The Pride of the Lakes Shows a Clear Lead

There are many reasons why Detroit should occupy its pre-eminent place among the building points of the great lakes, not the least of which is the fact of its position on one of the finest waters in the universe, where all of the shipping of the great lakes may ride at anchor with perfect safety and entire convenience. A harbor larger than Cleveland, Buffalo, Chicago and Milwaukee combined. Unlimited as to dock room, with depth of water sufficient to float the largest vessel that ever will be built on the lakes; situated in the direct line of lake traffic between the upper and lower lakes, it must of necessity be chosen by far-seeing business men as certain center for the several industries that depend for success on the lake marine. Ship-building and ship-repairing may rise to prominence and sink again to insignificance in other cities, but in Detroit it must live on as long as vessels continue to anchor at its docks, for the transient trade incident on wrecks, conflagrations, and other marine disasters; as well as general repairing, will always be attracted toward Detroit as a convenient point at which to make needed repairs.

The lake marine now trading to the lumber regions, will doubtless in time find other channels in which to gain a livelihood; they will seek points further to the north, as the line of demarcation of the pinions trends in the same direction, but when the lumber traffic of the points which at present furnish remunerative freights to vessels to lower lake ports has dwindled to insignificance, as it certainly will, Detroit will still command this transient trade.

Not to detract from the importance of the shipping interests of the upper lakes, Detroit, of all points between the extreme upper and lower lake ports, will be the most important. Vessels can there ride out in perfect safety the worst gales, seven miles of splendid dock, serrated with slips, lines with warehouses, granaries, elevators, etc., invite the commerce of the great lakes, and make Detroit one of the most important distributing points of the north.

In ship-building Detroit takes place second to none. As at other points the tendency is in the direction of larger craft, as witness the City of Cleveland.

The railroads - the rival of the lake marine - centering at Detroit have made superhuman efforts to capture bodily the export trade, but while their efforts have in part succeeded, the percentage remaining to the mariners, native and foreign, has remained considerable, and at the same time the vessels that compete for that percentage are on the increase in number, size, and tonnage.

Following are some interesting figures, which are of value as showing Detroit's relative value of exports for the several years mentioned. An element of particular value will be found in the fact that the relative value of exports by rail and water can be seen at a glance, showing that while exports by water are considerably the smaller, yet, considering the fact that for four or five months of the year our lakes and rivers are frozen solid and that for two months more at each end of the season navigation is absolutely dangerous, the preponderance of the exports by rail and other means loses its importance and we are forced to reflect that our lake traffic is, considering all things, enormous.

Appended, too, will be found the number of vessels enrolled at the custom house in 1885, and at the present time:

The total exports by other routes than water during these several years were as follows:

Following are the total arrivals and clearances at this port for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1883, 1884 and 1885:

From these figures, which are gathered from the records of the custom house in this district, it would seem that our lake carrying trade was steadily on the decrease, if the value of the exports and the arrivals and the clearance of vessels are to be taken as criterions, but while the number of vessels are apparently on the decrease and the exports are falling off, it must be, however, that the size of vessels and consequently the gross tonnage are increasing in exact proportion as the number of arrivals and clearances decrease, and, too, no note is taken of the immense and almost incalculable domestic or coastwise trade, which it is impossible accurately to determine. The following figures will be of interest and will support the position taken that the tonnage is steadily increasing while the number of vessels remains nearly the same:

On the 30th of June, 1885, the number of vessels enrolled at the Detroit custom house and their classification is as follows:

On the 31st of March, 1886, the termination of the last quarter, the number enrolled is as follows:

Thus indicating an addition to the number of vessels enrolled of two, and an increase in the registered tonnage of 2,192.69 tons, to which during the current quarter there will be added two iron vessels and two steel vessels aggregation 7,000 tons. There were, during the year, four temporary vessels enrolled.

The Moffat Tug and Canada wrecking company of Detroit, Port Huron and Sarnia has the well known A. N. Moffat of 52 Griswold St., Detroit, as manager. The line possesses two of the finest tugs for wrecking purposes along the lakes, fitted with all the appliances and conveniences necessary for the successful prosecution of their business. They make a specialty of Canadian wrecking. They control all the required steam pumps and hawsers necessary for thorough work. The tugs of the line are among the finest for towing purposes to be found anywhere and compose the following fine fleet: AdmiralD. D. Porter, Bob Anderson, William Parks, and they also represent the tugs Wilcox and Folger. They are all manned and equipped in the most thorough manner, in charge of experienced officers and replete with all the necessary conveniences. The barge Colorado is used for lightering and wrecking, of which latter business they make a special feature. Contracts for both American and Canadian wrecking are promptly undertaken, for which they possess unexcelled facilities. Fourteen-inch steam pumps, twelve-inch rotaries, nine-inch centrifugals for sand or coal, divers, tenders and apparatus, a sixty-ton hydraulic jack, hawsers blocks, falls, heavy chains, levers, lever and tragle blocks for lifting wrecks, batteries, leading wires and explosives (for blowing up wrecks, ice, etc.), in fact all the requisite adjuncts necessary for their operation. In addition they have two huge lighters of 1,000 tons capacity used for special deep-water wrecking. F. I. Merriman, so long connected with the Coast Wrecking Company, is wrecking master for this company, which is a guarantee of the fine character of the work they do. Their offices are 52 Griswold street, Detroit, A. N. Moffitt, manager; T. W. McVenn, foot Butler street, Port Huron, and M. Fleming, Sarnia, Ont. Telegrams, correspondence, etc., is attended to with the utmost promptness and dispatch, and the line will doubtless have a large share of the patronage of all vessel men who may require their services. Several successful jobs have already been consummated by the firm, they having performed last season upwards of one-half of all wrecking on the great lakes.

Another industry that is closely allied to that of ship-building, and in which Detroit is also a leading centre, is that of construction of marine engines and other machinery pertaining to the equipment of steam and sailing vessels. One of the oldest and best-known firms engaged in the manufacture of these products is the well-known firm of Samuel F. Hodge & Co., otherwise known as the Riverside iron works, whose extensive establishment occupies the tract of ground extending from 314 to 326 Atwater street, near the foot of Rivard street.

The Riverside iron works, as it is generally known, was first established at the present location in the year 1863, passing through various mutations of partnership until the present company was incorporated in 1883 with a capital stock of $200,000 and officers as follows: Harry S. Hodge, president and treasurer; Joseph Maywoom, secretary; James Sholes, superintendent. The company's property has a frontage of on hundred sixty-five feet on Atwater street, and is four hundred and twenty-five feet deep, extending to the river. The main building, which is four stories in height, was constructed in 1876 and contains all kinds of machinery adapted to this class of work, the machinery being valued at $75,000. There are 175 men employed during the busy season, to whom wages are paid aggregating $5,000 monthly. During the time of its existence the company has built machinery for the propellers Minnie M., Rhoda Emily, Waldo A. Avery, Schoolcraft, Kittie M. Forbes, Osceola, Charles H. Green, Fred McBrier, Oceanica, and Samuel F. Hodge. During the past winter they compounded the propellers Tempest, Garden City, Porter Chamberlain, Ogemaw, A. Folsom and the tug Mocking Bird. They have made new machinery for the James H. Prentice and are at present engaged in the construction of machinery for the new steam barge W. H. Stevens, which is being built in Wheeler's shipyards at Bay City. A specialty is made of propeller wheels, 250 of them having been manufactured during the company's existence, varying in diameter from one of fourteen inches to one of twelve feet, the latter doing service for the steamer Waldo A. Avery, above mentioned. The yards are filled with spare wheels of all sizes, many of which are the property of private vessel owners, who thus provide for future emergency. One important advantage which this firm enjoys over rival concerns , is in the fact that it is the only institution in this city that is so conveniently situated with reference to the water, rendering the shipment of machinery and the equipment of vessels a matter of secondary importance. Their docks extend far out into the Detroit river, and there is water enough in the immediate vicinity to float the largest vessels, and as they possess every appliance for the hoisting of heavy machinery it will readily be seen that they possess peculiar advantages with reference to that class of marine work which falls in their line. The Riverside iron works is not exclusively engaged in the manufacture of marine machinery, but, besides, they do a general casting business and excel as well in the manufacture of stationary engines and mining machinery, specimens of their handiwork doing good service in positions that put them to a thorough test. These are the two new engines that have recently been purchased by the board of water commissioners of this city, which this firm manufactured and set up. Each engine, as is well known, has a capacity of 24,000,000 galloons a day of twenty-four hours, or a grand total of 48,000,000 gallons of water daily. In mining machinery the most considerable sale that this firm has made was the recent sale of 275 tons of mining machinery to Penn iron mining company of this state. This firm does not manufacture marine boilers, but right across the street, at the corner of Atwater and Orleans streets, is the Dry Dock engine works, which, during the season just passed, constructed a total of ten marine boilers at a valuation of $41,000. Four of these, each 12 feet in diameter and 11 feet 3 inches long, are doing service in the magnificent steamer City of Cleveland: another was made for the steam barge William Cowie, and still another for the Mascott of Toledo. They are at present engaged in the construction of four steam boilers, two of which will be put in the new steam barge which the Detroit Dry dock company is building at the Springwells dock; another is being made for the Milwaukee tug boat line. The value of these four boilers will be about $15,000.

The Detroit dry-dock company, which is one of the largest institutions of its kind on the great lakes, enjoying present almost a monopoly of the ship-building interests of the city of Detroit, as well as controlling the extensive yards at Wyandotte, Mich., began its successful career about the year 1852 at the foot of Orleans street, the same location in fact that it has today, passing successively under the management of G. Campbell & Co., whose term of management terminated in 1861, when the firm became Campbell & Owen by the elevation of the present president to the honors of partnership. Campbell, Owen & Co. was the next change, which continued for two years, from 1867 to 1896, when Mr. Campbell, owing to failing health, was compelled to sever his connection with active business affairs and consequently in May, 1870, he withdrew, S. R. Kirby taking his place. Thus the company continued on until on July 2, 1872, the present company was incorporated under the state laws with a capital stock of $300,000, the officers of which are at present time as on the date of incorporation, viz; President, John Owen; consulting and constructing engineer, Frank E. Kirby; secretary and treasurer, A. McVittie; superintendent at Detroit, John Parker; superintendent at Wyandotte, F. A. Kirby.

The original Detroit dock, which was built in the early days of the company's existence, was 240 feet long, 38 feet wide, and 9 feet draft of water; but this after a few year of ever increasing business was found inadequate to the demands made upon it, and in 1865 the present dock was constructed, with dimensions as follows: Length, 306 feet; width, 45 feet; draft, 13 feet. The dockyards have a frontage on Atwater street of 700 feet and extend from that thoroughfare to the river.

Five years after the date of incorporation, viz: in 1879, the extensive ship yards at Wyandotte were purchased of the old veteran ship-builder, E. B. Ward, who had established them in 1872. These yards occupy seven acres, having frontage of 700 feet. In addition there is a slip 600 feet in length. They have every facility for the construction and repairing of all classes and sizes of vessels. They employ during the busy season over six hundred men, and have during their existence built and launched over eighty vessels, which are classified as follows: Steam tugs, 9; screw steamers, 43; side-wheel steamers, 8; barques and schooners, 17; barges, 3, of which 60 were wooden bottoms, 15 iron bottoms, 4 steel and one composite. There are three steam barges now on the stocks, one at Wyandotte and one at each of the Detroit yards. Two of these will be wooden hulls and one composite.

The total valuation of these hulls was over $6,000,000, and it reflects a great credit on the present efficient management as well as on the importance of the lake marine the value of the products of this company's enterprise and the tonnage of vessels built has during the past seven years been double that of the previous twenty years.

The company has also introduced several important innovations in the construction and equipment of vessels, among others the Gordon Campbell, built by this company in 1871, was the first double-decked vessel on the great lakes. Likewise square pilot houses and iron mooring bitts were first introduced to popular favor through the enterprise of the Detroit dry-dock company.

Following is a list of vessels that have been built and launched by this company. Among them will be noticed many vessels the names of which are familiar to every citizen of Detroit and which may be seen in summer and winter plying their vocations on the bosom of the Detroit river, passenger and railroad ferries, powerful tugs and steam barges, and palatial steamers. Among others on the list is one which, though last in the line of construction, is first in the point of excellence - the handsome City of Cleveland, of whose many excellences the public has already been fully informed through the columns of THE TRIBUNE.

Following is the list:

Steam Tugs - Sentinel, wood hull; Stranger, wood hull; Champion, wood hull; Vulcan, wood hull; E. B. Ward, Jr., iron hull; Spoob [sic], steel hull; Niagara, wood hull; M. F. Merrick, wood hull; John Owen, wood hull.

Screw Steamers - Annie Young, wood hull; Jos. L. Hurd, wood hull; S. C. Baldwin, wood hull; Jennie Briscoe, wood hull; Monitor, wood hull; Gordon Campbell, wood hull; Inter Ocean, wood hull; Argonaut, wood hull; Iron Age, wood hull; W. H. Gratwick, wood hull; Lehigh, iron hull; Boston, iron hull; Thomas W. Palmer, wood hull; Samuel F. Hodge, wood hull; Clarion, iron hull; Iron Duke, wood hull; Michigan, iron hull; Wisconsin, iron hull; Brunswick, iron hull; Iron Chief, wood hull; Nellie Torrent, wood hull; Massachusetts, wood hull; Merrimac, wood hull; F. & P. M. No. 1, wood hull; F. & P. M. No. 2, wood hull; W. L. Frost, wood hull; F. R. Roberts, wood hull; William A. Haskell, wood hull; William J. Averell, wood hull; Albany, steel hull; Syracuse, steel hull; 1. new steamer now on the stocks, wood; 2. new steamer now on the stocks, wood; 3. new steamer now on the stocks, composite.

Side Wheel Steamers - R. N. Rice, wood hull; Queen of the Lakes, iron hull; City of Detroit, composite hull; City of Alpena, iron hull; Idlewild, iron hull;City of Milwaukee, iron hull; City of Mackinac, iron hull; City of Cleveland, steel hull.

Barques and schooners - Fortune, wood; Fame, wood; Sunnyside, wood; Sardinia, wood; Emma L. Coyne, wood; Sweetheart, wood; Delaware, wood; Cambridge, wood; Pathfinder, wood; L. S. Hammond, wood; Reindeer, wood; Monticello, wood; Wells Burt, wood; Michigan, wood; Iron State, wood; Iron Cliff, wood; Rob't L. Fryer, wood.

Car and Passenger Ferry Boats - Screw steamers Hope, wood hull; Victoria, wood hull; Excelsior, wood hull; Garland, wood hull; paddlewheel steamers Transport, iron hull; Lansdowne, iron hull; Michigan Central, iron hull; screw steamer Algomah, wood hull; car barges Mackinac, wood hull; Great Western, wood hull; screw steamer Sappho, wood hull.

Barges - John Doyle, wood hull; Robinson, wood hull; Farwell, wood hull.

Besides the docks at Detroit and Wyandotte above described, the Detroit dry-dock company controls the dry-docks at Springwells recently owned by J. P. Clarke and generally known as Clarke's dry-docks.

There are two of these docks, the larger of which has measurements as follows: Length, 360 feet; width at the gates, 68 feet; draft, 11½ feet; the smaller one being 220 feet long, 42 feet wide at the gates, and 12 feet nine inches in draft.

Mr. Clarke while he controlled the yard built the steamers Alaska, Jay Cooke, John Pridgeon, Jr.,Pearl, schooners Pelican, Samuel P. Ely and others. The affairs of this yard are conducted entirely separately from the other yards, but it has the same officers and is practically part and parcel of the Detroit dry-dock system.

The Detroit dry-dock company's work in 1885, which they considered an extremely dull year, including repair work at the upper and lower docks at Detroit, amounted to the sum of $275,000. The two new steamers on the stocks - one in Springwells and one at the old docks, are valued at $118,000 each. The City of Cleveland, which was launched last spring, is $275,000. The old steamer Northwest is also having about $75,000 worth of repair put on her, which will make a new boat entirely excepting the hull and engines.

Thus the company's work during the past and present seasons, excluding the value of the new steamers they are building at Wyandotte, amounting to $80,000, is $830,000.

The Dry-dock engine works is the only institution besides the Riverside iron works that makes marine engines to any extent. They furnished last year a pair of non-condensing engines for the steel passenger steamer Mascott, built at Wyandotte. Last year was a quiet one in this line of marine business, the above constituting the only work; but this year the outlook is much better, and the company has in course of construction two compound engines each 28 and 48 by 40, one compound engine 27 and 46 by 40, and one compound engine 22 and 40 by 40.

Last year they compounded the the engine of the old propeller S. C. Baldwin. The engine, repairs etc., including the four new boilers, the four engines and four boilers to go in the same boats, amount to the sum of $108,000, bringing the total value of their work up to $112,000.

Thomas McGregor, at the corner of Congress and Third, built eleven boilers in 1885, which, together with mountings, etc., cost $40,000. The propeller S. Folsom, Maine, and J. H. Prentiss each had one, measuring 12 by 15, 9.6 by 15, and 11 by 12½ feet, respectively. The new propeller W. H. Stevens gets two of the above, each 10 by 11 feet.

The boiler record of 1885-6 is completed with an additional $5,000 in repairs work done by Joseph Sprenger, whose shops are located near the Springwells ship yards. His work, which is exclusively repairs work, includes general repairs on the propellers Forest City, R. J. Hackett, Andrew J. Smith, Iron Duke, steamer Idlewild, tug A. A. Turner, and Champion, the latter's boilers being taken apart and a new water bottom put in. The ship chandlery amounted to about $300,000 last year, and the indications that are that the coming season will exceed the last by fully 25 per cent, the principal firms being engaged in the business being J. P. Donaldson & Co. and H. D. Edwards & Co.

Recapitulation for Detroit:

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