Ly Y Pacific Coast Many New Steamship Companies Organized—Old Lines Combine _—Oriental Traffic Tremendous—Ship Builders Enjoy Prosperity coast shipping had to grapple with many new problems during the past year in the way of freak legislation, the effect of the war on the markets of the world and the routing of ships, the lack of con- fidence in the Panama canal as a trade route, and the shortage of bottoms and consequent unprecedented charter and sale prices of vessels, the year as a whole was unusually satisfactory. During 1916, according to the official figures of United States customs officers, the total foreign trade for the districts of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawati will be $608,000,000. Contrary to general opinion, the greatest There is an even greater boom in ship building, than in shipping, the most spectacular being the revival of wooden ship building and the rejuvena- tion, as far as has been possible, of every old windjammer that could carry canvass and some that it has since de- veloped could not. Needless to say, everyone dealing in auxiliary machines or supplies, as well as the builders of steam engines and boilers and the local manufacturers of oil engines, are en- _joying a full measure of prosperity, being in almost all cases in a position to turn down work which they cannot handle. Many additions have been made to the fleets of the coast com- panies and many new companies were. organized. pape es A Far-Reaching Consolidation Probably the most interesting move in west coast shipping during the year was the recently announced amalgama- tion of the Pacific Coast Steamship Co. and the Pacific Alaska Navigation Co., through the efforts of H. F. Alexander, who now heads the new Pacific Steam- ship Co. The company also acquired the steamers YALE and Harvarp. This combination has placed 22 boats totaling approximately 60,000 gross tons under the one house flag, operating from Seattle to San Francisco; from San Francisco to San Diego and Los An- geles; from Seattle to southeastern and southwestern Alaska and from Seattle to Bering Sea points. The executive officers of the company are in Seattle. Every company operating on the Pa- cific coast reports big increases in volume of business, and most of them have added to their fleets during the past year. The Alaska Steamship Co. acquired six boats, bringing the num- ber which it is operating on three Alaskan routes, up to 17. The Border ae the fact that Pacific - LUS. year dropped to salmon second in Line Transportation Co. has added one vessel to its fleet of five which are operated on the southeastern Alaska route from Puget Sound. Its business has increased at least 25 per cent ac- cording to the company’s estimates, last year’s figures not yet being available. C. Henry Smith & Co., San Francisco, who entered the Puget Sound-South American trade about two years ago with the steamship BajyA CALIFORNIA and later Sinatca, have in the past few months doubled their fleet by the ac- quisition of GoveRNoR Forses and ReEcu- That W. R. Grace & Co.’s trade has also been on the increase is indi- cated by the fact that they used 41 ves- sels in the trade from Puget Sound to South America during the year 1916 as compared with 32 during 1915, and acting as agents for the Johnson Line, comprised of six large motorships, they also had a sailing approximately every 60 days from San Francisco. Accord- Building Ships Notwithstanding the tremendous increases of Pacific coast shipping during 1916, the increases in ship building have exceeded it. There has been a remarkable demand for wooden auxiliary lumber schooners ranging in capacity from 1,000,000 to 2,250,000 feet, board measure, but the activity is not confined to any one branch of work for it in- cludes steel —_ steamships, large wooden motorships and smaller gas vessels. Every yard on the coast from Vancouver to San Pedro is crowded with. construction work and every few days announcement is made of some concern being in- corporated for the purpose of ship building. No less than eight such concerns filed articles in’ Washing- ton during the last 60 days of the year. 50 By W. R. Osborn percentage is made up of the exports and imports of general commerce rather than munitions of war. bulk of the trade is handled through the districts of Washington and San Francisco, Washington’s total for the year being $345,000,000 and the San Francisco districts $240,000,000. The trade between Puget Sound and Japan has been first in importance and that be- tween Puget Sound and Siberia second. These figures are far above the totals for any previous year as is the total for commerce with Alaska, which, including do- mestic gold, exceeds $100,000,000. third place, copper being first and point of value in Alaskan commerce The Gold in the past ing to a recent announcement by one of the directors of the company, the John- son Line has definitely decided to ex- tend its service to. Seattle during the next six months. Motorships on the Job Another line of Scandinavian motor- ships, heretofore operating only to San Francisco, which will inaugurate service to Puget Sound is the Norway Pacific Line, commonly known as the Olsen line. GrorGE WASHINGTON, a __ 10,000-ton motorship on her maiden voyage, ar- rived at Seattle Jan. 15, 1917, inaugu- rating this service. Other motorships will follow as freight is offered, no dates of sailing being definitely fixed. The Norway Pacific Line is now having three more motorships built. Two of 10,000 tons each are under construction in Copenhagen and one of 6,000 tons is under construction in Christiania. The two 10,000-ton vessels are to be com- pleted this spring and the 6,000-ton ves- sel in the early summer. These will be placed on the Norway Pacific route. H. F. Ostrander of Seattle, who had four sailings in 1915 from Puget Sound to Vladivostok had 15 sailings in 1916, and Frank Waterhouse & Co. of Seat- tle, which had 16 sailings in 1915, had 31 in the past year. James Griffiths & Son, also of Seattle, had 24 sailings in the service they inaugurated in Janu- ary, 1916, from Seattle to Vladivostok and the Orient. In the Oriental trade the increase has been large, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha which, being a passenger line, is not permitted to carry certain munitions of war, had 26 sailings in 1915 and 31 in 1916. Six boats were on the run in 1915 and seven last year. The Osaka Shosen Kaisha increased its business. in about the same proportion having about 35 sailings in the year 1915 compared with 50 in the year 1916.