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MARINE REVIEW. MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. . . JOHN M. MULROONEY, Fe SOR eae pose rea F. M. Barron, Published every Thursday at No. 510 Perry-Payne Building, Cleveland, O. SUBSCRIPTION—$2.00 per year in advance. Advertising rates on applica- tion. eed \ Proprierors. 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. RODE HI VERSES. cicsccisveveccyopevetsioevestiodesdec 1,527 652,922.25 Sailing vessels......... flctoteves nevsvededneusese ces 1,272 328,655.96 RCUTIGN TIOHES ssydavvenevsssesnsaccs essen ddsacvcecsivess 657 67,574.90 MOLI CHianvat ever cessses scutes esse cassdesccvassevtaess 54 13,910.09 POA Ls loins cous tis wpe) sdicbasevensetisies 3,510 1,063,063.90 According to the report of William W. Bates, United States com- missioner of navigation, 46 per cent. of the new tonnage of the country was built on the lakes during 1889. This is a percentage greater than the 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 . 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. TCO Okc versassceskuesivesccssctovecsusciusssoseses 5 20,400.54 DOO gs sstenceue shctieddercctecsises Sosacsvaetess’s 152 56,488.32 MISO See IRA SEA sue cAs eed sac cietaby eas dectesws 222 IOI, 102.87 MES reve ns caW av ckss Aon votswaevsen tas cobvarsaess 225 107,080.30 TOGO Seokgcine cess tauustesascvuisyavsssstaeveoesy 218 108,515.00 MOURN oes La sates. iw casexbaitaeadeseys 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. _ 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. z _ Tonnage passing through Detroit river during 234 days of naviga- wee tion in 1889, amounted to 36,203,606 tons. Ten million tons more ies = 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. S Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. _ - Even the announcement that a train running fifteen miles an hour has gone through the St. Clair tunnel does not quiet the : Michigan Central Railway officials who are preparing to make another move for a high bridge at Detroit. ‘The plan now is for _a bridge with two piers in the river and three spans of 700 feet each. The projectors of the bridge are said to have had a man stationed in one of the elevators on the Detroit river from July 1 to Sept. 1 of last year with all the necessary instruments for ob- serving the position and height of all passing vessels. Over 7,000 day passages were noted during this time, tows counting as single vessels. This in itself should be enough to demon- strate the danger of a bridge of any kind, but the lookout in the elevator was there for a purpose other than that of showing the wonderful commerce of this channel. He claims to have learned that out of the total number of vessels only 1 55-100 per cent. had masts reaching above 135 feet, and that the routes chosen by passing craft are nearly the same, the upward bound keeping rather nearer to the Canadian side and the downward bound fa- voring the middle of the stream. Eighty-four per cent. of all the vessels passing up or down, this lookout reports, kept on a strip of the river only 700 feet wide. This may all be true enough but it has been gone over in the main in investigations before army engineers in the past and will avail the railway managers nothing if the vessel owners give attention to their interests early in the next congress. They have the several reports of eminent army engineers io support them, but it will be neces- sary to watch the senate. Senator McMillan, of Michigan, fa- yors a high bridge. ; As a final protest against giving the Northern Pacific rail- way a block of river front, the Chicago Tribune presents two columns of sound reasoning against it. The following points out the detriment to lake interests: ‘‘The river between the points indicated in the ordinance is now from 140 to 160 feet wide. It is proposed by the ordinance to straighten it so as to narrow it to 100 feet. This would seriously obstruct naviga- tion. Most of the modern lake vessels are about 4o feet wide. : No two such vessels could pass each other in safety, especially if smaller craft should be moored on either side. To carry out the project, therefore, would be to ruin the river for marine pur- 5 poses. Capt. Marshall, in a recent report ro the secretary of ; wat, says: ‘The river can not accommodate any reasonable in- crease in the number of vessels using it, and yet it is proposed by this ordinance to narrow it.’’’ Alderman Dunham has fought this scheme at every move, and when the matter was referred to a committee he openly accused the mayor of jobbery. Mr. Dun- ham’s work is about all that has stood in the way of filling up Chicago river altogether. REFERENCE has been made to the coming change in the weather service of the government and especially to a feature in the law passed by the last congress providing for only twenty stations in the country where local forecasts shall be given out. It has been urged that the important lake cities, such as Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Escanaba, Duluth and Chicago be given offi- cers who will be entitled to give out these local forecasts. In ~ answer to a request in this line from leading vessel and shipping interests in Cleveland, A. W. Greely, chief signal officer, says: “Acknowledging the receipt of your communication, urging — it that Cleveland be selected as a station at which one of the fore. : cast officials provided for the weather bureau be stationed, I have P| the honor to say that as the president has not yet made known his intentions as to who is to be the chief of the weather. bureau after July 1, 1891, the chief signal officer is unable to make any definite statement as to what the policy will be in these matters. Your recommendation will, however, be filed, to be brought up at the proper time.” Lake interests at other ports should bear this matter in mind and demand recognition in the new service. CoMMENTING on the action of the traffic associations in making rates subject to the approval of the lake and rail lines, the New York Evening Post says that the cities of Superior and Duluth have wrested the grain and flour trade from Chicago so that last year the two ports shipped twice the amount of wheat that Chicago did. With an elevator capacity of 21,000,000 bushels, the opinion is expressed, that these Lake Superior cities have facilities for taking care of still more western grain. Stephen Douglas’ pro- phecy that Puget sound would be the Pacifice seaport and that freight from China and Japan would go to New York via lake and rail lines, is quoted and buttressed by the fullfiilment of the future greatness he then pictured for Superior. Figures prepared by the MARINE REVIEw are quoted to compare this inland com- merce with that of foreign counties. : DETROIT vessel owners like their brethren in other lake cities are forming stock companies and establishing headquarters __ at small places outside the city in order to reduce their taxes. — A movement of this kind is often carried to the extreme, and it will - be surprising if the municipal authorities do not in some case find a means of worrying the owner more than at present. = THE Canadian minister of canals will ask parliament to in- crease the appropriation for the canal lock at the Sault in order that it may be made 20 feet deep and roo feet wide. ‘The nal appropriation was for a 16-foot lock but the minist been considering the size of vessels now being constructe proposes to be prepared for the results of the tendency t larger boats. This lock and the one under construction fo: United States government should possess facilitic merce four times as large as that now passing waterway, » ry a