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> SS . i a ‘ gternation at his hardihood. have to use their judgment in such cases, and sometimes must have a man driven to 6 The Marine Recontl THE FIREMAN AT SEA. Among firemen there are, as ight be ex- pected, many varieties. There is usually a tresh supply every voyage, and their com- binations ure as varied as those of the ka- leidcscope.. Though selected of one appar- ent uniform quality, no sooner is the vessel fairly on her voyage than one will develop an unruly disposition, not only making all the others uncomfortable, but sometimes changing the character of the whole group, and making them dfficult tomanage. —Then another fallsill,and it turns out that he wasill when he went aboard, and, being unfit for work’‘on shore, thought that he would make sure of his food and lodgings and medical st- tendance fora few weeks, or months, with gome pay ut the end, taking his chance of whatever disayreeableness might arise, in the knowiedge that these could not be worse than if he were starving sshore. As fire- men are not a)ways of the most robust ap- pearance, it would puzzle tbe best medical man to judge, when engaging them, who were or were not unfit for work by illness or laziness, Besides thie, the most vigorous are frequently the most unmanageable. Though size and strength in an engineer may keep such men in order, yet ruling by physical sength is a poor way. Such an engineer, though obeyed with more appar- ent alacrity than another, is really worse served than those who regard the men as human, and not mere nachines. There is a well authenticated case of a “second’’ who, finding complaints made by oue of the men that he could not st nd the heat of the fires, had the man lashed to the iron com- panion ladder in front of the opened fire- doors. The victim died iu consequence, but a doctor being on bourd, the case was, it is said, entered in the log-bo»k as one of apoplexy, or scme other natural cause, and the matter was hushed up. According to latest accounts that ‘second’? was still in the same «employ. Strict discipline can be maintained by far better means than this. It is often difficult to know what to do with a man who “lays up.’’ In a case of real iliness he will meet sympathy, tem- pered, perhaps, with an cccasional grow] from those who are doing bis work; but when a man has purposely come aboard i}], his comfort must be of the scantiest and bis medicine of the nastiest, or he will lie in his bunk all the voyage. One fireman, suspect- ed of being a loafer, was summoned aft to re- ceive his medicine which was concocted entirely with a view {o its being of specially atrocious flavor. He drank it calmly to the bottom, looked into the glass, and, seeing a few dregs left, drained these to the bottom; then, expressing bis gratitude for the good he knew it was going toedo to him, walked feebly away, leaving the stewards in con- Engineers his work by physical force or the threat of it, though in one unfortunate instance a man s0 driven died most inconveniently on the deck. Sometimes one of the men, envy- ing the happy lot of the loafer in his bank, will fall il] also, so that loafer No. 1 bas to be driven forth to do the work of No. 2. Where such happens, it will almest certain- ly come to pass that the illness will go round all the men in rotation one at a time, as if pre-arranged; thus the one who set the ball roiling is foreed to do bis share of work till his trin comes around for well-earned re- pose, Soon after the writer went to sea, he mentioned to his chief that he was out of sorts. ‘To his surprise, he heard that the chiet also was 11); and on narrating the co- incidence to the *’second,”’ he discoverd to his disgust that le was also similarly affect- ed. he fact is, that at rea a man must work, whether well or il, unless absolutely unfitted for ir. Firemen are usually well in port, for there the diawbzcks of a forecastle reridence are more felt, and there is also the evei- present fear of being Jett behind in a foreign hospital. It can thus easily be seen that a firemau’s Jot is no bed of roses, aid that his pay is well carned. Though h's pay exceeds that of a sailor, while his hardships msy not be greater than those of his acquaintances who live and work on shore, when work is to be bad, and though bencath both him and them are others yet worse off, yet the engineer should remem- ber that the fireman is but weighted down a little lower than himself, by the same com- petition which is diminishing his own pay as well as the profiils of the shipowner, sucking duwn wages and profits that rents may 1ise. Many of these fiiemen, in spite of all disadvantages, give promise of the highest qualites, only awaiting develop- went, In selecting firemen, those are espevially to be avoided who parade their experience when ajplying for woik. These are the sea lawyers, dreaded of captains; or rather they are captain and engineer: and steward allin one. itis amusing to sce one such, fitting in the centre of a crowd of firemen and failors, discoursing, with voluble tongue, ot bow his engineer or that captain 2 cted in certain circumstencer, and always the disparagement of those he is uuder at the time. He narrates minutely how well they were provisioned in the last ship; for such a one always has found “the last ship’’ so fuil of perfections that ove Wondérs why he ever left it. Suilors and firemen, too, often bave good cuuse to cowplain of their food, and grum- ble someiimes to the verge of munity by refusing to work with the strength which they have not derived fiom insufficient and bad food. They know that in many cases, unless they insist on ge(ting ‘their whack’’ they will go short. Though there are many woithy snd kind-hearted men among skip captains, yet, the opposite being the rule, grumbling hus a) 0 become the rile, and the men cannot always deny themselves the pleasure of complaining, even when well treated—like the man who was never happy unless he was miserable. In one ship, where, as the story goes, the captain was deiermined to conguer by kindness, he hid a goose cooked, and sent to the men at Christmas, Curiosity caused them to gather about the galley door to dis- cuss the event, the conclusion being that there “must be something wrong with the —yoose or it would not have been sent” to them. Such discontent throws light on all past and present relations in that and every other ship. On another similar oc- casion the captain was suid io have sent a plum-pudding to his men. After consum- ing it, a deputation went aft to return thanks, and wiih the reques that the next time a plum-pudding was sent \o them there might be more plums. With com- plaints ot bad food, the engineers cannot directly deal, The men have to fight, their own bait'e, and, as a rule, they are well able to do so. Of course, if they refuse work in consequence of insnfficieut food, the question comes prominenily to the front; but a captain will do much to avoid this. When a captain is acting fairly to his men, the most effective cure he can apply is to put them strictly on their legal allowance, siop- ping all extras.. The threat of this wiil usually stop any unreasonable complaints. With engineers or firemen in opposition to tue powers that be, care must be taken to keep out of the log book, except their cace is good. before thé captain, he ,has to “‘log’’ the of fender, and this erase. The log book, after each voyage, is scrutinized by the board of trade, and so strict are they, that in one cuse, when a large blot had faillen on the page, the captain had to make a formal declaration that nothing was concealed by it. Only when other means fail should a man be logged. It not only makes him reckless for the rest of the voyage, on the principle of being “as well banged for a sheep as fora lamb,” but the official investigation of the matter at home leads to much t-ouble and delay, and its is- sue is uncertain. Once the voyage is over, many matters which seemed at the time to be of importance, tink into insiguificarce. Unless in very bad cases, there are mauy ways of punishing a man at sea without any formal trial ashore. In some eases, an ef- fective way isto turn the laugh of his fellows against an offender, such as telling him that, as his knowledge is of a superior kind, you would be glad it he would take charge of the work himself, Such a requect rarely fails to have a disconcerting effect, whether stated jocularly or with contempt, The board of trade is the sea-farer’s best fried, whether he hall from the sooty or the tarry side of the ship. Argus-eyed, hundred-handed, its agents, the consuls, are in every port to redress wrongs and give assistance and advice of every kind to who- ever applies for it, and none dare prevent, such application. Though a captain and engineer may complain that it shows an un- due partiality for firemen and sailors in order to display its supremacy, yet its influ- ence is for good, and extends far beyond its visible Jimits, the dread of it, preventing even an a tempt at snch oppression as was once openly practised—for justice was tardy and uncertain in the days preeeedigg the steamship and telegraph.—[Practical Eo- gineer, The Bureau of Navigation, Treasury De- partment, reports a small increase during the | Jast fiscal year in the tonnage of the country, Once a formal complaint is laid | arising from the bui'ding of vessels, chirfly | tonnage. after making up the losses the fleets he dare net. afterward ; for the ccasting trade. The tonnage built du- rivg the preyious year was 150,450 tons, while that built during the past year was 218,086 tons, comparing favorably, according to the siatistics available, with the amount built! during that time in Austria, mark. France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Rusia, and Swelen.combined. The amounts in either case, however, are small a: compared with the toonsge built ia the United Kingdom, where, on, the 30th of June, 1888, 387 verseis of 608,118 tons gross, were under construction. SSE PERE! ONIN “BSI SHIPPING J) ROSPERITY—WILL IT LAST. Three correspondents have atked us in the last few days for the statistics of vessels added | to and rewoved from the registers of the United | Kingdom; and we giye a summary of them now for the interest of our readers generally, We may fiist remind those interested that for some years there had been an enormous increase in our shipping; that the rapidity of that increase was checkes four years ago; aud that, with less tonnage built, aud with a continuous loss, there was a year ago a balance attained, the tonnage added being scarcely as muchas that lost, To that fact isto be added the remembrance that the use of ships is enlarging. Europe needs more and more to import its food, and in times like the present it setids out more of its mannu- factures and other productions, Hehce, with construction scarcely meeting losses, and trade growing, it was only a ‘question of ‘tiwe how long it -would be before vessels grew scarce enough to command more remunerative rates of freight than they bud obtained for some years prior tothe end of last year. The. need for greater grain supplies came this autumn, and acted asa stimulus, so that the freight market has bounded upwards. A result has followed which many sbhip-owners look upon with much regret, there has been an enormous amvunt of new vessels ordered, and some of these are now coming into the market, It is here that we get to the statistics wejreferred to in the opening sen- tence, and find their use. Putting these figures shortly, we have the fillowiog facts from the official registers for the United Kingdon, that is, apart fromthe colonies, In the first ten mouths of the present year, we have added from 4,000 tons to 34,000 tons per mouth of net steam Belgium, Den- | sustained; but on the other hand, we have ica from 11,000 tons to 21,000 tons of sailing vessels monthly, after allowing forthe sailing vessels built. Ono the ten months asa whole, we have | aalaed over 210,000 tons of steamers and lost | over 120,000 tons ut sailing vessels, The sailing fleet cannot do ton for ton the sawe work aa the steamers; a proportion is in all such calculation assigned for the difference, and taking the usual though not invariable calculation, the summary of the whole shows this result; after making all allowances, we have added 17,000 net steam | tons monthly this year to the merchant shipping | of the United Kingdom, So far, this tonnage {has been taken uplat rates that will yield profit to the shipsner, But itis opvicusithat when to this | there is added tne tonnage which foreign nations | are acauiring, it isa ques ion how long it will | be before the shipowners kill the goose which is at the present time laying such golden eggs, The bad harvest of Western Europe will call for | heavy grain imports for mouths; the increase in export and import trades means the employ- ment of many additional steawers; the fi: ding out of new trades points also in the direction of permanently enlarged work; and there is to be put the fact that the wooden ships are dying off very rapidly, But when allowance is made for all these facts, the.e remains the addition of 17,- 000 tons of steam shipping monthly, and that addition must in a year of two more than over- take the needs of the world for additional ves- sels, At the present time, the class of steamers being built is cheifly. vessels of large tonnage, and this would poist to that c'ass first finding the effects of the rush of capital into steamers, These are the plain deductions from the figures of the registrar general of shipping and seamen, It is for the managers of steamships to say how long the prosperity the trade knows is to con- tinue, And still more pertinent would be the reminder to the investors whose capital is rush- ing again into steam shipping that it bas only a few menths ago emerged from adversity, and it is the capitalist who can, by tightening his purse strings or loosening them, decide how long ship- ping prosperity isto las':\—New (Castle Chroni- cle. The new United States dynamite gun eruiser Vesuvius, rushes through the water at about 25 ailes per hour, wnieh is believed to be the greatest speed ever attained by sucha formida ble vessel of war. J. R, OLDHAM, 6, E, Naval Architect, Marine Imspegtor. SPECIAL EXPERIENCE IN DESIGNING, PRICES SEeLF-Trimmine HatcHses CosL SHUTKS, AND Buakr’s Parent Bor.ers. 32 Exchange Bid.:. BUFFALO, N. Y LOUIS LEMON’S TUG LINE. TUGS:* ay C. D. MCKINNON, QUICKSTEP. River and Harbor ) Towing---RaftTow- ing a Specialty. OF Fice 303 Arwatmr St. TELEPHONE 514 DETROIT, MICH. WILLIASON BROS. GOR. RICHMOND AND YORK S¥S. PHILADELPHIA, PA. HOISTING ENGINES AND SHIP STEERING EN- | © ¢ gines; with elther Frictional, Spur or Worm Gearof various patterns to suit all ‘purposes. M. M. GLEKLER, MANUFACTURER & DEALER IN Cigars AND Tobacco, 156 River-st, Cleveland, Mhio No one should leave port without a box of M. M. Glekler’s marine cigars. ROBERT E. HILLS, 57 & 59 North Wells St., Chicago, Ill. Telephone 3321. STEAM FITTING AND HEATING, Wrought Iron Pipe & Fittings GNGINEER’S SURPLIES. General Jobbing Work Done Promptly: Also, Proprietor of North Side Brass Works Scott’s NewCoast Pilot Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged, Witb new Maps se Illustrations corrected tothe opening of Navigation in 1888, IS SOLD BY * SHIP CHANDLERS AND BY THE PUBLISHER, GEORCE SCOTT, Ar 182 LARNEDSsT., E, DETROIT, MICH. SLMUEL McCUTCHEON, STEAMBOAT & ENGINEERS’ SUPPLIES Popper, Brass and Sheet Iron Manufactory. IRON PIPE AND FITTINGS. Agent for Davidson’s Steam Pumps, Amazon Boiler Compound, and Orme Patent Safety and Relief Valve. No. 18 Ohio Street, SS WUtiaeie, IN River Machine Co., [Successor to G. R, GALE,) 177 River St., Cleveland, Ohio, Are preparer to Manufacture and do Gen- eral Repairing on Marine Engines and all other Machine Work. We have also full lie of pulleys and shafting and are prepared to do all kinds of Stone quarry Work, TEARE, WIGHT & CO. SPLEGLE BROS. \f MARINE SUPPLY STORE WHOLESALE AND RETAIL Grocers. Bakers and Ship Supplies; Rresh & Salt Meat of alll Kimd, 30 & 32 River-st., opposite Detroit Steam boat, Handing, and 184 Broadway. Telephone 112, Travelers’ Informa tlon Buread, 3 * Ocean, Lake J.C. GOSS. siMaerandlgger 20 amd 223 Woodward Ay., DETROIT - - MICH LARGE STORAGE ACCOMMODATION FOR VESSEL OUTFITS. — | Covering Bollers and Steam PipesaS ecialty J. W. GROVER & SON, SHIP CHANDLERS, SAIL: MAKERS AND RIGGERS IMPORTERS AND WHOLESALE DEALERS IN Wire Rope, Qunilla, and Garred Cordagy, Gunes, Blocks, Ouk- um, Gan, Pitgh, Oars, Plne ghors, Ohuins, gly. 116 & 119 RIVERST., & 184 & 185 DOCK CLEVELAND, OHIO. DETROIT DRY DOCK CO,, Steel, Iron, Composite and Wooden IRON SHIP nop Yar Smelters and Refiners of old precious iets auriferous sudan ‘ Copper ores, cryolite, concentrates, jonches Srespings) dross, refuse | Paint drippings, &c., &¢. “Chemically pure Aluminium by mail $2 per ounce, ten per cent per pound. Catalogue of improved smelting and precious metal caving applian condensing process) sent free, Assaying and analytical work in all its branches. Conmeapenten ta potlcited, pore in 1885. Notice to oe Owners. , HAVE CUSTOMERS FOR several barges, bath steam and tow, and would be pleased to hear from each and every owner having vessels for sale, | ones name, capacity, draught of Aa bt and | steam, condition and age of boiler, size of engine, etc. Correspondence olleited direct fuoth owner, asl will not divide comiission’ Addrer a TEBMO FV ma Agent and Ship,Broker* Bayt City, Mich: KS peta Newport, Kenic, ¥ at ‘| ALL KINDS 01 HE fered forsale, oF it 8: in and good wil, ae chaser rmateah i