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VOL. XXV, No. 10 ESTABLISHED (878. CLEVELAND -- MARCH 6, 1902 -- CHICAGO. $2.00 Per Year. 102. Single Cop~ LAKE. CARRIERS’ ASSOCIATION: Yo consider and take action upon all general questions 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. TREASURER. GEORGE P. McKay, Cleveland. COUNSEL. HARVEY D. GOULDER, Cleveland. EXECUTIVE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE. JAMES CORRIGAN, Chairman, Cleveland. COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. Gigson L. DouGLas, Chairman, Buffalo. COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION. GxEoRGE P. McKay, Chairman, Cleveland. STEAMSHIP BUILDING A “Manual of Steel Steamship Construction” has recent- ly been published in Germany, and its author, Herr Otto Schlick, in his introduction presents an interesting chart showing typical steam vessels from the beginning of steam navigation to the present time, all drawn to the same scale. The column is headed’ by the tiny Comet of 1812, named perhaps from the train of fire left behind from the chimney when the boat was under way, and the last on the list is the new Kaiser Wilhelm II now being built for the North Ger- man Lloyd Steamship Co., which is planned to eclipse the White Star Line’s Oceanic in length and the Hamburg- American’s Deutschland, which now holds the ocean record, in speed. Herr Schlick also presents some interesting notes regard- ing the development of iron and steel shipbuilding, which we abstract as follows: The first iron vessels ever built were some canal boats, constructed in England in 1787. Before this time iron could scarcely have been applied to boat construction, since it was only in 1784 that the process of rolling iron plates came into use, and it was in 1786 that the first rolled iron plates were used in boiler construction. Although from this time on there was a somewhat ex- tensive application of iron to canal boat construction in Staffordshire, it was not until early in 1822 that a great stride was taken in advance by the construction of the steamboat Aaron Manby, which was’ worked up at Horsley and sent to London for erection. [his steamer, under the command of Captain (afterwards Sir Charles) Napier, went direct from London to Havre, and was then put at work upon the Seine, where it rendered satisfactory ser- vices for a long time. Two years later, in 1824, the Shannon Steam Packet Co. had an iron steamer built for river service, and.this was soon followed by five others. Progress along these lines then became more rapid, and a number of firms at Liver- ool and on the Thames turned out this class of work. The first iron sailing ship was built in 1838, by Jackson & Jordan, of Liverpool, and was called the Ironsides. In 1843 the Great Britain was built. This vessel was of dimensions that had been unheard of up to that time, and marked a great advance in the development in iron ship- building. The ship was also the first large screw steamer. She was built at Bristol for the Great Western Steam Packet Co., and had a length of 320 feet, a breadth of 51 feet and a depth of hold of 32 feet. Ona draft of 19 feet this ship had a displacement of 3,900 tons. It had a capac- ity for about’ 1,000 tons of coal, 500 tons of lading and. 300 passengers. The vessel was, however, an unfortunate one, and went ashore in Dundrum bay on her first voyage, where she-lay for a long time. For some time after this the iron shipbuilding industry remained at a standstill, and the dimensions of the Great Britain were only slightly exceeded in rare instances, and the famous Great Eastern was produced. ‘This ship, which was so enormous that it has only been equaled in very recent years by the largest types of trans-Atlantic express steam- ers, was built at Millwall in 1857 after the plans of Brunel. i Although it was commercially a total: failure, its construction must, nevertheless, stand, in many:. and Scott Russell. respécts as a sample of modern design. ‘Its length was 680 feet, its breadth 83 feet and it depth 38 feet, while its reg- istered meaurement was 18,915 tons. Ne Curiously enough the construction of the Great Eastern exerted no marked influence upon iron shipbuilding, since the relative size of steamers remained the same both before and after its completion and the latter growth was quite gradual. In fact, it was more than half a century later or In 1899 that the length of the Great Eastern was slightly ex- ceeded by the White Star steamship Oceanic. Iron shipbuilding’ was developed at a much later period in Germany than in England. It is’ impossible, however, to state with certainty as to when the first was built.. Two of the first, possibly the very first, iron vessels to be built in Germatiy, were the Konigin Maria and Prinz Albert, which were constructed in 1836 from the plans of Professor Schu- bert.. The first iron seagoing steamship to be built in Ger- many was constructed ‘at Hamburg in 1838, by Gleichmann & Busse, for a Holland firm, and was named the Willem I. The German establishments for the construction of iron ships enjoyed a very. rapid development. Their numbers increased from year to year, so that at the present time Ger- many possesses thirty yards for the construction of iron or steel sea-going vessels. In comparison with England, which now possesses more than 200 shipyards (though the great majority of them are engaged only in repairs and the construction of small vessels), this is a small number. But in the matter of their output, the German establishments’ compare very favorably with England. The extraordinary advances which Germany has made in steel ship construc- tion are principally due to the extensive development of the great German steamship companies during the past ten years. —— or oo oe ASTRONOMICAL DATA FOR MARCH. Astronomical data for March, 1902, furnished the Marine Recorp by: the Washburn observatory: Mercury and Venus are morning month. The former is not. very favorably situated for observation, but the latter is a conspicuous object appearing higher each morning in the sky. The planet will reach its greatest -brilliancy as a morning star, on March 2tst. Mars is too close tothe sun for observation; Jupiter and Saturn make a bright pair of planets in the southeastern sky in the . morning. Saturn rises about two and one-half hours before the sun at the middle of the month, and-is followed within an hour by the brilliant Jupiter a little farther north. The times of sunrise and sunset at Milwaukee for the month are as follows: Z SUNRISE. SUNSET. Masch stare ra eiiaeshacee 6:29 5:40 , Michiel dic fi pr sis iete saute ies 6:12 Ba5ekt March ore te i285, eRe is Valheoe 5:55 6 :04, Marche stoi: so.ccj aust ae ue 5:37 6:16 The times of the moon’s phases are: Third quarter Ses cis os MARCH Dee tice A eeOud, ile New. in0On 8 ius ria oe MATCH tO wera OO On Drain: First quarter (bere Js MATCDE DO: acd) cece oy De atte Bullmoon se. e MAnCN 23) iets Gs 20 -p il. The principal fixed stars visible during the month in the evening hours are: To the west: Capella, Aldebaran, the Pleiades, Sirius, and the bright stars of the constellation Orion. Near the meridian Castor and Pollux and Procyon. To the east Regulus. i ooo Amonc British Parliamentary papers recently published is one showing the aporegate naval expenditures during 1900 on sea-going force. According to the figures, the British expenditures of this character amounted to $142,- 304,215; United States, $66,927,870; Germany, $37,362,280; Russia, $43,314,005; France, $66,927,870; Italv. $24,515,545 ; Japan, $20,407,765; Spain, $5,000,595; Austria, $8,222,185 ; Netherlands, $6,803,295; Portugal, $2,537,150. stars the present. Hise UNIVERSAL MARITIME LAWS. eens _ The International Conference for the Unification of Mari- time Law will be held in ‘Hamburg, on September 25, 26, and 27 next, in continuation of the International méeting ~ held in 1898, in Antwerp, in 1899 in London, and 1900 in Paris. The foreign members. will be guests of the Ham- burg Senate and of the German Asscciation of Maritime — Law, which is-under the presidency of Dr. F. Sieveking, . Court of the well known president of the Hanseatic The foremost subject on the agenda paper will be Appeal. the definite adoption of an International Code’on the Laws’: of Collision at Sea and Salvage. This code"embodies the © various principles which have been debated and carried at the former meetings, and. relate, for instance, to such mat- | ters as collisions where both ships are to blame, compulsory . pilotage, respective liability of tug and tow, obligation to stand by, and various other points of practical importance on which the laws of nations’ very widely differ at the pres- ent day, and ‘which ‘it is desired to bring under one’ uni- form set of rules. Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice of England, in accordance The draft of this International Code has ° been prepared by a committee under the presidency of Lord with the resolutions of the former International meetings, — and will now be submitted to the Conference at Hamburg. . After passing this meeting, it is expected that the Govern- ments will be approached in order that the matter may be referred to a diplomatic conference. The other points to be dealt with are the laws as to jurisdiction in collision * cases, and the divergéncies between’ existing laws as to - mortgage, privileges in ships, and the rights “in rem.” ” ‘ Amongst others, Lord Alverstone, Mr. Justice Phillimore, ‘Sir John Glover, Mr. Charles MacArthur, M. P., Dr. Stubbs, Mr. Douglas Owen, Mr. Stanley Mitcalfe, Professor Lyon-Caen (of the Institute of France), Minister Beernaert (Brussels), late Minister Boseli (Rome), Senator Rahusen : Louis Franck (Antwerp), Mr. Clunet (Paris), Mr. Musnier (Messageriés:* (Amsterdam), Mr. Le Jeune and Mr. Maritimes, Paris), Mr. Autran (Marseilles), Professor Pla- tou (Christiania), Mr. Hindenburg (Copenhagen), and Mr. : On de Gunther (Stockholm), are expected to be present, the German committee we note the names of Dr., F. Sieve- king, Mr. A. Duncker, President of the Hamburg Commit- tee of Underwriters, Mr. Woermann, President of the » Hamburg. Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Wiegandt (North ; German Lloyd), and many other prominent men in the’. German maritime circles. The Conference is organized by the “International Maritime Comimittee;” and the pre- | liminary reports and papers and any other information may be obtained, on written application made to the hon-' orary secretary of the International Maritime Committeé at Antwerp. a : or oor CANADIAN IMPROVEMENTS. In the Dominion House the most important events of ) the week have been the adoption of the address and the bringing down of the estimates for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1903, which were presented to the House on Monday evening, just four days after the opening. Mr. .: - Bourassa offered an amendment to the address dealing with the railway policy, but, after speeches had been made by himself, Mr. Tarte, Mr. Haggan, Mr. J: Robinson and ‘' W. F. McLean, the amendment was withdrawn. The estimates call for an expenditure on the consolidated fund account of $47,845,038 and an expenditure of $5,516,- 600 on capital account, making’a grand total of $53,361,638 or an aggregate reduction of $6,563,102 as compared with’ last year. In Collingwood the grants set apart for the harbors and rivers of Ontario amounted to only $354,100. The ‘improve- ments which have been going -on during the past two or three years will be continued and $40,000 has been set apart for the current year. to receive grants are Depot Harbor, $65,000; Goderich, Others. harbors ‘so fortunate as ° $10,000; Meaford, $30,000; Midland, $8,000; Owen Sound, * $24,000; Sault Ste. Marie, $25,000; Southampton, $10,000 and ‘Toronto, $8,000. OS OS A revision in colors, of the Chart of Lake St. Clair, has just been issued and is now on sale at the U. S. Lake Sur- vey Office, 33 Campau building, at 15 cents per copy. Also a revision in colors, of Chart No. 2, St. Mary’s river at 18 cents per copy.