Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), 23 Jan 1902, p. 18

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18 ) MARINE REVIEW. [January 28, A RECORD IN SCOTCH SHIP BUILDING. BY BENJAMIN TAYLOR, GLASGOW. The year 1901 has been a record one in ship building and shipping everywhere, but nowhere more so than in Scotland. Here our ship yards never were busier, beginning the century with orders on hand to the extent of upwards of half a million tons. In the early part of the year there was little new booking because the cost of material was still above _ the ideas of ship owners, and a general decline in coal and iron was ex- pected. In the early summer, however, a great revival of demand set in, and for several months in succession our builders booked freely, and largely, so much so that material, which had cheapened, began to stiffen again. It was not, however, a rise in material, but a fall in freights which choked off the demand for new ships. During the last three months of the year ship builders have booked little, but, during that period, as over all the year, they have been busily engaged with the contracts they had on hand. There is no room for doubt that too many ships have been built during the last two or three years, not only in Scotland but everywhere, and that had not such a large amount of tonnage been taken up by gov- ernment, in connection with the South African war, the glut would have been felt earlier and would have been more pronounced. My present purpose, however, is not to discuss the commercial aspects, but to present some data of the work actually done in, perhaps, the busiest year in the history of industry. It has been a year in which ship builders' profits cannot have been very large, for material, coal and wages have remained high. And it has been a bad year for ship owners, especially in the last half. Never has there been such an amount of tonnage produced in any one year, and it is doubtful if in any previous year there was such a low general range of freights. As to the actual: amount. of ship building done, before I deal with Scotland specifically, I give the following summary in terms of the board of trade (not builders') measurement, of the entire output of the United Kingdom in 1901 and also in 1900: 1901. 1900. Vessels. Tons. THe: Vessels. Tons. EHP: Scotland <......; 376 554,406 472,190 406 584,759 490,646 England ....- ., 884 1,091,347 895,328 816 994,519 679,380 ireland 4. .s ones 23 151,922 109,300 96 =---:181,431 67,600 ota Gs... 1,233 1,797,675 1,476,818 1,248 1,660,709 1,287,626 The Scotch ship yards and engine shops thus provided practically one-third of the output of steam tonnage of the United Kingdom. The number of vessels turned out in Scotland as compared with England is evidence of the great variety of craft turned out by the Scotch yards. If builders' measurements were taken as the basis of comparison the Scotch total would be about 20,000 tons more than in the above table. The con- tributions of the several ship building districts of Scotland have been as under: 01. i : Vessels. tone TEP: Vessels. wena THe: Civde 6 ees 297 511,990 440,125 | 318 486,387 459,138 Horth 2 8. 82 2 715,528 2,935 33 18,402 5,490. ble ee A eee 16 20,458 20,460 14 21,639 17,228 Dee ee. i es 6,435 8,670 41 8,381 8,790 3876. 554,406 472,190 406 534,759 490,646 'The. great ship building centers of the United Kingdom are the Clyde, the Tyne, the Wear, the Tees, the Thames, and Belfast. Now see how the Clyde compares with these: Clyde output .......» a ee ar 511,990 tons. Pyne OUP: x. - cose ere te ee ee ester rece re® Rio lal.. Tees and Hartlepool output..........---+++-+> nae 312,070" Wear output 255.25. eh hs be een 270,50, .. " Temes OUEPUt aes sc te Cae ee Ala acc ae 50,400..." Belfast, etc: Output: .. 6 hae oe eos fae. ns Iba ee = The output of the royal dock yards was 64,910 tons, which looks big compared with only 5,230 tons in 1900; but the two years together are really under the average. Warship tonnage means displacement, not meas- urement, All the other ship yards in the world outside of the United King- dom seem to have turned out in 1901 about 860,000 tons. So that the Clyde output is more tham half the tonnage built abroad. It is very nearly equal to the whole output of the United States and Germany put together. And yet it does not include the yard with the largest individual output, that distinction belonging to Harland & Wolff of Belfast, whose record was 92,316 tons, whilst the largest individual Clyde record was that of Russell & Co., Port Glasgow, with 58,337 tons. The individual output of each ship: building firm in the Clyde district, by board of trade measurement, along side the outputs of 1900 is given below: Sail. Steam. 1901, 1900, 5 Vessels. Tons. Vessels. Tons. Tons. Tots. Russell & Co........ Se). 754, 14 O47 BR SRT A441 John Brown & Co........ ae ona 4 49,800 49,800 26,250 Chas. Connell & Co....... cee. 68t6 «8286 W. Denny & Bros........ 1 60 19 35,206 35,266 -- 30,603 The Fairfield Co.......... ee 3 8565 28565 17,765 D. & W. Henderson ..... 3 482 &: 24081 24568. 29,043 Aa oieinen & Sous 4.64... ae 4 21,906 21,906 34,555 A, Rodger & Co.......+-- 7 "19974 19974". 19°615 Barclay, Curle & Co...... ; wre 4 19,072 19,072 17,650 W. Hamilton & Co....... B 6005 © 8 E867 ipio7a «39/490 London & Glasgow Co... . os 4 17,552 Vi boa © 4.700 W. Beardmore & Co...... eeaey pho 6280 Napier & Miller .......... aes & | 17,067 ,. 17067 21 IR R. Duncan & Go---:...... et 14 819 0 SO i ate, 9, 13974 .13974 29.970 A. McMillan & Son....... 5 19.788 18.788". iB-016 Cad BCG. ae ces sh tne : 2 18387 18887. 99°714 Grangem'th&Greenock..Co. . eee 7 12,696 12,696 © 4.910 AUST them 6-5... 1 a 8 eh «10 one abt W. Simons & Co......... re ead" © eako -tyir60 Sail. Steam. 1901. 1900. Vessels. Tons. - Vessels. Tons. Tons. Tons. Macki Thomson..<:..< 8 6,377 6,377 6,301 D. J : Saiop C6. : 3 5,433 5,433 8,320 Fleming & Ferguson ..--. - eG 8 5,400 5,400 3,300 The Ailsa Co.7,-33.¢7-4-- 4 128 5 4,876 5,004 5,340 Lobmiz @ €6.,..05...--. pee) 2 1e 4,606 4,606 8,100 The Civde C0. ..i.2.5 3. : oes 6 4,265 . 4,265 1,700 Campbeltown Co. .....--- : oe 2 3,156 . 3,156 4,473 - Ritchie, Graham & Milne. 7 750 2 2,200 2,950 1,620 Alley & McLellan -.....--. 24 2,441 1 50 2,491 1,105 John Reid & Co.........-. ; sees 1 2,217 2,217 4,296 Bow, McLachlan & Co.... . 7 2,208 2,208 2,602 Murdoch & Murray ...-.- : 2 BAT 2117 3,351 The Irviie 0452. ; 3 1,840 1,840 1,620 ° J. Fullerton & Co......-.. : 4 1,735 1,735 2.365 SoM¢Knight &°Co..-.-.: : 3 1,691 1,691 1,215 i Scott 6 =Sons. 3)... ee g 5 1,373 P38 1,264 J. Shearer '& Son.:.....-- : oe 2 966 966 528 W. Chalmers & Co:..:.... 2 300 12 476 776 410 'The Ardrossay Coc... : aia. 3 761 761 920) DM: Comming 2.5.22. 5 320 1 300 620 200 Cothran *@' Cot ss es : eon 1 500 500 629 Geo, Brown & Cores... ; Pees 2 350 350 ss | WePife & Son...s. He i 230 as eae 230 62 R. McAllister & Son...... - PES 6 172 172 60 Burrelb&: Sons. ioe. 0 ; 1 120-72 120 a8 DSc Ts Paya Oy a, : Hee: 1 120 120 100 Ac Maumee: 20080 oe 5 80 i na 80 30 Paul Jones & Co.........- ; sis i 70 70 cae T° BY Seath G00... 2.55 ; ee. 1 50 - 60 455 James Adams ..:-/sse.... : Ps 1 25 26 52 A: Roberton 0. sss: 1 16 - sue 16 oo 65 19,812 282. . 492,678 511,990 486,337 The 1901 total includes sixty-five sailers of 19,312 tons, of which Russell & Co. built two of 7,540 tons, W. Hamilton & Co. three of 6,905 tons, and Alley & McLellan twenty-four small craft aggregating 2,440 tons. The following statement shows the output of previous years: Tons. Tons, 1900 Me ec: 486,337 NSS9 eee ioe oa 325,201 TSO0 0 os cea eee 491,074 T8868 ..2...08: oe 280,037 LS9S8a ae, eee, 466,832 POST er es Re 195,362 [SOG 840 037. 4), 1BBGke :.. .;.. ee 172,440 L896 ais ee 420,341 SOO) ence re ce we 193,453 1895. 2 seo as 860,152 PRBH oe ee oe. 2 296,854 18045 es ee ee: 840,885. - ASR Poole. 419 664 [8033 ae ae, Ge ee". 280,160 RSA as os ere ee 391,984 18928 Sere Gee 336,414 © USC ies a fee ces 841,022 VSOLe. eee ee. 325,477 - WOOO Se ere eee! 241,114 18000 as cei , 862,168 || In twenty-two years the output has oe than doubled. Compared with 1886 it has trebled. C A GREAT VARIETY OF WORK. The work of the year has been very varied. That of Russell & Co., who head the list, has been, with the exception of two sailers, entirely of cargo boats ranging from 1,300 to 5,000 tons each, for British and foreign owners. That of Wm. Denny & Bros. has included the famous Shamrock II and the steam turbine passenger boat King Edward, as well as liners for the Indian, New Zealand & Australian service. The output of John Brown '& Co., Clydebank, has included two first-class cruisers for the British government, and a torpedo boat destroyer, as well as the_two American (international) liners, Haverford and Merion. That of Caird ' & Co. consisted solely of two big liners for the eastern trade of the Peninsular & Oriental Co. That of D. & W. Henderson & Co. included ' the cutter yacht Kariad, which has made a name for herself in the past season, and a couple of barges, as well as three new Anchor liners, and a couple of other large boats for Dutch and Scotch owners. The output of the Fairfield company consisted of two very, large cruisers for the _ British navy, and a liner for Japan. That of Charles Connell & Co. included a Castle liner as well as a number of big cargo b of Alex. Stephen & Sons included a 10,000-ton boat a Se Anan service, as well as ordinary craft. That of Barclay, Curle & Co. con- sisted of one City liner and three Union-Castle liners. That of William Hamilton & Co. consisted of three sailers and three large cargo steamers. The output of the London & Glasgow Co., Glasgow, consisted of one first-class cruiser for the British navy and three liners for the China trade. That of William Beardmore & Co. consisted of one small despatch boat for the British government, two Union-Castle liners and a 10,000-ton - cargo liner. That of Scott & Co. included no fewer. than six boats of about 2.000 tons each for China. - That of A. McMillan & Co. included two "Clan" liners, a couple of 1,000-ton boats for Mexico, and a large cargo tramp. The output of A. & J. Inglis consisted of two British India Steam Navigation Co. liners and some small craft for the colonies and home. That of Wm. Simons & Co. included five big dredgers for foreign countries, two for the British colony of Natal, and four hopper barges for home employment. That of Lobnitz & Co. consisted also of dredgers and dredging plant for home and foreign owners. It is unnecessary to gO over the whole list, but these items are taken at random in order to show the great variety of the work done by Clyde ship builders. _ The yards on the Forth (Leith, Grangemouth ut thirty-two vessels of 15,500 tons as cai Rane with hick titne ee of 18,400 tons in 1900. These were for the most part small and moderately- sized cargo boats, steam yachts, tugs and steam fishing vessels. The yards on ithe Tay,(Dundee), turned out sixteen vessels of 20,460 tons, as compared with fourteen vessels of 21,640. tons in 1900. The most note» worthy product of the year was the Antarctic exploration vessel. Di

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