The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

THE MARINE RECORD. The Published every Thursday, at 144 Superior Street, (Leader Building,) CLEVELAND, O. levine B. Smita. \ Capt. JOHN Swainson, BRANCH OFFICE, C1caao, IL1s., - - - 252 South Water St. THOMAS WILLIAMS, Associate Editor. Marine Record. ESTABLISHED 1878. Proprietors. SUBSCRIPTION. One copy, one year, postage paid, - - . ‘One copy, one year. to foreign countries, - Invariably in advance, ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. *ga- Subscribers and others are respectfully invited to use the columns of TIE MARINE RECURD for the discussion of pertinent topics and all matters relating to the welfareof 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 exec be accompanied by tho full name and address of the writer, and be at this office not later than Wednesday morning. Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland as second-class mail matter. CLEVELAND, O., MARCH 31, 1892. yd eter ated Cop heeies Rat eens ST. MARY’S FALLS CANAL, Special Telegram to The Marine Record. “SauLT Sr. Marie, Micu., March 31.—The present stage of water at the locks is fourteen feet three inches, and the probable stage at the opening of navigation will be fourteen feet. I place the date of opening of naviga- tion on the “Soo” river at April 25th, but the lock will be in complete working order April 15th. Martin Lyncu. oD + OO a Our thanks are due to the courteous superintendent of St. Mary’s Falls Canal for information relative to the opening date and depth of water at the canal. a Two launches of high classed steel tonnage within twenty-four hours is the Cleveland shipbuilding record for this week, down East ports are simply “not in it.” D> oe ae GENERAL O. M. Por earnestly advocates a survey and re-survey of certain points on the lakes, the charts for which have now become obsolete. General Casey, Chief of Engineers, supports the views of General Poe in each particular, and the entire lake marine are with these officers in desiring the accomplishment of this estimable work. OO ee In another column of this issue may be found the new hull tariff for the season of 1892. It is noticeable that the multiplicity of strandings in the still waters of the con- necting links of the lakes has aroused the underwriters to a revision of their general average rules, and a bureau of average adjusters is in process of formation, whose duties will be to make equitable adjustments on all losses brought before them. Oo or Aw Eastern contemporary states that steamers as well as sailing vessels are required to have an eflicient fog- horn, to be sounded by mechanical means. Act March 3, 1885, (23 St. p. 438, c. 354, art. 12) does not so read. Sailing vessels or vessels under sail and not under steam may violate this statute, but a steam vessel or a vessel under steam, whether under sail or not, is not required at any time to use or sound this mechanical fog-horn. At least such is the rendering of the clause according to our best judgment and warranted by the universal custom now in force, or Coat freights ought to cut quite a figure in the earn- ings of vessel property this season, as it is conceded on all sides that a larger quantity will be transported over the lakes thanever before. The stock piles at lake re- ceiving ports are running quite low, and while every ef- fort will be turned to early shipments coal should no longer be carried as ballast, where this is found neces- sary the smallest possible quantity should be accepted, In any event the medium class of tonnage is likely to find a brisk trade in coal to light draft ports if only the freights are kept up to a fair living notch. ED -2- A - r Iv has been determined by competent authority and accepted in the United States admiralty courts as in- dubitable evidence, that a steamer about 400 feet long going at the rate of seven or eight knots an hour may be stopped or brought to a standstill in about three times her own length, at a speed of eleven knots in four times her own length, and a steamer 315 feet long proceeding at the rate of thirteen knots an hour may be stopped by promptly reversing in five times her own length. These particulars, arrived at through a mass of reliable expert evidence, has a positive bearing on the navigation of steamers on the Great Lakes or in comparatively still waters in any portion of the world, as the state of the weather relating to wind and sea has not evidently en- tered into the calculations of the experts framing this scale, the velocity or momentum of bulk being the ob- jective point arrived at in their deliberations. or oe or ; Wirnovr in any way qualifying the statement, we as- sert that the light-houses, light-ships, buoys, beacons, ranges and similar aids to navigation placed under the jurisdiction of the Light-House Board are the most positive and imperative necessities of commerce, they nection with the United States Engineer Corps in charge of rivers and harbors the ne plus ultra of navigational facilities. Congressmen appreciating the excellent and important work in which the Light-House Board is en~ gaged, should sea to it that a liberal appropriation, ac— cording to the estimates furnished’ for conserving the nation’s commeree, is granted, as if there is one bureau more than another that eminently deserve the full meas- ure of their estimates it is certainly the Light-House Board. Throughout the length and breadth of our land- locked waterways, the aids furnished to navigators are the development of our now enormous commerce, prompt transportation and arrivals at all lake or ocean ports is facilitated by the measure of service given to the mariner, and this service being regularly augmented, calls for more liberal appropriations each year, a fact which it is hoped the committee will not lose sight of in voting the estimates for the next fiscal year. Bes TE Senate bill No. 1681, asking for an appropriation to build two revenue cutters for the Great Lakes to re- place the Andrew Johnson and the Bibb, has been ad- versely reported on by the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce and amended so as to read one drst- class revenue cutter for service on the lakes, witha dis- placement. of not less than 450 tons, constructed and equipped to secure a speed of not less than fifteen knots per hour, at a cost of $150,000. This vessel would replace the worn-out Andrew Johnson, but there is no provision made for replacing the Bibb, although she. was sold to private parties last fall.. Either revenue cutters are re- quired on the lakes, or they are not, in the former case the Bibb should be replaced, while if the latter assump- tion is correct no appropriation is necessary. The tem porizing and parsimonious spirit evinced at Washington regarding lake affairs is becoming nauseating and mark- edly discriminatory if the volume of tonnage, commerce and transportation interests are good criterions. The appropriations in the river and harbor bill for the sta- tionary if not waning commerce of the Mississippi is in marked contrast to the amount appropriated for lake im- provements, and it is a thankless task to keep on peti- tioning, formulating requirements and elucidating man- ifold reasons for aids and improvements on the Great Lakes only to meet with at Washington the inevitable cheese-paring and niggardly appropriations of the past. The Lake Ontario district requires a revenue patrol equally as much as Lake Michigan and is just as wellen- titled to a new cutter built with a special adaptation for the service, so that the amended bili looked at in the light of the foregoing means to stultify or minimize the rey- enue patrol service on the lakes. —— ATIONAL JURISDICTION. As usual, Chicago interests and those holding large tracts of property at South Chicago are desirous of choking up entirely the already much used dumping channel for Chicago sewerage, ycleped the Chicago river. During the past few years every annoyance which it has been possible to heap upon the marine interests has char- acterized that port, so that the veritable “under bridges and over arches” mode of navigation has at last been exemplified in the environs of the metropolis of the illimatable West. ‘The daily papers of the great windy city ably and honorably support the industry which has permitted Chicago to attain to its present commercial enormity; otherwise, we opine, the creek would have been closed to ordinary navigation, ere this. But, now comes along the municipality, whose bood- ling mouthpieces have perchance concluded to be “seen” in the matter, with petitions to strengthen a bill now be- fore Congress praying that the United States Govern- ment abrogate all Federal rights of control over the navigable portions of this much polluted stream, digni- fied by the name of river. It is desired hy interested parties that the stream should be exempted from the provisions of the river and harbor act, which now equit ably controls jurisdiction over the navigable waters of the United States. The request is one of secession from the Federal laws are the key to lake transportation and constitute in con- | heartily appreciated and have been a leading factor in and should not be tolerated, as such a precedent, established, might be used to the ultimate destru local rights in so far as the Federal authority now Accepting the fact that the territory is now dot by railroad and similar interests, who desire to shut all communication by water, there is still an enorm commerce whose very existence depends on an structed waterway, which, up to the present time, only been maintained through invoking the aid of Federal government, as represented by the War Depart. ment. Petitions from all lake ports ‘haying mari transportation interests with Chicago are being cire lated to assist in preventing this scheme from béing complished, as there is little doubt that if the authorities relinquish their jurisdiction over the stream | the next'step would be to erect bridges so as to seriously r impede, if not to completely obstruct navigation; and then to pump oat certain portions of the river ‘and: fill it in to make laid. Nor is this an’overdrawn ‘estimate, for those who protest against’ the meéastire’ being carried ont assert'that they have no sympathy with those who delib- eratély plan the destruction of the commerce of the Cit — cago River in ordet that the Calumet River may become the legatee of our magnificent grain trade. f Every possible facility should be offered to navigation at Chicago, and even if such a state of affairs-could be — brought about, the point wil) be side-tracked sufficiently — at the completion of the twenty-foot channel, then, per- haps, when Chicago sees her large commerce divided — among several smaller ports, her citizens may become aroused to the fact that grasping monopolies had rode rough shod over a goose which laid gulden eggs while their City Council voiced in unison the charms of the — sacrifice. ta He It.is.a fraud upon every citizen of the United States — to allow a natural and navigable water-way to become — obstructed so as to impede the general commerce, as well — might the waters of the upper Mississippi be subverted from their their proper source, or a permanent pontoon bridge be thrown across East River at New York, as to permit of the class-led portion of the Chicago munici- — pality obtaining control of that stream. The War De- partment has stepped in judiciously when measures de- rogatory to commerce haye been broached in connection with rivers and harbors, and.no better conservator of the nation’s rights is required to maintain a supervision over the acts of would-be destroyers of natural commercial facilities. H AMERICANS CAN BUILD AND EQUIP THEIR OWN TONNAGE. : We print this week under the caption of ‘Treacherous Legislation” the text of two bills, which, if carried through Congress, are destined to work irremediable hardship and injustice to the shipbuilding community and interests of this country. Hon. W. W. Bates, late United States Commissioner of Navigation, repeatedly urged upon the notice of his de- partmental superiors his strong belief that paid emissar- ies existed at Washington for the purpose of assisting measures through Congress which were highly derogatory to the best interests of the United States merchant mar- ine, and, judging from the number of bills now being presented containing these features, we are jealously prone to attach a direct significance to the forewarning. It is a foregone conclusion, that no nation can have @ nayal or mercantile marine without the skill, material and facilities necessary for its construction; in other words, the purchase of fleets from foreign nations has been proved for palpable reasons to be ultimately and utterly abortive. The shipbuildersof the United States, and in mercantile tonnage, especially those of the Great Lakes, have demonstrated their ability on the lines of completed construction. Then why foist upon the coun- try the foreign-built tonnage of jealous rivals? why jeopardize even a portion of this national industry by de- ; liberate acts of Congress? or why legislate to take the bread from the mouths of thousands of skilled workmen — now employed in our shipyards? She Americans can build and equip their own tonnage. = The hooks are pointed and the bait (if not gilded) is made tempting by the insidious enemy to American : isprudence and political economy. ur legislators have now a choice of admitting to American registry or priv- ileges superior yachting tonnage, (although equally a8 good vessels are now under construction in this count i partially rebuilt bottoms, “foreign vessels: trading some time to American ‘ports, vessels partly own citizens, and a sop is also thrown out to Americanize nage, providing that an order is given a United shipyard to build an: equal quantity of tonnag seeking registry; and finally HOR, bill 5441 asks fr mission for all foreign built ships and machinery. | From the foregoing it will be seen that evel loop-hole is being bombarded and the entire batt tered on the free’ ship bill, with the sinister int breaking down the barriers at the most ungua