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6 | MARINE REVIEW. [July 10 SHIP BUILDING IN PHILADELPHIA AND VICINITY. Philadelphia, July 9--The Nebraskan, third vessel launched by the New York Ship Building Co., Camden, N. J., which recently completed a successful trial trip, left the yards on Tuesday for New York. Capt. Randall, who has supervised the Nebraskan's construction, will have her in charge during the brief trip. As soon as she reaches New York the Nebraskan will go into dry dock to receive her final coat of paint and immediately after that she will sail with a full cargo on her maiden voy- age to San Francisco, where she will enter the American-Hawaiian Steamship Co.'s regular service to the islands. On her maiden voyage the Nebraskan will burn coal, as did her sister ship, the Nevadan. Both vessels though have in their cargo complete apparatus to make them burners of fuel oil. The Nevadan is now in San Francisco where the oil burners will be installed in the furnaces, and when the Nebraskan reaches that port she will undergo a similar alteration. The J. M. Guffey, first vessel launched by the New York Ship Building Co., has made several successful voyages with oil fuel. : ; : At the New York Ship Building Co. works, as in many other ship yards, the vessels built are known by their contract numbers. No. 1:45 the J. M. Guffey, which, when launched, was christened the M. S. Dollar, but the name has since been changed. Nos. 3 and 4 were the Nevadan and Nebraskan, sister ships, built for the American-Hawaiian company. No. 2, still on the ways, is the Texan. She is 20 ft. longer than the sister' ships, and is intended for the same firm. She will be launched in August. Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8 are vessels for the Atlantic Transport Co. They are each about one-quarter completed. No. 5, when finished, will be the largest vessel ever built in the United States and will be considerably over 600 ft. in length. Work in the New York company's plant was almost at a standstill in many departments during the past week on account of a strike among the rivet heater boys. The Pure Oil Co. entertained a number of guests at a banquet at Marcus Hook on Thursday in honor of the first shipment of oil in one of the company's own vessels, the Pure Oil. The vessel, which was launched at Newcastle-on-Tyne, sailed immediately after the banquet for Hamburg, on the return half of her maiden voyage. She carried 2,250,000 gallons of oil and is the largest vessel of her type yet built for the Delaware river trade. With her 48% ft. of beam she can take a large load on a com- paratively light draught of water. 'Capt. Cogess, formerly of the Holland- American line, is in command of the Pure Oil. : A new sailing yacht, the Sora, built for J. P. Wetherill, the Philadel- phia paint manufacturer, was launched at Bridgeton, N. J., on June 30. -- The first importation of Welsh coal into the port of Philadelphia in the memory of the "oldest inhabitant" is due here in about two weeks. A British steamship of 4,500 tons, name unknown, has been chartered to bring a cargo of coal from Cardiff to Philadelphia. This is a result of the coal strike in Pennsylvania The side-wheel steamer Middlesex, built for the Weems Steamboat Co. of Baltimore for service on the Rappahannock, was launched from the Neafie & Levy yards on Thursday. Miss Forbes of Baltimore was sponsor. CANADA GAINING. .IN EXPORT GRAIN TRADE. Last week the canal committee of the produce exchange of New York issued a table of statistics to show that Canada was fast encroach- ing upon the lead of the United States in the export grain trade to -- the detriment of New York more than to any other American port. The figures are put out by the association as an additional argument for the construction of a barge canal between Buffalo and New York. ue ee shows that the shipments for the week ending June 28 were as follows: Flour, bbls. Wheat, bu. Corn, bu. MODNG hee cae Oe ae 2,996 - New Omledis . 12. fei. cee. 15,353 353,740 7,809 CralVCSt an 6 ce cies. 1,806 Zed 400 Tec ee ee es 19,428 578,200 10,805 Sota, eter (oueuels) by gulf ports............0... 589,005 wore Gy Giacr taited States ports...............5. 742,806 A ican POTS oo ise pee ees sens 1,331,811 Ota) oe ed TOUTCS 65 oc os oe se oe ee es ee 1,002,265 Of more significance, in the long run, than the distribution of the traffic, of course, is the great falling off in American exports of grain. Wheat exports are slightly above the average of years, but no corn what- ever is being shipped out. It is just this falling off, a sequel of the corn crop failure of 1901, which is largely accountable for the present pre- ponderance of shipments via Canadian ports. "There is no Indian corn going out," said David Bingham, chairman of the produce exchange committee on discrimination in freight rates, "and there is more than the usual volume of wheat going from Manitoba to Europe. It is to the interest of Canadian transportation companies to carry this freight as far as possible on their own lines. Besides, the Manitoba wheat normally goes by Montreal. Then, too, the railways, acting, no doubt, through their joint traffic association, put up the rate from Buffalo to New York to 4% cents a bushel. That rise diverted some American wheat to Canadian routes. The rate was later reduced to 3.9 cents, but, even at that, it failed to attract much freight. _ "In the second place, the Atlantic steamship lines have fixed a min- imum rate of 144d. per 60 Ibs. of grain shipped from American ports to London and Liverpool. Portland they do not control, nor is their au- thority complete at Montreal and Quebec. The effect of any cuts in ocean freights at Canadian ports would be to divert shipments from New York. As a matter of fact, however, the ocean freight rate from Montréal to British ports is about the same as from New York. Where shippers by Canadian routes have an advantage is in inland rates. The rate to Mon- treal from the foot of Lake Erie is about 1 cent lower per bushel than from Buffalo to New York, thanks to the Welland and St. Lawrence chain of canals. From the head of the lakes--say near Duluth--the rate is about 1% cents a bushel less, thanks to. those same canals, "Notwithstanding ail this, I am satisfied that when, after normal crops, this country begins again to export a normal quantity of grain, New York will again obtain a fair share of the export business in grain, provided, of course, that the railway and steamship lines put no new obstacles in her way. Had we only the advantage of an Erie canal capable of floating thousand-ton barges we should suffer now con- siderably less from Canadian canal competition than we do in the pres- ent condition of that waterway. One oppressive incident of existing circumstances is the fact that on grain moved by Canadian routes the Canadians monopolize the profits and commissions. On_ business through Gulf ports New York dealers are given better chances to trade. Our position relative to the Canadians, taking into consideration fixed railway tariffs and minimum steamship rates, together with the possi- bility of attracting all the business by very slight shading of such charges, is best compared to that of the man who holds the candle while his com- petitor is selling out. One comfort, nevertheless, remains. If we do have a huge corn crop, it won't move in time to be shipped by water. Montreal will be frozen up before the corn is shipped, and New York will finally find its chance." oe : : A railway traffic expert, whose familiarity with the grain trade is exact, was inclined to think the canal committee's figures on the advant- age of shipping by Canadian routes somewhat high. The through rate from the head of the lakes to Liverpool via Montreal, he was inclined to estimate at not more than one-half or three-quarter cent less per bushel than via New York. He also pointed out that most of the wheat exported was Manitoba wheat; that farmers of that province had neither the warehouses nor the cash to hold wheat; that when no. buyer pre- sented they even shipped the grain to London for sale on commission; that Canadian railroads were likely to make concessions to keep the freight on their tracks till the port of shipment was reached, and that some cutting of ocean freights might be going on at Montreal. In any case, that port had an advantage over New York in low port charges and nominal elevator charges. Steamship men admitted that wheat had been taken from Montreal to certain British ports at 6d. the quarter, or just one-half the agreed minimum of 1%4d. per bushel; but they said that such transactions, at less even than ballast rates, were permissible under the agreement of the lines when stiffening was needed for ships. Neither steamship nor rail- way men seemed much to fear that when a large volume of American grown grain was in movement toward Europe, New York would lose much of its rank as a grain-exporting port. STANDARD OIL TO BUILD SHIPS ABROAD. A Philadelphia dispatch authoritatively states that the Standard Oil Co. will build in England a fleet of twelve huge steamships of the pro- portions of the Kennebec, which has a capacity of 2,000,000 gallons of refined oil in cases. This undertaking, which involves the expenditure of millions of dollars, is taken as an indication of the intention of the big ° corporation to fill the orders of the orient with oil shipped in its own vessels. Twelve craft like the Kennebec, calculating that each could make two trips a year, would be able to land 48,000,000 gallons of oil in China and Japan every twelve months, and this amount would be about ontie- eighth of the total export of that product annually to foreign ports from Philadelphia. -Just what such an undertaking would mean to the countless deep water sailing ships, that calculate on getting oil cargoes out to the far east, is problematical, but it is believed that they would be obliged to seek business in other channels, because conditions at present point to a recurrence of what took place in the European oil trade. At one time hundreds of sailing ships found lucrative employment in the European oil trade, carrying the product in barrels at a freight rarely under four shillings. The Standard built tank ships and now absolutely controls the output of oil to Europe. Philadelphia exports to Europe and the far east 300,000,000 to 360,000,000 gallons of oil annually and up- ward of two-thirds of this amount is now carried in ships owned and ope- rated by the Standard Oil Co. Its fleet of sailing ships for the Chinese and Japanese trade is also being increased rapidly. NORTH GERMAN LLOYD STEAMER SCHLESWIG. Consul J. E. Kehl of Stetten sends the following: 'The new North German Lloyd single-screw steamer Schleswig, 'launched at the Vulcan yards in Stettin on May 10, is intended for the South American trade. Her mechanical and engineering details are: Length at water line, 450 ft.; beam, 52 ft.; molded depth to upper deck, 33 ft. 6 in.; power, 4,000 H. P.; speed, 13%4 knots; bunker capacity, 1,630 tons; displacement (with full cargo), 12,600 tons: crew, ninety. A dou- ble bottom covers the ship's length, and the hull is divided into eleven water-tight compartments. Two steel masts support fourteen yardarms for the discharging and taking on cargo, in addition to two steam cranes. The ship is provided with a cold storage room. The passenger accom- modations consist of sixty-four first-cabin rooms, with 157 berths; six second-cabin rooms, . with twenty berths; and space for 952 steerage in six compartments. Steel castings which the Seaboard Steel Casting Co., Chester, Pa., has made for the two steamships building at the Eastern Ship Building Co.'s works, New London, Conn., for the Great Northern Steamship Co., are regarded as among the most remarkable castings ever made in steel. The stem castings and the three castings comprising the spectacle frame for one of the vessels have already been shipped by rail. The castings for the lower portion of the stern posts were so large, however, that it was impossible to send them by rail and so they are to be sent 'by sea. The rudders alone weigh close to 50 tons each and are made up of five pieces. It is 60 ft. from the top of the stock ito the bottom of the fin. Standing upright they are as high as a five-story house. The machine work upon the castings was done at Roach's Ship Yard. In making these castings, which were unlike anything ever before made in cast steel, the Seaboard company has done well. Out of the whole number of castings only one ee lost, despite the fact that they were all submitted to Lloyd's rigorous ests. 5 The Mallory line of New York has given to Roach's Ship Yard, Chester, Pa.,2 contract for a steamer that will be one of the finest in its service. The vessel will be over 400 ft. long, will have triple-expansion engines and is expected to make 17 knots an hour.