Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1888-08-24
Safely Towed From Nova Scotia to
New York.

that an account of recent grea
venture will be acceptable reading
Hugh r. Robertson, of st. Johns
n. b., has long believed that great
expense could be saved by towing
an immense raft of logs from
Canada to New York, instead ot
loading them on ships. 1t will bC
remembered that he patented 6
plan and attempted it last year
but in a gale the tug parted from il
and it drifted of causing great
fear of n collision with some ship.
However, it broke up and no dam
age ensued.
Robertson and j. ID. Leary tried
another one this year, with marked
success. 1t is an enormous affair
and looks in the water like some
prehistoric whale or the upturned
bottom of giant ship. 1t is cigar
shaped 592 feet long, 80 feet beam,
tapering to - feet beam at the end,
IS feet in depth or hold and draws %
to % feet of water. 1t contains 2l,-
800 spruce and pine logs, ranging
from % feet to 50 feetin length, with
a diameter, at the butt, of from II
to 26 inches. 1t weighs about l5,-
600 tons, contains about 10000
feet of lumber, board measure cost
when launched $4,000 and is worth
from $4,000 to 5000 delivered in
New York.
1t was bound together with fifty
eight triple bands of seven-eigh tn
inch crucible steel wire through
the center there runs Il double one
and three-quarter-inch cable,
which is connected with the wire
bands by cross cables. Forty-five
miles of wire and $500 feet of cable
were used. This went to Nova
Scotia from American factories
duty free, being for re-shipment.
The great mass was built on stocks
and launched like ship, and was
towed from the center cable. The
fee for towing it was 5000. To
bring this in the ordinary way
would have required forty-five
schooners at a total cost of at least
$4,000, a saving in favor of the raft
of S31 900 or more.
Many attempts were made to
annoy the promoters of the enter
prise. Owners of lumber coasters
endeavored to have congress pass a
bill prohibiting such RATS in the
American waters, and Canadian OF
ponents claimed that the timber
was intended for manufacture
abroad and was consequently liable
to the export duty Of 81 per thou
sand feet broad measure that
Canada imposes on timber exported
for manufacture. These obstacles
were, however successfully over
come.
1t is probable that next year will
see several such RATS built, and
Messrs. Robertson & Leary con-
fidently expect that ere many years
they will send great timber RATS to
Europe. The next raft will be sup
piled with steering apparatus, and
the logs on the bottom will be
peeled, thus the raft will give much
less resistance to the water and will
glide along much faster with the
iame expenditure of force.
The saving effected by this mode /
If transportation is immense. |
First there is the saving in freight,
md it costs little if any more to build |
iuch a raft than to stow the same |
quantity in schooners. If the timber
$ intended for manufacture the
export duty is 81 per
900 feet, while the United States
a du,y Of 50 per 1000 feet
IN manufactured lumber. But
Inder our laws unmanufactured
imber comes in free Of duty, so that
raft Of these dimensions 1900, ,0O0,-
'OO) of fine timber, intended to be
awed here, would pay "A Canadian
export duty Of 5000 and save the
United States import duty Of $1,000
we're il already cut into beams,
,Oards, etc.
1t would be cut up here and give
10 men around New
York instead Of men in the wilds Of
Nova Scotia This is not the only
economy, however. There is great
waste In timber sawed or manu-.
actured where grown. All the
,OOr stuff j. left behind. In fact, IL
! estimated that the ordinary waste
would pay the freight Of a raft
DIED.