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FE eT EE eT RR ee ge CP ENG te Eg eT Me Le OPS Ee Tee: eT Re ASC a Sea ee. eee es. February, 1919 A WESTERN BUILT AUXILIARY SCHOONER—SUCH SHIPS OVERCOME THE DISADVANTAGES OF THE UNCERTAIN SAILING VESSELS WHILE MAINTAINING they are not overly large in comparison with the ships which have been and are building for the Emergency Fleet cor- poration. But it must be remembered that England had a merchant fleet to begin with and she is today possessed of a considerable number of liner vessels, Furthermore, not all the merchant ships building in England are of the standard types. Her yards are building other vessels for the merchant trade as well. With the demobilization of her army and the return of her trained shipyard workers to private life, a change in this building program may be expected. England is deficient in those types of ships in which America chiefly abounds. She has suffered large losses in her channel and coastwise fleets. German submarines did their greatest damage to the fleet of slow moving cargo boats. England’s efforts to restore these trades should not be misinterpreted in Amer- ican shipping circles. The big ocean grayhounds which plied the Atlantic prior to the war and whose ever increasing size and luxurious ap- pointment was the constant gossip of the public, are scarce today. It would seem that the first inclination of ship- builders would be to duplicate this type of ship. Whether this is to be done depends in a large measure on economic conditions after the war. The big passenger ships of the Atlantic were made possible by the enormous immigrant traffic which was developed. But the war has reduced the manpower of all Europe. It is seriously questioned whether the immigrant traffic will reach for years the high-water mark that it attained in the long period prior to 1914. THE MARINE REVIEW A HIGH DEGREE OF ECONOMY OF OPERATION The shipping world has not forgotten the Great Eastern, which naval archi- tects declared many years in advance of her age. The public marveled at her size but little it realized that ships many times that large would soon be crossing the Atlantic. These vessels would not have been possible had not a. passenger trafic of considerable proportions been developed. With the immigrant traffic off, it is doubtful now whether the normal passenger traffic would be ample to warrant the operation of such giant liners. HIS does not mean that the large znd the fast passenger boats are no longer needed, but it has raised the question of the utility after the war of the excessively large ships. Fast ships will always be in demand, but economy of operation demands that money not be wasted in obtaining excess speed. The advocacy of the motor ship is one proof of the fact that shipping men are turning their attention to ships of smaller capacity. The fuel for oil en- gines occupies but little space, leaving a greater tonnage for cargo. It is a strange commentary upon the victory of the allies over the central powers that the largest merchant vessel left afloat today is a German ship, the Bismarck. The LeviaTHAN, the Ger- man liner captured by the United States, is the next largest, while the White Star liner Otympic, built in 1911, of 46,359 gross tons, is apparently the third largest. The Bismarck, launched in 1914, is 912 feet long and registers 56,000 gross tons. Her engines are 61,000-horsepower. England has suffered much through the heavy loss of her liner ton- nage. The United States never pos- sessed many ships of this type and obtained but few when the enemy merchant vessels were taken over. The American shipbuilding program during the war emergency has been limited to the construction of cargo boats and these, mostly, have been of a small size. As a practical matter it was well that this was so, because it is upon the cargo ship that the ship- ping strength of a country depends. The United States needs passenger ships badly just now for use as trans- ports to. bring American soldiers home from France. Even though time was offered to build passenger boats for this purpose alone, they would lend little of permanent advantage to the country. . Naval operations in European waters during the past four years created a great demand for petroleum. With the Balkan oil fields cut off it was necessary to turn to American sources. Mexican oil, therefore, be- came one of the prime war essentials. The intensified’ submarine warfare necessitating the use of especially strong patrols, counter-offensive sub- marines, and destroyers, rapidly in- creased the demand for oil. The re- sult was that tankers were built as hurriedly as the shipyards could turn them out.. Many tankers were de- stroyed, it is true, but the supply of this type of ship today is not nearly so short as the supply of some other types. The allied warships have at last en- tered the Black sea and are now busy making accessible the oil fields of this region. England and most of Europe will, of course, be better supplied