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Age of American Merchant Vessels Analysis Shows Need of Replacements By A. H. Jansson and E. C. Powers HAT are the prospects for American shipbuild- WV in the immediate years to come? This is a question of great importance to steamship owners and operators and to the nation at large as well as to our established shipbuilding plants. To undertake its answer may seem a bold venture in prophecy. A study of the situation, however, brings out certain facts with which an approach to the answer may be made. In the first place a definite building program is en- tailed in the remaining vessels, new and reconditioned, called for in the 44 mail contracts awarded to Ameri- can operators by the postoffice department for specified services in foreign trade. If these mail contracts are continued in force during the ten-year period from date of award, and there is no reason to think that they will not be, the number and characteristics of the new and reconditioned vessels required and the time in which they must be laid down can be determined. An estimate based on an actual count indicates that the mail contracts now in force, in addition to orders already placed, will call for the building of approxi- mately 60 new vessels of about 500,000 gross tons to cost in the neighborhood of $180,000,000. Further- more there will also be a considerable volume of elab- orate reconditioning of existing vessels. It is also possible to determine the number, charac- teristics and approximate cost of completing naval ships now building and appropriated for as of July 1, 1931. As a matter of fact there are 22 vessels all to be com- pleted by the end of the fiscal year 1934 at a total esti- mated cost of $173,590,000. What is not. so easy is to estimate what additional naval shipbuilding congress will approve beginning with the coming session, aS a pro- gram to be spread over the remaining five and one-half years before the London naval treaty ends, Dec. 31, 1936. Unless a substantial program in naval shipbuilding in the categories permitted under the treaty ‘is undertaken, we shall, as Senator David A. Reed, one of the dele- gates to the London treaty of 1930 has said, have no standing at the next naval conference. If wisdom pre- vails in the councils of our government a substantial additional program of naval shipbuilding will be un- dertaken promptly. The Navy league of the United States, in a carefully prepared study of naval requirements under the treaty, proposes that in addition to completing the ships building and appropriated for as of July 1, 1931, congress should make the necessary appropriations for the fiscal years 1932 and 1926 inclusive and for the first six months of the fiscal year 1937 for replacing ships now built after they become over age but before the end of the treaty. (Continued on Page 18) Number'and Gross Tonnage of American Merchant Vessels by Categories—Now in Service According to Age from 1 to 40 Years-—1000 Gross Tons and Over Ocean Vessels Passenger Cargo Tankers ross Gross Gross No. Tons No. Tons No. Tons 4 11,705 3 7789 1 2450 1 7270 2 4317 1 1661 1 1548 1 1741 5 9911 2 2899 1 2551 7 34,384 7 25.528 9 45,611 3 12,952 2 4992 2 6869 9 31,331 3 8531 3 6551 6 26,604 5 32,787 3 12,763 4 11,848 2 20,976 8 29,353 Z 8355 2 23,302 3 10,159 4 14,688 8 48,157 6 5.204 9 50,934 2 8308 8 36,354 1 3789 4 16,159 12 55,117 1 4711 6 20,761 7 28,326 2 4426 2 9330 11 49,895 9 36,523 7 49,906 11 52.839 11 42,697 2 68,313 7 38,623 5 222 4 20,056 10 37,702 3 21,191 1 6063 25 87,952 18 121,310 4 34,791 *22 *72,479 23 168,120 5 26,188 *56 *153,586 24 163,791 *122 *437,908 31 186,293 § 46,459 *100 *366,074 65 425.699 18 232,314 #19 *84,988 83 639,636 4 49,449 9 65.110 4 25,926 5 22,975 3 11,943 3 16,787 5 17,168 2 10,964 Zz 7701 3 17,678 1 6767 1 1217 1 5945 2 10,165 6 46,245 1 5043 4 31,727 5 4,501 5 254 4 32,766 4 23,734 2 17,638 4 29,08 158 1,129,631 480 1,785,535 317 =: 2,080,938 tons) h are MARINE REview—October, 1931 Lake Vessels Ocean and Lake Ferries Passenger Cargo Total Gross Gross Gross Gross No. Tons No. Tons No. Tons No. Tons 3 3890 1 2787 8 18,382 1 1304 6 14,976 ll 26,519 1 1129 4 7939 3 9931 11 30,586 1 1766 1 3092 3 6519 5 17,953 6 19,501 1 2940 17 59,913 18 62,853 8 28,231 9 29,972 1 1883 1 2498 12 45,015 22 64,457 1 2427 9 37,597 24 99,936 1 1954 18 83,167 33 148,676 6 7032 1 1762 17 69,154 38 124,679 1 1016 3 10,014 21 77,103 34 121,288 3 4472 2 8648 20 86,413 37 156,931 5 6564 1 1286 6 27,477 24 94,011 10 15,106 25 148,434 37 186,842 4 5161 39 243,705 50 273,713 1 1138 1 4568 40 243,387 56 322,454 1 2662 21 113,045 33 174,949 17 96,329 26 136,472 1 1351 2 6955 21 119,783 41 204,076 1 1238 5 6,002 21 90,753 2 3870 z 9122 4 20,854 30 129,594 2 3636 2 8635 5 34,596 38 192,309 6 13,080 1 2662 5 753 26 178,653 1 240 2 8594 20 89,949 8 57,317 52 272,642 11 82,838 60 358,228 10 27,633 95 371,198 2 4639 155 628,840 1 2639 6 27,860 177 868,731 5 624! 125 963,178 2 3564 3 22,600 22 166,649 3 5088 11 57,619 25 114,412 3 5857 2 15,478 5 43,028 19 100,196 1 1389 6 47,076 12 4,127 oe f Be eR ie vss SMS 4 ; ; : ae 3 17,429 9 64,148 70 118,499 25 86,238 415 2,160,928 1465 7,361,769 4 to 10) Shipping Board cargo vessels in lay up (243 vessels of 1,339,822 gross Only an immediate emergency could draw them back into active service. They 15