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THE MARINE RECORD. The Marine Record. Published every Thursday, at 144 Superior Street, (Leader Building,) CLEVELAND, O. \evine B, Smith. : Capt. JoHN Swainson, BRANCH OFFICE, Cricaao, In14., - - - 252South Water St. THOMAS WILLIAMS, Associate Editor. - - Proprietors. SUBSCRIPTION. One copy, one year, postage paid, . . 7 One copy, one year to foreign countries, - Invariably in advance, ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. _) i THE MARINE RECORD can be found for sale by the following agents and news dealers: AMHERSTBURG, ONT.—George Taylor. ASHTABULA HARBOR, 0.—0, 0. Large, 0. M. Kohne. ASHLAND, WIS.—Post Office News Stand. BUFFALO, N. Y.—Miss McCabe, Elk st-; W- H. Boyd, 60 Main st. CHICAGO, ILLS.—Thomas Williams, 252 South Water street. L. P. Ballin, 33 West Randolph street. CLEVELAND, 0.—Cleveland News Co , 118 Wood street; G. F. Bow- man, corner Pearl and Detroit street; R. A. Castner, 254 Detroit street E. J. Ray, 452 Detroit street; Larwood & Day, 259 Superior street; N- Hexter, 303 Superior street; Taylor. Austin & Co., 116 Public Square, DETROIT, MICH.—George Abrams, River Reporter. DULUTH, MINN.—Albertson & Chamberlain, 323 West Superior st., Zenith News Stand. DUNNVILLE, ONT.—J. H. Smith. ERIE, PA.—Reed Caughey, W. J. Sell, Moses Dryfoos. ESCANABA, MICH.—John Finnegan, Sourwine & Hartnett. HURON, 0.—John Squires. HOUGHTON, MICH.—F. W. Kroll. KINGSTON, ONT.—John Henderson & Co. LORAIN, 0.—C. C. Knapp, J- B. Tunte. LUDINGTON, MICH.—Fisk & Co. MANISTIQUE, MICH.—W. S. Gilbert, Post Office Block. MARQUETTE, MICH.—Vannier & Bigelow. MILWAUKEE, WIS —T. S. Gray Co., 126 Wisconsin street. OWEN SOUND, ONT.—H. P. Adair & Co., J. Sharpe, Jr. PORT HURON, MICH.—D. E. Lynn, Marine Reporter. SARNIA, ONT.—J.G. McCrae, D. McMaster. SAULT STE. MARIE, MICH.—J. P. Haller, Water street. 4a Subscribers and others are respectfully invited touse the columns of THE MARINE RECORD for the disew: sion of pertinent topics and all matters relating to the welfare of the Lake Marine. N.B.—We do not hold ourselves responsible in any way for the views expressed by our correspondents. Contributions must in every cise be accompanied by the full name and address of the writer, and be at this office not Jater than Wednesday morning. Entered at the Post Office ut Clevelaud as second class mail matter. ALL MAIL MATTER Pertaining to the Editorial and Business Departments of Tur Marine ReEcorp should be addressed, “SMITH & SWAINSON, 148 SUPERIOR ST., CLEVELAND, OHIO.” CLEVELAND, O., JANUARY 14, 1892. PUBLISHERS’ NOTICE. At this time of the year the majority of our subscribers who are actively engaged in the sailing interests during the season of nayigation, are mending their nets and otherwise laying back ready for the siege of another sea- son. ‘To those who are at a distance we desire to say that the date on their slips or wrappers will show the expiration of their subscriptions to Taz MARINE RECORD, there is not, or should not be any hieroglyphic mystery about these figures, so that the dates being deciphered, accounts May be squared, and a new departure taken. Amounts small in themselves represent a most important sum in the aggregate, and this is what we are after at about this time. ee ee ConGRESsMAN Lockwoop, of Buffalo, proposes to make a vigorous fight in this Congress for an increase in pay for the keepers and surfmen employed in the life say- ing service. At the present time the former receive only $750 a year, while the latter risk their lives at $50 a month and are only retained eight monthsin the year. Inno class of public service are the employees worked harder for less pay than the surfmen. Petitions from all parts of the country ask that keepers be paid $1,000 a year and that surfmen receive $75 a month. They should also be entitled to marine hospital privileges in the event of accident or sickness brought on by exposure to the weather. All seamen are eligible to admission in the marine hospitals and. they ought not tobe barred out simply because they have joined the life saving service for a term of months or even years. AN important work forthe Census Bureau, since it seems that no other department is either authorized or interésted, would be to ascertain the number of men em- ployed in the actual service of the lake marine, both in steam and sailing vessels. It certainly reflects no credit on the workings of the several bureaux controling the Mercantile Marine of the United States, when they con- fess their inability to compile such statistics, and the lake commerce as representing a majority of the mariners of the country one would think might deserve enumerating, and this too for obvious reasons. ee Tue recent tour of the lakes by Lieutenant Carden, under the auspices of the Treasury Department, will no doubt eventuate in the construction of the two new rey- enue cutters in these waters. Smuggling, a disregard of the rules of the supervising inspectors, and the proper patroling of the lake areas, call for a much better service than is now placed under the control of the department, and tothis end the lakes are justly entitled to the service which modern requirements so justly demands. 6 a2 Tu treaty of 1817 prohibiting even the building of war vessels on the lakes is becoming obnoxious to a majority of our citizens and shipbuilders. There are now some of the finest equipped iron and steel shipbuilding plants in the United States in full working order at the principal lake ports, and for them to be ruled out of com- petition in the workshop of the Nation, through the wording of a century old treaty which no longer bears any significance, is more than the enterprising spirit of western progression are willing to brook, or calmly sub- mit to for any longer aterm than legislative discretion can be brought to bear on the features of the treaty. er 9 a me FOR IMPROVED LAKE NAVIGATION. THE delegation of Cleveland vessel owners now at Washington in the interests of improvements and aids to navigation, rendered necessary on the Great Lakes by the vast strides which North-western commerce has taken during the past decade, are fulfilling a mission which ought to prove invaluable to all interests. Contrary to the impression entertained by a circle of commercial men, the Cleveland delegates were not com- missioned to advocate a deep waterway to the coast, their province, aims and ambition is merely to procure for the lakes a free, unobstructed and well lighted inland water- way, orin other words, to enlarge upon the plan of im- provements commensurate with the volume and capacity of the present trade and tonnage. ‘Tens of millions of dollars are not asked for, but simply that modern com- merce may be facilitated in so far as the Federal Govy- ernment exercises its undisputed control and jurisdiction over the channels and fairways now in use. Men who are acquainted with these waters and look back only for a few years, are astounded at the increase in tonnage and the volume of‘commerce now transported. Daily we hear the statement that the present stage of the lake marine and its colossal importance was never even dreamed of only ascore of years back. Faull powered high classed 3,000 ton steel freight and passenger steam- ers speeding over the lakes in all directions, would have appeared nothing less than a miraculous intervention, or a fitting sequel to a commemoration of a National mil- lenium of prosperous existence, yet, these facts are ac- complished, and the lake cities of Detroit and Cleveland have the honor and distinction of putting afloat more high-classed iron and steel freight steamers than any other ports in the country. While Bay City has sent her high-classed productions of modern steel tonnage to assist in the commerce of the Pacific, the minor port of Super- ior, Wis., situated at the head of Lake Superior, and com- paratively unknown a decade ago, has astonished the world by producing a freight carrier which, whether strictly original in design or otherwise, has been the first city todemonstrate the applicability of a form or type which is destined to exercise a universal influence in the art of marine architecture and the building of future freight carriers; already is that influence being felt, if imitation of the principles of construction is any criter- ion, and the effete East has taken a fresh lease of naval workmanship in the reproduction of the type first put together for the purposes of commerce in a corner of the earth which is destined to prove a commerciel center of no small importance to the universe. This digression has seemed in line when speaking of the almost incomprehensible wave of progression which has swept over the States bordering on the Great Lakes, From an Indian canoe to the finest equipped tonnage afloat, almost within the experience of one lifetime, is a record which ought to awaken the susceptibilities and stir up the legislative wisdom of the present Congress. Ten steel freight steamers having a capacity of nearly 30,000 tons is the record of a lake shipyard for one year, and this tonnage was not hewn out of the woods, bolted together and put afloat to ba finished in the next few years, but well built modern steel steamers liberally equipped, handsomely fitted, and thoroughly complete in every detail of construction andapparel. __ — In the face of the above showing the action which our prominent citizens have taken in petitioning Congress for a due share of attention cannot be questioned; legis- lators from the West and North, are, or ought to be fully conversant with the march of civilization in the North- — west, while those from the South and East can the better subserve the broad interests of the Nation by votingfay- orably on the appropriations which commerce more than class, or special industries, demands of them. The chair- man of the River and Harbor Committee is well aware of the National interests involved in the transportation car- ried on over the Great Lakes. The chairman of the Committee on Commerce, is equally placed at his disere- tion to forward by all means in his power, the interests of commerce. The chairman of the committee on approp- riations, represents a State which derives considerable wealth from its proximity to Lake Michigan, and although some may take a pessimistic view of the effort now being made by the best intelligence of the Northwest, to favor- ably influence Congress, yet the strong appeal and rep- resentation will awaken such an interest in the minds of our legislators that the fifty second Congress, however | liberal it may deal with the interests now brought to its notice, can only enter upon the confines of work which future Congresses will heartily favor in the continuance thereof, notably the 21 foot fairway, duplicate channels, a re-survey of the lakes, and other equally important pro- jects, all of which the keenest minds perceive as being essential to the advancement of the lake marine, and de- manded by the ever growing commerce of the North-west. en a “RIGHT” AND “LEFT”, 4 With the mititary precision to be expected from the warlike Teutons, we find that orders have been issued to the North German Lloyds and the Hamburg American Line, to substitute the words “right” and “left” when al- tering the course of their steamers, instead of using the time worn terms of “port” and “starboard”. ‘The German Emperor, on learning last year that a con- tradiction existed in the wording and carrying out of the orders as given to the wheelsman, cast about to effect a change more in consonance with his own ideas of nauti- cal phraseology, and thus was the order evolved, made compulsory in the navy, adopted in the two most impor- tant Lines of merchant steamers and is now generally en- dorsed by the German mercantile marine. The orders as given universally up till last summer, 1 when the German edict went into force, exhibit a singu- lar tenacity of custom, which only a mariner would at- tempt to justify on the grounds of not desiring innova- tions in their rules of phraseology, evenif it was clearly de- monstrated that the change was made in the best inter- ests of their profession. The need for a revision of the ancient terms came in- to foree when the wheel was adopted for steering in lieu P of the tiller purchase. The order to port under the tiller system, when all yves- sels were so steered, meant that the tiller head should be so moved, and theaction of the steersman could be clear- ly observed by the officer in charge of the deck. 'To pursue this subject a little further we find that the order to “port” meant that the tiller should be moyed to “port”, and although this action sent the vessel’s head to “starboard” it was or could nct have been thought of any moment how the vessel’s head turned as long as the ord- er to the steersman was distinctly understood and obey- ed; hence “port” meant port the tiller head, and on it being drawn over to port, the order was satisfactorily fil- led. It will thus be seen that a similarity existed between the given order and its execution. 5 With the adoption of the wheel gear the order lost this duplication of action and command, and “port” no longer — meant the rolling or movement of the wheel to “port”, — as the order to “port” called for the wheel to be rolled to starboard, an action contrary to the express word, though ‘ - again reaching a similarity in moyement between the i rolling of the wheel and the vessels head, or the move- ment of her bow in obedience to the rudder, as the wheel ~ and vessels head moved in the same direction but to — “starboard,” and directly opposite to the given order in so far as the alteration of course and rolling of the wheel were concerned. It is difficult of conception for the un-technical mind — to grasp the situation in which mariners found them- selves when the motive power of directing their vesse underwent the change from rudders to wheels, they seem to have accepted the situation and retained their phr: ology, misnomers abounding they must have experien a full share of anxiety until the gradual introduction the present system become generally applied and k: to all classes of seamen. The words “right and left” in lieu of “port and board” as they relate to steering, has been strongly cated by writers in Tur MARINE RecorD, but knoy the conseryatism-of marinersin matters effe