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2 THE MARINE RECORD. ———————————— MARINE LAW. COMMON CARRIERS, Prepared expressly for the Marine Record. Common carriers niay be divided into two general classes, carriers of goods, merchan- dise and property and carriersof persons. With regard to these classes different degrees of liability exist for the non-performance of those duties which are imposed by law up- on common carriers, which difference will be shown hereafter. First, as a starting point, who are common carriers? ‘The legal defiinition is: ‘‘A common carrier is one who regularly undertakes, for hire, either on land or on water, to carry goods, or goods and passengers, between different places for such as may offer.” This detinition includes railway compa- nies, express companies, stage coach propri- etore, the proprietors of all ships, boats and vessels employed in carriage on regular routes, wagoners and carmen who carry as a regular employment from town to town or from place to place within the same town, street railway companies and the proprietors of omnibus routes. It does not include ves- sel owners whoemploy their vessels, for particular voyages and on no especial routes as they make contracts, nor draymen, nor others who take jvbs on commission and have no regular route, nor dves it apply to tug boatmen. Now this distinction is im- portant to those engaged in these occupa- tions and to those who transact business with them. Atcommon law common car- riers were to a great extent insurers -of the property put into their hands and they were compelled to accept and to transmit any freight brought to them for carriage. This, with some very few exceptions, is the law to-day. ‘They are held responsible for everything, put into their hands, the act ot God and public enemies excepted. ‘I'v this extent they are insurers. Ae to what may be called the act of God, it must be something. outside the ordinary events and something which no human fore- sight could foresee: or-control, as: Light- ning, earthquake, some great and extraordi- nary storm. the like of which has not been before known within the: memory. of man. ‘Ordinary severe storms, rccidents, the burst- ing of boilers, collisions, etc., would uot be act of God. ‘This you wil! bear in mind re- fers to carriers of goods. With regard to carriers of passengers the. liability is not so strict. They are liable for the slightest negligence and lack of due care, but not for accident unless accompanied with some ele- ment of neglect. ‘This liability is applied with great strictness to those carriers who use steam as 2 motive power. While car- riers of persons are not insvrers of the lives and bodies of their passengers, they are lia- ble fcr their baggage the same as~ other freight. This liability begins when the goods are presented or when the passenger pre- sents himself for transportation, and ends with the delivery, actual or constructive, at the terminus of the route, or the destination of the goo:ls or individual. Carriers cannot limit this responsibility by posting printed notices at their depote and stopping places; but they can’ make reasonable limitations by printing them on the receipt which they give and which the consignor accepts, whereby ‘he eonstructively assents to them, Still these must be reasonable. Carriers hive a right.to demand their pay in advance, and _to refuse the transportation unless this is .pald, and in the case of persons they have a right to use reasonable force in expelling them for refusal to pay, or for indecent or boisterous conduct which would constitute a nuisance. Carriers or persons who under- ‘take to carry persons or goods gratuitously are liakte only for gross carelessness, or the . ifaikure tg observe those precautions which Xn ordinary man would exercise over his own person or goods, It is impossible to present all the points of this subject ina short newspaper article. ‘To meet ail points would require volumes. These are some of the principal points which all shoulé under- stand. A Havana dispatch says anEnglish steamer has just arrived with the intelligence that the steamer Niagara, of the New York & Cuba Mail Steamship Co., and which left New York on the 7th for this port, has been Burned off the coast of Florida. ‘The pas- sengers were all saved and brought here by the ubove mentioned English steamer. GENERAL NEWS, Fishing at Strawberry Island is reported good. . Hanlan is called the. aquatic lion, and when he is in his scull the lioa can row’er. The ‘Treasury Department has informa- tion that extensive smuggling in Chinamen is going on, and will take steps to prevent it. The tariff against Chinamen is prohibi- tory. The people of the United States ought to be right on time. We make every year 912,- 500 watches, besides wearing an immense number which are imported from other countries, Steamer City of Puebla, of the Alexandre line, Captain Deaken, which arrived at New York July 3d from Havana, made the pas- sage in 2-days 23 hours and 39 minutes, the fastest time on record. Five thousand Mormon converts are ex- pected to arrive in Utah during the month of July. «The twin relic of barbarisn’’ seems to flourish under Congressional law. ‘These are not paupers, but are recruits for the harems and open. violators of all the laws of God und men. According to the New York Journal the multiplication of steam heating pipes in the streets of the metropolis has already result- ed in effectually warming the Croton water furnished by the city,» so that itis now de- livered hot in many houses. “This is a start- hng change, surely, : A man by the name of Brown; at Boston, offers an opportunity for the investment of: capital that has not been equaled since Kee- ley, of Philadelphia, gave -his mysterious motor to the world, Brown has solved the. problem of perpetual motion, he says, and only needs capital to develop the machine. Certifieates of incorporation of the Inter- national fiber and Juice Extracting Com- pany were filed in New. York. ‘The cap'tal stock is $1,500,000. ‘he company is organ- ized to construc: machines tor the extrac: tion of fibre from fibrous mineral and veget- ble substiinces, and. the .extraction of sap, juice-and oil from plants and vegetable sub- stances. mo Fc By i recent decree of the South American Government the port-charge hitherto known as “Light and ‘Tonnage Dues” has been abolished, and the vessels arriving in Chil- ean ports are only liable for hospital dues, (10 cents per ton register), once in each cal- endar year. Vessels calling for orders, and leaving a port without receiving stores or provisions are exempt from this charge. Engineer Roebling, the man who: built the Brooklyn bridge, and has for - fifteen years been engaged at the work, has now resigned because his servives are no longer needed. Ma. Roebling has a monument than which there is none greater, and his hame ought to be chiseled en one of the great pillars of the bridge, in order that no main can cross it without being reminded of his genius and fidelity. The Atlantic and Gulf Coast Canal and Okeechobee Land and Drainage Company, composed mainly of Philadsiphia capitalists, has received from the State of Florida an award of 533,385 acres of land Joeated in the southern portion of the peninsula, for their reclamation operations in that State. This company has reclaimed nearly 1,500,000 acres of land ip Florida, and the work is still being vigorously pushed forward. Quite a number of vessels are having their royal masts fidded in order that these masts can be struck and set with great- er ease and faeility than is pow the case. ‘The cost of striking vessels’ topmasts with their present rig ia expensive and ranges from twents dollars upwards. With the new improvement it is said that the masts can be lowered and set by two men ina very short space of time. ‘Ihis will be an advantage for the high masted vessels which may have to pass under the Brooklyn bridge. Andrew Lambert, second engineer of the disabled Cunard steamship, performed ‘an act of personal bravery upon the explosion of the steam at the breaking of the machin- ery. Instead of rushing up to the open air, the brave man crawled into the engine room and made his way through the suffocating steam to the valves, which he turned off. ‘The passengers felt that this act of Lambert, at the risk of his life, should not pass unno- ticed, and a purse of £70 pounds was raised, and, together with a testimonial, it was pre- sented to the gallant engineer, THE CAMBRIA IRON WORKS, From Harper's Meg tine for August. At Johnsontown, in the valley of the Conemaugh, we encounter the works of the Cambria tron Company, which roar and flame proudly, as ifaware thac they con- stitute probably the biggest single iron and steel works in the world. ‘The company employs 8000 operatives: keeps nine furnaces going at this place and four elsewhere; has perhaps eighty acres under yoot at dohns- town; mines 700,000 tors of coal for its own use, and does anntally a business of $18,- 000,000 or $20,000,000. “It produced in 1881 45,000 tons of iron rails and 120,000 tons of steel, saying nothing of steel springs in quantity, boiler iron, or the machinery manufactured for its own use. It is worth recording that eminent foreign mechanicians have admitted thatat Johnstown three times the amount of work is done which would be accomplished with the same plant in Europe. {n and out o1 the shops and all through the yards wind forty miles of track, on Which trains loaded with ore, coal, slig, or hot ivgots of steel are ruuning every moment or two, eighteen locomotives being kept in-use for this purpose, and several stuckless ones for running into the adjacent mines. ‘The steel ingots, by-the-way, are the largest steel castings made anywhere, excepting Krupp cannon, and weigh 5590 pouads each, medauring eighteen inches and a half square, and yielding eight rails apiece. ‘The works were founded at this spot with the idea of utilizing the iron ore of the vicinity; but steel has now become its ; Supreme object. and ores are brought from Spain, Ireland, Elba, aud Michigan, to mix with the local brown hematites. ‘The direct coal flame is not used in furing the ore, but only the gases generated from coal. ‘This in- tensified heat is stored in Whitworth stoves —immense iron-tound cylinders like chim- neys, inside of which the temperature is 17060 Fahrenheit. ‘Thence it is distributed through pipes wherever jt is wanted; but first the burning gages are passed through a re ceptacle charged with water, which actually Washes the fire, so 28 to remove various con- stituents that might cont and injure the tubes through which it is conveyed.. ‘The calorific agent thus prepared not only sup- plies the furnaces, but rtins the hydraulic and other engines, and is.in. part carried back to the stoves to begin over again, “So that,” said Mr. Webb, the general super- intendent, “we come as near to lifting our- selves by our own Loot-straps as is pos- sible.” : : At Johnstown may be seen a 1000-horse- power engine making ninety revolutions a tninute—-sometimee hardly attempted else- where; the sawing ‘of rails, hot and cold; the puddjing process; the Bessemer system ; and the Pernot open-hearth method of oxida tion. The most interesting and impressive is the Bessemer, which decarbonizes melted iron in huge converters by forcing an air stream through it. First the silicon rushes out of the converter ina thick volume of orange flame; then the carbon, like white fire. When that is over, a rill of snapping, scintillating spiegeliron is let in, to. mingle with the pure iron that lies candeseent amid its own radiations of peach blossom-colored light; and afterward the perfected steel is ponred into quarter-ton ingots: as easily as if only cream-candy drops were being made. But when the converter is turned for pour- ing there ‘s a-rush of sparks clear acioss the foundry, arching like the rainbow and fiery asacomet. ‘The effect is as beavtiful as the whole work is fierse and prodigious. For the Pernot provess the Siemens furnace is used, producing the most intense of all terrestrial heats, You look into a peephole of the open-hearth caldrons through a plate of blue glass—withont that your eyesight would bé extinguished—and see the iron there melted into a dead white. wrinkled semiliquid, whieh bas precisely the ap- pearance of a snow-drift. Finally the pro- duct is tested; how thoroughly may be judged when itis mentioned that steel for the Brooklyn Bridge was required to bend double in ineh-square yods without break- ing. The Cambria Company’s monster has literally eaten up one side of the bill; the ground on whieh it stands is a)} undermined, and the pith of another hill across the Con- emaugh is gradually being drawn out by the miner’s pick. A fine library in a charm. ingly designed building is placed at the ser- viee of the: mechanies by ‘their employers; but Johnstown itself is a dispirited borough, shabby and dirty. Darkness and desolation are apt to spread where manufacture gets a foot-hold; but the factories themselves are grandly elemental enough to compensate. It is more in the streets and houses of the working people that the need of beauty is felt, to overcome the discord which the works bring into picturesque highlands. THERE IS NO DENYING IT. When the youthful composers, Gilbert and Sullivan, launched Pinafore out upon the uncertain sea of public favor they had but little idea of the revolution they would cre- ate in the line of comic opera. Thus it was with Dr. Swayne when he introduced his ointment for skin diseases, Its appearance has been characterized by the curtailment of expense and the total annihilation of scores of worthless nostrums. “Truth is mighty and will prevail.” LAUNCH OF 'THE OREGON, From the Glasgow Herald of June 25. Messre. John Elder & Co., Fairfield, Jaunched on Saturday the Oregon, a mage nificent and powerful vessel for the Guion line of American muil steamers. ‘lhis ves- selis designed as an improvement on the Alaska, which is at present the fastest boat onthe Atlantic. She has finer lines than the famous Greyhound, and as she has also considerably more horse power, it is expect- ed that she will excel the pertormances of that vessel. ‘I'he dimensions of the Oregon are as follows: Length over all, 520 feet; brendth, 54 feet; depth, 40 feet 9 inches; the gross tonnage is about 7,500 tone. ‘The vessel has in all five decks. ‘I'he extremities of the upper deck are well protected by ex- .tensive turtle decks, that at the forward part extending to about 100 feet aft from the stem. On the third or main deck accommo- dations ure provided for 340 first-class, 92 second-class and 110 third-class passengers, ‘The first-class state rooms are replete with all the fittings usual in the highest class of passenger steamers. ‘I'he first-class dining saloon, whichis pliced in the midship part of the vessel forward of the machinery space, is a largeand magnificent apartment, 65 feet long by 54 feet wide and 9 feet in height, and it is so arranged that all the first-class passengers can dine together. “Ample light and ventilation are given to the saloon by a cupola 25 feet long by 15 feet wide, extend- ing up to a lafge skylight, which can be kept open even in the stormiest weather. The state rooms throughout the ship are so arrapged that-nearly all of them ure .fitted for two passengers only, a great luxury and convenience to travellers. who prefer to take a room to themselves. ‘The second-class sa- loon is situated abaft of the engine room and it will be fitted up so as to tend to the com- fort of the passengers. ‘he whole.of the after part above the jigger or after-mast will be fitted up in a substantial manner for the steerage passengers. . ‘The greatest care has been taken in the lighting, ventilation and sanitary arrangements throughout. A com- plete adoption of thevelectric light on the in- sandescent principle will'be made, adding’ greatly to the general effect of the tasteful decorations thronghout. ‘Ite Oregon ‘is di- vided into eleven watertight compartments, and.is placed on the Admiralty list for war purposes if required. . An immense crowd of people gathered in the yard and on the opposite side of the river to witness the launch. When the ves- sel began to leave the ways the spectators ‘raised a cheer, which was prolonged until the ship was fairly in the water. ‘The chris- tening ceremony was gracefully performed by Miss Cargill, daughter of Mr. D. S. Car- gill, After the Jaunch a.number of ladies and gentlemen assembled in the model-room where cake and wine were served. Mr. Pearce, in proposing “Success to the Ore- gon,” remarked that he thought she would . be a fas-er ship than the Alaska, which meant that she would be faster than any other ship in the world. In this age of pro- gress, he thought, they might caleulate that all the ships in the tuture—he did not say individual ships—but all new lines, and some of the old lines, must put on ships that would be in advance, so far as speed was concerned, of anything that was built or building. “AN QCEAN RAFI. From the Philadelphia Inquirer A crowd of curiosity-seekers congregated on the pier at Almond street: wharf yester- day afternoon and gazed with eager. eyes Upon a queer-shaped craft lying in the dock, upon which. it was announced some time ago that two weather-beaten “salts” intend- ed to cross the Atlantic ocean. This odd little vessel is a catamaran . yacht, and con- sists of an inelosed raft, fastened by beams running crossways to two water-tight boats about the length of an ordinary ship’s barge und somewhat narrower. When in ballast the box-like raft in which the crew stow themselves ix several feet clear of the water, and, except in 1 choppy sea ara squall, the interior could be kept as dry as a masthead. The rigging is very light, the gaff, boom and jib being no thicker’ than in yaehts of much smaller size. ‘I'he mast is somewhat stumpy, and is secured by numerous strong Bliys. Several salts stood around criticising her points, and it was the impression of one of them that as soon as the catamaran got out ina heavy sea the boat would part from the raft, which would then swamp. In fact, this theory was based on g000 grounds, for the oaken beams which are fastened to’ the tightly-covered boats seemed entirely too slight to hold out in a sea of any kind. A young man who intends to sail in her on several trial trips, said the craft will be given a thorough overhanling on the dry- dock, and the beams or cross-stays will be strengthened with wrought fron braces, so that it will be impossible to part the floats while timber holds together. Both of the boats will be given a thick covering of sheet iron. ‘They are hollow, and each is provided with an air-tight hateh at the stern, which can only be removed in calm weather with any pafety. In the hold of each boat the provisions will be stored. ‘Ihe craft hasa remarkable speed, and on the day of the Quaker City regatta, some weeks ago, she started with the yachts and rounded the buoy before any of them with only a jib and staysail set to the breeze.