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510 THE MARINE REVIEW Sells 198 Government Ships At Cost Of $4250 is still struggling through yards of Official red tape, delay and confusion in its efforts to dispose of America's war-built merchant fleet comes the news that England has sold the last of her government-owned ships. When the war ended the British ministry of shipping, which corresponds to the shipping board, owned 198 merchant vessels. Various plans for selling out were suggested. Finally the whole proposition was turned over to Lord Inchcape, chairman of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. The ships in question, through Sir Joseph Maclay, the shipping con- troller, were placed in the hands of Lord Inch- cape en bloc and he made himself personally responsible to the government for the financial success of the transaction. The last ship has now been sold and the whole job completed in about a year. The fleet aggregated about 1,400,- Wiis the United States shipping board the hands of private owners. 000, about $900,000 per ship or an average of $125 per ton. The cost to the British government, under Lord Inchcape's management, was only $4250--prac- tically nothing. A more vivid contrast between the methods of the trained business man, working untrammeled along business lines, and the costly, blundering efforts of an official bureaucracy could scarcely be found. In his great task, Lord Inchcape was assisted by Sir Owen Phillips and other patriotic British maritime leaders. None of the principals or their associated companies made any profit out of the transaction. The British government is now out of the shipping business and all of the merchant vessels under the British flag are in Engtand_ believes that the methods of private initiative which have brought her to the top of the ladder in the struggle for maritime supremacy will suffice to September, 1920 a 000 tons. Total return from sales was $175,000,- meet the demands of postwar competition. tional rates, petore the coastwise sub- sidy is removed. Although these considerations appeal mainly 'to the British shipowners who have vessels in the coasting trade, there are wider aspects which affect the smooth and easy working of trade at the larger ports of Britain. The ocean going vessels in these ports depend to a great extent on smaller vessels for rapid discharge. Without this assist- ance, the warehouses and quays be- come congested and it was this very fact that induced the government last year to introduce the coastwise sub- sidy to attract the small vessels. * K * (yet 15, 115 ships of '663,000 tons were under construction in British yards for Norwegian account. The total value of these con'tracts in three consecutive years, including the current year, is estimated at £15,200,- 000 ($60,800,000). By a recent judg- ment in the arbitration court of Nor- way, it was' decided that the iron, steel and shipbuilding industries should grant an increase in wages of 25 per cent and it is feared that this will necessitate the placing of orders for new bottoms in foreign countries. It is estimated that with this 25 per cent increase, vessels built in Norwegian shipyards would cost 300 crowns ($72) a ton more than if built in England. | Merger Unites Big American Fleets "WNHE American Ship & Com- merce Corp. and the Amer- ican - Hawaiian Steamship Co. have purcnased Livermore, Dear- born & Co. to operate the joint fleets of the purchasers aggregat- ing 400,000 deadweight tons besides about 200,000 tons of shipping board weeecla, WW' A. - Harriman, in: an- -nouncing the purchase stated also that the contract, by which the Kerr Steamship Co. has been operating the vessels of the Kerr Navigation Co., an American Ship & Commerce sub- sidiary, had been canceled and_ that the name of the Kerr Navigation Co. would be changed to the American Ship & Navigation Corp. The name of Livermore, Dearborn & Co., will be changed to the United American line under which all ships of the fleets of the purchasing com- panies and their subsidiaries will be operated. Harris Livermore, senior operating officer of the Livermore- Dearborn firm and president of the Shawmut Steamship Co., becomes president of the new line and Henry Dearborn, previously senior vice presi- dent of the old firm, becomes vice president of the new line. Capt. FE. C. TYobey and W.-G. Sickel, for- merly resident vice president in New York of the Hamburg-American lines, are associated with the new organ- ization, while E. Lederer, formerly with the Hamburg-American firm, is connected with the passenger traffic lines. The United American line will carry out the agreement recently made with the big German firm by the Harriman interests. The following list shows the vessels which will be operated by the United American line: Kerr Navigation Corp. Fleet: KERESAN, KKERLEW, KEROWLEE, KERKENNA, KERE- SASPA, KrerMoor, Kermit, KERMANSHAH, MonrvTICELLO, MONTPELIER. otal, 10; American-Hawaiian Fleet: ALASKAN, AMERICAN, ARIZONAN, DaKotan, FLor- IDIAN, HAwalrian, Iowan, KENTUCKIAN, MEXICAN, MINNESOTAN, OHIOAN, OrE- GONIAN, . PANAMAN, - PENNSYLVANIAN, TEXAN, VIRGINIAN, MissourraAn (now building), CaLiForNIAN (now building). Total to be 18. Coastwise Transportation Fleet: Cor- sicA, FRANKLIN, HAMppEN, MuIppLESEx, NORFOLK, SUFFOLK, PLyMouTH, 'TRANS- PORTATION, CLARKSBURG, a __ steamer. Total, 10: Shawmut Fleet: Mystic, Ipswicu, Supgury, two building. Total to be 5. American Ship & Commerce Corp.: DEKALB, \ ex-German passenger steamer. Total 1, Livermore, Dearborn Fleet shipping board steamers. Total deadweight be- tween 150,000 and 200,000. The grand total of steamers at pres- ent involved in the combination of lines is 86, and deadweight is nearly 600,000. All the vessels of the Kerr Naviga- tion Corp.'s fleet are ex-Austrians, purchased three years ago by consent of the shipping board, with the excep- tion of the Monrpetrer and MonrIceLlo, which are ex-German. The Kerwood was lost several months ago while im the New York-Hamburg service.