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

THE MARINE RECORD: special bills, and about 5,000 spiles. » the American Steel Barge Company this combina- of interests will have as interesting an effect as to one. The company has already appropriated money ough to construct 22 steel freight carriers, part of em steam and part tow vessels. Bleven are to be con- ucted within the next 20 moriths, or before the close avigation in 1894. ‘The yards of the company will, lerefore, for that season present a scene of activity has never been equalled in any shipyard of the Id, if local vessel men conjecture rightly. ig 3,000 ton ships are to take place at the rate of more _ than one every four weeks, and for part of the tithe they _ will be more frequent. Thirty-three thousand tons of rrying capacity will be turned out by this company, on its own account, im a twelve-month, and it states that it is still prepared to build on contract. In fact the keels for two vessels were laid this last week for outside parties. Ten vessels were built by this company last ear, but the new record will far surpass this. ‘Two ‘more keels are to be laid down next week, giving six vessels on the ways and two unfinished,in the water. Local papers have had a good deal to say about the money that is to be put in by the new syndicate at Duluth in the manufacture of iron and steel, but there _ isso far no definite move in that direction. The finan- "What may bein the future no one can say, but it is more than likely that there will bé a very great and sur- prising extension of the manufacture of iron and steel at Duluth in the near future. > + When the mines)of the Mesaba are ready to contract, and do so contract, to deliver Bessemer ore at furnaces at Duluth at a uniform price of $2.00 per ton, and when there is such a market for the manufacturer as is opened by the growth and development of the west and north- west and all the territory that is opening to Duluth by the extension of existing railways and the readjustment of tariffs on present roads, a movement that is going on steadily. What is there, then, that can keep this head of the lake country from becoming one of the chief cen- ters of production? With the extension of the lake waterway system to the ocean, and a uniform draft of 20 feet from the Atlantic to Duluth and Chicago, which is as sure to come as that the sun will rise for about five years, what is there to prevent the. building~of steel __yessels for the mercantile and naval marine of all _ America close by the ore hills? Tur Rrcorp never ae spoke a truer word than when it said last week that Lake Superior would be the center of lake shipbuilding in afew years. But, perhaps, this is going a trifle too far into the future; it is no more improbable, however, _ than what has been accomplished in the past few years on the shores of Lake Superior. The Duluth & Iron Range Road has just let the con- tracts for the construction of ore docks that will increase the shipping capacity of the company to not less than 3,000,000 tons annually. About 1,000 feet of double dock is to be built,and all is to be finished by the early summer. _ With this work done the road will haye 500 ore pockets of 180 tons capacity each, a storage of 90,000 tons. In the new work there are to be used over 6,000,000 feet of timber, 4,000 spiles anda quantity of hard wood and iron work. ‘The cost of the work will be about $280,000. By these docks of two railroads, and by the construc- tion of elevators and mills and other work of an exten- sive nature that will be carried on this new year, the local consumption of timber, which reaches the figure of 75,000,000 feet annually, will be increased to at least 100,000,000 feet. No less than three mammoth grain elevators, each of about 1,200,000 to 2,500,000 bushels capacity, are to be built at the head of the lake during 1893. All of these are to go at the new harbor of old Superior, at the south end of the bay of Duluth, and - near the new flour mills of the Lake Superior and Todd companies. One of these elevators is to be put in by ) the Van Dusen-Harrington Co., one of the heaviest receivers of grain on the Duluth board of trade; another by the Duluth Elevator Co., which now has three elevators here, and the third by the Minneapolis firm of Cargill Bros., which has a large number of country houses in the southwestern part of Minnesota ‘and South Dakota. This firm has had a branch house : nthe Duluth board for the past year, and since the establishment of the grain rate that has resulted so ‘seriously for the Minneapolis millers, has received a t amount of wheat from the southwest. This wheat ould have gone to the mills of Minneapolis, had the ites remained as they were last year. - Rach of these - elevators are stated to be of 1,500,000 bushels capacity, "but it is probable that they will be a trifle smaller than t. Asa matter of fact, however, they will require Jess than 4,000,000' feet of lumber each, besides a est of piling. These elevators will increase the : Launch! wheat storage capacity of the head of the lake to 25,000,- 000 bushels, and will also increase, which is more impor- tant to lumber men, the consumption of the year by 12,000,000 feet. With'ore docks that will use more than as much more, and with mills and the usual amount of general building, the head of Lake Superior won’t cut so much of a figure in the eastern timber market for 1893 as it hdd expected to. Wheat continues to pile into the elevators here with a rush such as has never been known at this time of year. Thé increase in stocks for the week will foot up to the splendid’ figure of 1,500,000 bushels, putting 14,500,000 bushels in the’ houses, and leaving not less than 550,000 mdte, wheat’ and flax, in vessels. ‘This leaves a total einpty capacity of about 5,000,000 bushels. and as there is no indication of a let up to the receipts, and as the mills are now withdrawing but little, the room will soon be full. It seems that the farmers “are afraid that all the room at Duluth will be taken before they get there, and all are hurrying forward as fast a& possible. Thus the tremendous increase in the visible supply, and thus also the low price of the staple. There are indications that the wheat speculators in Chicago are trying to work a corner on the northwest, this market with the rest in May wheat, and the spread between Diluth and Chicago May is evidence in point. It amounts to about six cents a bushel now. It is said that this market alone has sold some 30,000,000 bushelsin May at Chicago, and there isn’t any probability that this wheat can be got in there to fill, Blevator companies, mill com- panies, etc., here sell in Chicago against their purchases, so that there may be no speculations in their dealings, but if a corner can be successfully worked against them they will have jumped fromthe frying pan into the fire. However, December is a long way ahead to begin a cor- ner against May, and the chances are ten to one that it, will fail. There will be, however, an enormous amount of wheat to go out of here when navigation opens in the spring, probably even more than last season, when the Duluth wheat stocks held up lake freights for some time before upper laké ore began moving. TEED oe: a TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS FOR WHARVES AT BUFFALO-—PRIVATE ENTERPRISE Special Correspondence to The Marine. Record. BurraLo, N. Y.—The principal event of the week in marine circies was the unexpécted~ dissolution of the Lake Superior Transit Company, which has been doing a prosperous business since its organization in 1878. This company owned no boats, but had under charter from the Anchor Line and Western Transit Company, a. fleet of steamers which included the China, Japan, India, Philadelphia, Montana, Vanderbilt, Rmpire State, Bad- ger State and Gordon Campbell.. Previous to 1890, the Lake Superior Transit Co. handled the freight coming in over the Erie, New York Central and West Shore roads bound for Lake Superior. In 1890 the Erie drew out of this pool and the reason commonly attributed for the sudden dissolution of the company is that the other two roads determined to handle their own Lake Super- ior freight another séason. .General Manager B. T. Evans, however, says this is not true, but will give no reason for the action, though he says-the company has always done business at a profit, He gave out this mysterious utterance: ‘The, objects for which this company was formed have ceased; therefore it goes out of existence.’’ It is likely that the two new steamers building for the New York Central may have some sig- nificance in this direction. All the clerks, to the num- OWEN SOUND, ONT. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record, Last week the Owen Sound Times received the follow- ing telegram from @ morning paper published in a city on the south shore of Lake Erie which I take for the Toledo Commercial, ‘Has the British Government any vessels at Owen Sound, if so what ones. Are they cruisers, gun boats or revenue cutters? What is their supposed mission? Any information gratefully re- ceived.” Ed. Morning C—/. In reply the 7imes stated that there was only the new cruisers, etc., all of which is well known to the readers of Tur MARINE REcoRD, however, this excitement about war vessels may be a big advertisement for the ship- yard here, and their fame for building heavy iron clads has no doubt been heralded all over the United States : and Canada, coupled with which, the Toledo Blade has gone out of its way tomake insulting and sneering re- marks about this town, which on account of the garbled version, no doubt emanated from the dizzy brain of a reporter whose venomous twaddle ought not to have been seen in the pages of so influential a newspaper as the Blade. I am pleased to note that this scandalous article has been fittingly answered by one of our local papers. Quite a number of the mariners who placed their boats in winter quarters at this port have left for their homes among whom are Captain Anderson of Sarnia,’ Captain McDougall and Captain McAllister of Toronto, Stewart Masterson is at Cleveland, Stewart Dowding at Detroit, Purser Edwards at Sarnia and Engineer Lock- erbie at Collinwood. s The fishery cruiser Petrel came up as far as the C. P. R. elevator on Thursday afternoon last and retained there until Friday morning, it was intended that she should make an official trial trip but later orders were telegraphed to stay at the yards until further instruc: tions were receiyed from Ottawa. T. W. B. See cite COL. LUDLOW, CORPS OF ENGINEERS, U.S. A., REQUESTS A COURT OF INQUIRY. Every military officer feeling himself agrieved by any reflections which may have been passed on his standing is at liberty to, and in fact expected to, ask for a court of inquiry in the case. This view of the matter has now been accepted by Col Win. Ludlow, and the President has directed a court of inquiry to get at the facts relating to the late unpleas- antness between that officer and the Light-House Board, from a military standpoint. This court of inquiry is by no means a court martial, as it has been convened sim- ply to report and summarize the evidence and express its opinion thereon. The court will consist of three offi- cers from New York harbor, and will meet in Washing- ton City, the 5th of January, or as soon thereafter as may be practicable. 4 eo U. S. M, FLAG. A flag has been adopted for ships carrying the United States mail the regulation size of which is to be 20 feet long, 8 feet 6 inches at the mast and 5 feet at the end of the swallow-tail. Its field is red, bordered by a blue margin of nine inches. In the upper left hand corner is an eagle in blue, with arrows and a branch in its tal- ons, and bearing on its breast a shield with stars and stripes in red and white. er ber of 30, have been notified that their services will not . be needed after Jan. 1, Some rather vague statements regarding a scheme of great magnitude for the extension of Buffalo harbor were made public last week. The plan is to make all the extreme southeasterly end of Lake Erie from Stony Point an addition to the present :harbor and to construct canals, docks, eleyators and warehouses on a tremen- dous scale. The estimated outlay necessary to carry out this enterprise is stated at $20,000,000, and the Lehigh and Lackawanna roads, besides othef local and outside capital, is said to"be interested. Nothing really definite can at present be ascertained ‘regarding this project, but large transfers of real estate recently made in the immediate vicinity of Stony Point lead to the belief that sonie move of importance is being formu- lated. = Active work has been begun at the new Gatling Ord- naiice Company’s property down the South Shore, and the casting house, which is to be 150 feet wide and 250 feet long, will be completed next July. The Lake Stewards gave a most successful ball at * Concert Hall Monday night, and no expense was spared ‘either in music or interior refreshments, which were both first-class. The first annual ball of the Buffalo Harbor Tug Pilots’ Association occurs next week. Its financial suc- cess is already assured and it promises to be an enjoy- able affair in every way. 3 P. FLOTSAM, JETSAM AND LAGAN, a ‘The steamer Robert Mills will receive a new boiler at Buffalo during the winter. Her engines will also be re-_ duced in size. sh ‘The steamer Bulgaria of the Corrigan fleet is having her three masts removed at Milwaukee. She will carry two pole spars instead. - A telegram from Cheboygan under date of December 27, reports the Straits of Mackinac frozen over and that the temperature has been down to 10° below zero. Lieut. Robert E. Peary, U. S. N., the Arctic explorer, has already written to St. Johns, N. F., toengage a ship for his proposed expedition to the North next summer. He says that applications to join his party are coming in with every mail. . Capt. James F’, Trowell, ex-harbor master at Milwau- kee, computes the steam fleet wintering at Milwaukee as having a wheat carrying capacity of 4,320,000 bushels, while that of the schooners and barges as 513,000 bushels. ‘Total 4,833,000 bushels. 4 Among the Canadian exhibits at the World’s Fair-will bea mariner’s compass said to have been used by the pioneer Jacques Cartier on his first visit to the lakes, The Department of Marine has ordered Capt. F. B. Hackett, of Amerstburg, who has the contract for the removal of the sunken schooner Minnie Davis, not tony: