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4 MARINE REVIEW. a eeeauauaaawa>amss New Work in the Shipyards. It was shown by the statement in last week’s REVIEW of vessels under contract in the different shipyards around the lakes that all of theiron plants are well supplied with work. The only iron concerns that might be expected to contract for new work to be ready for. the opening of navigation are the Craig Ship Building Company of Toledo and possibly F. W. Wheeler & Co. of West Bay City. In the wooden yards more boats are talked of and three or four will probably be added to the lists within a couple of weeks. R. W.. Lynn of Gibralter Mich., says he will very probably begin work about Jan.1 ona steamer of 175 feet keel, and the Jenks Ship Building Company, of Port Huron, is preparing for the construction of a steamboat when the work of rebuilding the steamer EK. H. Jenks is out of the way. ‘5 The iron boat begun by the Craig Ship Building Comipany of Toledo will be a steamer, 200 feet over all, 40 feet beam and 14 feet moulded depth. She is designed with single deck and light draught for the lumber trade between the head of Lake Superior and Tonawanda and will be owned by Michigan parties. The engine will be fore and aft compound,20 and 40 by 36 inches, and the steamer will cost complete about $100,000. At the yard of the Union Dry Dock Company, Buffalo, the Bath & Hammondsport Railway Company of Hammondsport N.. Y. is having built a steel boat for passenger service on Kcuka lake that will cost $55,000 and is to make 22 miles an hour. She will be 150 feet over all, 25 feet beam and 7 feet depth of hold. Curtis & Brainard’s steamer at Marine City, upon which work is well under way, is 257 feet overall, 4124 feet beam and 21% feet at the shoalest place inthe hold. ‘This steamer will be diagonally strapped outside and will have steel arches 18x54 inches inside, running nearly the full length of the boat, with seven strakes of main keelson 14x14 and 12x14 inches. Her enginesand boilers are being built by the Phoenix Iron Works of Port Huron. The engines are fore and aft compound 27 and 54 x42 inches, and the boilers, two of them will be 9 %x14 feet. In addition to two other smaller wooden boats a steamer and a consort for the lumber trade, building at Marine City by the Mills Transportation Company, it is expected that a large steamer will be put down shortly at the Morley yard. At the yard of the Cleveland Ship Building Company the steel steamer Spokane of the Wilson Line will be lengthened 48 feet, and the Onoko will get new boilers, Scotch type, 12x12% feet. _ A contract fora passenger boat has been entered into be- tween the Grand Haven Ship Building Company and J. H. Webb. The boat will be 112 feet over all, 20 feet beam and 9 feet deep. Her engines will be compound, cylinders 20 and 22 inches, and will be built by H. Bloecker of Grand Haven. ‘T’he boiler, to be 7%x14 feet, will be built by Johnston Bros. ‘The Grand Haven Company has just launched a tug for Thompson Smith’s Sons of Duncan City and has a large amount of repair work on hand. | The light-house construction steamer Amaranth, launched Friday from the yard of the Cleveland Ship Building Company, is 160 feet long, 28 feet beam and 14 feet deep, and will be sup- plied with compound engines. Although considerable delay attending preliminary arrangements for this vessel, she was floated on time. ‘The Amaranth is designed for light-house con- struction service in the Ninth and Eleventh light-house districts, under the direction of Col. William Ludlow. ‘At Milwaukee the steamer Arizona and consort Plymouth will both receive repairs about equal to a rebuild. The Arizona. will be double decked. The steamer Rube Richards and con- sort May Richards, also wintering on Lake Michigan will receive repairs costing about $6,000. Bae of coal. No fall fever about this kind of wor Saving of Over Six Times the Cost of Improvements. A feature of the Detroit deep waterways conventions was the important’ data brought out in the pamphlet prepared by W. A. Livingston of Detroit and entitled “’The Twenty Foot Channel.” In this pamphlet Mr. kivingstem says* The “ton- mileage of the lake marine for 1890 was 18,849,681,384 ton miles. ‘The average rate of freight received by the railroads of the Unitéd States per ton mile-for the year enditig Juttie Jo, 1890, according to the report of the interstate commerce commission to by rail of lake cargoes would have cost $177,375,502. . te Freight rates on the great lakes during 1890, varied from 3.5 mills per ton mile to 0.3 mills per ton, the former rate being received on certain high class package freight, and the latter being the rate on coal over a certain route. The writer has at hand statements of the freight earnings of several typical vessels engaged in the “gross freight’’ trade, whose average earnings for the season of 1890 vary from 0.8 mills to 1.0 mill per ton- mile; this rate including such terminal charges as unloading iron ore. ‘The great bulk of the ‘‘gross freights’’ were carried at less than one mill per ton-mile, and it is probable that the average rate on all ireights was about 1.1 mills per ton-mile. Assuming however, that it was as high as 1.2 mills, the cost of the total water transportation was $22,619,617.66, or a saving of $154,- 755,884 over the cost of transporting the same freight by rail. From official figures given in the annual reports of the Saint Mary’s Falls canal, it is shown that the saving by water trans- portion over rail of the traffic through this canal was $46,138,512. in 1889, and $55,234,648 in 18go, or a total saving of $101, 373,- 160 in two years. = The total expenditures to Jan. 1, 1891, on the Saint Mary’s river (including new lock) were $4,170,046.28. It is thus seen that the saving effected by this water-way in'two years, paid 2,400 per cent. on the total cost to Jan. 1, 1891, and a large portion of these expenditures, such as those on the Hay lake channel and the new lock in the canal, are for improvements not yet available for shipping. The total cost of all the river and harbor improvements on the lakes to date has been about’ $29,000,000. The saving in one year of $177,375,502, as shown above in the cost of transportation, is over six times the total expenditure for improvements on the lakes. Or again, the total expenditure by the United States for harbor and river improve- ments in all parts of the country from August 1, 1790, to March 3, 1887, was $157,962,762. It is thus seen that the saving effected by the lake marine in 1890, was $19,412,740 in excess of the cost of all the river and harbor improvements to March 3, 1887. *- % ' Were the railroads of the United States obliged to do the work of the lake marine within the season of navigation (235, .days) it would take 42 per cent. of the entire railway freight equipment to do it. Cleveland Matters. The steamer Olympia of the Wilson Line, Capt. Sheppard," got 12 cents on wheat from Port Arthur on her last tripiof the season. If was the highest rate paid on grain since 1873. On Dec. 2, a date when in most years navigation is entirely at an end, Capt. Cummings of the steamer Caledonia left Duluth for Buffalo with a cargo of grain. He delivered the cargo at Buffalo and his boat is now in Chicago having taken up a cargo Mr. H. M. Hanna’s auxiliary steel yacht, launched to-day (Thursday) from the yard of the Globe Iron Works Com- pany, is called the Comanche. ‘This boat, built at-a cost of about $100,000, will rank among the finest pleasure craft of the’ country. She was built with a view to comfort, having state. room accommodations that would rival some of the ordinary 4 passenger steamers, and is fitted in every way for salt water cruising. +" ey “ a ior Seay : 2 j Rh, eo ' ean oid eeu 75 patie by the MARINE REVIEW OF a binder that ; will hold pee ERO oe, hon etd