when the ice is too heavy for the sidewheelers. OE ———— _ BUILDING LARGE SCHOONERS., The launching of a five-masted schooner at Mystic, Conn., last ‘Tuesday, calls to mind the increasing proportions of our American fleet of powerful fore-and-afters. A few years ago, when the Governor Ames, the first five-master, was built, she was regarded as a wonder. Now there are so many afloat that. the marine world has expanded its ambitions and is talking of six and seven masted vessels. For the present, however, says the Providence Journal, five-masters appear to be the favorites and it will not take long before another schooner of this class is launched at South Boston. Five masters have proved easy to handle and convenient for the uses to which thev have been put. They have beeh employed chiefly in the coastwise trade, though the Ames made a memorable voyage around the world. If the Nicaragua or Panama canal is constructed, it will bea great boom to these big schooners. The shipbuilding industry is flourishing: in the United States. Shipyards have more orders than they can fill and PROPELLER WHEELS, ‘ DECK HOISTERS, « MARINE: REPAIRS. 6a a . | @ 312 ATWATER STREET, THE MARINE RECORD. expect to be rushed for months to come. Near the ship- yard where the five-master was launched on Tuesday, is the busy plant at Groton, where two immense steel cargo boats are almost ready to be put into the water. Rumors of other large steamers, to be built of the same works, are spread abroad. At Noank, within sight of the Mystic yard, work is brisk all the year. ‘The fact is is that the American shipbuilding business is in excellent condition. It is unreasonable to say that schooners will never much exceed their present measurements. ‘The limit has been put on steamship dimensions by confident. prophets only to be enlarged by them or their successors time and time again. We have now equalléd the Great Eastern with the Oceanic and Celtic and the tendency is toward a further in crease. In wooden shipbuilding we may yet see seven and eight masted vessels, though there are experts who. will pooh-pooh -such development. In these days of industrial enterprise the wisest man is not too sure about the future. Our locomotives: of today make the locomotives of a few years ago seem like pygmies. The trains they draw would have required three or four engines in the seventies. The modern trolley car is twice the length of the anti- quated horse-car and the “‘sky-scraper’. of 1890 has’ been dwarfed, by the thirty story buildings of 1902. The launching of a great vessel is one of the most picturesque sights that modern industry affords. With floating flags, the craft lies motionless on the ways, her huge bulk towering thirty of forty feet above the ground. The workmen knock away the wedges: on the docks, ‘the : builder watches with trepidation for the first movement of the keel, the crowd on deck and on shore anxiously wait the success or failure of the event. movement in the great structure. It slips at an increasing pace down the slippery incline. As. the stern touches the water the whole ship dips gracefully to the tide, the an- chors are flung out with vigorous puffing from the donkey engine, the whistles of tugs and factories fill the air, and the great vessel glides quietly to her anchorage in the stream. It is not surprising that the launching of a big schooner attracts a big crowd. ol WHY THE CHINESE CONTINUE TO BUILD JUNKS. Being so well able to build vessels of foreign type sug- gests the query why the Chinese should continue to build junks? Here, again, is another example of official restric- tions cramping natural enterprise. The shipping cleared out of Hong Kong in 1899 amount- ed to 27,975 vessels, of which 22,501 Were junks; the ton- nage was, trespectivelv. 8,563,127 and 1,846,749, the foreign built vessels averaging 1,226 tons each, and the junks 86% tons. Now, foreign built vessels can trade only to the “open” ports, but there are numberless other centers of trade in China to which junks can ply. These pay customs dues, assessed by the local Hoppo, and varying with his degree of rapacity and the astuteness of the skipper or shipowner. But the dues are invariably higher for vessels of foreign type. Customs passes may be obtained at the port of de- parture, and are recognized by the officials of the Im- perial Maritime Customs, who have no power to levy du- ties on cargo carried in native bottoms. Linkin, another form of extortion somewhat resembline the cotroi in WINTER MOORINGS. A 32-page booklet showing where about 2,000 vessels are Jaid up for the’ winter. It gives steamers, schooners and barges and a list of tugs as well as a list of the vessels which were lost last season and is quite re- liable, being taken from correspondence at the various lake ports. Copies sent by mail prepaid on receipt of 25c. The Marine Recorp Publishing Co., Western Reserve Bldg., Cleveland. Ohio. Suddenly there is. France, can be negotiated only by experienced native cap- tains in native craft; other vessels may have transit passes, and evervthing in perfect order, but, somehow, they always meet with obstacles and reverses enought to dishearten the most persevering. _ When clearing at the Hong Kong Harbor Office, a junk pays a fee and recéives a paper on which are stated the nature of the cargo and the alleged destination, and a recommendation to the crew to succour any distressed seamen they may meet, and to carry no stinkpots. ,/There are no load line regulations, the number of passengers arid crew is immaterial, the food question the business f the master, no side lights—it costs oil to burn them—no vexa- tious rules. and regulations whatever, and this the Chinaman dearly loves, for then he can economize to his heart’s con- tent. ; , On the rivers, steamboats are permitted to stop only at certain stations, yet passengers will travel,.twenty, miles in a direction opposite to their route in order to’ catch a steamer, in preference to trusting themselves and their -be- longings to ‘a native craft. Were all disabilities removed, we should see the picturesque, but antiquated junk disap- pear. Above Canton there are numbers of stern-wheelets, the wheels being turned by coolies working on the treadmills. Wooden chimneys were originally fitted to them, but the traveling peasantry were not to be deceived into thinking that they were steamers, so they were discarded. It is amusing to watch a race between these-boats, the: coolies, fifteen to twenty to a wheel, bobbing up and down, yelling like demons. Until last year the only type of sternwheeler on this river was that propelled by muscular force; but several shallow draft screw boats have recently been intro- duced and accustomed the natives to the use of steams) “$5 For several years the river has been nominally open to’ foreign trade, but the native authorities succeeded so well in hampering new innovations that it is only recently that any kind of steam vessel managed to pay its way—W. G. Winterburn, in Cassier’s Magazine for March. or rr Juiius Kruttschnitt, assistant to President F. H. Har- riman, of the Southern Pacific ‘railroad, said that the di- rectors have determined to build a bridge across Salt Lake, in fulfillment of a plan of the Late Collis P. Huntington, formed ten years ago. ‘The socalled bridge will be a via- duct 23 miles long, built of Utah pine, steel and masonry, across the northern part of the Great Salt Lake, where the water is mostly shallow. ‘Timber piles will be driven in the shallow water and the piers will be built in deep water. Mr. Huntington. ascertained, after experiment, that the waters of Salt Lake had a preservative effect on Utah pine, and that timbers sunk in that lake would retain their soundness and strength indefinitely. The proposed bridge, or viaduct, will shorten the Southern Pacific line from Ogden to San Francisco by 45 miles, besides cutting out’ a steep and devious mountain climb. 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