Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Record (Cleveland, OH), February 27, 1902, p. 5

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

VOL. XXV, No. 9. ESTABLISHED 1878. CLEVELAND -- FEBRUARY 27, 1902 -- CHICAGO. E t — LE $2.00 Per Year. Too. Single Copy EAKE CARRIERS' ASSOCIATION: To consider and take action upon all general guestions relating to the navigation and carrying business of the Great Lakes, maintain necessary shipping offices and in general to protect the common interests of Lake Car- riers, and to improve the character of the service rendered to the public. PRESIDENT. Wo. LivINGSTONE, Detroit. IST VICE-PRESIDENT. J. C. GILcHRIST, Cleveland. SECRETARY. ‘ : Harvey L. Brown, Buffalo. 3 TREASURER. 1 GEORGE P. McKay, Cleveland. COUNSEL. Harvey D, GouLDER, Cleveland. EXECUTIVE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE. JAMES CORRIGAN, Chairman, Cleveland. COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. Gipson L. DouGias, Chairman, . : Buffalo, COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION. GEORGE P. McKay, Chairman, Cleveland. A PROPOSED SHIP. RAILWAY. ‘Initial steps are being taken in’ Toronto for the construc-' tion of a ship railway by which boats can be hauled over- land from the Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario, between Col- lingwood and Toronto, the scheme supplanting that for a canal to shorten the water route from Duluth to the sea- The Ontario Ship Railway Co., which proposes to build the line, has been empowered by the railway committee of the Ontario legislature, to go ahead, providing it will complete its road within three years and expend $50,000 the first year. The company has acquiesced in the condi- tions, and it claims that operations will be started at once. The railroad will be patterned after the model suggested by Capt. Eads for the proposed ship railway to run across the isthmus of Panama between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. ‘The ships will be floated on a hugh cradled flat car, and carried across the country at the ordinary speed of a freight train. : The distance to be traveled between Collingwood ‘and Toronto is 95 miles. ‘There are some railway experts who declare that the pro- posed overland transportation of the ships is feasible, and they look for a successful issue of the proposition. They point to the success of a somewhat similar road at the “Soo” before the canal was built there. Boats were then carried on rails from the St. Mary’s river to Lake Superior, but they were much smaller boats than those now in use, and in spite of the fact the transfer was effected with difficulty. $$$ qe A PHOSPHORESCENT OCEAN. A milky opalescence, permeating the entire sea for im- mense distances bounded only by the horizon, is a some- what rare phemomenon. It appears quite suddenly, lasts perhaps for several hours, or passes away as rapidly as it came; and this without apparent cause. At midnight we had the singular whiteness enveloping the sea, while the more brilliant kinds of phosphorescence shone in the midst of flashing green, yellow, or bluish lights, as the case might be—a gorgeous display. During these hours my surface trawl-net drifted astern of the ship. The water was alive with countless myriads of little gelatinous sacs measuring one-sixth of an inch in length, delicate tunicate organisms which required the aid of a microscope to re- veal their perfect structure, says the Cornhill. Magazine. A few specimens placed in an empty meat tin in a darkened cabin could be seen, indeed, with the naked eye, careering madly around in the salt water, each one glowing with that peculiar opalescent light which saturated the entire sea for so many: miles. It was a small species of salpa, nearly related to a much larger kind on the side of which the late Prof. Moseley wrote his name. with his finger, the signature being visible on the dead body throughout the night, glowing with the brightest phosphorescent light. TO COMPENSATE LIGHT-HOUSE KEEPERS. In the House of Representatives, February 11, Mr. May- nard introduced the following bill, which was referred to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce and ordered to be printed. A bill to fix the compensation of light-house keepers and to provide for their retirement on half pay. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- tives of the United States of America in Congress as- sembled, that the compensation received by the richest and keepers shall be fifty dollars per month and assistant keep- ers, forty dollars per month. Sec. 2. That when a light-house keeper or assistant light-house keeper who has served ten years continuously and shall become so disabled in the discharge of his duties as to be unfit for service. he shall be retired on half pay. Sec. 3. That the petition for retirement under this Act shall be filed with the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall have full authority to pass upon same. THE SHIP SUBSIDY BILL. The editor of the New York Maritime Register, who has just returned from Washington, where he made a thor- ough canvass in regard to the chances of an early passage of the ship subsidy bill by Congress, has come to the conclusion that the chances for such passage have never been so bright as at the present moment. There is no doubt that the Senate will pass the bill and the few votes that seem to be still lacking to get the bill through the House, are expected to be furnished through the instrumentality of Mr. Nixon, who, it is said, has himself no doubt that, owing to his leadership of Tammany Hall, he will be able to induce the Democratic members of Con- gress from New York and some of their freinds to vote for the bill. We make this statement on the authority of such Senators and members of Congress who are in a po- sition to have the most authentic and reliable information. We hope that their expectations will be realized and that Mr. Nixon, through his affiliation with, Tammany Hall, will be able to exert such influence; his willingness to do his utmost in this direction cannot be doubted, as his own interests dictate this course—New York Maritime Register. —$ $$ rr a VESSEL TAX IN MINNESOTA. The tax laws of Minnesota as far as vessel property is concerned will remain as they have been since the legis- lature passed a measure in 1895 which was so favorable to lake property that Duluth became the leading port on the Great Lakes as regards the amount of tonnage registered there. It has been a hard fight, and during the present winter there has been a strong movement in some directions to wipe this law favorable to vessel property off the statute books and increase the taxable value of vessels, putting them on the same basis as other personal property. — The freinds of the vesselmen and those who think that Duluth should maintain her present position as the hailing port of a larger amount of tonnags than any. other port on the lakes, have finally won out, and by an amendment which went throug:. without a dissenting vote, it was decided to strike out of the new code that part relating to the taxing’ of vessels as personal property. The vessel interests which flocked to Duluth under the tax conditions since 1895 will now stay there and recon- sider the step they took when matters looked as though the legislature would change the tax code and make it operate against the floatine property. - Many of the large owners who registered their boats at Duluth said that should the law be changed and. put their boats under the personal property clause, they would make another shift and take them to West Superior or register the boats at lake ports or states where tax condi- tions were more favorable to them. Detroit has lost a good deal of her prestige as the home city of lake boats when her tax laws became such that owners either sold their boats or shifted their hailing ports, and Minnesota does not seem inclined to establish similar conditions in that state and have the tax laws oper- ate against Duluth, as the home port of -more vessels of large tonnage than any port on the lakes, and for that matter more tonnage is registered at the Zenith City than at many of the largest ports in the world. LAKE SUPERIOR IRON ORE OUTPUT, ai Capt. Joseph Sellwocd, Duluth, who has acquired consider- able distinction by very accurately predicting the season’s movement of iron ore for several years past, estimates there will be forwardeed from the Lake Superior region the present year about 23,000,000 gross tons. ‘This will be an increase of 2,500,000 tons over the year of r1got. Capt. Sellwood’s estimate is more conservative than that of some others who watch the movement of iron ore, some of them figuring that the total will be nearer 25,000,- coo, but iron ore and vesselmen at the head of the lakes will be likely to support. his views of the outlook, An in- crease of 2,500,000 tons could be cared for without special effort on the part of the producers and the transportation lines, but an increase approximating 5,000,000, which is looked for by some, would be quite another thing. It is doubtful if it could be handled at the receiving ports, though the mines and boats might be able to deliver it. Capt. Sellwood’s estimate, made last April, of the prob- able shipments from the Lake Superior region for 1901 was 20,500,000 tons and the actual was 20,589,237. _ Consid- ering the magnitude of the movement, this is considered a remarkably close estimate. He also said that Minnesota would ship more than Michigan and Wisconsin combined, and this proved true, for Minnesota’s aggregate was 10,- 790,953, and the total for Michigan and Wisconsin was 9,798,284 tons. . aver : Minnesota furnished 52.5 per cent. of all the ore forward- : ed from the Lake Superior region, the Messaba furnishing 43.8 and the. Vermillion 8.7 respectively. Minnesota oc- cupies.a position of great prominence in the iron ore. world, and the prospects are that this state will continue to in- crease its per cent. of the total for the region are bright. The Menominee range furnished 17.5, the Marquette range 15.8 and the Gogebic range 14.2 per cent of the ore furnished from the region. er or oo LAKE AND COAST USAGES. The coasting steamer Hugoma, built at the Wyandotte yards of the Detroit Ship Building Co., and taken to the coast about the middle of November, has been a success ‘n every way, and her owner, Mr. T. H. Morley; says that in his opinion and in that of some of the best experts. on the coast he has as. good a boat, if not a better one, than the majority of tramp coasters. The management of the steamer has had good luck in chartering the vessel and she is now under contract for a year. At the present the Hugoma is in the trade, carrying sugar and general merchandise from New Orleans to Porto Rico. : Things on the ocean,-according to Mr. Morley, are radi- cally different from the methods of steamboating on the Great Lakes » This is particularly true in the case of loading charges. While the rates on the ocean are higher in round sums, Mr. Morley says that in order to havé an ocean boat break even on earnings in proportion with lake boats, the rate must be about double. ocean freights at $1 a ton would be about equal to 50 cents on the lakes. Most of the loading and unloading, in the trade in which the Hugoma’is engaged, is done with lighters, ‘and all the freight is handled by the crew of the boat, it being hoisted out of the hold and swung by means of: booms over’ to lighters and thence to the docks ashore. The Hugoma has been particularly fortunate, but Mr. Morley says that the big difficulty at New Orleans and other southern ports is to get the freight to the boats, there being but few freight warehouses on the docks and only large established ‘lines keeping up these centers, and tramps are compelled to tie up ‘wherever they can and have their cargoes carted or brought out in lighters. Another interesting feature which the Hugoma has en- countered is that the shipper sends his freight handlers with the boats, often sending as many as thirty or forty on the trip with a boat and then dropping them at the last port of discharge. Se The “Soo” line from which the steamer: John .Pridgeon has been retired through sale, will the coming season con- sist of the steel steamers St. Paul, Minneapolis, Huron and Castle Rhodes. For instance, he says that’

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy