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6 MARINE REVIEW. i ee Canadian Canals—Kingston Elevator. Special Correspondence to the MARINE REVIEW. KINGSTON, Ont., May 14.—The rebate of canal tolls on grain tran- shipped at Ogdensburg for Montreal is still agitating forwarders. One hundred thousand bushels has arrived from Ogdensburg at Montreal, and application has been made to the government for the rebate. This will be atest case. If the government refuses Ogdensburg will get no more Montreal grain. The Kingston board of trade has moved in the elevator question, which looks as if they expect to have to compete with Ogdens- burg. The board has decided to ask all the boards in this province to co- operate with it, in urging the government to build a 500,000 bushel eleva- tor here, the main object for the request being that vessels which come here from the west, when a break occurs in the canal, are put to consider- able expense in waiting for the break to be repaired. It appears as if the matter was going to take a provincial form. On the other hand Mon- trealers do not want the elevator built, claiming it will not make the St. Lawrence route what it should be. They point out that Americans are carrying wheat from Chicago to New York for 5 cents which shows what the St. Lawrence route has to contend with. They want the St. Lawrence canals deepened, so that larger boats can be used and the cost of carrying decreased. They also want the Welland canal deepened, at this end of which the Montreal boats would meet the large steamers and receive their grain. Kingston would then be shut out altogether. From Port Colborne, which is at this end of the Welland canal, to Montreal, there is no doubt the large barges could carry grain cheaper than the New York barges, which carry only 8,000 bushels each. But as those improvements would cost millions they are not to be expected in this generation. A leak occurred in the Cornwall canal, Friday night, and it would have been very serious had not prompt steps been taken. Two hundred men were put to work and in twenty-four hours repairs were made and boats allowed to proceed. The tow -path is to be widened ten feet in several places. * The propeller Ocean looks very fine after $2,000 were spent on her. She has made one trip to Montreal already. Her master is the popular Capt. Towers. The steamer Grantham, owned by Capt. Thomas Donnelly, has got the lion’s share of the charters thus far. She makes three trips from Os- wego to Toronto with coal. The dock hands are feeling the effects of the N. & T. Railway, which carries ties, timber and lumber past Kingston and Deseronto, notwith- standing Kingston bonused the road to the extent of $75,000. Freights are very sick at Montreal, where shipments are made for Europe. Many boats in port have been delayed waiting for grain to ar- rive. Some of them are asking 2s on grain to Liverpool, but in no case has that rate been paid and any chartering done is usually at 1s. 9d. Deals have begun to move slowly, but one of the lines has had the good fortune to let all its deal space for May, June and July. The high price of grain in Canada with the low English markets prevents dealers from taking hold, and as a matter of fact have not as good prospects as they had two weeks ago. The steamships which have arrived have not, had full cargoes. Some grain and phosphate is expected soon, but the latter will not help much, as owners want it carried for little or nothing. Seventeen thousand bushels of peas are being brought here from Cape Vincent for export ‘o Europe. Doesn’t it seem strange that it pays to import peas and then send them to Europe? A strong effort will be made to have the dry d ck finished in July. If it is not completed by that time it will vot be of much use until next year. For years past the United States government kept the revenue cutter Bibb running on the St. Lawrence. She will be laid up at Ogdensburg this year, because, as is understood, she is a bill of expense. She is no use whatever in flitting to and fro among the islands in search of smug- glers. The new steamer, North King, will be placed on the route between Port Hope and Rochester, May 20. She belongs to the Lake Ontario Steamboat Company, and is now being completed at the dry dock of Davis & Son. She is 176 feet in length, 44 feet wide over the guards, 10 feet depth of hold, 8 feet between decks, and 10 feet high in upper. saloon. The leading features of her construction are the result of the experience of Mr. Gildersleeve, the manager of the company. ‘The hull lines are by Capt. J. W. Pearce,of Evansville,Ind., engine proportions by Frank E. Kir- by,of Detroit, and feathering wheels by Messrs. Logan & Rankin, Toronto, She is sharp and high forward, and the leading idea in the shape of the hull has been to secure a vessel that would make time in all weathers. The Lehigh Valley Coal Company handled in Duluth district last year 375,000 tons of coal, all of which was received by lake, and Vice President Doty says the amount will be increased 25 per cent. during the coming season. Plans are now being made for the construction of additional docks and the erection of more machinery. Coal supplies were well cleaned up when the first boats arrived and a busy season is expected in this line. Affairs in Admiralty. COLLISION IN A FOG. A case that went from the district and circuit courts, south- ern district of New York, to the supreme coure, and in which a decision was reached recently in the high court was that of the owners of the propeller Nacoochee against Edward S. Mosley and others. ‘The propeller, in a fog, on a course N. %E and running 7 knots an hour, overhauled and passed 200 or 300 yards to the eastward of the schooner Lizzie Thompson, ona course N.N.E.. Within half an hour, and after she had crossed the schooner’s course, cries of distress were thought to be heard on the starboard beam of the steamer, and she swung around toa S. E. course and ran at half speed, about 7 knots, keeping a bright lookout ahead. Soon the schooner was discovered through the fog on the starboard bow and about 500 feet away, and the engines were reversed and in 12 seconds were going full speed astern, but the schooner was struck on the quarter, about ten feet forward of the taffrail, andsunk at once. It was shown that when the steamer was going ahead at half speed, and the engines were reversed, she would still forge ahead from 600 to 800 feet. The court held that as the steamer had reason to expect the schooner’s presence ahead of her, and as she could not stop with- in less than 600 or 800 feet, while a vessel could be seen through the fog only about 500 feet, her speed was excessive and she was to blame for the collision. The schooner was not in fault for keeping her course and not porting her helm as soon as she saw the steamer bearing down on her, for, even if it were an error of judgment to hold her course, it was an act resolved on in extremis, and a compliance with the statute. The fact that the schooner had, but one lookout, and that he was also engaged in blowing the fog horn, does not put her in fault, as there was nothing to show that the one duty interfered with the other, or that he did not sight the steamer as soon as possible. A decision recently given out by the United States district court in New York would indicate that steamers can not run through rivers and narrow channels at a rate of speed that will disturb boats lying at docks. .On June 26, 1889, a lighter, while lying at a pier in the Hast river, loaded with sugar, was upset and her cargo lost, and suit was in consequence brought against the steamer Connecticut, the libelant, who owned the lighter, al- leging that by the steamer’s negligent navigation, in passing too near the piers, at a high rate of speed she created a swell, which caused the accident. The main defense was that the swell which caused the accident was not made by the Connecticut. On the evidence it was held that the careening of the lighter was caused by an extraordinary and dangerous swell made by the passing of the Connecticut too near the piers, at high speed, and that.the steamer was in consequence liable for the damage. On December 13 last, the steamer John E. Potts, which a few days previously had been placed in winter quarters at De- bray, was extensively damaged by fire. A survey was subse- quently held on the boat, the adjusters fixing the loss at $16,353. ‘The boat was insured against fire in the Sea and Mannheim companies for $15,166 and $5,000 respectively. Suit was com- menced in the United States court at Detroit last week by Frank Clark, owner of the Potts, for loss sustained. Through the Canadian Canals. David Bell, vessel and machinery builder of Buffalo, writes the REVIEW with reference to the claim that the Mackinaw was the first boat ever taken through the Canadian canals to the seaboard in sections: ‘In 1866 soon after the close of the war the Chicora a noted and successful blockade runner, almost as long as our large freight propellers, was cut in two at Montreal and brought through the Welland canal to Buffalo, where I put her together. She was thentaken to Lake Superior and employ- ed on a mail route from Collingwood to Fort Williams for a few years, but the owner not being on the moving side of politics | lost the mail contract, and over ten years ago t 2 - wa brought to Buffalo where I cut her i feat hae hae cris Me in two sections through the Welland canal to Port Dalhousie where I put her together again. She has since been employed in passenger business on Lake Ontario, ‘The operations necess- ary on the Chicora were of asomewhat difficult and tedious kind from her having a pair of large oscillating cylinders and feath- ering wheels. ‘The wheels had to be taken off the shaft } to admit of passing through the old Welland canal,” nboard | Q