Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-10-28


Their than twice around the globe 1t car.
ore. This hold is entered by thirty-four
matches. 1t has three great compartments
all of which are filled every trip When
outside the harbor the matches are closed
and the main part of the deck is long ex.
panse of steel, absolutely free of rigging or
any obstruction whatever.
The vessel is more like great barge
than modern steamer, and one would
never imagine its fine machinery and won
derful efficiency. The engines which were
made at Cleveland, are of triple expansion
and of $500 horsepower They send this
ten-thousand-ton ship through the water at
speed of thirteen miles an hour, and that
at the expenditure of only about two and
one-fourth tons of coal The ship makes the
round trip from Lake Erie to Duluth and
back in seven days, and within that time it
loads and unloads its cargo of 1900 tons.
Some OF the vessels on the Atlantic use as
much coal in one day as this ship does in a
week and they carry less freight. The
larger Of the Atlantic greyhound. consume
upward of 500 tons of coal in one day
The Farrell is driven through the water
by propeller, a great steel screw which
weighs seven tons and which is composed
OF four blades which make revolution and
a half every second This Is fastened to a
steel shaft, as big around as peck measure,
which is turned by the engine. As It moves
1t forces the ship on through the water.
1t is in vessels like the Farrell that tho
most of the Great Lakes traffic is carried.
There are hundreds of such ships which
take down the grain and ore from Lake
Superior to the ports of Lake Michigan
and Lake Erie and bring back coal from
Lake Erie to Duluth. The freight that Is
carried across Lake Superior in one wear
is worth almost billion dollars, and in
tons it AMOUNTS to just about ninety-two
millions.
The wheat that goes down from the head
OF the lakes is more than a quarter of !,
billion bushels per annum, and in addition
there are ten million barrels of flour and
more than ninety million bushels of other
grain. AS to iron ore, the amount carried
IN 1915 as | have said, was more than six
seventies of all Our iron mined that wear.
The coal carried was about sixteen million
tons, enough to fill a train of 5O-ton cars
reaching from New York to San Francisco
In addition there was vast deal of mer-
chandise and tens of thousands OF pas
sengers
The passengers went on steamers that
carry also freight and the ordinary mer-
chandise on what are known as package
trelghters, steam vessels of from 5000 to
5000 tons, which move along from port to
port from Buffalo to Chicago and from Buff
falo to Duluth There are number of oil
tankers which transport kerosene, gasoline
and other oils. Their business amounts to
several hundred thousand tons everv wear
Since the war began the freight rates OF
the Great Lakes have increased enorm-
ously. The shipping has doubled in value,
and anything that will float can be sold to
men who want to take it out to the Atlantic
and use 1t III the ocean-going trade The
Farrell cost 100000 to build three or four
years ago. 1t could probably be sold for a
million and a half dollars today Since the
war began seventy-one vessels have
changed hands and most of them have gone
out to the Atlantic. Some OF these have
been freighters of upward of 10000 tons.
They have been cut in two to get through
the Welland canal, and then put together
and taken out to the ocean. Many of the
ships have gone to England and France
AS to the freight rates, at the last census
they were about one-tenth of those charged
by the railroads. | am told that during
the first part of 1914 wheat was being car
ried from Duluth to Buffalo for cent and
half bushel, and it had fallen as low as