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20 DEVOTED TO EVERYTHING AND EVERY INTEREST CONNECTED OR ASSO- CIATED WITH MARINE MATTERS ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. Published every Thursday by 'The Penton Publishing Co; 7. CLEVELAND. BUPRAIS©® ....2000...205.5- 932. Ellicott: Sa. CHICAGO .:::.....0<.. 1362 Monadnock Blk. CINCINNATI 124 Government Place. NEW YORK .........1005 West Street Bldg. PITTSBURG 521 Park Bldg. DULUTH. «0.2.5... ......411 Providence' Bldg. Correspondence on Marine Engineering, Ship Building and Shipping Subjects Solicited. Subscription, U. S, and Mexico, $3.00 per annum. Canada, $4.00. Foreign, $4.50. Subscribers can have addresses changed at will. Change of advertising copy must reach this office on Thursday preceding date of pee publication, The Cleveland News Co. will supply the trade with the Maringz Review through the regular channels of the American ie News Co. European Agents, The International News Company, Breams Building, Chancery Lane, London, E. C, England, Entered at the. Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio, as Second Class. Matter. 8 August 8, 1907. UNCLE SAWM'S FOREIGN CRUISER. | The Boston Transcript in its issue of August 1, publishes an editorial relative to the chartering of Dunottar Castle by the United States govern- ment for service between New York and Colon in conjunction with the Canal. The story could not be better told than the Transcript 'tells it, and for that reason it is published below in full. eonstruction of the -Panama The Dunottar Castle was one of England's crack liners during the South African war, having carried both Lord Roberts and Kitchner to South Africa. ment attaches to her is proved by the fact that the "Bobs" and. the Sirdar planned South African campaign has not been That a certain senti- stateroom in which the THE MARINE REVIEW opened sirice and has been kept pre- The Dunottar Castle is British all. over, and, the na- cisely as they left it. tional' regard in which she is held: is a splendid thing. But why can't the United States create a similar senti- Why doesn't it go about the business of ment about its merchant ships? getting a merchant marine of its own without chartering foreign steamships with coats of arms, uniforms and all that? It is not sufficient to say that there are no American steamships of- fering for the service. There - would be plenty of American steamships of- fering if the American steamer was accorded fair play by its own govern- ment. The American merchant marine is imposed upon because it is' feeble. The Transcript is right in saying that if the government imported the wool- ens to make uniforms for its soldiers such a clamor would be raised as would shake the very foundations of government. In fact, the government would not dare do such .a'? thing. Why not? Because the textile indus- try is powerful, too powerful tor any executive department to take liberties The. real trouble with the American merchant marine is that it with it. is weak and therefore can with im- punity be imposed upon. It is not a square deal' to charter a foreign ship to perform a service that is wholly American; quite as much American in fact as the -transfer of commerce from one American port to another. The Isthmian Canal Com- mission knew two years ago that it Why did it not order them to be built-in an American would want ships. yard then? It knows that. it will need Why does 'it Following is ships two years hence. not order them now? the Transcript editorial: Few of us, even in maritime New Eng- land, know that the American government is in the merchant steamship business--that is; it is operating, in the name of the Isthmian Canal Commission and the Panama Railroad, a regular line of mail, passenger and freight steamers from New York to Colon. Up 'to the other day this United States service was composed of American-built and American- manned steamers. But there has now ap- peared in the line a thorough-going British craft flying the flag of the royal naval re- serve, with a _ royal. coat-of-arms above the name Dunottar Castle on the stern, and of- ficers and sailors walking the decks in the royal naval reserve uniform. This is an odd departure for Uncle Sam. It is almost as if our Navy Department. had borrowed a cruiser; guns, men and all, from the British admiralty. The war department says, by way of explanation and defense, that 'ship constructed. protected 'cannon. before it chartered this British auxiliary cruiser for our 'national' service it searched high and low for a spare American steam- ship among our coasting: fleet, and the few American ships in over-seas. service, and. that it could not find one vessel disengaged. Doubtless this is true, but the war depart- ment is not altogether exculpated, for the need of another ship on this Isthmian line, if there is: need, could have been foreseen. a year or two years ago and a good American Unfortunately for the deep sea part of the merchant marine it is not a industry. 'Somehow ' nobody hears that the government of the United States is. purchasing woolen cloth abroad for the uni- forms of its soldiers and sailors, though it can be had a great deal more cheaply there, or buying foreign steel for armorplates_ or If the protective principle were thus invaded, the war department and the navy department know vety well that there would be a sudden descent of powerful senators and representatives on Washington,; and a remonstrance from the rich and _ formidable protected industries which would shake the national capital to its very depths. American ship owners are not very numerous, and thé industry as a whole is undeniably feeble. This Dunottar Castle, by the way, is her- self the product of a protected industry and a British industry at that. She belongs to the fleet of the Union Castle Line, which for many years has been receiving a generous subsidy from the British and colonial govern- ments. This subsidy at the present time is $650,000 a year. Ships in receipt of it must be built on designs approved by the British admiralty. So it happens that the Dunottar Castle, which the United States government has hired, is a British man-of-war masquerad- ing as a merchantman. She is, however, a man-of-war for which the® British admiralty has no present use--that is, she is 15 years or more old and is, therefore, regarded as antiquated in the British service, though quite good enough to loan to Uncle Sam. In the Boer war the Dunottar~ Castle, as a British troop ship, had the distinction of carryin~ out to the Cape not only General Buller, who failed, but Lord Roberts and Kitchener, who succeeded. . For three years or more the Dunottar Cas- tle has been: laid up for sale on the other side, but, the price asked was. so high that she has found no purchaser. Now she is hired out to the Untied States, but it is sienificant that the Dunottar Castle in all es- sentials remains a British ship. She is in charge of naval reserve officers and naval re- serve seamen, and only the servants are to be shipped from among American citizens at the port of New York. There was a time when an episode like this would have stirred the country, but we have grown used to seeing our flag whipped from. the high seas--and there are those, though: not of New England, who apparentlv enjoy the spec- tacle. ; The Dunottar Castle will carrv out to the Isthmus the United States mails, materials, and 'supplies 'for the canal' ahd such ? of- ficial and unofficial passengers. as may chance to be going. Whenever she arpears at either Colon or New. York, she will be a reminder that we cannot get out to the American canal, which we are digging at such a huge cost of money, without hiring a steamship from abroad--and that when this canal is com- pleted it may float few merchant ships but those of foreign nations, our rivals in trade and nossible enemies in war. RAID ON COASTWISE LAW. New latterly published an editorial, the gist of which was that no appreciable in- The York Maritime Register jury would be worked to American ship owners if eastern shippers of coal were, accorded the privilege of employ- ing foreign. vessels to carry coal to San Francisco. This editorial follow- ing immediately upon the chartering of foreign ships by the navy depart- ment for this very purpose was. evi- dently inspired by quarters interested in breaking down the coastwise laws. But © '