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MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. JOHN M. MULROONEY, : ; P.M, (BARTON, <6... Published every Thursday at No. 510 Perry-Payne Building, Cleveland, O. SUBSCRIPTION—$2.00 per year in advance. Advertising rates on applica- tion. Tee \ Proprinrors. Annual tonnage entries and clearances of the great seaports of the world, for 1889: New York, 11,051,236 tons; all seaports in the United States, 26,983,315 tons; Liverpool, 14,175,200 tons; London, 19,245,417 tons. The books of the United States treasury department contain the names of 3,510 vessels, measuring 1,063,063.90 tons in the lake trade. In classification of this fleet the lakes have more steamboats of 1,000 to 2,500 tons than the combined ownership of this class of vessels in all other sections of the country. The classification is as follows: Class. Number. Tonnage. RSME VORGENS 45s csluvcsipotdalavsseuscivscsiiseiss 1,527 652,922.25 = BIBI De VOSSELS tassceisubices cos’ Weicistosesseiicze 15272 328,655.96 2 AGRANAL WMSAL Ess iche ces shei si sscCephisvcs tessbuccseccsss 657 67,574.90 BSAC CHI cihs socsussi ivi sc csdauscccslss celectuebivesicss 54 13,910.09 AMOUR ecey desc si ei cuese stsseuss tess ca 3,510 1,063,063.90 According to the report of William W. Bates, United States com- 1 missioner of navigation, 46 per cent. of the new tonnage of the country i was built on the lakes during 1889. This is a percentage greater than the i work of the Atlantic coast and western rivers combined, and almost equal : to the whole work on the Atlantic and Pacific coast. In 1890 the tonnage “i built on the lakes is but very little less than that built on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Tonnage built on the lakes during the past five years was as follows: - No. of boats. Net Tonnage. AES ecuetursspreuaeesanyacrtastacsesescecesics oa 5 20,400.54 MPF cconeb oes ieiss erase esse ss wal diestpalesbesss 152 56,488.32 BES e rept op ashi sa sans scuesestcacatebessn 222 101,102.87 MDa euch eso owkuelicsansavdspisssevcssoscsences 225 107,080.30 Rios cea akes cssee 50sec Sasa Tovastesecsses 218 108,515.00 UO) ET RG ae SS ee ae pe 902 . 393,597.03 St. Mary’s Falls and Suez canal traffic: Number of boats through St. _ Mary’s Falls canal in 1890, 234 days of navigation, 10,557; tonnage, net | registered, 8,454,425. Number of boats through Suez canal during 1889, full year, 3,425; tonnage, net registered, 6,783,187. _ TLonnage passing through Detroit river during 234 days of naviga- tion in 1889, amounted to 36,203,606 fons. Ten million tons more than the entries and clearances of all the seaports in the United States, and three million tons more than the combined foreign and coastwise shipping of Liverpool and London. Bale : - Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. _ ‘THE secretary of the the treasury has issued a circular call- ing attention to the law requiring line carrying projectiles and the means of propelling them on steam vessels and suspending for one year from March 29, 1891, the operation of the law on the lakes and bays of the United States. The repeal of the law as regards the lakes is still sought by lake vessel owners and it . is probable that this will be granted, as the act suspending its operation for another year calls for experiments with the guns and projectiles and a report as to whether necessity exists for such life saving appliances. Gen. Dumont, of the inspection service, to whom this investigation will in all probability be in- trusted, has already expressed the opinion that there is no need of such appliances on the lakes. CHICAGO made such a fuss over the launch of the steel steamship Marina, of the Minnesota Steamship Company’s fleet, that eastern people were led to believe that a metal boat is some- thing new onthe lakes. The Maritime Register, of New York, one of the greatest maritime publications in the world, actually announced the launch as that of the‘‘first large steel steamer ever built on the lakes,” when the fact is there were four other boats of the same fleet, all duplicates, in commission last season, and the metal boats of this class on the lakes may be counted by dozens. They were built in Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit, however, and were not ushered’ into service with the boom that characterizes Chicago in all its affairs. . REFERENCE has been made in these columns to a measure submitted to the last congress by Mr. Farquhar, providing for freeboard or load marks for vessels. ‘The commissioner of navi- MARINE REVIEW. gation calls attention to the fact that the measure does not apply to lake vessels but to salt water craft. The situation to which Commissioner Bates called attention in his last report, is this: We must either mark our vessels ourselves, or they will be pre- vented from loading full depth to sail from British ports. As we know the British inspectors will refuse our vessels fair play, if they can, it behooves us to have rules of our own and apply them ourselves. THE signal service is an important factor in the lake marine and vessel owners in such ports as Cleveland, Buffalo, Chicago Milwaukee and Duluth should see to it that they secure officers authorized to give out local weather forecasts under the change about to take place in that service. In accordance with a law passed by the last congress, the signal service becomes a part of the agricultural department of the government, and in only twenty cities of the country will local officers be permitted to make local forecasts. The principal lake cities should apply for the benefits to be derived from these special offices. TRADE publications of Philadelphia are making a great noise over an estimate that the year’s shipments of bituminous coal will amount to 2,500,000 tons, exceeding the shipments of any other period in the history of the country. _ Two and a half mil- lion tons is a very large quantity of coal to be handled in any one shipping district, but Cleveland can beat this record. There was sent to the northwest by lake from Cleveland and neighboring ports on Lake Erie last season (eight months of navigation) 3,- 107,816 tons of bituminous coal, and Buffalo shipped in addition 2,157,810 tons of anthracite. Two Important Legislative Measures. Two very important matters undecided by the last congress and which will again demand the attention of lake vessel owners, are the regulation of raft towing and a settlementof the agitation for life line carrying projectiles. The impression has gone out in some quarters that the Burton raft bill became a law. ‘This is not true, as the bill, although reported favorably from the committee on commerce, was returned from the committee too late for action in the rush that characterized the closing days of the session. Representative Burton did excellent work in con- nection with this measure, however, and it will be a less difficult matter for lake representatives in the next congress to take it up where he left off. The second measure, the line carrying projectile law, has simply been disposed of for the present by an act giving author- ity to the secretary of the treasury to suspend the law on the lakes for another year, which he has done. The secretary is also directed, however, to investigate and report to con- gress in December, 1891, on the usefulness and practicability of the apparatus in question, and it is in this direction that lake vessel owners must look to their interests. The investigation will in all probability be committed to the supervising inspector general of steam vessels. As this officer has already expressed himself strongly in opposition to these guns and projectiles on lake vessels, it may be confidently expected that his report will recommend the absolute repeal of the law so far as lake craft are concerned. In his report to the annual meeting of the Lake Carriers’ Association on this matter Secretary Keep says: ‘‘While the regulations of the board of supervising inspectors now ex- cept from the operations of the existing law freight and towing _ vessels, and leave its requirements applicable only to vessels having a passenger license, it is to be noted that the act of con- gress makes the law applicable to all classes of steamers, and that the authority of the board of supervising inspectors to make the exceptions is more than doubtful. In all probability this - point would have been raised by the manufacturers of the appa- ratus, if the law had actually gone into effect, and, in this event, it seems highly probable that all steamers on the lakes would have been compelled to provide themselves with this useless and expensive appliance. By a conservative estimate, the aggregate Saving to owners of steam vessels on the lakes by a repeal of this law will exceed $200,000.’ ee Se eee