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Modern Distributing Base for Water Transportation Lukens Steel Co., Coatesville, Pa., was recently purchased bv the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., Pitts- burgh. Acquisition of this plant will give Jones & Laughlin a large, modern steel fabricating, warehousing and dis- tributing base at the mouth of the Mis- sissippi river which can be served di- rectly by river transportation from Pittsburgh, as well as by rail. The acquisition of the Lukens plant in New Orleans is another step in the development by Jones & Laughlin of river-rail distribution on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries, an officer of the corporation stated. “We have been shipping to New Or- leans and other southern points by river for about ten years. We are the first steel company to inaugurate this method of distribution in order to reach distant markets. In the ten years we have been engaged in river-rail dis- tribution, we have shipped hundreds of thousands of tons of our products in tows of modern steel barges of our own construction, propelled by our own steamboats. “The Lukens plant is an addition to our established river-rail delivery and distribution system, consisting of ware- houses at Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Memphis. These warehouses deliver our products locally as well as by rail to customers in the West, the North- west, the South and. the Southwest. In many instances our steel products are transported 1000 to 2000 miles by river and then go on by rail another 1000 miles or more. We have shipped steel in barges to customers as far into the Northwest as Minneapolis, 2000 miles by river from Pittsburgh; and as far South as Biloxi, Miss., also 2000 miles by water. “Our river service regularly delivers to customers in Parkersburg, Cincin- nati, Louisville, Evansville, St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans, and other cities in the Ohio-Mississippi valleys. With the completion of the Intracoastal canal, between New Orleans and Corpus Christi, Tex., we anticipate being able to serve our customers in Port Arthur, Beaumont, Galveston, Houston, and other Texas cities by all-water delivery from Pittsburgh or from our ware- houses in New Orleans and Memphis.” With the delivery of two new steam towboats this spring, the Jones & Laughlin river fleet will consist of 12 towboats and 250 modern steel barges, having a total carrying capacity of 200,000 tons. The larger portion of this equipment is engaged in transporting to the company’s steel works and by product coke ovens in the Pittsburgh district the output of coal from its mines on the Monongahela river, which Te New Orleans plant of the 52 runs as high as 5,000,000 tons a year. Another division, consisting of gondola and box barges of steel construction with water-tight compartments, is as- signed to the downriver delivery ser- vice between Pittsburgh and New Or- leans. Still another division is en- gaged in operating car ferries between the Pittsburgh works on the Mononga- hela river and the Aliquippa works on the Ohio, whereby freight cars loaded with steel products in process of manu- facture are transferred from one works to the other, a distance of 20 miles. Panama Mail Line to Build Four New Ships _ The keel of the first of four twin- screw express liners was laid recent- ly by the Kearny, N. J., yards of the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. for the Panama Mail Steamship Co. These ships, to operate between San Francisco and Los Angeles and New York, follow the award of a mail contract by the United States govern- ment to W. R. Grace & Co. of which the Panama Mail Steamship Co. is a subsidiary. The ships will be propelled by two 6000-horsepower General Electric geared turbines, and auxiliaries will be electrified by General Electric equipment. Each vessel will have a deadweight capacity of 16,600 tons, will be 508 feet long and will have a beam of 72 feet. Each ship will have a loaded speed of 19 knots. At sea, the supply of auxiliary electricity will normally be from two 500-kilowatt generators at- tached to the reduction gears of the propulsion equipment, but this elec- tricity may also be obtained from two 500-kilowatt turbine generator sets. The latter two sets will float on the electric system when the vessel is operating at the higher speeds but, when the speed drops below 70 per cent of maximum, the turbine gen- erator sets will automatically take over the electric load of the auxili- aries. In port ,electricity will be sup- plied from a 200-kilowatt turbine gen- erator set. Heads Gateoneh Line Edward R. Richardson, who has been vice president and general manager of the Ocean Steamship Co. of Savannah (Savannah ° line) Since the release of the coastwise steamship lihes from government control after the war, was elected president on June 18. He also was elected a member of the executive MARINE REVIEW—J uly, 1931 committee and a director of the Cen- tral of Georgia railway. He has been connected with the line for about 30 years. Report Shows 2,500,000 On Liners in 1930 Nearly 2,500,000 passengers, traveling on vessels flying the flags of 24 different nations, and arriy- ing from or departing for 90 dif- ferent countries or island groups, were recorded by the bureau of re- search, United States shipping board, in its report on water borne passen- ger traffic of the United States for the fiscal year 1930. ; The total mentioned included 2,- 236,620 passengers aggregating 91 per cent, who traveled between the United States and foreign countries, 70,929 or 3 per cent on tourist cruises, 117,037 or 5 per cent who traveled to or from United States noncontiguous territories, and 21,- 015 or 1 per cent, who traveled through the Panama canal between the Pacific and Atlantic or Gulf ports in the United States. The foreign passenger traffic, which represented mores than nine- tenths of the entire trade, was made up of 1,177,163 arrivals at Ameri- - ean ports and 1,059,457 departures. The passenger movement between the United States and Canada was the largest reported for any country aggregating 850,563 of which 344,- 140 traveled between the United States and points on the Canadian Pacific coast and 506,423 between ports of this country and ports in At- lantie Canada, and along the Great Lakes. The next heaviest movement was with the United Kingdom, in- cluding England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, which totaled 303,782. The 2,236,620 passengers recorded as arriving at or departing from United States ports during 1930, traveled on vessels registered under 24 national flags, almost 99 per cent . of the total number traveling in the vessels of 10 nations. These were: Great Britain 1,054,796 passengers or 47 per cent; United States 605,- 416 or 27 per cent; Germany 190,- 446 or 9 per cent; Italy 136,848 or 6 per cent; France 94,817 or 4 per cent; Netherlands 31,868 and Sweden 30,259 or 1% per cent, each; Japan 25,937 and Denmark 22,530 or 1 per cent each; and Norway 17,798 or % of 1 per cent. The remaining 1 per cent was carried by vessels flying the flags of Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Danzig, Greece, Hon- duras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal and Spain. The noncontiguous and the inter- coastal passenger trades were both conducted entirely in American flag vessels, 117,037 passengers traveling in these two movements.