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

626 operated by the other companies, were accumulating per diem losses awaiting cargoes. Certainly it would seem that the establishment by the shipping board of proper reciprocal relations between its managers and/or operators would eliminate these losses. (c) Securing of cargoes, foreign agencies, etc---The securing of return cargoes at foreign ports has become such a serious question as to vitaily af- fect the entire operation of shipping board boats. There has been a marked laxity on the part of foreign agents in securing return cargoes. It is obvious, of course, that ship operation will not he profitable if the business of carry- ing cargoes holds good only on one leg of the voyage. This shows the necessity for a high state of organization, super- vised by the shipping board, of foreign agencies through which managing and/or operating companies operate shipping board tonnage. Under the present practice the organi- zation of foreign agencies is left solely in the hands of managing and/or operat- ing companies, with the result that, in the case of managing and/or operating companies which have an insufficient or 'no organization of foreign agencies, and in the case of managers and/or operators who operate their own ships as well as the shipping board tonnage, the board must necessarily face losses, because in the case of the first company, its organ- ization is not such 'as to guarantee re- turn trip cargoes, while in the case of the second class of companies, prefer- ence naturally will be given to their own boats, inasmuch as the managing and/or operating company must itself absorb any losses accruing from the op- eration of these privately owned ships, whereas under the managing and oper- ating agreements any losses on the ship- ping board operation are absorbed by the board. (d) Dispatch, lack of, reasons for, etc. --Dispatch is the keynote of successful ship operation. The lack of dispatch which has characterized the operation of shipping board assigned and allocated tonnage is due to many reasons. In some cases, as at Norfolk, Va., recently, it was due to lack of bunker supplies. In other cases, it is due to lack of dry- docking facilities. In still other cases it is due to improper ship supply through lack of a proper organization in the shipping board. Again, it is due to interlocking contracts and ownerships which lead managers and/or operators to hold up boats for unnecessary repairs, in order to reap the additional revenue from these sources. In still other in- stances it is due to lack of sufficient operating capital. In other cases it is due to improper accounting methods. In still other cases it is due to inexperience on the part of the managing and/or op- THE MARINE REVIEW erating company. Again, it is due to the preference given by some managing and/or operating companies to their own ships in discrimination against ton- nage operated by them for the shipping board. In many instances it is due to improper organization of foreign agen- cies. Whatever the reason in any specific in- stance may be for the lack of dispatch, the loss to the shipping board is just as great and just as serious as though the same reasons were responsible for all de- lay in dispatch. One of the potent rea- sons, it is said, was the rigidity of the Fails To Enlist Aidof Private Firms HERE has been little if any attempt on the part of the _ snipping beard to confer with con- tractors who serve or supply United States shipping board ships from the standpoint of these service and supply men being primarily part owners of the American merchant marine, secondarily in being inter- ested in seeing the American mer- chant marine prosper in order that they may continue to serve or sup- ply ships. The relation between manuging and/or operating agents and the contractors who serve or subply ships has not been a close one in many instances, because of the fact that responsibility for ihe service or supply of these ships is so divided between managing and/or operaiing agents and the various depariments of the shipping board as to make neither the agent nor the departments of the board wholly responsible for the results obtained. Until this is remedied, serious losses are bound to continue.--From jeport to congressional committee. managing and operating agreements, which restricted solely to the board the right to transfer a shipping board boat from one trade to another, and the lack of dispatch in the central or- ganization at Washington in providing for such change of trade route upon re- quest of the managing and/or operating company. It is a common _ complaint of managers and/or operators that they are unable to get a business-like prompt- ness in the disposition of their re- quests governing the operation of ship- ping board tonnage from the central or- ganization. Taken in its entirety, lack of dispatch due to any of the reasons assigned in the foregoing enters very largely into the success or failure of the American merchant marine. In fact, it is one of f December, 1920 three governing factors, the other two being experience on the part of the managing and/or operating company in the operation of vessels, and the reduc- tion to a minimum of the cost of upkeep and operation. It may be noted here that the cur- rent repairs to vessels which, in foreign practice, and under private ownership, are performed by members of the crew during the voyage and while the ships are in port, are, on shipping board boats, performed in port by drydocking and repair companies. This is true, it is said, of 90 per cent of the normal re- pairs done by foreign crews. A common complaint of managers and/or operators is that under the present conditions the crews go ashore the moment their ship touches dock and do not do any- thing with regard to the loading or re- pair of the ship during her stay in port. Managers and/or operators also complain that they are unable to get the crews to do anything other than merely navigate the ship while at sea. (e) Remedy--The remedy, of course, lies first in proper organization, super- vised by the shipping board; second, in the establishment of reciprocal rela- tions between the various managing and /or operating agents of the shipping board to insure the rapid "turn-around" of all boats; third, the proper steps to secure cargoes through foreign agencies for the homeward-bound leg of the voyage; fourth, the elimination of all reasons for lack of dispatch. 4. Supervision (a) By director of operations, lack of.--The lack of supervison by the di- rector of operations of the shipping board and his organization is such as to leave almost entirely out of the hands of the board the operation of its ton age and the remedies for many of the abuses which underlie the losses in op- eration. It has developed that in many cases of masters and stewards placed on deferred lists, that is, removed from active service for cause, these same masters or stewards have been found aboard other shipping board ships in the employ of other managers and/or operators, and came to notice only when they committed some new act of care- lessness or dishonesty. The division of operations is unable, by reason of the managing and operating agreements, to deal directly with contractors and with ship supply agencies. If the division of operations is to function properly, ac- cording to the theory upon which its existence is based, it must be composed of men whe have ship operating experi- ence, and a wide and varied business experience in addition thereto. Such does not seem to be the case with the organization of the division of opera- tions as built up at the present time.