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june, 1921 the time of vessels in port, to reduce expenses of operation due to idleness, and also to speed-up the handling of the perishable cargoes. Efforts are being made at. several shipyards on the gulf coast of the United States to devise an auxiliary schooner, which will have the ventilation capabilities of the steamers and will, ai the same time, be able to carry general merchandise on the return cargces. Auxiliaries have been used successfully for some years between Tampa and Pensacola, and ports in the islands of the Carribbean Sea in fruit traffic, but they have been handicapped through in- ability to handle, or failure to get, general cargoes for the return trip. These auxiliaries are from 250 to 1000 tons, but the recent steady increase in operating expenses has led to efforts te provide the auxiliaries with cargo fa- cilities similar to the steamers. In the lumber trade, in dye-woods, in hides, and in dried nuts, the auxiliaries have operated at greater profit, com- pared with tonnage, than the steamers, but, as Mr. Ellis aptly says, the main product of tropical America is perishable fruit, and every vessel which goes into this trade with any idea of permanence or profit, must be prepared to handle those fruits speedily, and to deliver them in good condition to the consumer ashore in the United States. It appears that a new type of auxiliary, of greater speed and better equipment, is likely to be developed on the gulf, just as the "special type of steamship has been de- veloped from the trade with the tropics. PARISIMA, A NEW A ship of the United Fruit Co.'s fleet evolved to meet MARINE REVIEW World Is Now Building 7,086,766 Tons More than 7,000,000 gross tons of merchant vessels are reported as un- der construction in the shipyards of the world.on April 1, says a state- ment' by Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Compared with the total on Jan. 1, 7,- 086,766 tons, the actual figure, repre- sents a decline of less than 100,000 tons, or about 1% per cent. The ac- tual decline in shipbuilding activity, however, has been much sharper in the past three months than appears on the surface. While the total reported for Great Britain, 3,798,593 gross tons, against 3,709,000 tons on Jan. 1, indi- cates a gain of 89,000 tons over Jan. 1, there has been -a sharp reduction in the volume of tonnage on which work is actually proceeding. Included in the British shipyard to- tal are 497,000 gross tons on which work has been suspended and an ad- ditional 350,000 tons, the completion of which has been postponed, chiefly ow- ing to the strike of shipjoiners. Tak- ing this total of 847,000 tons into con- sideration, the total of new ships on which work is proceeding in British shipyards is 2,951,593 tons, or about 279 2C per cent less than the total at the beginning of the year. Additional indications of the condi- tions in British shipbuilding are fur- nished by the returns of launchings and new work begun during the first quarter of this year. New keels rep- resented only 391,000 gross tons, in comparison with 503,000 tons for the last quarter of 1920, and 701,000 tons, for the quarter ended April 1, 1920. Launchings during the quarter just ended represented 431,000 tons, as against 576,000 tons for the last three months of 1920. Even with the delays, work is being completed more rapidly than new work is coming in. -Returns for American shipyards, Lloyd's states, show a continuance of de- cline. The total construction under way on April 1 is reported as 1,102,000 tons against 1,310,000 tons on Jan. 1, or slightly more than 40 per cent of the American total of a year ago. In comparison with the aggregate building at the beginning of this year, a decline of more than 200,000 tons is shown. The aggregate for all other countries, excluding Germany, for which no offi- cial returns are available is 2,185,000 tons on April 1 against 2,160,000 tons on Jan. 1, a. gain "of about 25000 tons over the January total, and of 212,000 tons over the aggregate of a year ago. While the returns show a reduction of only 93,000 tons in the world aggregate on April 1, as com- pared with January, suspensions in British shipyards make a much greater net decline. The world's Jan. 1 to- tal was 7,179,000 tons against an ac- tive April 1 figure of 6,238,000 tons. The apparent decrease in shipbuilding activity during the past quarter has TYPE OF OCEAN CARRIER the peculiar demands of trade with South American countries