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RE | £8 HE growing trend toward cen- tralization of control in British shipping is well illustrated by the fact that 61 companies, each own- ing more than 50,000 gross tons of ships, own between them more than 2,000 vessels, representing a tonnage of 12,000,000 gross tons, while Lloyds Register gives the total tonnage of the British mercantile marine at only 18,825,356 gross tons. Combinations which occurred last year brought con- siderable additions to already large fleets. The Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., owning with the British India Line 1,187,311 gross tons, acquired control of the New Zealand Shipping Co. with 146,140 gross tons and the Federal Steam Navigation Co., with 195,372 tons, giv- ing a gross total of 1,528,823 tons, ac- cording to Syren and Shipping. The million-ton mark is also passed by the Ellerman Lines, Ltd., whose total is 289 vessels, of 1,310,362 tons. In- cluded in these figures Ellerman’s latest acquisition — the Wilson Line, of Hull whose fleet con- sists of 80 vessels, of 217,524 tons; the Ellerman & Bucknall Steamship Co., 28 vessels, of 132,244 tons; the City Line, 43 vessels, of 274,131 tons; the Ellerman-Hall Line, and others. Just under the inillion mark are the Furness Lines, with 220 vessels, of 920,424 tons, which include the Prince Line fleet of 39 vessels, of 181,211 tons. .If we bracket these three amal- gamations, we get a total of 3,359,443 tons of shipping, which equals about 18 per cent, or very nearly one-fifth of the total British mercantile marine under the control of three manage- ments. But very little different is the po- sition of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. Its fleet consists of 53 vessels, of 331,081 tons. ‘The fleets of the Pacific Steam Navigation Co., Elder Demp- ster, Union-Castle, Nelson Line and Lamport & Holt, which companies are closely affiliated with the manage- ment of the Royal Mail, represent a gross tonnage of 1,223,294 tons, or, grouping the whole of these com- is; Sir. John. —e—e——Eoooooo oF A Review of the Month on Coasts and Lakes—Useful Pointers for the Men Who Get the Business twin wooOoOow999N9n9N99N9noooo CCC “KSC panies, the total tonnage controled is 1,554,375 tons. The building program of the 61 companies, listed as owning at least 50,000 tons, shows that they have on order collectively 170 ships aggregat- ing approximately 1,365,286 tons. The Furness Lines head the list with 29 steamships, representing 163,512 tons, which are being built for the various companies that they, control. Eller- man. lines. have 25 vessels building, aggregating 145,900 tons gross; the Wilson Line has contracted for 10 ships of 39,915 tons. The British India Line has five new vessels or- dered, aggregating 35,900 tons; while the P. & O. have four ships under construction, two of 13,800 tons each and one of 15,620, and one of 16,230 tons, all larger than any of the ships now owned by the P. &:O. Other companies have smaller amounts of tonnage building. The table on page 133 lists the number of vessels and tonnage owned by the 61 leading British companies on Jan. 1, 1917, compared with the vessels and tonnage owned on Jan. 1, 1916.© Protest Rates on Steel In view of the large ship building contracts pending and the enormous ad- vance in the cost of labor and materials, a,complaint recently laid before the in- terstate commerce commission by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport ‘News, Va., against the rate on certain iron products from the Pittsburgh district proves highly inter- esting. This ship building company charged that the railroads are discrimin- ating against it in favor of some other eastern ship building companies. The commisssion was requested to investi- gate the situation and to enter an ap- propriate order. ; The Newport News company stated that it is a regular purchaser of steel plates, bars, channels, angles and such commodities which are used in the con- struction of ships. The company claimed to use at least 500 carloads of such products yearly, these cars having 132 an average tonnage of 70,000 pounds each. The shipments are made from Bessemer, South Duquesne, Clairton, Allegheny, Munhall and other stations located in the so-called Pittsburgh dis- trict, to Newport News. The. rate charged on such shipments has been and is 21.3c per 100 pounds, which the com- pany claims to be excessive. In. comparison it was cited that the rate from the Pittsburgh district’ to New York on the same commodities is 16.9¢ per hundred pounds. The com- pany declared that the rate to Newport News should not exceed the rate con- temporaneously charged to New York and that reparation should be made it upon this basis on all the shipments made within the past two years. This demand was made largely upon the con- sideration of the mileage and the value of the traffic. The Pennsylvania and other railroads engaged in this traffic east of the Miss- issippi river were named defendants to the complaint. This petition as filed with the interstate commerce commis- sion is of special significance in view of the present boom conditions in the ship building industry. It is the first time that an eastern ship building com- pany has petitioned the commission for lower rates since this boom began. The western ship building companies joined in a protest to the commission some time ago against the large advance pro- posed by the roads in the transconti- nental rates on iron and steel articles, which the roads proposed in view of the cessation of water competition between the coasts through the Panama canal. The Newport News company expects to enter into contracts with the navy department shortly for the construction of a large part of the tonnage which is to be built under the new building pro- gram. The freight rates from the Pitts- burgh district to Newport News is, con- sequently, of great importance not only — to the ship building company but also to the government. The navy yard at New York is like- wise interested in the rates on _ these commodities and would be unwilling to see the New York rate raised in order to remove any alleged discrimination oe rT i