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Naval Architects Stress Need of Up-to-Date Vessels Annual Meeting Well Attended—Improvement in Shipbuilding—Still Below Needs for Size of Fleet—Thirteen Papers Read on Variety of Subjects % HE Society of Naval Architects 1 and Marine Engineers held its thirty-fourth general meeting at the Engineering Society’s building 29 West Thirty-ninth street, New York City on Nov. 11 and 12. The professional sessions, devoted to read- ing papers submitted, were exception- ally well attended. There was evi- dent a more optimistic feeling in re- gard to the future of shipping and shipbuilding. The general meeting was called to order by Rear Admiral D. W. Taylor, retired, president of the society. In his opening address Admiral Taylor emphasized the improvement over conditions a year ago, but that this represented an improvement over conditions which could hardly have been worse. .He pointed to the urgent necessity of new shipbuilding as re- placements and to modernize the mer- chant fleet if we are not to lose the advantage gained due to the war- building period. The age of these ships and the rapid development of economical power, greater speed, and better cargo handling equipment will soon make them obsolete and totally ineffective in competition against modern vessels, This warning, from a man _ re- cognized as the foremost authority on naval architecture and known through many years of faithful and able service to the country as one who does not talk loosely, is of the greatest importance for the immediate future of shipping in the United States and should be heeded. A com- plete report of the president’s ad- dress follows: Presidential Address One year ago in this hall I ven- tured the prediction that conditions in the shipbuilding industry would im- prove. This was not the result of any searching investigation or pro- found knowledge of the situation but was based upon the very simple prop- osition that conditions were so bad that any change must be for the bet- ter. During the past year the change has been for the better. Statistically the improvement has been marked. Suppose we consider the statistics of the bureau of navi- gation of the department of commerce. This bureau publishes monthly the gross tonnage building and under con- tract for private shipowners in Amer- ican shipyards. On Sept. 1, 1925, this comprised 140 steel vessels of 148,127 gross tons. On Sept. 1, 1926, this comprised 215 steel vessels of 263,- 094 gross tons. This is a gain of 54 per cent in number of steel vessels and 78 per cent in gross tonnage. There was a similar gain as regards wooden vessels but they are a minor factor. Department of commerce statistics cover the whole field including a ADMIRAL D. W. TAYLOR Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers President, large number of river craft and in- clude vessels under contract as well as under construction. If, however, we use the figures from Lloyds quarterly returns which deal only with vessels actually under construction we find as of Sept. 380 the United States credited with 69,866 gross tons in 1925 and 119,723 gross tons in 1926, a gain of 7f per cent. So, however, we look at it, the situation has improved but the sta- tistical gain of over 70 per cent dur- ing the year does not mean that con- ditions are satisfactory or normal. 13 This gain is figured upon the abnor- mally small tonnage building a year ago and if that had been only half as large the percentage gains would have been several times as great. Comparing the amount of building with what we need td do normally we find that there is still much room for improvement. Thus in 1913 at this time we were credited by Lloyds with 131,800 tons under construction as against: 119,723 this year. When we consider the size of our merchant marine in 1913 as compared with what it is now and the normal re- placement building appropriate to our — present marine we may reasonably conclude that a further gain of at least 100 per cent upon our present building would be needed to place us upon an average building basis. However, the present world-wide situation is about the same as in the United States. With a world building capacity of nearly 10,000,000 tons per annum, the total tonnage now build- ing is less than 2,000,000 gross as against 3,333,000 in 1913 when ship- building was flourishing but world tonnage was only some three quarters of its present total. Again I must call attention to the fact that as re- gards tonnage the world is overbuilt and underbuilding. This condition must change in time but it can change in a short time only by a rapid in- crease in overseas world trade. As regards technical developments recent progress has been steady rather than startling. The high pressure experimental river steamer built upon and for the Clyde has been com- pleted and tried and was put in serv- ice late in the summer. It has been stated that she met the expectations of her designers and we may see further developments along that line. However, of important new tonnage still some 50 per cent is driven by internal combustion engines. For some time now we have had competition not. only between steam and diesel motors but in the motor field be- tween the single acting and double acting and the two cycle and four cycle types. The double acting type has gained ground during the year and the marine engineer seems to be steadily improving the two cycle type.