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he Marine Record. By Fs - Published every Thursday, at 144 Superior Street, ny (Leader Building,) CLEVELAND, O. ae BRANCH OFFICE, Cuicaco, Iu.., - = as THOMAS WILLIAMS, Associate Editor Irvine B SmitH. Proprietors. Carr. JOHN SWAINSON. 85 Franklin St. SUPSCRIPTION. One copy, one year, postag > paid, - - - - . One copy, one year, to foreign countries, — - - - Invariably in advance, ADVERTISING. Rates given on application. CLEVELAND, 0., MAY 5, 1892. sss Vrsser Owners from all lake ports would do well to communicate with congressmen representing their dis- tricts, and request their hearty support in favor of the sundry light-house bills now before the House. The bill has-passed the Senate, and will be acted on in the House for embodying in the sundry appropriation act. oe eee Ir precipitation alone rules the level of the lakes, and there can be but little doubt that such is the case. There must have been corsiderable less of it this year than last as the large tonnage of the lakes is knocked out of about 15 per cent of last year’s carrying capacity on account of shoal water. The smaller tonnage are of course satisfied, but the three to four thousand ton carriers consider themselves in a hole and long for better water. a SenATOR CALVIN S. Brice, of Ohio, has been inde fatigable in his efforts to secure the aids to navigation petitioned for by the Vessel Owners and Lake Carriers’ Associations. Evenintheevent of the aids to lake navi- gation asked for in the River and Harbor bill falling through, the separate bills introduced in the Senate by Brice, and in the House by Cockran and Taylor, are sure of favorable action, but this even will not help out the private light expenditure for this year. 8 2 THe standing of an old-established technical paper, and the wide-reaching inflnences which its years of pub- lication invariably command, is well exemplified by the receipt in one mail this week, of prepaid annual sub- scriptions to TuE Marine Recorp from Norfolk, Vir- ginia and Kingston, Idaho. We thank our marine friends from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coasts for their staunch adherence to the REcorD, assuring them that our best efforts will always be turned to a dissemination of the news which is allied with their best interests, and that of the future maritime supremacy of the United States. ED oo oe Tue United States steamer Michigan is under orders to proceed to Lake Michigan and survey the lake front in the vicinity of Chicago over an area of thirty miles east and west and ten miles off shore. This order has been promulgated on account of the World’s Fair, yet, nevertheless, the ten mile limit for the entire chain of lakes has been advocated by the Corps of Engineers, U. §. A. in charge of lake districts, and if the World’s Fair gives us a thirty mile survey, we are profoundly thank- ful for even so limited a slice of ground being surveyed so as to obtain a modern delineation of the bottom as opposed to the obsolete charted diagrams now issued by the United States Government. a eee AGAIN the cry has been sent from end to end of the lakes, “Lost with all hands,” this time in connection with the Canadian schooner Glenora on Lake Superior, which vessel broke away from her tow in last Thursday’s south- west gale. It was widely heralded that the crew of ten persons were certainly all lost with the vessel, but, we are happy to say that although severe privations and hard- ships were undergone all hands are still alive to “tell the tale.” It would be difficult to point out a more re- prehensible practice than this one now so ordinarily in use on the lakes of placing the worst possible construc- tion on a casualty. There are many locations on the north shore of Lake Superior where a vessel might lay for a few days, all well, but not in reach of telegraphic connec- tion, and the horrible fiction of total loss with all hands ought not to be allowedin published reports until some tangible grounds for the assumption were forthcoming. ‘The wives and families, as well as relatives and friends of the crew of the Glenora have likely suffered untold grief during the past few days on account of the garbled statements of a know all surmiser of the loss of the vessel with all hands, and the best newspapers of the lakes haye lent their columns to a furtherance of ‘‘the THE MARINE RECORD. wind.” Surely the present generation may be satisfied with the news of a casualty promptly after it occurs, without needlessly anticipating the loss of men, the na- ture of whose calling leaves ground for many hairbreadth escapes from an untimely end. I is wrong to base posi- tive assertions on mere rumor and the loss of seamen, especially needs no premature announcements. oD oO eo WELLAND CANAL TOLLS. Considerable feeling is being evidenced in the matter of tolls ou the Welland Canal cargoes of western grain and retaliatory measures are generally endorsed. Grain must necessarily be transhipped at a terminal point on Lake Ontario. The Canadians offer Kingston facilities, which are found to be totally inadequate to handle the volume of business Americans dcsire Og- densburg for a terminal port, where there are elevators and other facilities far in advance ot what Kingston offers. If the grain is tran-shipped at Kingston, a re- bate of 18 cents per ton off the 20 cent. rate is allovved, but if at Ogdensburg, the full rate of toll is collectable. The Dominion Government is no doubt acting ad- visedly in this matter, but, to the general shipper it looks yery much like unjust discrimination, especially when the United States places the St. Clair and St. Mary’s FaJls canals at the service of Canadian tonnage free of tolls. Towing and wrecking privileges have just been ami- cably adjusted between the two couutries, and less re- striction on the Welland Canal traflic would probably have a tendency to stop the present frictlon in shipping circles. The Dominion may feel that the recent stringent, measures taken against Canadian labor on United States vessels and the prohibitory clauses of our coasting laws are discriminatory features on the side of the United States. Yet, however this may be, a narrow, carping spirit of national retaliation ought not to be allowed to gain ground on either side, but, rather an appreciative order of concessivns and modifications should mark the rulings of both powers in this question of canal cour— tesies. To those shippers who advocate high-handed demands on the Canadian Government toward abrogating the canal tolls entirely, and others who are brimful of the spirit of retaliation in measure, we would say a little circumspection is, perhaps, necessary, as we find that to enter or leave Lake Erie at either end, the Dominion Government are masters of the situation, and the same is equally true of Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence system of canals forming the eastern bar and the mouth of De- troit River the western bar, at the same time, there is no sense of international comity in Canada foisting upon United States commerce the entire cost of construction and keep up of the Welland Canal. Rather will grain be diverted to New England points, and the Montreal ship- ments steadily decline until the splendidly constructed waterway finally falls into disuse. ee RULE OF THE ROAD, The maritime law case printed in our columns this week fully bear out the views which we have consist- ently advocated regarding the liability of clashing be- tween the rules of the board of supervising inspectors and the acts of Congress, or in other words, between what is considered in admiralty courts as local laws and the United States statutes. Judges Wallace and Lacombe, of the Circuit Court of Appeals, second circuit, uphold the views of TmeE MARINE ReEcorp in their recent de- cision. Rule 1 prescribes that the answering steamer “shall answer promptly by a similar blast of the steam whistle.” The learned judges take occasion to state that if this means that she must give a response indicating that she will conform her moyements to the proposed course of the other, they think the rule transcends the authority of the supervising inspectors, as the inspectors cannot lawfully require the other steamer to assent to a depart- ture from the statute in cases covered by the rules of navigation as enacted by Congress, and the inspectors’ rules are not to be construed as meaning to do so. Steam vessels meeting head on, or nearly so, must pass to the right, and when crossing so as to involye risk of collision, the vessel which has the other on her own star- board side must keep out of the way, and the other must keep her course, subject only to the qualifying clause, the rules are obligatory, according to act of congress. Now, whatever else is done, is entirely outside the na- tional rules of navigation, rules of the inpsctors to the contrary notwithstanding. It is not our intention to criticise the inspectors’ rules of the road, at this time, further than to say that there ought not to be so wide a margin for adverse ruling in courts of admiralty. It would also be well for our read- ers engaged in the active commerce of the lakes, as mas- ters and officers, to bear in mind that the statute law will at all times over-ride the rules of the board of supervising inspectors, and we have aken occasion to point out in ticulars. : There is no point in seamanship involving gre to life and property than the “rule of the road,” ought not to be a single conflicting opinion in the yet, as it now appears, those who thought they kne way over the ground, may throw up their hands gust, while they whistle and toot, proceed with ¢ , and allow nothing to come within hailing distan the Board of Supervising Inspectors and the statutes agree to coincide. os Safety does not always lay on theside of the steamer; ing the first signal,nor will a cross signal be tolerated, a should a casualty occur during an infringement United States statute law the offender may expect id full measure of retribution to follow in his path; there. — fore, on international waterways, there ought to be but — one system of laws regarding the “rules of the road,”s9 _ that when two vessels came together, the canse mi ght be distinctly and positively assigned, and not as it is now, bandied about between whistles, rules of the board of supervising inspectors, and the United States statute lat on the navigation of vessels meeting and crossing. In this connection, wé again invite the attention of the supervising inspectors and the sailing community to the illustration of the extracts from the revised statutes, as given in the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th diagrams, intended to show the system of colored lights, and for use by pilots in the rules of the road, and we venture to say that in any danger of collision no sensible seaman would act as therein authorized. If there was no danger of collision in these several diagrams of position, then the rules, as rales, are valueless, and they are so pronounced, in any case by the rulings of circuit judges Wallace and La- combe. ‘There should be no position in which two or more ves- sels could possibly be placed, but that the “rules of the road” would apply, and if we take the sixth diagram, A, could not port with safety as recommended and author- ized to do, if another vessel was on his starboard side, so that evidently there would be some other way for the navigator to avoid collision. Ia a word, the law ought to rule that he should simply keep clear and not iron him down to only one way out of the difficulty. Similar ac} tion would also be advisable in the other instances for — the giving way vessel. ( nee aes ae GOVERNMENT BREAKWATERS IN CHICAGO - HARBOR. It now appears that the United States has no title to the submerged land on which the exterior sea wall and breakwaters are built at Chicago. The early Engineers | in charge of government works neglected to obtain the . titles to this land from the State of Illinois when the im- provements were first begun, and the whole question, im- portant as it is, has never been attended to. It is now reported that the Engineer in charge will ask the Illinois legislature at its next session to cede the land to the United States Government upon which all the harbor works have been constructed up tothe present time. On account of this former irregularity or oversight, it has been widely stated that the authority of the United States to protect these Works from occupation, pillage, or appropriation by individuals is null and void and that squatters rights, as it were, will be stoutly maintained by those now occupying portions of these improvements. So that the foregoing erroneous opinion or misunder- standing may not gain credence among those people who would be liable to take advantage thereof, and for the edification of the citizens of our lake ports. We quote the following extract from River and Harbor Act ap-— proved September 19th, 1890:— Sxcrron 8. Thatall wrecks of vessels and other obstructions to the navigation of any port, roadstead, harbor, or navigable river, or other navigable waters of the United States, which may have been permiited by the owners thereof or the parties by whom they were caused to remain to the injury of com—— merce and navigation for a longer period than two months, shall be subject to be broken up and removed by the Secretary — of War, without liability for any damage to the owners of the 9. That it shall not be lawful for any person or persons ake possession of or make use for any exclusive purpose, or build upon, alter, deface, destroy, injure, obstruct, or is any other manner impair the usefulness of any sea-wall, bulk bead, jetty, dike, levee, wharf, pier, or other work built by the United States in whole orin part, for the preseryation and improvement of any of its navigable waters, or to prevent floods, or as boundary marks, tide gauges, surveying-stations, — buoys, or other established marks, nor remoye for ballast or ener purposes any stone or other material composing suc works, Suc. 10, That the creation of any obstruction, not afi tively authorized by law, to the navigable capacity of an waters, in respect of which the United States has jurisd! is hereby prohibited. ‘The continuance of any such ob tion, except bridges, piers, docks and wharves, and si structures erected for business purposes, whether or hereafter created, shull constitute an offense, and each continuance of any such obstruction shall be deemed ate offense. Every person and every corporation whic be guilty of creating or continuing any such unlawful tion in this act mentioned, or who shall violate the )