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THE MARINE RECORD. JULY 17, Igo02 —————— ee eSeSeSeSTSTZTee awe oc mqmy“”w_—_— COASTWISE COMMERCE ON THE GREAT LAKES (Bureau of Statistics.) Traffic on the Great Lakes for May this year shows receipts amounting to 6,795,401 toms, compared with a total of 3,034,601 tons for May, rgor. There is, therefore, an increase of 72.7 per cent. over the volume of business a year ago. This is due in part to the earlier opening of the lake season. Flour receipts have increased moderately while grain and flaxseed are less than half what they were in May, 1901. ‘The greatest gains are shown in the amount of coal handled, in iron ore, in lumber and logs, and in unclassified freight. The amount of iron ore shipped from American lake ports to the end of May was 5,113,979 tons, and for the month of May alone 3,342,040 tons. The corresponding figures for 1901 were 1,601,623 tons for. that season to the end of May, and 1,597,295 tons for the month of May. Receipts and shipments at minor lake ports for the month of May are presented for 76 points of receipt and 165 points of shipment. Including 59 ports mentioned in the detailed statement, the month’s exhibit of lake business covers 135 points of receipt, and_ 224 points of shipment. The freight movement east and west through the Sault Ste Marie Canal for the season ending with May, .1902, amounted to 6,764,803 tons this year, compared with 2,248,045 tons for last year and 4,565,879 tons for the pre- ceding year. The traffic taken account cf in the following tables, except that reported as passing through the Sault Ste. Marie and Portage Lake Canals, is coastwise traffic only, and is confined strictly to the commerce between the domestic ports on the Great Lakes and connecting rivers. It does not include shipments to or receipts from foreign ports on the lakes. A total of 135 ports of receipt and 224 ports of shipment have reported transactions. : The freight rates prevailing in May on the four leading commodities—grain, coal, lumber and ore—were as fol- lows: : On grain: Wheat, Chicago to Buffalo, 1% cents per bushel; to Lake Erie ports, 136 cents to 1% cents per bushel. Corn: Chicago to Lake Erie ports, 1% cents and 114 cents per bushel. Oats: Chicago to Buffalo, 1 cent per bushel. Flaxseed: Duluth to Lake Erie ports, 134 cents per bushel. Grain, Duluth to Lake Erie ports, 1%, 15%, and 134 cents per bushel. On coal: Buffalo to Head of Lakes, 30 cents per ton; Cleveland to Portage and Marquette, 30 cents per ton. On lumber and iron ore: The same rates prevail as. re- ported last month. GERMANY ON .FRANCE. The opinion held by Germans on the navy of their great rival, France, appears to be much the same as that held in England of the French navy. In an article lately pub- lished in the “Zeitgeist,” which is a supplement of the “Berliner Tageblatt,’ Count Reventlow remarked that it is of very great importance to know the defects and qual- ities of the officers and men of foreign powers, and, al- though a true comparison can only be made by the trial of war, there are some indications that suggest in what direction a distinction of qualities will be found. Count Reventlow is of the opinion that the body of the French naval officers will soon lose cohesion, since M. de Lanes- sau set himself, without any equivocation, to the work undertaken by General Andre, Minister of War. ‘The purpose of the first mentioned politician was to recruit the body of officers as much as possible from the lower deck—in the opinion of the Germans an impossible scheme. Men who have spent half of their existence in obeying orders cannot maintain a constant initiative or assume re- sponsibility in time of stress. Such a democratic ten- dency, says the German officer, raises a spirit of opposition among officers of higher station, and the result is to de- moralize the force and to set up divided interests baneful to the general service. Another interesting point made is that the French naval officer is a lover of innovation in technical things, which we can quite believe of all naval! men. i oo Steam Vessels Crossing—Violation of Rules—A tug, with two scows in tow, was passing down East river on a course somewhat toward the Brooklyn shore, when she met the steamship Ocean coming up on a crossing course, so that the crossing involved danger of collision. ‘The tug having the Ocean on her starboard side, it became her _ duty, under articles 19, 22 and 23, of the navigation rules, to keep out of the way, to avoid crossing ahead, and to slacken her speed or stop and reverse. The Ocean gave a signal of one whistle which the tug answered by a _ eross signal, and starboarded in an attempt to cross ahead. _ At a second cross signal the Ocean stopped and reversed, but too late to avoid collision with one of the scows. Held, that the tug was primarily in fault for viclation of the rules, but that the Ocean was also in default because, under the special circumstances of the case, it was made her duty, by articles 27 and 29, to stop and reverse at once, on receiving the first cross signal. ‘The Ocean, 115 ed. Rep. (U. S.) 220. ». A CAPE HORN LIGHT-HOUSE. Mr. David E. Hume, late Conservator of the River Humber, sends the following extract from the letter of a Chilian naval officer describing his visit to Cape Horn for the purpose of selecting a suitable site on which to erect a light-house. Mr. Hume mentions also that_the recently-formed Hydrographical Department of the Chil- ian Government has already materially simplified the nav- igation of the Magellan Straits by erecting a light-house at each entrance and bv placing beacons and buoys on several of the more intricate parts of the passage. The Chilian officer writes under date May 22, 1902:—“We were on the cruiser President Errazuriz, under the com- mand of Capt. Arturo Cuevas, C. N., surveying the bay that the Captain named Allen Gardiner, on the north side of Hardy Peninsula, between Cape Jackson and Pack- eaddle, where the mission station is. We also were ex- ploring the unsurveyed parts of these regions. When it Allen Gardiner we waited for a good day and went to Cape Horn at the rate of 15 knots. We got quite close to the land, and found landing places on the east side of the island and well protected from the west winds, which are dominant in these parts. “In the first place it was a question of finding proper landing places; secondly, a well-protected place, solid foundations, good sea view, good altitude. not so low that the waves would interfere, and not so high that the clouds would cover it; thirdly, that the island shculd be fit for liv- ing. ‘There are good slopes and valleys on the east side, protected from the winds, with streams of w-ter, and big woods for obtaining firewood. Having assured: ourselves of these things, it is a very easy matter of making the proper plans and outlaying the light-house. Tf, Tsay easy. I do not mean it is an easy task—long way from it, but that it is possible and that there would never be the immense difficulties there were in the building of the Evangelistas Light-house on the rocks of the same name in the west entrance of the Straits of Magellan.” oro SHIP CANALS. The oldest and most important ship canal is that of Suez, begun in 1856 and completed in 1869. It is 100 miles in length and cost $93,000,000. It was at first 54 meters wide on top, 22 meters at the bottom and 8 meters deep, but in 1892 $10,000,000 were expended to increase these dimensions to 77, 34% and nearly 9 meters respec- tively, and it is now proposed to increase the depth to 10 meters. Ships are allowed to pass through it at a speed of 5 35-100 miles per hour, so that the whole length can be traversed in 18% hours. Night navigation is made possible by electric lights, which were introduced in 1887. The tolls are $2 per ton. In 1870, 486 ships passed through the canal; in 1880, 2,026; in 1900, 3,441. In the year 1899, 221,348 passengers were transported. In 1887 the Emperor William Canal to connect the North sea with the Baltic was begun, and the canal was opened in 1895. Its cost was $40,000,000. Its length is 08 kilometers, its depth is 9 meters and it is traversed in less than 12: hours. Its receipts do not cover expenses. Still another canal connecting the North sea. with the Baltic was opened in t900. Its length is 65 kilometers, its depth only 3 meters, and its cost was $6,000,000. The Manchester ship canal is 87 kilometers long and nearly 8 meters deep and cost $85,000,000. Amsterdam is connected with the sea with a ship canal opened in 1845, and Rotterdam is likewise connected with deep water by a canal opened in 1866. St. Peters- burg also has a ship’ canal 25 kilometers long. The Gulf of Corinth Canal was finished in 1893. It is only 6 3-10 kilometers in length and cost about $5,000,000. Konigs- berg has a ship canal completed in 1890, 33 kilometers long, that cost about $2,000,000. There are two great ship canals in America connecting Lakes Huron and Superior, and another, the Welland, connecting Erie and Ontario. The canals at Ste: Marie carried 24,600,000 tons in 1901, more than twice that of Suez for the same year. ———— or HULL STRAINS AND STRESSES. Tue British Admiralty propose to test the structural strength of their torpedo boats by subjecting the Wolf to a series of tests, which will include hogging and sag- ging strains. At first she will be sagged by being hung by the head and stern from two platforms having no sup- port beneath. The middle will then be hogged; that is, she will be balanced across a pile of timber so that the full strain of the unsupported fore and aft parts will be thrown on the center of the vessel. The experiments will prove whether a destroyer’s hull is so weak, as was suggested in the case of the Cobra, that the back breaks when a wave lifts her amidships or a sea lifts her in such a manner that the wave is hollow beneath her middle. or oe Ir ts interestingly calculated by a mechanical expert that if the 20,000 horse-power engines of the modern trans- Atlantic liner were duplicated by human muscles of that power, three shifts of 200,000 men each, working eight hours each day, or 600,000 men total, would be required. This would give below deck a population of a city of second grade. COMMERCIAL ALASKA. A million dollars a month is the estimate made by the Bureau of Statistics of the present value of the market which “frozen Alaska” offers the producers and manufac- turers of the United States. i “Commercial Alaska in 1901” is the title of a mono- graph just issued by the Treasury Bureau of Statistics. In it are represented some striking figures about this (until recently) little explored and: little understood ter- ritory of the United States. By:reason of the application of modern systems of travel and transportation, Alaska is. now as accessible as Arizona. Three days of travel by modern ocean steamers from Seattle, among the islands and along the coast which forms the southeastern exten- sion of Alaska, lands the traveler at Skagwa; twelve hours by rail over the mountains carries him to the head | waters of the Yukon where comfortable and well equipped river steamers carry him to the gold field of Central Alaska or down the Yukon river which is navigable for more than 2,000 miles at this season of the year. From the mouth of the Yukon another comparatively short trip, by steamer, carries him to Cape Nome—the latest and greatest of the gold fields of Alaska. Gold, fish and furs are, acccrding to this monograph, the principal industries of Alaska at the present time, and they send to the United States fifteen million dollars’ worth of their products—eight millions of gold, six millions of fish, chiefly salmon, and the remainder furs. The cost of Alaska was $7,200,000. The revenue which the government has derived from it since its purchase amounts to over nine million dollars, and the value of the products are now twice as much every year as _ it cost. The total value of the products of Alaska brought to the United States since its purchase is (according to the best estimates that the Bureau of Statistics is able to make) about 150 millions, of which 50 millions is pre- cious metals, 50 millions products of the fisheries, chiefly salmon, and 50 million more furs, chiefly seal fur. Pro- bably 50 million dollars of American capital are invested in Alaskan industries and business enterprises, including transportation systems. In the salmon fisheries alone, the companies engaged have a capitalization of 22 million dollars and the value of their plants, including vessels, is given at 12 million dollars, In the mining industries there are large investments—the great quartz mill at Juneau being the largest quartz stamp mill in the world, while several other quartz mills represent large invest- ments. With the inflow of capital, the development of transportation systems, and the gold discoveries, has come the building up of towns and the development of cities with modern conveniences of life. Nome City, which is located but a comparatively short distance south of the Arctic circle, has now a population of over 12,000; postal facilities have been so extended that the number of post- offices is now about 60, and mails are being regularly de- livered north of the Arctic circle. The gross area of Alaska is, according to the 1900 census, 590,804. The governor of Alaska in a recent re- port states that this is equal to the combined area of the twenty states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and ‘Tennessee. - OO Oo THE MARITIME CONFERENCE AT HAMBURG, THE LAW OF SALVAGE AND COLLISION . For this Conference, preliminary reports have been re- ceived from the National Associations or Committees in the United States, England, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Japan, and Denmark. All are favorable to the Interna- tional Code on the Law of Collision and Salvage, which has been drafted by a sub-committee unaer the presidency of Lord Alverstone. This code, which embodies the resolutions of the International Conferences held in 1808 at Antwerp, 1899 at London, and ro00 at Paris, will, no doubt, be unanimously carried at the Hamburg Conference, and recommended for adcption to the Governments. It would be a distinct progress if in this way the law of col- lision at sea could become uniform without distinction of nationality. The Hamburg Conference will further have to consider which would be the best international principles as to the jurisdiction in collision cases. On this matter the reports very widely differ. However, it is not impossible that some basis for a practicable understanding may be found at Hamburg. The Hamburg Conference will be a sort of international maritime Parliament, seeing that the members present will be the delegates elected of a series of national associa- tions and committees constituted amongst lawyers, ship- owners, and underwriters in the following countries, with the aim of working towards unification of maritime law— England, United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Austria, Norway, Belgium, Holland, and Sweden. A similar association has just been constituted at Fiume for Hungary, under the presidency of his Excellency Count Albert Apponyi, President of the Chamber of Deputies at Buda-Pesth. The members of the Hamburg Conference will be the guests of the Senate and of the German Associa- tion of International Maritime Law, under the presidency of Dr. Sieveking.