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28 MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. RETROSPECT OF SHIPPING. A Comprehensive Review of the Year 1902 by the Shipping World of Lon- don--Marine Engineering, Wireless Telegraphy, Liquid Fuel and Subsidies. The Shipping World Year Book for 1903 is out. It is a port: directory of the world, including the tariffs of all nations, published by the Shipping World of London. The additions to the volume are the new tariffs of Australia, China, Newfound- land, the Transvaal, the Philippines, Venezuela and other coun- tries; the new admiralty regulations for the training of naval officers; the naval expenditure and merchant navies of nations; a list of customs boarding stations; new board of trade rules; customs regulations governing the importation of sugar and articles of cognate description, and many other things of inter- est. A new feature has also been incorporated, being a retrospec- tive view of the year 1902, and it is with this that we will deal at length, for it possesses many facts of interest. Moreover Major Jones, the editor, has views of his own which add zest to his narrative. Concerning the position of ship building nations he says: The clouds of coming depression have been casting their shadows upon the commerce and industries of the world for nearly two years. The realities of bad times, overdue, were staved off by the adventitious demand for, and high prices of, labor, materials, freights and shipping, produced by the war in South Africa. With the return of peace and the cessation of abnormal demands, the ranks of labor, and the volume of merchant ton- nage available to carry on the oversea commerce increased, whilst the world's profitable shipping business fell rapidly away. The prosperity enjoyed by German industries, created largely by artificial means in the Reichstag and financial circles, after waning for two years, has been submerged by a wave of adversity almost without parallel in the Fatherland. Indeed this adversity has _ been general and severe throughout Europe. We of these British Isles have felt it least of all in the old world; but we are feeling it now. For about six months of the year. prices and wages were maintained at a high level, while ocean freights were low, and orders for new tonnage could only be secured at prices which yielded no adequate, if any, margin of profit. The picture in the kaleidoscope is changing; there are thousands out of work; prices of steel, of plates, of copper, coal and timber are declin- 'ing despite all efforts to keep them up. Fortunately, the leaders of trade unions are thoughtful, strong men. They know that the. tide of trade may not forever flow--that it must fall with some- thing of the regularity of the rise--and they may be counted upon to discourage and avoid conflict against the inevitable. Prices must sink further, while the world's needs go on increas- ing, creating demands at the lower prices and in an atmosphere of returning confidence. But let us not mistake the Indian sum- mer, with its maple syrup, which is but the harbinger of slush and snow and hard frost, for the reason of long days of warmth, ripe fruit, and luxuriant crops leading to harvest. "In shipping and ship building (which we shall deal with presently) Britian is an easy first. Even the German and French yards, with their cheaper labor, are unable to compete in price and expedition with those of England, Ireland and Scotland. Less favorable still is a comparison to the establishments of the United States, for, notwithstanding their substantial advantages in coal, steel, plates and labor-saving machinery, British yards can build first-class tonnage at prices from 30 to 4o per cent less than those on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The alleged rea- son given for this remarkable discrepancy is that the artisans and laborers engaged in the American ship building and engineering industries are better paid than their fellows in British yards. That American workers draw larger pay is admittedly true. Equally true is it that they work for longer hours. The inter- esting question for economists who are concerned with the facts is this: How does the purchasing power of an hour's work done on the Delaware compare with that of the Clyde? Perhaps the position of the British artisan in respect of the rewards, con- ditions and hours of work is the most favorable--the best--of any artisan anywhere. We are waiting for additional light to be shed upon this important question by the reports of the in- dividual members of the Moseley commission. THE WORLD'S PRODUCTION OF TONNAGE, _ "The world's production of tonnage in 1902 reached 2,476 ships, aggregating 2,733,024 tons. To these totals British ship builders (including the colonies, with eighty-six ships of 24,700 tons) contributed 1,459 ships, making 1,660,354 tons, leaving only 1,017 ships of 1,063,670 tons, being 39 per cent of the total output, to be supplied by the other fifteen ship building countries of the world. It will be noticed that the foreign list is headed by. the United States, whose output though slightly below the figures of 1901 is still well above the total of her nearest competitor, Ger- many. The greatest tonnage output by a single firm during the year was that of the American Ship Building Co. (combination on the great lakes), whose several yards sent afloat 132,197 tons of shipping. Then comes the ship yard of Messrs. Harland & Wolff of Belfast with 79,497 tons, a total which seems small. But a comparison of values would reverse the order of priority. "It were out of place to enter into particulars in this survey. We may say, however, that 1902 was a year of 'records.' Messrs. Marland & Wolff launched the largest ship ever built in the [Mar. 12, Cedric, of 20,970 gross tons; the Kaiser Wilhelm IJ., of 20,100 tons and 40,000 I. H. P., to steam 24 knots an hour, and there- fore to be the fastest merchant ship afloat, was launched by the Vulcan Co. of Stettin. The new Cunarders to be built, one by Vickers, Sons & Maxim and the other by Messrs. C. S. Swan & Hunter, Ltd., are designed to pass her; and Mr. J. C. Tecklen- borg of Geestemunde got the largest full-rigged sailing ship, the Prussen, of 5,080 tons, afloat during the old year. AN ANALYSIS OF BRITISH TONNAGE. "An analysis of last year's British tonnage output reveals the fact that only 6.24 per cent of it was destined for warlike purposes; and of the total merchant tonnage launched 94.4 per cent was steam. In 1991 this ratio stood at 96.1 per cent and in 1900 at 97.8 per cent, so there is a tendency towards the build- ing of sailing ships. For the three years given the sailing ton- nage launched equalled 89,127 tons in 1902, 62,313 tons in I9OT, and 34,558 tons in 1900. The tonnage launched from British yards for foreign buyers, which in 1900 amounted to 430,495 tons, or 26 per cent of the output, had fallen in 1901 to 364,379 tons, or 20.8 per cent, and fell still lower last year to 283,002, or 17.3 per cent of the ships launched. Against this decline may be set the fact that the British colonies ordered more British-built tonnage in.1902 than in any previous year. 'The totals were: 1002, «76,326 tons; 1001, 26,230 tons 1000; -5,084 tons: 'Last year Austria headed the list of foreign customers with orders for 39,267 tons, Germany coming second with 35,891 tons, or less than. half her total for 1900. Norway and Sweden bought new ships from British builders last year to the extent of 24,285 tons, and Greece 21,272 tons; no other country passing the 20,000 tons mark, "Though the gain is small, it is interesting to note that the average size of the merchant ships (the vessels that remain after deducting warships, yachts, fishing craft, barges, etc.) launched from British yards last year reached 3,903 tons apiece, as against an average of 3,757 tons each for the same class of ships launched in the previous year. But the big ship is most: notable in the case of Messrs. Harlands & Wolff, whose seven vessels averaged 13,250 tons: And not one of these vessels is meant to be a "flyer." All are intended to carry large cargoes at economical speeds. Roughly stated, a 24-knot Atlantic liner costs twice as much as a 20-knot vessel designed to make the same trip. Sim- ilarly, to gain 10 per cent in speed on a 21-knot boat a 23-knot boat of equal weight would require 55 per cent more power. Such is the cost of speed. But if we are content with reason- able speeds then the economy of the big ship is soon apparent. It needs only to be said that the cost of a 9,000-ton steamer for coal is less than half that of a 4,000-ton steamer per ton per mile. Thus we have gone on increasing the size of our ships without materially adding to their speed, until now we find our latest White Star leviathians carrying a ton of cargo over a dis- tance of 220 miles for expenditure of one pennyworth of coal. As a corollary, the big ships imply larger docks and deeper chan- nels, and the value of contracts now being. executed in har- bors, docks and piers is about £13,000,000. ENGINEERING AND THE WORLD'S MERCANTILE MARINE. "On the earth no startling innovations in engineering marked the progress of 1902 across the vista of time. And those who fain would soar into the heavens above the earth have still be- fore them the task of designing a satisfactory (air ship.) Nor can it be said that unqualified success has crowned the efforts of those who would go down into the waters under the earth. Whether considered as a warlike weapon or a commerce carrier, the submarine gives but a halting promise in respect of the future. Certainly the most interesting feature of the marine engineering year was the further popularization of the steam turbine. The total power of turbine vessels completed, or nearly completed, including torpedo-boat destroyers, yachts and passen- eer steamers is now about 83,000 H. P., a figure which shows that the turbine is well beyond the experimental stage. Nor are the reasons for this far to seek. The turbine takes up but little space; it is light; it is not liable to break down, and it requires less skilled attention than the reciprocating engine. So complete has been the success of the Clyde turbine passenger steamers, King Edward and Queen Alexandra, that the builders, Messrs. Denny & Bros. of Dumbarton, Scotland, have now several vessels of the same type on hand intended for cross-channel service. If these vessels behave well in a rough sea, orders for even larger turbo- motored ships may soon be expected. The new motor has proved itself most suitable for fast continuous steaming 'in smooth water. That it will be a success commercially in slow vessels and in rough weather has yet to be proved. The first part of the problem will probably find its solution in the performances of Sir Chris- topher Furness's turbine yacht, the Emerald, designed for the comparatively slow speed of 16 knots, while valuable data as to the behavior of the turbine vessels in rough weather will be fur- nished by the new English channel steamers now in construction at Dumbarton. Mr. Parsons believes thoroughly in the turbine for ocean liners, and, what is perhaps of even greater importance, so do many of our leading ship and engine builders. "The total power of the machinery constructed by marine engineering firms throughout the United Kingdom in 1902 was 1,314,502 I. H. P., or close upon 12 per cent less than in the previous year. But the total steam tonnage launched decreased by 9 per cent, so, therefore, the proportion of power per ton averaged