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, MARINE REVIEW. 2 ee a a Around the Lakes. Work has begun on the new elevator at Benton Harbor. During the month of August 143,896 cubic yards of earth was removed from Hay Lake channel. Some members of the Canadian parliament are making a vigorous fight on steamship subsidies. Col. Ludlow expects to have the light and fog signal on Devil’s island, Lake Superior in operation about Oct. 1. John Radigan will succeed W. H. Decker as master of the big lumber barge Michigan, owned by Gilchrist and others of Alpena. Capt. D. P. Dobbins is at San Francisco instructing the Golden Gate life saving crew in the work of: handling one of his life boats. The steamer Emily P. Weed took 105,380 bushels of corn out of Chicago, Monday, and hada rough time getting through the shallow river. : Toledo and Detroit are certainly contributing more than their share of grain business to the vessels this fall. On Sept. 1 Detroit had shipped about 5,000,000 bushels ot wheat and barley. Chicago newspapers advance the opinion that that port should have a dry dock larger than any of those now in opera- tion there. The present docks are certainly too small for mod- ern vessels and it would seem that a larger plant would prove profitable. The propeller Western Reserve weighed out 117,540 bushels of corn at the Frontier elevator, Buffalo, which makes her forty bushels over on her big cargo. She took out 3,000 tons of coal. The grain brings her close to $3,000 while the coal foots up only $1,200. : Col. Pickands of Pickands, Mather & Co., Cleveland, Har- vey H. Brown of Harvey H. Brown & Co., Gen. Colwell, presi- dent of the Nickle Plate railroad, Henry Fay of Boston, Alex- ander Gunn and Ralph Hickox, of Cleveland, made up a party that visited the Vermillion iron range last week. According to figures compiled by ex-Harbor Master Trowell, receipts of coal by lake at Milwaukee for the month of August were 144,089 tons—105,884 tons of anthracite and 38,205 tons of bituminous. This makes the grand total of coal receipts at that port up to Sept. 1 663,260 tons, of which 483,697 tons were an- thracite and 179,563 tons bituminous. Superior citizens are makinga great effort to secure the business of handling Dakota’s wheat. Arrangements can not be made for this season’s business, as the movement of grain has already begun, but the aim now is to establish Dakota inspection, giving Superior the advantages of a board of trade. Dakota wheat is now graded under Minnesota inspection. The first stone in the new lock at the St. Mary’s Falls canal was laid on Wednesday of last week. There were no ceremonies attendant upon the occasion, as Gen. Poe says that nothing of the kind will take place until the last stone is set in place. ‘The stone bears the inscription,‘‘First stone laid in this lock, Sept. 2, 1891.’ It is far below the water line and will probably never be seen after the work is completed. Since 1883 there has been cut in Alger county, Michigan, 255,000,000 feet of pine timber. Of this amount the Chicago Lumber Company cut 60,000,000; Hall & Buell, 55,000,000; Bay de Noquet Company, 30,000,000; Charles Johnson, Rock River, 30,000,000. The remaining 80,000,000 was distributed in small amounts to a number of different companies. It is estimated there is 150,000,000 feet of standing pine left, but this will soon be gone if the record of the past five years is kept up. From Toronto it is said that ‘“Marine Engineer Redway of that city has constructed a model of a new style craft which he expects will revolutionize the lake carrying trade. He claims it is far ahead of the whaleback vessel. Redway’s boat is fashioned after an Indian canoe. It has a flat bottom except a keel at the stern to accompany the rudder. ‘The hull is somewhat after the style of the whaleback. There are no bulwarks. It has a ram prow instead of a hog snout prow like the whaleback. It is intended to form a syndicate to build a line of these vessels.”’ The schooner Owasco is on her way to Portland, Maine, from Sandusky, with a cargo of mineral ore. On going through the canals from Kingston to Montreal? the Owasco had to re- move her topmasts, on account of telegraph and telephone wires being stretched across the canals. Permission had to be received from Ottawa to raise the wires far enough to clear her lower masts, and in this way the schooner proceeded on her trip. She also had to lighter part of her cargo at Kingston and reload at Montreal. The Owasco is owned by J. M. Jones & Son, of De- troit, and Capt. Alonzo Carter, her present master. : David Carter, general manager of the Detroit & Cleveland Steam Navigation Company, received recently from the English Lloyds and other insurance companies the adjustment papers in the case of the collision between the steamers City of Detroit and Kasota in July 1890. The claim for damages to the City of Detroit was allowed in full, and a check for the amount accorit- panied the adjustment papers. The City of Detroit was insured for seven-eights of her full value, and the check pays for that preportion of the damages. The precentage of the loss of the Kasota assumed by the underwriters of the City of Detroit was paid some time ago. A couple of years. ago the common council and mayor of West Superior petitioned the light-house board at Washington to have the main channel of that harbor buoyed and lighted for the guidance of vessels. Commander Heyerman and Col. Ludlow of Detroit were instructed to examine the ground, and in March, 1890, reported that pile cluster lights were the most feasible, and buoys were out of question, as they were liable to be carried away frequently. They accordingly recommended that six lights be advantageously placed in the channel. Congress failed to make the necessary appropriation, and West Superior had to go without her lights. Once more the mayor and the council of the city are petitioning the board, and they promise to persevere until they get what they want. New Type of Boat and Triple-Screw Engines. A recent issue of Engineering describes with illustrations the awning-decked steamer Wai, a boat only go feet long and drawing but 3 feet 3 inches when loaded, to which Dunsmuir & Jackson, engineers of Glasgow, have applied triple expansion, surface condensing engines. The boat is intended for river service and was constructed, as regards both hull and machinery, with a view to getting the best results under light draft. The principle in her triple-screw enginesis entirely new. The engines are placed athwart the vessel and each of them is joined direct to its own crank-shaft and propeller. ‘The connections between the engines are made by two side rods, acting at right angles to each other, and they are so arranged as to act as a balance to the low- pressure piston and other working parts. They are so constructed as to give the crank-shatts free play and movement in working, and to wear out of line if so inclined. This combination gives all the advantages that are due to the three cylinders and ratios of expansion, with cranks set at equal angles. The high-pressure cylinder is 9 inches, intermediate 1414 inches and low-pressure at 25 inches, each having a stroke of ten inches. The working pressure is 200 pounds to the square inch. ‘The propellers,mace to suit the light draft, are of gun metal, and are each 2 feet 6 inches in diameter, having 3 blades. The centre crew is placed in the usual aperture in the stern, and the two outside propellers a few feet further forward, the blades overlapping those of the centre screw more or less as may be thought desirable. On account of the high speed of the engines—upwards of 300 revolutions a minute—it was preferred to work the pumps by separate engines, The vessel was built full with bluff lines but makes 11 miles an hour. Sir James Kitson, in his account of his travels in America last year, describes the Pocahantas coal mines, in West Virginia, as the most wonderful in the world. The company owns 300 square miles of coal lands, and produces yearly 4,000,000 tons of coal. The veins are 12 feet thick, and the amount per acre is estimated at 12,000 tons. ‘The coal is taken to Norfolk, Va., by rail, and is shipped thence to New York where the Atlantic steamers are supplied mainly with this coal. LAST OF THE SEASON.—September rgth, the last Niagara Falls excur- sion of the season will be run over the Nickle Plate, Saturday night trip, going, arriving at the Falls early the next morning. Same low excur- sion rate and ample accommodation in our Pullman palace day coaches and sleeping cars. Ask nearest Nickle Plate agent.