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1902.] MARINE REVIEW. | 23 NO COMFORT FOR ENGLAND. GLOOMY VIEWS OF THE SHIPPING COMBINATION FROM ENGINEERING, ONE : OF THE LEADING SHIPPING JOURNALS OF LONDON--A BLOW « _ TO BRITISH SHIP BUILDING. Engineering of London has been discussing the pros and cons of the shipping combination for the past month, but is gradually finding more cons than anything else. It sees no good whatever in the combination to British interests. In its latest issue it says: "In regard to the control we have over the White Star ships, Mr. Morgan, who will direct movements, may well claim that we have not even a moral hold upon him. As an American citizen not only is he debarred from making an agreement with our government for warlike purposes oi this nature, but he is, by our law, even prevented from owning a ship sailing under the red ensign, unless in virtue of being a shareholder in a limited company. Our law in this respect, as Mr. David Pinkney has pointed out, is anomalous, and needs reconstruction. As a matter of fact, there are many ships flying the flag which are practically owned by foreigners, and the earnings from which go into foreign pockets. The value of the properties is not revealed, but the White Star and Dominion lines are to be assessed at ten times the net income of the year 1900. The nominal value of the property will be vastly different from the original value, and dividends will have to be earned on this increase. It is said that this will be possible from more economical working; but surely, if this can be done, a combination of British ship owners, with the unrivalled experi- ence such a body would possess, could have better accomplished the task. Perhaps the most depressing incident in the whole business is the handing | over of the famous Belfast ship yard to- American interests. We can afford to part with our ships to foreign purchasers; we have been doing it | for years with advantage, and so long as our ship yards and engine works remain free and unfettered, we can build newer and better vessels to fill their places. Messrs. Harland & Wolff 'undertake not to build for any other ship owners than the parties to the contract (the new American corporation), provided the latter keep the works fully employed; but in any case the builders are not to accept orders from parties who are com- petitors of the purchasers in any trade at the time carried on by them without first obtaining the purchasers' consent; but this proviso is not to prevent the builders accepting orders from the Hamburg Ameri- canische Packetfahrt Actien Gesellschaft. In return the corporation undertakes to place 'all orders for new steamers or heavy repairs and alterations that they require at a ship yard in the United Kingdom. Nothing, however, shall prevent the purchasers from placing orders for new steamers or heavy repairs or alterations, re-boilering or re-engining, at ship yards in the United States.' "The arrangement is to last for ten years, unless terminated at the expiration of five years in virtue of notice from either party. It is not easy to understand what influence can have been brought to bear to induce any ship building firm in the United Kingdom to become a party to such an.arrangement. That it is a blow aimed at British ship building is apparent on the face of it, and it is difficult to see clearly how even the firm in question secures a certain benefit. It is common knowledge that the ambition, laudable in itself, of American business men has led them to re-establish the prosperity of the ship building industry, which was vir- tually lost when iron took the place of wood as a material for construc- tion. With the enormous advance in steel production which has been the chief industrial characteristic of the United States, it was thought that ship. building would necessarily follow; but a protective tariff, which ac- complished so much for the steel maker, was unable to do the same for the ship builder, whose productions had to meet competition outside the fiscal zone. This has been a sad blow to American ambition, but it is hoped that by aid of bounties and combinations the end may yet be reached within a period that is variously estimated at from five to ten years. In the meantime the plain fact remains that Mr. Morgan has managed to shut one of the largest and best equipped yards in the coun- try to British-owned ships which can be brought into competition with him; though he leaves the door open to our other rivals, the Germans. If, however, American ship building can be sooner established than at present appears probable, he is quite at liberty to leave his Belfast friends in the lurch, or, at any rate, only give them such business, in the shape of repairs, as must necessarily be executed in Great Britain. So far as appears nothing prevents him from going to continental ports. [aa o "We have no belief in legislative assistance to meet fair competition from abroad if private enterprise fail. If foreign countries have natural advantages we do not possess we had better abandon the field to them and turn to more promising spheres of activity. But it is not here a question of fair competition or natural advantages; it is a gigantic and un- fair attempt to strangle a flourishing industry by the aid of an unnatural combination. The fine promises and beautiful sentiments about the wel- fare of the people at large, which the organizers of trusts have stereotyped in America, cannot disguise the fact that a monopoly, once obtained by a combine, will be used to 'squeeze as much from the consumer as he will yield, and the avowed object of Mr. Morgan is to control the Atlantic trade. If English people believe that Mr. Morgan and his followers are tisking their millions for philanthropic purposes they must be foolish indeed. There will be, if the combine is formed, the usual 'freezing pro- cess until opposition is choked, with the inevitable reaction which will last as long as monopoly is complete. Beyond this there is the possibility that a large part of the Atlantic commerce will be diverted directly to the continent, in spite of the German agreement, the details of which are unknown, excepting that it is stated that the German emperor, who is largely interested in German shipping, vetoed the Americanizing of the German fleet. : : "Under these circumstances, and seeing the weapons our rivals are using against us, we cannot help sympathizing with the suggestion on forward by Lord Charles Beresford, that substantial encouragement shou be given by the state to a Canadian line. Of course, the traffic to 7 American colony does not approach that to the United States, but sti the intercourse is considerable, and a very great deal passes through New York owing to the superior character of the steamers. This, atleast, might be saveditocus. Bounties, no doubt, are not our way; but we are- every day learning that 'our way' is not necessarily the most efficient way. There are a good many things we have yet to find out; some that others have even found out before us.. The Russians have established an im- portant line of steamers that would never have sailed under their flag without substantial state aid. Probably the volunteer fleet does not pay as a matter of balance sheet; doubtless the work it does could have been more cheaply performed by contracting with British ship owners; but there is no doubt that it would be a valuable acquisition in war time, and the indirect benefit that folléws the possession of the ships may possibly more than counterbalance the extra freight. At any rate, if the Russians continue to develop their steel industry, they will find an outlet for the product in the building of ships for which work will be ready provided. Menaced as we are by competition, it is also worth considering whether some of the millions we provide annually for the navy cannot be usefully spent in assisting the mercantile marine. The work done by cruisers in war time would not be very different to that carried out by fast liners. The American naval attache, Capt. Clover, recently stated at a meeting of the Institution of Naval Architects that the mercantile cruisers were the most useful ships for scouting, and the Americans are the only people who have had practical experience in such work. Our own naval officers--as a rule--are opposed to the principle of mercantile auxiliaries; but naval officers are opposed to most things that are not strictly 'service' and ac- cording to tradition. "After all, however, the chief weapon by which we must: fight foreign competition of the sort now threatening must be the combined activity and resource of our own ship builders, our ship owners, and our freighters. If we lose the ships we must build better ones, and when one owner, or one constructor, makes terms with the enemy, we must hope for two better men in his place. If one ship yard is cut off from us we must further develop others, and do so on the most modern lines, so that we may not be losers by the course of events. It is said that it is hopeless to,expect to control the Atlantic trade, because the bulk of the freight is from.west to east; that the American manufacturer is the exporter,and thus rules the market. But if the American is the seller, we are the purchasers, and the customer can always have the last word as to the dispatch of goods if he choose to exercise his power. It is quite possible the legisla- ture might give some assistance here--for combinations among importers would be a difficult, though not impossible, thing to arrange--without raising the bogey of protection. Hitherto our laws have been framed to harass and shackle shipping enterprise. After our modern parliamen- tary practice the legislature has put the burden on ship owners simply because they represent capital and are numerically weak in reeard to votes; they do not command the mob, for the 'man in the street' has yet to learn that all comes out of the pocket of the consumer at last." SHIP YARD NOTES. Roach's Ship Yard, Chester, Pa., has secured a contract to build another steamship after the model of the City of Memphis for the Ocean Steamship Co. of New York. The new steamship will be for the line between New York and Savannah, Ga. She will cost approximately $500,- 000. Her dimensions will be: Length over all, 392 ft.; beam, 49 ft.; depth of hold, 27 ft. She will have four steel decks with a freight capacity of 3,900 tons on a draught of 18 ft. 6 in. She will-be equipped with a triple- expansion engine with cylinders of 24, 46 and 75 in. diameter, supplied with steam by four single-ended Scotch boilers, 14 ft. 9 in. by 10 ft. It has been decided to rig the seven-masted schooner Thomas W. Lawson before she is launched from the Fore River ship yard at Quincy Point, Mass. As each of her steel masts weighs 17 tons without rigging and 20 tons when completely fitted, she will have a somewhat unusual weight aloft for launching, and special preparations are being made for getting her into the water. The Lawson's wooden deck is now being laid and two of her boats--one a 30-ft. gasoline launch--have arrived at Fore River. She will probably leave the ways about the middle of July. It is reported that the Dartmouth Steel Ship Building Co. has been organized to carry on ship building at Dartmouth just across the bay from Halifax. It takes over the plant of the Nova Scotia Iron Works and gets bonuses from the town of Dartmouth and the province of Nova Scotia. The capital is principally American and the officers are: Edward Griffith, president; Ozias G. Plummer, treasurer; and Herbert R. Jones, secretary. The North Shore Railroad Co. of San Francisco has given a contract to the Risdon Iron Works, San Francisco for a steamer of the following dimensions: Length over all, 251 ft.; length between perpendiculars, 231 ft.; beam, 38 ft. The engine will be of the single cylinder, surface- condensing, walking-beam type, and the steamer will be expected to make 16 knots per hour. She will be christened the Cazadero. At Weaver's Ship Yard, Orange, Tex., work is progressing rapidly on two big oil barges for the Higgins Oil & Fuel Co, of Beaumont. One barge is 156 ft. over all, 31 ft. beam, and 11 ft, depth of hold. The second barge measures 185 ft. over all, 33 ft. beam, and 15 ft. depth of hold. The first has a capacity for 7,000 barrels of oil and the second for 10,000 barrels. The new steam pilot boat New Jersey was launched last Saturday afternoon from the ship yard of A. C. Brown & Sons, Tottenville, S. I. Her dimensions are: Length, 155 ft. over all; 132 ft. on the water line; 28 ft. beam, and 13 ft. draught. She is fitted with a fore-and-aft compound engine. As soon as the four-masted schooner now on the stocks at the yard of the McWhinney Ship Building Co., Aberdeen, Wash., is finished another large wooden vessel will be started. Ship owners in San Fran- cisco and Aberdeen have taken a three-fourths interest in the new vessel. The torpedo boat De Long, built at Lawley's shin yard, Boston, had her trial trip over the measured course last Saturday. Her best speed was 25% knots, which exceeded the requirements. ; It is reported that the Great Northern Steamship Co. has decided to build three more steamships for the Oriental trade between Seattle and China. ow Capt. A. J. Slocum of New Bedford, Mass., has just closed a contract with William E. Rodgers of Bath for a four-masted wooden schooner.