The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Total clearances from British ports: Total value of goods: Exports of coal: Total entrances of cargo ships into British ports: Number of vessels.s..s sas e4 isan ces IMB EDROTO VESEOIB Sak cca hee es TVG aiiaise ete etlane eter acib bee eee e TeeN PROB N TESTS BIRPOLCE Cie aiiec vn Gey «tos wn (Hott ohop 1 hke (cet sane pe gba eat ect ha eclirsat ire oh eR SSS __(__—=—s—s—SSS(oSsSs_““—“as=s@$ —66—000900 000 January GALEN shinies sui siniite Onaies Say va at aes 3,541 4,813,274 735,365 (15.3%) 4,026 4,493,346 627,429 (14%) £35 ,682,464 £64,671,822 3,010,741 £2,439,011 1,206,842 Trend of Trade and Shipping in British Isles Two months ended Feb. 28 February 1934 1933 3,284 6,825 6,385 4,251,531 9,064,805 8,434,478 623,926 1,359,291 1,357,573 (14.7%) (15.1%) 16.1%) 3,741 7,767 7,643 4,142,113 8,635,459 8,480,639 5805297, 1,212,726 1,227,042 (14.2%) (14. 2%) (14.6%) £35,270,021 £70,952,411 £65,769,925 £57,353,979 £121,959,782 £102,885,892 3,359,187 6,369,928 6,142,296 £2,665,568 £5,104'579 £4,935 ,563 1,104,325 2,311,167 2,210,636 discussed by parliament will be a com- promise of all the most promising. There is one plan, however, which is certain to meet with the utmost op- position from the economists and thoughtful shipping men, and that is that a subsidy of so much per ton per annum should be paid on the tramp ships laid up as well as those in com mission. As a considerable propor tion of these ships, the greater part of them in fact, are obsolete for com petitive work under modern conditions this suggestion will only tend to per- petuate the surplus of carrying ton- nage and shipping obviously cannot get on to an even keel again before it is more or less wiped out. At the present time only 14.7 of the total tonnage owned in Great Brit- ain and Ireland is under five years of age, and it has to meet the com- petition of Norwegian shipping which is 28.2 per cent under that age, Dutch which is 20.4 per cent and other Con- tinental countries which make a much better showing than the British. This percentage must be brought up to something approximating the Conti- nental levels and every effort made to encourage the scrapping of surplus ships. Happily the demand for scrap steel is still very brisk and the price of tonnage for this purpose is going up steadily. Comparatively recently it reached the ludicrously low level of 6 shillings per ton gross; at the beginning of this year it was about £1 a ton and now it is over 23 shillings and rising steadily. Diagram showing fluctuation of ocean freight rates for four years and two months There is no doubt that the tramp of the future, if she is to retain any of her business in face of the heavy competition of the cargo liner, will have to be a much more economical ship than the great majority of those afloat at the present time, especially the British tramp which has to com- pete with such low personnel and safe- ty costs in the ships of the Mediter- ranean countries and Japan. Prize for Revolutionary Design In Italy, where the economists and shipping men are seriously concerned about the average age of their ship- ping, the authorities have offered a large cash prize for any inventor who will present a revoltionary design for a tramp ship. It is the intention to replace the present Italian tramping fleet, which is of considerable age and mostly bought from foreign countries when more than half worn out, by the most up to date units built with the assistance of the state. But in the mean time the British tramp shipping industry seems to be obtaining the same result by private enterprise. Within recent years the steam en- gineers, urged to the greatest efforts by the striking success of the diesel, have made great progress in running economy, but aS a general rule this has been accompanied by considerable elaboration and increased cost, which is the last thing that a tramp can con- sider. The attention of the experts has therefore been turned to improv- ing the hull form in order to reduce “STATIST” INDEX OF BRITISH ae FREIGHTS INDEX OF FREIGHTS BETWEEN U. S. A. AND WESTERN EUROPE--—— AVERAGE OF 1920 RATES TAKEN AS 100 resistance and obtain speed with less power, and in this Sir Joseph Isher- wood’s “arcform” ships undoubtedly take the lead. The first two “arcform” vessels have now passed their trials and gone on service and they have both been strikingly successful. Not only has the cost of construction been reason- able, and considerable weight saved in the hull without loss of strength, but they have been strikingly eco- nomical in coal and, what is perhaps most important in a tramp steamer, they have been very “sea kindly.” The ARCWEAR on her maiden voyage rode out the worst of weather with much less reduction of speed than would have been necessary in the case of a loaded tramp of ordinary form, keeping her engines running at 57 revolutions which gave her 6% knots instead of reducing them to about 20 as the ordinary ship would have done. Having laid down three of these “arcform” ships on speculation, and therefore put himself in a position to give potential buyers the fullest in- formation without having to consult any owner, Sir Joseph is now talking about building nine additional vessels of this type. In the mean time a large fleet of expensive 16-knot cargo motor liners is under construction for the New Zealand and Australian trade, encour- aged under the Ottawa agreement. Various companies are concerned in this fleet, the cost of which is ex- (Continued on Page 40) oS MARINE REVIEw—May, 1934 11