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6 MARINE REVIEW. is i CHICAGO LAKE INTERESTS. WESTERN OFFICE, MARINE REVIEW, l No. 210 So. Water Street, CHICAGO, IIL, Aug. 20. { Because lake grain rates collapsed Monday it is no sign that the movement of grain is not going to be eminently satisfactory to vesselmen before long. I have never seen, so long asI have been going on the board of trade, anything like the excitement there was Monday. Every interest on ‘change seemed to be centered in wheat. Lake rates, canal figures, everything was forgotten in the crush. Small wonder it was that vesselmen took 2'%4 cents for wheat to Buffalo. The strange thing was that they should be able to get any cargoes at all. By Friday most ship- pers anticipate an immense business in grain. It has kept pouring into Chicago elevators all the time, sales in the east have been stopped, but the flood willbe let loose soon, and will give the boats all they can do. If three cents is not paid within a week for wheat to Buffalo I shall be great- ly mistaken. But solong as wheat remains the main item vesselmen must be prepared for the movement to come to a standstill at any unex- pected time, and while shippers may clamor and fall over each other for boats on day, they may not want a single vessel the next. The delays from jams in Chicago river are said to have increased fifty per cent. over what they were last year, and the increase for that year over its predecessor was as large. At the rapid rate of increase the time is not far distant when navigation in the south branch will come to an end, At no port in the world is there as extensive commerce on so nar- row and crooked a stream as the south branch of Chicago river. Col. Ludlow says there is no other river like the Chicago river in the world. Certainly there ought to be no other. The past week has witnessed a suc- cession of vessel jams, at once expensive and amazing. It will be the same way to the end of the season. No one seenis particularly to blame except someone twenty or thirty years ago, who did not preserve the south branch for the purposeof commerce. It was asin of ommission, for which their departed spirits need a lengthy sojourn in purgatory to make them acceptable in the place where all good vesselmen go. But, candidly, it can only be a matter of time when the bulk of the marine business is driven away to the Calumet or somewhere else. With delays, at all times serious, doubled in two years, how long will it be before the strain is too heavy to be borne? The case of the steamer S. C. Clark has been pretty well discussed. The nub of the affair is this: Ifa boat, given acertain class and valua- tion, is wrecked, are the underwriters legally bound toso repair her as that she may retain her rating? Interwoven with this main issue are other questions. Ifa boat, given too higha class, is wrecked, and the _ fact is discovered when the boat is placed in dry dock, can underwriters go behind the returns? That is, can they deny her class, and repair her so that she is as good as she was before being wrecked, paying no atten- tion to the class she will drop to? Some of these questions underwriters may say are ridiculous, but they look upon them from one side only. Insurance men say Inland Lloyds is a private document, and concerns them alone, in fixing insurance premiums, but from the legal standpoint Inland Lloyds has avery real existence, and classes and valuations, particu- larly classing, must be taken into account when these issues go into the courts. In the Clark’s case vessel owners and underwriters here are dia- metrically opposed in their views, even when having no personal interest. Underwriters say they are not compelled to repair a wrecked boat to her old rating. Vesselmen say it must be done. The new steamer the collector at Chicago is to have for boarding pur- poses will be a beauty, and lake shipbuilders will doubtless contest sharp- ly for the honor of building her. The Calumet, as it is to be called, will be constructed during the winter to be ready for sea next spring, She will be of steel, 94% feet long, 20% feet wide and 104% feet deep. Bids will be opened at Washington, Sept. to. Shipbuilders have been writing here to learn something of the Pan- American Transportation Company. So far asI can find out, the com- pany is allon paper. Its mail goes to a lockbox at the postoffice. That seems to be all the office it has. One J. B. Clarke is president. Clarke, ~ when I knew him, ran a newstand on Monroe street. From the magni- tude of its designs Chicago papers have said much of the company, but that is all there seems to be to it. The company intends building ten steel steamers to trade between the Gulf ports and South America. I presume there is not enough money in the outfit to pay for one steamer’s | rudder and wheel. Clarke has talked glibly of $10,000,000 capital, how- ever, but no one can see it. Iflake shipbuilders wait until they get or- ders (with good bonds attached) from the Pan-American company there’l] be no speedy boom in the shipyards. Canadian Marine Intelligence. Special Correspondence to the MARINE REVIEW. KINGSTON, Ont.,Aug.20.—The grain keeps rushing in and the forwarders have all they can do. On several occasions every available barge was in active service. The work has been so constant that some of the old shoyellers had to give in and were replaced by younger men. This season the shovellers are making $20 and $25 per week. So far nothing has been announced regarding an increase of rates between here ene Montreal. An increase may not occur. At present the rate 1s 2% cents per bushel with a Y cent for elevating, in which there wou'd be no profit whatever, were it not for the unusually large quantities of grain now going forward. It is expected that this will be the best season, so far as quantity is con- sered, in ten years, and it will be remembered that at the opening the spects were very blue. mt Faize dnegeties of cheese are being shipped from Oswego here for export to England via Montreal. The last consignment of 2,550 boxes was brough. here by the Alberta. More rye 1s going La the St. Lawrence this year than ever before during one season. This is caused by the scarcity in Russia and Germany. The steamer Ontario, owned by Capt. Sweet of Carthage, has been purchased by a party of Cubans to run as a mail boat between Cuba and Central American ports on the Caribean sea. This week she made her last trip on the river,and Capt.Vernon has gone with her to her destination. The price paid was $11,000. The Ontario was burnt once and a little later was secured by Capt. Sweet on a mortgage. The schooner Neelon, which had 2,000 bushels of damaged grain recently was placed on the dry dock, when it was discovered that there was quite a hole on her port side near the water line. She was repaired and is now on‘her way up the lakes. Capt. Rees has retired from the mastership of the steamer Wanderer. He says that he had too many bosses. The recent activity in rates has made the vessel owners here some- what independent. It is reported that some of them refused fair offers thinking that better terms could be secured in a few weeks. It was stated here that the steamer Campana would be taken off the Cleveland-Montreal route, owing to the lack of passenger and freight business. She was placed at a great disadvantage because she could not go through to Montreal for freight. Lately, however, she has picked up a large passenger trade, and even though her rates are higher than those of her sister ships, it is announced that she is doing well and will re- main on the route. There were two collisions here last week on the river. The steamers Princess Louise and Swan came together while loaded with excursionists, and the latter came near going ashore. Both were considerably damaged, but no one was injured. Capt. Craig of the Swan declares that he will sue for damages, as the Louise did not respond to whistles, while Capt. Rothwell of the Louise says that if he had responded, the accident would have been more serious. The second collision entailed considerable loss. On Friday night the sloop Cora Post was coming up the river with 15,000 brick. There were no lights on board. ‘The Louise struck her when she went down in a few minutes. Her crew had barely time to get on the steamer. The Post and cargo were not insured. Loss $3,000, Oil in Boilers. EDITOR MARINE REVIEW:—Some time ago I saw in your valuable paper an article from an engineer on “Oil in boilers.” The correspondent attaches considerable blame to the engineer, by insinuating that he ought to have made more use of his blow off. I would not be pleased to act as fireman for an engineer who is everlastingly using a blow off. He would be a hard man on the owner in the matter of coal bills. He is right, how- ever, when he says that oil gets tired and goes to the bottom, and that animal oil is very bad on boilers ; mineral oil is also bad for boilers. Some engineers will dispute this, but I will explain by asking if such is not the case, why is it that mineral oil gets thicker as refining (boiling) goes on? Every school boy knows that anything that drops by a given heat will not be taken up by the same heat, and for that reason mineral oil if put into boilers in large quantities will fall to the bottom if given time and will cause trouble. Now you will Say, what is to be done under these circumstances? The answer for the benefit of engineers and own- ers is, don’t use a cheap oil, because it is cheap by the gallon, but very dear in the end. If engineers will use 600 W. cylinder oil, or something equal to it and try the small amount they can get along with, boiler troubles froin such causes will be a thing of the past, owners will have nothing to kick about and certainly no large bills to pay for boiler repairs on account of oil. I always make it a point to buy no oil from a firm that uses second hand barrels or cans and for that reason never get caught in the way our friend speaks of.” _O.T., Engineer. From Leading Vessel Brokers. Messrs. Mulrooney & Barton, Cleveland, O Gentlemen:—Enclosed please find N. Y. draft for $2, to apply on subscription for he ices REVIEW, Please excuse our carlessniess in not remitting this sooner. We oo could not for a moment think- of getting along without the melee which we Consider, by all means, the best paper of the kind on e - es. E Very truly yours uluth, Minn., Aug. 11, 1891, Rose & LAZIER THREE DOLLARS FoR T 3 : wo—THE MARINE REVIEW AND DETROIT TRIBUNE (WEEKLY) ONE YEAR FOR $2.