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OCTOBER 1885 HAT an oversupply of ships is not an altogether new and un- heard of condition is clear from an item taken from the Marine Record (then the name of MARINE REVIEW) Oct. 1, 1885, in which it was pointed out that in the five year period from 1880 there had been an increase of tonnage over losses of nearly two and one quarter million tons. It was pointed out that this was one cause for the depression in ship- ping as commerce had not demanded such an increase and could not at the time employ it. x * * However desperate the _ situation seemed, the item went on to say, the least revival in business would soon absorb the surplus. The prosperity of shipping to-day will depend somewhat in the same way on a marked increase in business but even in the face of such a growth there is an over-supply of certain classes of vessels. While this condition lasts ship building and shipping in many trade routes must suffer. oe Oe Forty years ago an effort was made to have the Canadian parlia- ment do away with the absurd and barbaric restrictions enforced by that government preventing American tugs and vessels from going to the assis- tance of vessels stranded or wrecked in Canadian waters. No one can say that we have not moved a long way from such a childish arbitrary and narrow-minded idea of international comity. OCTOBER 1895 HE year 1895 was a good one for the vessel owners and oper- ators of the Great Lakes. Rates for carrying ore went up to $1.50 per ton and contracts for 1896 were taken at $1.25 per ton. The much smaller and slower vessels and longer time in load- ing and discharging in those days must be taken into account in comparing the rates of 70 cents per ton prevailing From the Old Log Book Stray Items About the Great Lakes, Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coasts and Inland Rivers from MARINE REVIEW Files of 10, 20, 30 and 40 Years Ago to-day. However, capital, labor and all other costs have gone up tremen- dously in the past thirty years so that the present rates are really too low. Teer tae An account is given of a larg? cargo shipped from Boston to Liver- pool in the big Atlantic freight steam- er Victorian then recently completed. Her cargo consisted of 155,000 bushels of grain, 1800 tons of flour, 1100 tons of provisions, 800 tons of resin, 5300 bales of cotton, 500 tons of leather, 260 tons of dressed beef, 100 tons of lumber and 75 tons of hay and feed for cattle. Finally at the last moment 654 head of cattle and 1591 sheep were loaded. The weight of the cargos was 12,000 tons and the vessel was Icaded in ninety hours. The amount of car- go and the speed with which it was loaded would be considered very good at the present time. In the years that have passed, have the nature and quantity of the products shipped from Boston changed materially? OCTOBER 1905 N AN editorial in MARINE REVIEW 20 years ago it was pointed out that Secretary of War Taft had recommended the postponement of the application of the coastwise laws to the Philippines for five years. The con- tention was that there were not enough American ships to care for the trade. It was suggested that it would be well to put this law into effect, and so, discover by actual trial whether ther2 were any vessels available. * * * Twenty years have now passed since this was written and in spite of a specific provision in the merchant marine act of 1920 that the Presiden‘ is empowered to declare the Philippine; in the coastwise category no action has yet been taken. The reasons are much the same with the additional ones of fear that the Philippines them- selves and our foreign shipping friends would not take kindly to such enforce- ment. * * * A fine record for a sailing vessel was noted in Marine Review for 366 The four masted October 26, 1925. schooner Hope Sherwood made the trip from Sandy Hook to Fernandina, Fla. in 2 days, 19 hours and 10 min- utes, a distance of 734 miles. A favor- able wind straight over the stern for the entire trip made this exception- al record possible. OCTOBER 1915 HAT the Great War had already begun to materially and very favorably affect the earnings of vari- ous established steamship lines is clear from an account given in MARINE REVIEW for October 1915 of the state- ment of the International Mercantile Marine Co. for the first six months of 1915. ._ During this period. the earnings of the company though in the hands of a reorganization com- mittee was $11,000,000. This was at the rate of $22,000,000 a year as compared with average net earnings of $2,656,387 per year for the six years period 1909 to 1914. Be Cae oe In view of the astonishing fact brought out recently by Captain Dol- lar that Shanghai is the second largest port in the world it is interesting to note that ten years .ago the average stevedoring charges for vessels load- ing and unloading outside the red buoy at Woosung were only about 15 cents per ton. The lighterage charges from Woosung to Shanghai were ap- proximately 40 cents per ton. In ad- dition to the foregoing there was a charge for wharfage expenses on car- go landed, ranging from three cents per package upward depending on their size and weight. Cheap and plentiful Jabor and reas- onable port charges are important factors in building up any port and Captain Dollar’s warning to the port of Boston ought not to go unheeded. It seems that when Captain Dollar returned a short time ago from his last round the world trip on the Pres-_ ident Garfield he was entertained by the maritime fraternity of Boston. He told his hosts bluntly that they would drive shipping away from their port if they continued the present policy of imposing heavy dues and port charges. — 4 4 4