The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

THE MARINE REVIEW VOL. 44 CLEVELAND | JANUARY, 1914 NEW YORK No. 1 Ship Building on the Lakes The 1914 Program Shows That the Ship Yards Have a Wide Variety of Craft, Including Seven Bulh Freighters HE ship yards of the Great Lakes have under construction 26 vessels for 1914 delivery. The list includes seven bulk freighters, three passen- ger steamers, two car ferries, one self-unloading steam- er, one lumber steamer for the coast, one fruit steamer for the coast, one tug, one buoy steamer and nine scows. Of this program the American Ship Building Co. is building six, the Great Lakes Engineering Works six, the Collingwood Ship Building Co. three, the Manitowoc Ship Building & Dry Dock Co. one, the Polson Iron Works seven, the Kingston Ship Building Co. two and the Marine Iron Works one. _ Again subdividing the program the American Ship Building Co. is building five bulk freighters and a passenger steamer; the Great Lakes Engineering Works two car ferries, a conveying steamer, a lumber steamer for the coast, a passenger steamer and a bulk freighter; the Collingwood Ship Building Co. is build- ing a bulk freighter, a passenger steamer and a dump scow; the Manitowoc Ship Building & Dry Dock Co. a tug; the Polson Iron Works a buoy steamer and six hopper scows; the Kingston Ship Building Co. two dump scows, and the Marine Iron Works a fruit steamer. The seven bulk freighters included in this construc- tion program have a carrying capacity of 67,000 gross tons on a single trip, though as two of them are being built in Canadian yards, they will not be available for the ore trade of the Great Lakes. The net in- crease in the ore carrying trade is, therefore, 45,000 tons per trip. The wastage of bulk freighters caused by the elements during 1913 works out at about 92,919 tons per trip. The available carrying capacity of the fleet at the opening of navigation in 1914 will, there- fore, be about 50,000 tons per trip less than it was at the opening in 1913, provided, of course, that all the vessels concerned in this program are ready to go into commission when navigation opens. Exclusive of Canadian tonnage, 32 vessels were launched on the Great Lakes during 1913. This list includes four bulk freighters, five oil tankers (two steamers and three barges) one repair ship, four tugs, two passenger steamers, two lighters, one drill boat, one paddle-wheel steamer, one sand steamer, one car ferry, two car floats, five dredges, one ferry steamer, one supply boat and one scow. Of this program the American Ship Building Co. built 16, the Great Lakes Engineering Works seven, the Manitowoc Ship Build- ing & Dry Dock Co. six, the Toledo Ship Building Co. one, and the Cowles Ship Yard Co. two. In addition, the Great Lakes Engineering Works launched four barges on the Lake Borgne canal. Three of the bulk freighters included in the 1914 program are intended to replace a part of the wastage caused by the great November storm. While the pro- gram of new construction is not heavy, the ship yards are, nevertheless, assured of plenty of work, as the November storm threw a great many vessels upon the beach and practically made a visit to the ship yard necessary for every vessel that was out in it, as they were all pretty thoroughly shaken up and damaged in the heavy seas. Considerable remodeling of the older type of craft is also going on to conform to modern conditions of loading and unloading, as the less obstruction there is in the hold the faster the machines can work. Ex- perience proves that it pays to remodel these older -- vessels. - An analysis of the situation shows that the position of the vessel owner on the Great Lakes is steadily being strengthened. During the past three or four years the building of bulk freighters has been cautious as it was quite apparent in 1910 that a surplus of ships existed on the lakes, due to the fact that pro- moters had entered the trade and were building ships for which no real need existed. Ships, however, do _not reproduce themselves, but are, on the other hand, subject to an inevitable wastage through the vicissi- tudes of navigation. The result is that the lake fleet today available for bulk freight purposes is only 50,000 tons greater in carrying capacity per trip than it was four years ago, while the trade itself has greatly expanded, every feature of it, ore, coal and grain, showing large increases, and proving quite conclusively that the United States is a fast growing nation. The time is coming, and fast coming, when the coal trade on the lakes will equal that of the ore trade. As the northwest expands, additional quan- tities of coal will be required in that territory and as population increases, shipments of grain will become heavier and heavier. In fact, it is very wonderful how the grain trade has developed within a very few years. The movement of 1912 was almost double that of any preceding year, while 1913 is a substantial increase over that of 1912. The lakes have rarely enjoyed a better season than has marked 1913, though the general lassitude of the country in other direc- tions and the uncertainty surrounding industry some- what took the zest out of it during the closing months.