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154 been able to turn out some warships, the construction of cargo and mail ves-_ ' chant marine. sels iy to be abandoned in conse- quence.” It is no secret that rau French have - for some time been attempting to place contracts for new vessels with Ameri- can yards. A number of wooden ships have been built here for them. The largest of these contracts was taken by the Foundation Co. New York. This company constructed yards at Portland, Oreg., and Tacoma, Wash., to build 40 wooden auxiliary schooners of 3000 tons each. Last summer, the French award- ed this same company a contract for 20 additional 3000-ton wooden ships. At that time the shipping board refused to permit American yards to build ships of any description for foreign account so the Foundation Co. contracted to build the 20 in British Columbia. The AQ wooden auxiliary schooners have all been delivered, the last being turned over to the French on Dec. 28. The 20 building in British Columbia are to be 3000 tons deadweight, full powered, twin-screw cargo steamers. All the ves- sels are delivered complete down to the table linen, but not including stores. Steel Tonnage Wanted With the end of the war and the completion of the French contracts at the Portland and Tacoma yards, the Foundation Co. was approached with a proposal to build steel ships in those © . yards for the French government. It is reported that this. company was offered a contract to build 174 steel ships, en- tailing an expenditure of something like $100,000,000. The shipping board, how- ever, has not yet given its permission to domestic yards to build steel .ships for foreign account and, with the war over, the French are not now so willing to accept wood ships when there is a possible chance of having steel vessels built. have 2,000,000 tons of steel ships built in American yards would bring consid- ‘erable business to this side of the At- ~ Jantic. American shipbuilders fear that if the shipping board does not soon grant permission to let these contracts the French will find foreign yards which will undertake the work and the new business will be lost to this country. The efforts expended by the French’ to build a new merchant marine are not sporadic. The government intends to carry through these efforts and_ its leaders promise that the French will ‘have a merchant marine of 6,000,000 tons within a few years. The ambition of the French is destined to have an important bearing upon the future of the American merchant marine. Not all competition will come from British and Japanese shipping. France has often been referred to t The request of the French to- THE MARINE REVIEW the opponents of subsidies to prove why subsidies do not always build up a mer- France granted subsidies to shipbuilders and. subsidies. to. ship operators and yet her merchant marine was not large at the outbreak .of the war. Between 1907 and 1914, at the outbreak of the war, the French mer- chant marine .increased but approxi- mately 50 per cent, or at a_ slightly greater rate than did the total merchant marine of the world. During this same period the merchant fleet of the worid increased about 41 per cent. The mer- chant tonnage of the United States increased but 35 per cent. Despite the subsidies and the national consciousness of the French that a mer- chant marine was an absolute necessity, her fleet was not a great factor on the high seas. Its destruction by. the Ger- man submarines has therefore accented the great weakness of this. country. The public is undoubtedly well ac- quainted with that human document of the war which was published in the United States under the title “Odyssey of a Torpedoed Transport.” Unwit- tingly it disclosed the weakness of the French, the lack of co-ordination of her shipping facilities at the outbreak of the war and the absolute dependence of the nation upon ocean _ bottoms. Americans read that document because of its intensely human appeal whereas it roused the French nation to a deter- mination to. rectify a situation which should have been corrected previous to the war. It was not cael 1915, however, that evidences of this interest were disclosed. Then it was reported that the French consul was discussing the necessity of establishing a direct French line from Puget sound to France. The country was then demanding great quantities of grain and food. Early in 1916 the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique in- augurated a freight line between La Pallice and New York. Still not much was done to relieve the shipping situa- tion. France was depending largely upon England’s assistance. In the fall of 1916, it was estimated that the French had lost 300,000 gross tons of shipping since the outbreak of the war and had constructed but 350,000 tons of new vessels. Construction Seriously Handicapped Under war conditions, new construc- tion was extremely difficult in France. Not only was it necessary to give prime attention to the building of naval ves- sels, but every available man was with- drawn for military service. Despite this, it was announced early in 1917 that the Compagnie Generale Transat- lantique has increased its fleet since the outbreak of the war by the addition of the important passenger liners La Fay- March, 1919 ETTE and Paris, and the new freight steamer LA PrrouseE which had _ been constructed at Dunkirk. The submarine warfare became. relentless,and that year the ,(Chargeurs-Reunis ‘Steamship Co. let contracts with French builders for three freighters of 7000 tons each. It was in- tended to use these in.the colonial trade to be run independently of the West African line. The route mapped out for these freighters included’ Antwerp, Dunkirk, Havre, Bordeaux, Lisbon, -Kamerun, Gabor and the Kongo as far as Matadi. During this time the French govern- ment was doing all in its power to build up a merchant marine, but so long as the Germans were fighting upon her territory this was difficult. Steel - be- came extremely scarce and coal was so short that it had to be rationed. Resort was had to the building of small vessels of concrete which could be used on the rivers and canals. In 1918, the French chamber of deputies voted a credit of 1,500,000 francs to the French navigation bureau to construct tugs, barges, etc., for traffic on the lower Seine. Inasmuch as the French railroad systems were breaking down, the plan was to increase from 700,000 to 1,500,000 tons the water traffic from Rouen to Paris. War Stopped Shipbuilding - The war prevented the French accom- plishing anything in the way of quantity production in shipbuilding, although there are instances of dramatic achieve- ment which are truly inspiring to the whole world. On April 24, 1918, the largest .steamer ever built for the French was launched from: the Chantiers de France at Dunkirk. This ship is 444 feet long, displaces 19,000 tons, and has a carrying capacity of 12,000 tons. Throughout the time this vessel was under construction, the Germans were making every effort to destroy it. Dun- kirk was an easy prey to the Huns, being but a short distance from the enemy lines. The aerial raids, however, proved unsuccessful and the mighty steamer was launched at the time the Germans were making the last supreme drive to break through the allied lines. Not all of France’s heroism has been displayed'upon the battlefield. The spirit of the people was equally displayed back of the lines, in’ the legislative bodies, the shipyards, on the high seas, and in the shells of organization main- tained by the commercial houses of the country. All showed that the French- man was certain that the war would be won and that it was imperative to hold on to the channels of peaceful trade so that the country would be in a position rapidly to regain her position in the world of trade. During the war France tried through