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hago 2 The Marine Recon. MARITIME LAW. was the respondents duty to keep the bridge the bridge especially important. That it] Europe. The problem here is to get the grain to market cheap enough. The deyelop- DRAWBRIDGE SWINGING AND STRIKING PAS-| in repair Is not questioned. Failing to dis- | ment of the Northwest is going forward SING YVESSEL—DEFECTIVE APPLIANCES—| charge this duty, it became liable for the| with enormous strides. ADMIRALTY JURISDICTION. ETHERIDGE VS. THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA. U. S. District Court, Eastern District of time, it should Pennsglvania. 1. While the schooner Elm City was pas- sing though «a drawbridge in tow ofa tug, the bridge gave «sudden swing, striking, that the respondent was notified of Its ex-' we must turn our property into the Welland | and damaging the vessel. It appearing by the evidence that the bolt which should have held the bridge open was out of order and useless, which fact was known to the respondent, the City ot Philadelphia, before the accident, and that this defective bolt was the cause of the accident, and that the ves- sel was in no wise to blame, held, that the respondent was liable for the damage. 2. Whe admiralty has jurisdiction of such a suit. On the morning of the 17th of March, 1884, the schooner Elm City was taken in tow by the tug Kensington for the purpose of mov- ing the schooner from the Knickerbocker ice wharf on the Schuylkill river, round to the coal piers on the Delaware at Port Rich. Below the schooner wae the draw- bridge, which crosses the Schuylkill at South street. The tug gave the usual signal for the opening of the draw, and it was ac- cordingly swung open. The tug, with the schooner in her wake, entered the draw when the northern end ef the draw swung to the westward caught the rigging of the schoon- er, torea good deal of it away, broke her mainmast, and did other damage. The amount of the vessel’s loss, including de- tention was about $2,000. Captain Etheridge, the master of the schooner, brought suit against the City of Philadelphia which is the owner of the South street bridge. Messrs. Driver & Coulston for libelants— When the draw is on, it is held in place by a holt sufficient to hold it and make it secure for travel. When the draw is turned off to allow vessels to pass, it is secured by means mond. loss thus occasioned. The defect existed fer many months, have been discovered without notice, The exercise of proper vigilance would have discovered it much j)earlier. The testimony shows, however, istence long before the accident. The cases cited by respondents’ counsel are inapplic- able to the facts here involved. I find no evidence of contributory fault in the libelant. A decree must be entereu ace rdingly, for the libelant. November 19, 1885. SAMUEL F. HODGE & CO., whose card appears in another column of this week’s MarINnz ReEcorpD, have just com- pleted and set up a mammoth engine at the Detroit water works, last week. The test proving satisfactory the formalities were ended by the adoption ofa resolution ac- cepting the engine as a superior work, co n- pleted according to a contract and authoriz- ing asettlement with the builders at the contract price. ‘ An interesting tact was brought out in speaking of the large beam of the engine. It weighs 12 tons and is 21 feet long. It is made of four steel plates, each three quarters of an inch thick, and those plates were made by a Cleveland firm. When the first engine for the water works was built the plates from which to make the beam were bought in England because there were at that time no ingots in this country large enough to produce such plates. When the new engine began work for the first titne it lifted with the first stroke of the piston 1,800 gallons of water and during the rest of the day it pumped at-the rate of 26,000,000 gallons per twenty-four hos The total capaeity of the engine is 30,000,000 gallonsaday. With the three engines now of a bolt which enters a socket in the south pier and bolds the draw in place. On the lay in question the men who were operat- ing the draw did not use the bolt because the bolt and trestle were out of order; they have been out of order for about a year. ‘bey had reported the defect, but no repairs ‘had been made. Since the accident, the bolt “nas been repaired. The damage clearly re- sulted from the carelessness of the men in failing to hold the draw in its place, and in aot having proper bolts and appliances to secure the draw. It is not true that a gale was blowing or that the wind was of sufti- cient force to blow the end of the draw und. The negligence of the city is clearly established by not keeping the draw in good ©. B. McMichael Esq, for the city, after elaitning that the draw was blown out of place by a sudden and violent wiud, denied the jurisdiction of the United States district court. The case ought to be tried in the common law court of the county of Phila- delphia. Vhe admiralty has not jurisdiction because the wegligence was committed on dand. A bridge has been decided to be land. Itis true that admiralty has jurisdiction when a vessei has been damaged by an allegal obstruction in the river; but where a legally erected bridge, as this one is, or a wharf, has been damaged by a vessel, the courts have decided that the suit must be atcommon law. Had the city brought this suit, she would have been sent for her remedy to commen law, and the libelant ; should be obliged to pursue his in the same ‘forum, 4 The answer to this was that the place or ‘loeality of the injury is the place or locality in commission all at work at the same time a tofal of over 60,000,000 of gallons of water could be pumped every twenty-four hours. The new engine was desigued by Jno. E. Edwards, engineer to the board of water eommissioners, and built and erected. by Samuel F, Hodge & Co. It is of the com- pound beam style. The high steam cylin- der has a diameter of 46 inches and the low steam cylinder a diameter of 84 inches, with 7 feet stroke of piston. I'he diameter of the -pumpsis 40 inches. There are 96 suction valves and 282 delivery valves. The length of the beam is 21 teet, and cousists of four steel plates three-quarters of an inch thick. > The weight of the beam is12 tons. There are two fly-whecls, 24 feet in dlameter, each weighing 30 tons. The total hight of the engine from bed plate to top of beam is 52 feet and the diameter of the main shaft is 15 inches. The total weight of the engine is about 450 tons. The drawings were made by A. G. Mattisons and it was erected under the supervision of Uriah Gould. GENERAL NEWs. [t is rumored that A. Booth will need the steamer now being built in Chieago in ad- dition te the A. Booth for his Duluth busi- vess, But that is not all; itis positively. asserted that the new boat will be named the Zenith City in honor of Duluth. Should this report prove true it reflects great credit indeed upon Mr. Booth and the action will noi soon be forgotten.— Duluth Herald. The trial of the 13 sailors who refused to sail in the Sea King after signing articles was concluded yesterday moining in the United States district court. Judge Sabin, in charging the jury, said in substance that of the thing injured, and not of the agent by which the injury isdone, and as the ‘injury in this case was to a vessel in a navi- gable stream, admiralty has jurisdiction, ‘(Lhe Maud Webster, 8 Ben. 551, 553 ) Butler, J. Tbe question of jurisdiction is settled by the following cases: ‘he Ceres 7 N. W. _ 576; the Plymouth, 3 Wallace 35; the Rock I-land bridge 6 Wallace 215; Atlee vs. een Packet Company 21 Wallace 890; the R. R. Company vs. Steamboat Company 23 How, 219; Leathers vs Bessing, 15 Otto 630; the Maud Webster, 8 Benedict 551. It is quite clear that the accident resulted from the defect in the bridge. When the draw is turned to remove obstruction to navigation, it is intended to be secured in Be place by an iron bolt and socket. This ar- ay rangement is essential to safety, and when empleyed renderes accident, such as befel » the libelant, impossible. On the occasion invelved, the provision for securing the draw was out of order and useless. Had this not been so, the accident would not : have occurred. The character of the weather at the time made the defective condition of é the trick of getting the men to sign notes in fayor of the boarding house keeper was a plain violation of the provisions ef the Bingley act, and the men had acted per- fectly right in defending what they con- ceived to be their rights. ‘he jury rendered a verdict of acquitted in three minutes after retiring. By this verdict Captain Getchell loses the $650 he paid to the boarding house keeper and which he intended to take out of the seaman’s wages,—San Francisco Ea- aminer. : i The Buffalo Commercial has an interview with Horatio Seymour, Jr., for years the state engineer of New York. He shows that by deepening the canal, raising the banks a toot ,and lengthening the locks, the cost of transportation can be reduced from |. one-third to one-half. He expressed himself as opposed to turning the control of the ca- nal over to the government, but did not ob- ject to the aid contemplated in the Weber bill and added: ‘‘Cheap transportation isan absolute necessity the West. formidable rivals in the markets of Western After so great a lapse of | If we can sell our wheat this country will have 800,000,000 bushels annually to move in ten years What will you do with this vast velume of | trade if you allow the canal to remain as it is? The people of the west want che eanal enlarged and improved, and if it is not done canal and down the St. Lawrence.’’ LIFE SAVERS AT TORONTO. A letter from Captain W. D. Andrews was read at the city council meeting Toronto proposing the formation of a regular crew for the preservation of life on Toronto bay. | The present Toronto harbor life saving crew |could, he says, be readily converted intoa regular life saving crew in the same man- ner as the volunteer engine and hose com- panies were transformed into the present efficient Toronto fire brigade. ‘Khey should be drilled and equipped in the same manuer as the United States life saving service. The crew already possess a first class Dobbins self righting and self bailing boat for lake service. By procuring a light, portable surf boat for special service in the bay, and a Lysle gun and beach apparatus, which in- cludes the use of the life cot and breeches buoy for the rescue of shipwrecked persons from stranded vessels, all the most important appliances for saving life would be at hand in case they should be required. A life boat honse could be erected in some suitable locality and a complete life saving service established ready for the opening of navi- gation, ‘The present, he thought, was the time for actien. The proposition has met the »pproval of the Marine Department of India and Australia to-day produce more wheat than | this country does, and they are becoming! Ottawa. INTER-STATE COMMERCE. The tortheoming annual repert of the Toledo (O.) Board of Trade contains an interesting article by the Secretary, Mr. Denison B. Smith dealing at length with tho obnoxious system prevailing in this country by which railway nanagers have powerto fix, and do fix, quite arbitrarily their traffic rates, tothe inealeulable detriment of the business interests of the country. The state of affairs. allwded to is partly brought about by the excess of railway building, so that lines of roads fully capable of moving the business of the country have been paralleled with new. roads contesting for the old traffic, multiplying competition, and causing instability in the rates of trans- portation. However, the principle cause for the unsteadiness of the rates is the sys- tem of “pooling,’”’ to which the railways re- sort whenever they think that their interests are best served by doing so. This institution prospers in the winter, when they can fix their own rates, owing to the want of com- petition by the water ways. The priaciple upon peoled roads adjust their rates is that the longer the haul the lower is the rate per mile. This principle would bea tair ove within the bounds ot reasonable application, were it not used (as is the actual case) to cover discrimination against great trade centers of the country being terminal points for water carrying business. The rates are so adjusted as to in- duce inland dealers to send their commodi- ties direct to the seaboard for a market when they would prefer a market near by. When the spring comes, and water traffic sets in, the ‘‘pool” is broken, and new rates are fixed so ruinously low that successful com- petition of the water ways is out of the question. The result of this method, thus tar, has been to reduce the water freight be. low the cost to the carrier, at the same time bankrupting railways, _ The remedy advocated tor removing this uncertain and detrimental state of atfairs is a supervision of the whole system of inter- State transportation rates by a railway bureau and a commission of capable, ex- perienced men, with power to compel and preserve a fair and equitable system ot freight rates, with a view to the ultimate entire control over the rates on the inter- | state traffie of all our railways, and the fullest publicity of such rates and al) modi- | fications of the same, So far indorsing the inter state commercial bill which has been introduced in the Senate, the report recom: mends that the provisions of the bill be not extended, as it does, to transportation by water, because such provisions are abso- business... The water highways of nature there is no analogy whatever between the two systems of transportation, and what is good and- necessary for the one would prove plied to the other. The water ways a great regulators of the cost of transporta tion, an ever be made.—American Elevator & Trade. . * td ee, a copy to every engineer in Phila.2 Call, hie as lutely unnecessary for the water carrying ineffectual and become a burdon when ap. j no attempt to fetter them should ; i Grain | voon THE DEATH OF JUDGE BAXTER. Judge John Baxter, who died on the 2d inst., Was one of the most remarkable men of Tennessee. He was born in Rutherford county, North Carolina, March 5, 1819. He spent his early youth and practiced law in western North Carolina until 1857, when he removed to Knoxville. As a politician he was identified with the Whig party, and was twice Speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives. He was one of the ten thousand loyalists who welcomed the arrival of the Union soldiers under Burnside into East ‘Tennessee, September, 1863, and all through the occupation of that loyal section was one of the chief advisers of Burnside, and later of Fuster and Schofield, on all questions re- lating to the interests and policy of the Union. During the secession contreversy he was one of the leading opposers of the right of a state to secede, and was closely associated with such men as Brownlow, Thornburgh, Maynard and Temple. His speeches for the Union when rebel troops were sent into East Tennessee to coerce the people were fearless and honest, and are affectionately treasured in the state. He was elected member of the Constitutional Convention of Tennessee by the Republi- cans and conservative Union men in Knox- ville in 1870, and was later on an ardent sup- porter ot Hayes end Wheeler. He was appointed jnuge of the sixth United States judicial circuit (Obie, Michigan, Kentucky and Teun:ssee), December 13, 1877, and al- though his political enemies in the south made a vigorous effort to prevent his con- firmation, the appointment was confirmed, and wae very well received. He was recom- mended tor the position by five members of the supreme court of Tennessee, and his career on the bench has more than justified the expectations of his friends, CHICAGO TOWING COMPANY. The following captains have been ap- pointed to the tugs of the Chicago Towing Company : Tug Tom Brown, Captain John Sweeney; F. 5. Butler, Captain G@us Van Dalson; Chi- cago, Captaia John L. Byron; Commodore, Captain Wm. Smith; Crawford, Captain Wm. Crawford; John Gordon, Captain Charles MeCarl; J. H. Hackley, Captain James E Shea; L. B. Johnson, Captain Patrick Gorman; Lorena, Captain Dominick Barrett; G@. B. McClellan, Captain Stephen Green; Mary McLane, Captain Janves Me- lody; Paddy Murphy, Captain Mike Dris- coll; C. W. Parker, Captain James Carter; R. Prindiville, Captain James Gallagher; E. Shelhy, Captain Lew Brockway; Sue- cess, Captain Joe Everett; Bob Teed, Cap- tain Bob Teed; K. Tarrant, Captain Fay Nyman; A.B. Ward, Captain Dick Tyrrell; W. H. Wolf, Captain Jaines McGinn. ——— - LAKE MICHIGAN RISING. A dispatch from Chicago says: During the recent storms the waters of the lake made still further encroachments on the Lake Shore drive in Lincoln park. From North Avenue pier for a distance of about halt a mile north, the drive is impassable, being washed out in some places and covered with debris in others, All along the shore ot Lincoln park and Evanston great quanti-. ties of earth have been washed away. Que very remarkable and startling fact is dis — closed in connection with the encroachment of the Jake on Lincoln park, and that is that the whole surface of the lake is gradually rising at the rate of about four inches per year. ‘he record shows that the surface of the water is now two and a. half feet higher than it was seven years ago, Por- tions of the lake shore driveway, where are located some of the costliest residences in the city, have been washed almost com- — | pletely away. BURNED LIFE SAVING STATION. Intense excitement still prevails in Texas over the burning of the lite saving station on Saturday. Hundreds of p and near visited the ruins day and Monday followi accord they fiercely con ! act as dastardly, cowardly, coute the extreme. Superintendent D, of Buffalo, in answer to a dispate by the keeper on Sunday was o the Su and open within a sor ‘Captaln Dobbins — perintendent made affair and forwarded are Open to the enterprise of everybody;| _ from far demned t endish ) its j