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AO DEVOTED T0 NAVIGATION, COMMERCE, ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE.: ESTABLISHED 1878. PusLISHED Every THURSDAY BY THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO. Incorporated. eR GORUSKIN, .. ccs cicvcsencsecnesnsetereccesees Manager Capt. JoHN SWAINSON......----+- ee eesees aan .. Editor CLEVELAND, CHICAGO. Vestern Reserve Building. Royal Insurance Building. SUBSCRIPTION. One copy, one vear, postage paid..... pose ce ccesesaces $2.00 One copy, one year, to foreign countries............. $3.00 Invariably in advance. ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. All communications shou.- if addressed to the Cleveland office, THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO. Western Reserve Building, Cleveland, O. ‘Entered at Cleveland Postoi.ice as second-class 1..ail matter. No attention is paid to anonymous communications, but the wishes of contributors as to the use of their names will be scrupulously regarded. CLEVELAND, O., JULY 10, 1902. In the collision case of the schooner J. F. Card and the steamer Hiawatha, which occurred off ‘Thunder Bay last season, Justice McDougall, of Toronto, in an exhaustive judgment, decided this week that both vessels were blame- able, and that the schooner is only entitled to one-half the amount of the damage she sustained. This case was tried at Sandwich, Ont., last February, and was appealed with the foregoing result. Judge McDougall bases his. deci- sion on the finding that both the steamer and the schooner were running at an immoderate rate of speed during a fog, and consequently the court dropped back on the hackneyed, ‘time worn and unsatisfactory ruling known as “contribu- tory negligence.” ——— oor Or course sailors are all more or less soldiers, hence the lubberly pleading fer the terms port and starboard to be changed to the words left and right, some good men go wrong, so, also, in this instance do we find those -. with the gutts of a tarboiler arguing in favor of and - advocating the soldierly phraseclogy. The Compass Office of the United States Navy Department proposes a com- _ pass card having thirty-six instead of the thirty-two divis- - ions, as at present, and to word of designate courses by “numbers, as for instance, course 162°, course 18°, course _ tinuously around the circle. 45°, etc.; zero being at north and degrees counted con- This method to be adopted so that landsmen could more easily understand how to box the compass, when, “taking a trick at the wheel.” —__—$—$—$— $$ <<a ae eae _ Bets are offered that some of the Local Inspectors of Steamboats will be green enough to cancel a tugboatman’s license in the present labor dispute between that class of a hen and the employes of the Great Lakes Towing Co. The men are on trial for not going to work on the terms ‘offered by the Tug Trust. The license feature is entirely out of the question, in fact the licenses are not being used. ‘government employees for? What then is this flummery being indulged in by well paid The Great Lakes Towing Co. may be almighty, but it surely does not represent the seat of national government, they have no chains around the necks of their former employes. Because it has a strike or labor trouble on its hands there is no reason why. the whole force of a government department, and even the ~. Secretary of the Treasury should be embroiled in the matter. There are numerous other labor strikes existing just now, but none are being quietly conducted in so peculiar a manner as the prosecution of the licensed tug- men. THE MARINE RECORD. JULY Ic, 1907. LAKE ERIE LEVELS—SEICHES. he latest addition to the general knowledge of the physical geography of the lakes has been collaborated by the officers of the Weather Bureau under the direction of Willis L. Moore, Chief of the service, entitled “Wind Velocity and Fluctuations of Water Level on Lake Erie.” The accompanying line drawings are given for each month in the year and date from December, 1899, to November, 1900. The several delineations of the surface fluctuations, the causes and the probability that dangerous seiches at Buffalo can be predicted, is of incalculable importance to vessel and commercial interests in general. so that the work of the Weather Bureau in this connection is to be highly com- mended, and more especially so, if, as we surmise, it is the intention of the Department to so treat each lake in suc- cession. In the compilation of this excellent report acknowledge- ment is made to Mr. Wm. T. Blunt, an assistant officer of the Engineer Corps, U. S. A., for data as to the physical features of Lake rie, who also furnished a chart of the general contour of the lake, its coast line, curves of sound- ings, etc. Mr. Conger, of Detroit, collated the data from which the diagrams were made. The portion of the report on seiches, though not entirely an original research, reaches into a new field of observa- tion and study in so far as the lakes are concerned. This phenomenon was first observed on Lake Geneva and was called by the inhabitants of the shores of that lake, “Seiche,” which name has since been commonly adopted by modern writers. ‘he word signifies any rythmic oscillation of level of short duration obviously not produced by fluctuations in the water supply of the lake. The phenomenon of seiches has received very complete and exhaustive investi- gation at the hands of that accomplished physicist of Lausanne, Prof. F’.'A. Forel. Professor Forel has demon- strated that these rythmic oscillations occur in all Swiss lakes and that they follow in all cases the same general laws. The seiches on Lake Erie, to which attention is called in the report, are those of great amplitude. By amplitude is meant the difference in height between the maximum and the minimum level of the water in a complete oscilla- tion. Seiches of great amplitude occur only in connection with gales of 40 to 50 miles per hour. They rarely occur in summer; probably the greatest that has been observed for many. years in the warm season occurred on September 12, 1900 (in connection with the storm which caused such terrible havoc at Galveston, Tex., on September 8, 1900). In every landlocked body of water there is one natural period for longitudinal oscillations. and a second for trans- verse oscillations, depending; as has been shown by Pro- fessor Forel, upon the dimensions of the lake and the mean depth of water along the axis of oscillation. ‘The natural period, or, as it is sometimes called, the free oscillation of a water surface, is approximately the same both for great and smiall seiches; in other words, the time of vibration is independent of the amplitude of the seiche. The small seiches appear, however, to have a free period slightly shorter than the larger ones. To obtain a rough approxi- mation of the period of the small seiches, measurement was made of about eighty of the most perfect examples. ‘The average time of oscillation was found te be between four- teen and fifteen hours. ‘Thus at Amherstburg, when small seiches prevail, the river will probably fall during a period of seven or eight hours and rise through a period of six or seven hours. ‘The rising period seems to be somewhat shorter than the falling period. Fair-weather seiches are evidently a result of wind action yet is is not always clear that the wind is the original dis- turbing cause. They almost always occur when the wind is blowing parallel with the longer axis of the lake, with velocities ranging from 10 to 15 miles per hour. In some cases, however, it is not easy to trace them back to their ultimate origin. Variation in the atmospheric pressure, exerted on the respective ends of the lake, has been sug- gested as a disturbing cause. It will no doubt surprise many of our readers to learn that the difference in the surface level of Lake Erie, a sheet of water only 250 miles in length, showed a total of 13 feet 1 inch between the two ends of the lake at one time, or, during the gule of November 21, t900, This com- paratively vast- fluctuation of levels, where inches are taken into account in the daily transportation of lake and inter- lake commerce, goes to prove how well worth the study the laws ruling or governing such natural fluctuations becomes in the interests’ of lake commerce, even as apart from the scientific trend of the important deductions to be derived therefrom in the present and near future. To the Weather Bureau, Department of Agriculture, are we further indebted for the well advised methods deter- mined in its action to portray, by means of. colored,charts, the general set of surface currents on the chain, of. lakes, also the annually improved wreck charts showing the location of all wrecks and serious strandings resulting from weather conditions. ‘These delineations are valued from a practical or navigational standpoint as pointing out the localities of special danger, and, where aids to naviga- tion should be most proficient, such for instance, as the best light-houses and fog signals, also life-saving, signaling and telegraph stations, as well as the points to maiftain towing, wrecking and salvage appliances, ete. Quoting again from the same standpoint, thé observations now taken of the limits and density of fog banks on the several lakes is of prime impertance to the present com- metce and likely, if not certain, to prove of enhanced value in the future development of the lake trade. The foregoing are some of the main features of the work of the Weather Bureau on the lakes during the past few years, and we find an inclination evinced by the Department to more fully and worthily enter into other fields of devel- opment, within its province, which may redound to the general welfare of commerce and add to the scientific knowledge of the economies embraced in a complete con- troling knowledge of the physical geography of the lakes and its or their effect on the surrotinding country as’ relat- ing to an agricultural or ground producing standpoint; etc. rior Tue much talked of “Morganizing” the several Atlantic lines of steamers now drops back to a community of inter- ests basis, wherein the Britisher is to reap as much ad- vantage from the combination as the American. In other words, the recent action of Mr. Morgan, and of course his syndicate, must be viewed from a trade or commercial deal, rather than from, an influentional national.aspect. A London dispatch of Tuesday says: “In the house of com- mons to-day the parlimentary secretary to the admiralty, H. C. Arnold-Foster, replying to William Redmond, the Irish leader, confirmed the report that J. Pierpont Morgan had offered to place all the British ships in the new com- bine at the disposal of’ the admiralty for the next fifty years on certain terms. He added that the offer had not yet been accepted, because it only could be dealt with in relation to British shipping generally and the Atlantic trade position, which was being very carefully considered by the government.” ‘These ships are, still flying. the British ensign and accordingly are, British owned bottoms in the eyes of the law. There is no saying, however, what action Congress might have taken had it been thought advantageous to give the foreign built fleet. an American register before the close of the recent session. There is some satisfaction in finding positions for the few officers in the United States mercantile marine in vessels controled by citizens of their own country, even if not sailing under the stars and stripes, notwithstanding, the same chances existed for Americans when the fleet was British owned, as that country does not discriminate regarding the nationality of its officers in the mercantile marine. A capable Hottentot, or any other ftirriner, is eligible to take command of a merchant, vessel sailing under the British flag. or ro Tur WeratHer Bureau, Department of Agriculture, has stationed at Detroit a worthy, capable, and experienced weatherologist, who is detailed to collate certain data -felating to the physical geography of the lakes. This officer is. a district inspector also the forecast official at Detroit and tacked onto this is the appellation “Marine Agent.” Now, to our mind, “Marine Agent” smacks a good deal of a misnomer. It is a trading, commercial or professional term, in such a connection as the foregoing, as distinct from a governmental department one. Besides, does not -Shakespeare say, “’T'rust no agents” and we would hate to have to believe such a doctrine as being applicable in any sense to the estimable prognosticater of