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_although it is practically certain that the new Cie-GeNERALE TRANSATLAN- TIQUE liner will be fitted in that way. The new Pacific motorship REINA DEL Pactrico. has been commissioned. The difficulties of insurance having been overcome by the assistance of the government, the new Cunarder now is making steady progress. The com- pany covered £2,720,000 on the open London market at a rate unofficially reported as about 30s, leaving £1,780,- 000 to be covered by the board of trade under the agreement. It is proposed to build a big model of this new ship, capable of carrying two men below deck, and to take it to the United States to visit some of the principal cities which are accessible by water and so stimulate interest. These new ships are all particularly interesting, but the trouble is that there is no sign of their being replaced on the stocks when they are completed and put in service... The unemploy- ment situation in the British ship- building industry was bad enough when the last quarterly report was sent, but it is considerably worse now. The last day taken is Feb. 23, when the percentage of unemployed throughout the shipbuilding and ship- repairing industries was 49.5, no less than 24.9 per cent more than in Feb- ruary, 1930. At that time the North- East Coast was kept quite busy with a big batch of tanker orders from Con- tinental owners, but that district now is one of the worst, with 59.1 per cent of its numbers out of work; it is beaten only by the South Wales dis- trict, which relies entirely on repair work and which is so affected by the number of cargo ships laid up that 67.8 per cent of its people are idle. In Germany, shipbuilding conditions are not quite so bad, but they are bad enough, and there are an enormous number of skilled men without work. In the Howaldt yard at Kiel, which has a certain amount of Russian gov- ernment work on hand, things have been relieved by reducing the working week from 48 hours to 40, permitting 1200 men to be employed instead of 1000, but at a sacrifice of one-sixth of their pay. This sacrifice, however, is practically made up by. the local authorities at Kiel, who reckon that they save it by not having to pay the dole to the extra 200 men. For the circumstances’ ruling in the Howaldt yard it answers quite well, but it is to be feared that it would not be success- ful in other districts. The Dutch yards haye a certain amount of business on hand in the construction of motor cargo ships in .the decision of the big companies to accelerate the main East Indian serv- ices. As most of the liners employed on this route now are motor driven, it means supplying entirely new diesel engines of higher power, the older ones being utilized for new cargo hulls. In addition, the bows and sterns of these accelerated ships have to be re- constructed, but in the case of the SLAMAT the routine is changed and she is given completely new ends on the Meier hull form, by which it is hoped to obtain the extra knot and a quar- ter required without interfering with the machinery at all. It may be men- tioned that the Meier hull is attract- ing more and more attention and favor in European shipping circles. Incidentally, there is the prospect of a certain amount of useful work com- ing to the British yards when the tank- er market revives, owing to the success of the scheme which the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co. has evolved in conjunc- tion with Palmer’s, the Tyneside ship- builders, for extending the life of spirit tankers by building an entirely new tank section instead of trying to repair the old one or scrap the ship. The SARANAC and Capin~Ac have been treated in this way up to now, by which it is reckoned that they will . have another twelve years of life at least instead of being fit only for the scrappers, owing to corrosion, the cost being roughly half that of a new ship and the time off service being re- markably short. The prospects of valuable Russian shipbuilding orders still are held out to the British yards, particularly on Clydeside, but this has been done so often before that it is a question whether the statements made are not purely political and not practical. Both German and Italian yards are doing a good deal of Rusian work, but in the Soviet Republic’s own establish. ments progress is terribly slow, a}. though it is admitted that some of the motorships which they are turning out are excellent vessels in every way. Even with German and Italian help, the Soviet ship-owning department stil] is a very long way off its ambition to own all the tonnage necessary for moy- ing the timber purchases by Britain, and there has been considerable trouble over the time chartering of the foreign tonnage necessary. Since the end of the last timber season the So. viet government has put forward most objectionable terms of contract, at- tempting to take full advantage of the present depression to force shipowners to accept conditions which are all against equity .and established prac- tice. Protests have been made with every body or association connected with British and most of those con- nected with Continental shipping, and members have unanimously decided to refuse to accept the terms. In spite of this a few have been taken up on them, and although they are mostly small and poor in quality, there is no doubt that some are owned by the revolutionists. There is little indica- tion of Russia getting the tremendous tonnage that she requires for the move- ment of this year’s timber sales, but once the shipowners’ united front has been broken, there is always the possi- bility of a complete collapse. To complete the tale of depression, even the Norwegian whaling business, which was making such colossal prof- its in the Antartic until this year, is faced with a slump. Practically all its catch has gone to one buyer, the Uni- lever group, and that now has an- nounced that it will not take any whale oil during the coming season. That gives the alternative of laying up all the fleet or chartering unem- ployed tankers to store the oil in port in the hope of an improvement. Those who are apprehensive that the whale may be exterminated altogether by modern intensive methods are hoping that the former alternative will be chosen to reach an agreement. Trend of Trade and Shipping in British Isles Total entrances of cargo ships into British ports: Number-of: vessels evs. 00 ck. Total clearances from British ports: umber Of Vessele.c../cics osc Sov cee Total value of goods: PESPOLL Od io. cos aie ciate o sg wae cae oe pee Imported ens oo ag Ca eien eee 30 MARINE REVIEW—May, 1931 Two months ended Feb. 28 January February 1931 1930 pce gee 3,8 3,662 7,515 8,187 ee ee 4,508,297 4,008,683 8,508,764 9,074,793 Rs Rema nee Se 664,573 597,494 1.262.067 1,426,944 (14.75%) (14.95%) (14.85%) (15.75%) ee eee ee | 4,408 4,178 8,583 10,068 ES eee 4,689,094 4,230,171 8,918,327 10,763,245 oer eos 562,641 7,476 960.117 1,248:881 (12%) (9.35%) (10.80%) (11.70%) See, ny L43,601,026 37,645,884 81,246,910 127,007,215 _ ee ee ee L75,569,744 63,647,412 139,217,156 190,053,687 tere 3,271,331 3,532,286 6,803,617 10,229,067 Cn a ee 12,563,035 2;871,289 5°434,324 ~ "8'769;043 weer 1,160,623 1,135,407 2,296,030 2,616,343