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APRIL, 10, 1902, CLEVELAND. Shecial Correspondence to lhe Marine Record. _ Messrs. Bartlett & ‘1inker, agents, announce that the first steamer. of the Union Transit Co. will leave Cleve- land, west bound, on or about April roth, and the first steamer of the Merchants’ Montreal Line will leave Cleve- land, east bound, on or about April 2oth. Mr. J. C. Gilchrist purchased the steamer Vulcan, Wed- nesday. She was formerly owned by Drake & Maytham, of Buffalo. The price of the bcat is not named. The Vulcan is one of the trim craft of the lakes, being an econ- omic boat, easily handled and inexpensively operated. M. A. Hanna & Co. have decided to locate a rapid coal loading machine at Ironville. The specifications have not been completed, but the general plans call for a modern machine. As soon as the machine has been selected, work will be begun on the foundation. It is expected to have the machine in operation this summer. The following meteorological observations are fur- nished by the office of the U. S. Weather Bureau, for the, week ending April oth. Prevailing wind directions for the week, west, highest velocity, 58 miles, from the north on the 8th. Mean temperature for the week, 38, highest temperature, 44 on the 8th; lowest, 28 on the 5th. © Sun- rise and sunset data computed for local time; April 11th the sun rises 5:26; sets 6:36; April r4th sun rises, 5:22; sets, 6:40; April 17th sun rises, 5:17; sets, 6:43. Additional honors have been bestowed upon Mr. Harvey D. Goulder, general counsel for the Lake Carriers’ As- sociation, and one of the most prominent marine lawyers in the country. Mr. Goulder was elected president of the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Wednes- day. He has been an active member of the chamber for a number of years, having joined the old board of trade in the 70's. For the past year he has been first vice Se of the chamber and chairman of the maritime board. The Lake Carriers’ committee on aids to navigation has received the information from Washington that a clause has been inserted in the sundry civil bill to provide funds to permit the Light-House Board to take over the private lights now maintained by the Lake Carriers’ Association on the Lower Detroit river. The same advices have. it that an amendment has also been attached to the bill: in the Senate to provide funds for the purchase of a light- ship for Southwest Shoal. This amendment is under- stood in the House, and will likely pass there also, when arrangements have been made through the Secretary of State with the Canadian marine authorities permitting the maintenance of a United States lightship in Canadian waters. It is expected that with the funds thus obtained the government will purchase the Kewaunee, now doing duty for the .Lake Carriers’ Association on Southeast Shoal. The new steamer Steel King was launched at the Lorain yards of the American Ship Building Co. last Saturday. Owing to the tug strike it was impossible to get a tug to assist in the launching. ‘The ship builders and the new boat, however, were able to go on with their business without a tug. There was not a tug whistle or any other whistle to welcome her to the water. Even the ship yard whistle remained silent. It was an unusual launching. The boat is a duplicate of the other four Gilchrist boats, which are ready for delivery. Miss Agnes Gilchrist, daughter of J. C. Gilchrist, christened the boat. She car- ried a huge bunch of tea roses and was surrounded by many friends and relatives. A special car brought the party here over the Lorain & Cleveland, and on the re- turn trip a luncheon was served. Those in charge of the christening party were: J. C. Gilchrist and wife, A. J. Gilchrist and wife, J. H. Gilchrist and wife, George Keun and wife, S. C. Smith and wife, J. L. Wicks and wife, F. A. Goodell and wife, A. A. Stearns and wife, D J. Mitchell and wife, Mrs. Pomeroy, Alice Runyan, Mabel Hart, Mabel Moore, Mrs. D. J. Collver, Mrs. Alex. Hoyt, Belle Adams, Sue DeWitt. Helen Watterson, F. W. Hart, Will Hart, J. D. Gilchrist, Horace Robbins, Frank Osborn, Gardner Dodge, Will Gilchrist, John S. Watterson, Mose Watterson, Will Curtis, Ralph Hadlow, W. R. Hunt, James Norris, Lee Wallace, J. Lanarchi, of Cleveland; ‘Mrs. F. W. Gilchrist and Miss Grace Gilchrist, of Alpena; Mason Misner, of Erie; Captain Blatner and wife, of Vermillion; J. E. Schuck and R. E. Schuck, of Sandusky. —<—<————————— TOLEDO. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. Capt. L. S. Sullivan closed a deal a few days since by which another tug will be added to his fleet at Buffalo. His latest acquisition is the Paddy Miles, an iron boat with 14x16 engine that carries 130 pounds of steam. She will prove a valuable addition to the Independent Towing Co.’s fleet. With her, the company now has the Pallister, Butler and Delta at Buffalo. ocr The Lake Michigan & Lake Superior Transportation Co. has sent out official notice to the effect that the first steamer will leave Chicago for Lake Superior ports April 15th, and ‘regular sailings will be Wednesday and Saturday evenings during the season. THE MARINE RECORD. GREAT CHAIN COMPLETED. The Standard Chain Co., with headquarters in Pitts- burg, has just completed at its works in Lebanon, Pa., the longest and most powerful chain ever produced. A duplicate is to be made, the two for the Eastern Ship Building Co., New London, Conn. They will be used on two great vessels, to ply between San Francisco and ports of Japan. The completed chain is of 330 fathoms, and an expert of the British Lloyds Register Association has witnessed the test. When the order was placed it was generally contended that the chain would have to be secured abroad, that the makers here could not supply a chain of the char- acter required. The chain was subjected to the strain of a new 600,000 pound testing machine at the works by the Philadelphia Machine Tool Co., Philadelphia. The tests were made in the presence of W. Gordon Minchin, of London, sur- veyor of the British Lloyds Register. Experts through- out the country and in Europe were waiting for the result of the test. : Ce ee STAGES OF THE WATER FOR MARCH. The gage records of the United States Lake Syrvey show the following mean stages of water for March, above mean sea-level: Lake Superior 601.41 feet; Lakes Huron and Michigan 579.27 feet; and Lake Erie 571.04 feet. These stages show Lake Superior to have been 0.31 foot lower than during same month last year, and 0.14 foot lower than in March, 1895; Lakes Huron and Michigan were 0.51 foot lower than during the same month last year, and 0.12 foot lower than during March, 1895; Lake Erie was 0.07 foot higher than during same month last year, and 0.06 foot lower than during March, 1895. Ld ro oo oo TO PROMOTE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE REV- ENUE CUTTER SERVICE. The Senate bill to promote the efficiency of the revenue cutter service passed the House last week, 135 to 49. ‘The opponents of the measure fought it to the last ditch. At the very end they attempted filibuster, but were swept aside by the overwhelming majority in favor of the meas- ure. : The bill gives the commanding: officers of the revenue service relative rank as follows: Captains, with majors in the army and lieutenant commanders in the navy; first lieutenants, with captains in the army and lieutenants in the navy; second lieutenants with first lieutenants in the army and lieutenants, junior grade, in the navy; third lieutenants, with second lieutenants in the army and en- signs in the navy. It gives the officers of the service longevity pay equivalent to their corresponding rank in the army, and provides for their retirement with three- fourths pay for disability or upon reaching the age limit of 64 years. Oo A SIXTEEN THOUSAND POUND ANCHOR. The largest anchor ever forged has recently been turned out in the forging shop at Charlestown navy yard. It weighs 16,000 pounds, and the cost of material and con- struction is nearly $2,000. Five men worked on it for over a month, hammering and smelting and welding it. This great anchor is to form part of the equipment for one of the new battleships that are to be added to Uncle Sam’s navy. The making of it was first tried as an ex- periment. It was not certain that an anchor of such size could be forged. Anchors of as great weight have been made of cast steel, and such are used on some ships of the American navy, as well as on British warships. But, as cast steel is more likely to be broken, the navy officials desired to secure anchors of equal weight in wrought iron, and it has remained for the equipment de- partment of Charlestown yard to prove that their manu- facture is possible. So great has been the success of this experiment that the government has ordered twenty-two of equal size and weight to be furnished, two for each of the eleven first class battleships which are to be built. The mammoth anchor, which, barriny unusual condi- tions of undertow or violent storm, is sufficient to hold in her moorings the largest battleship afloat, is nearly fifteen feet in length from crown to shackle, and about nine and The heavy The palms, a half feet wide from one arm to the other. crossbar is also about fifteen feet in length. are about thirty-two inches in width. A specially heavy chain cable, larger than any hitherto made is required to hold this anchor. The links of this cable, each of which weighs, when complete, over sixty pounds, require a gang of men to pound and weld and smelt for a half hour in the joining of each one. Three hundred and sixty fathoms of this immense chain will be required for each anchor. Tne officials of the equipment department in the navy yard are especially busy now. They say that in the forge shop they have anchors enough now ordered to fill all their time for the next four years. The steam hammer which is used in forging the anchors gives a stroke of eleven tons. ‘The officials hope soon to have one giving a stroke of twenty-five tons. With that, they claim, they can get on much faster. NOTICE TO MARINERS. Unirep States or AmrmricA—NortHEern LAKES AND _ + Rivers.—MIcuican, Bi ‘TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Orrick or tHE Licu’t-Housé Boarp, 4 Wasuincron, D.C. April 7, 1902. Laks Erie.—Bar Port Suoat, Licut-Vusser Station. Notice is hereby given that on the opening of navigation, 1902, ‘a gas buoy, painted black, and showing a fixed white — light during periods of ten seconds separated by eclipses — of ten seconds’ duration, will be temporarily placed on this station, until light-vessel No. 59, now undergoing re- pairs, can be completed and replaced on the station, of © which due notice will be given. i ee The station is off. Bar Point Shoal, northwesterly part of Lake Erie, at the. mouth of Detroit river, and about one and a half miles to the southward and westward of — Bar Point, Canada. Derrort River.—-LimeKILN Crosstnc Soutn Licur-_ VessEL.—Notice is hereby given that en the opening of navigation, 1902, relief light-vessel No. 63 will be tempor- arily moored at the westerly side of the southerly end of Limekiln Crossing dredged channel, lower part of Detroit river, in place of light-vessel No. 64, now undergoing re- pairs. Due notice of the replacement of light-vessel No.. 64 will be, given. Relief light-vessel No. 63 will show, the same as light- vessel No. 64, a fixed white lens-lantern light, but both ends of the vessel are painted red and the center part is white. This notice affects the “list of lights and fog signals, northern lakes and rivers, 1902,’ pages 34 and 38, Nos. 136 and 153, and the “list of beacons and buoys, northern lakes and rivers, 1902,” page 409. By Order of the Light-House Board. : } N. H. Farqunar, Rear-Admiral, U. S. Navy, Chairman. oo ioe OCEAN CABLES. Dr. Maynard, curator of mechanical instruments in the National Museum, has quite recently placed on exhibition in the hall devoted to mechanical curios a short section of the old Atlantic cable, the first one that was laid down between Newfoundland and England by the steamer Great Eastern, in addition to this he has also placed on exhibit several sections of the second Atlantic cable, laid in 1881, and which was presented to the museum by the Western Union Telegraph Co. Several years after the first Atlantic cable was laid many imperfections were discovered in its construction. This first cable was of the same diameter from one end to the other, and, while this was all well enough in deep sea, it was far from being heavy enough at the shore ends to resist the masses of floating ice, seaweed, icebergs, and currents that strained, twisted, and tore the cables to such an extent as to keep a force of men constantly employed making repairs on it. To remedy this, a new and perfected cable was made and laid in 1881, between Dover Bay, Nova Scotia, and Whitesand Bay, Cornwall, England. This new cable (the one now in operation), is three inches in diameter at the Nova Scotia shore end and narrows down, through six successive stages; the “heavy shore, light shore, heavy in- termediate,” to the seventh, or “deep sea diameter,’ of less than one inch occupying the deep trough of the At- lantic ocean. Then it begins to thicken through all the stages above mentioned, but in inverse order, from the deepest part of the Atlantic to the point where it termi- nates in the cable station at Whitesand Bay, on the coast of Cornwall, England. The deepest part of the Atlantic ocean is where the cable is least: disturbed, or, in other words, where the likelihood of disturbance is the least; but as it nears land in either direction the danger of its being disturbed, cut, ground, twisted, snarled and broken by currents, icebergs, etc., increases, and this is why the present cable is thicker and heavier in such places than it is in deeper water, in order that it may successfully resist all dangers of this sort. The copper wire over which the news of the Old and the New World travels remains, however, the same throughout the entire length of the cable, the protecting jacket and insulation alone varying in thickness and diam- eter according to the location and depth of the sea. The insulation of the copper cable wire remains of the same materials throughout, decreasing in mass and size from shore to deep sea. ‘This insulation protecting the cable wire is as follows: The copper wire is first inclosed in a tubing of gutta percha, around which comes a layer,or thickness, of small steel wires. Over these is a wrapping of jute fibre sat- urated in a waterproof compound which, in turn, is in- closed in a casing of armor of heavy steel wires. Over these follows the last coat, consisting of a jacket made of hemp fibre, tar and other cements, and which resembles patent leather. It is absolutely waterproof, and a thou- sand years’ exposure to the briny fluid of old ocean would not be sufficient to tarnish, much less to rot, this particular covering, the process for making which is a secret.