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EUROPEAN SHIPPING, Improvement Noted in 1934 is bound to include a gen- eral review of the year, and con- siderable headway is noted especially in British shipping and shipbuilding. Satisfactory progress has been made during the year in many sections, several others have held their own and in only a few is further depres- sion to be observed. The promise of better times is now unmistakable, but the shipping industry and its al- lies are not by any means out of the woods yet and complete recovery is certain to be a long process. World trade has been revived to approximately 1913 level, but there is still far too much tonnage afloat to cover it. This not only applies to the number of ships in the world but also to the greater carrying ca- pacity of a large number of units. Until the supply is adjusted to the demand it will be impossible to say that shipping has fully recovered, but it is good to note that the progress is in that direction. To: review of the last quarter of Subsidy for British Ships Naturally one of the most impor- tant features of the quarter is the progress of the British subsidy scheme for tramps. The industry put its plans before the board of trade and these were accepted in principle, with the result that the measure has now passed the house of commons and will shortly be before the lords. It is fully realized that the £2,000,000 earmarked for the purpose is only a pill for the ailment, but it is hoped that it will be enough to permit the tramp section to turn the corner, for subsidies are still against British policy and would be avoided if possible. Many companies are past praying for and no reason- able financial help would be sufficient to save them, even if it were advis-_ able, but there are many others which, with a certain measure of state assistance, ought to be able to hold their own against state-aided foreign competition. There is still a considerable meas- ure of opposition to the subsidy scheme on the ground that it does not include any reference to the seamen and their conditions, but the govern- ment scheme depends on the opera- A quarterly review of European ship- ping. The second, third and fourth articles for this year will appear in the May, August, and November issues re- spectively. 10 tion of the tramp advisory commit- tee and there is little doubt that this body will be able to do far more good than any hard and fast law; it is an old truism that reform that comes from within is always the most sat- isfactory and the tramp steamer which saves money by running against the rules is just as much hat- ed by the better class owner, who will be strongly represented on the committee, as the cheaply run for- eign competitor. Construction, Renovation Loans In the discussion over the subsidy comparatively little attention has been given to the promise of govern- ment money on reasonable terms, al- though not as reasonable as those embodied in the Jones-White act, for the modernization of existing ships _ and the construction of up-to-date ones on condition that obsolete ton- nage is scrapped at the same time. Whether this will be used principally for the construction of its new ships or the modernization of existing ones is an open question, but British ship- ping and shipbuilding interests have been very much impressed by the ex. traordinarily good modernization work done by the Dutch with their cargo liners running to South Africa and the East Indies. The Royal Mail Lines Ltd. has already modernized and greatly increased the speed of the two pioneer motor liners As- TURIAS and ALCANTARA by the installa- tion of geared turbines and high pressure boilers, and the Blue Star line has also improved a number of its ships, both for the Australasian and South American services, by ma- chinery alterations and the installa- tion of the Maier form bow. Other companies have carried out minor im- provements which have had good ef- fect but a very much larger scale movement is expected with the goy- ernment money. New British Construction There ‘is a fair amount of new construction in Great Britain, al- though the revival of shipbuilding some months ago has not been main- tained. The 10 magnificent new mo- torships designed for the New Zea- land meat service are coming into commission and are obviously partic- ularly satisfactory vessels. Surprise has been caused by the Clan Line laying down a 16-knot cargo carrier for its Australian service, not only MARINE REvIEw—February, 1935 Many Quarters BY FRANK C. BOWEN driven by steam, with Bauer-Wach exhaust turbines, but normally burn- ing coal under the boilers. The two big ships building for the Australian trade, Orton for the Orient line and STRATHMORE for the P. & O., are pro- gressing steadily, the former having been launched by wireless by the Duke of Gloucester during his Aus- tralian tour. Quite a number of tankers are under construction but practically all of these are for the oil companies themselves and it is diffi- cult to say when the building of tramp tankers will be revived. It is an old proverb in the British ship- building world that the prosperity of the industry depends on the con- struction of cargo tonnage on the North East coast and although the yards there are still far from busy there has been a welcome revival of orders during the last few months, At the same time it should be noticed that the amount of British shipyard work on foreign account is small. The Canadian Pacific Co.’s project for a sister ship to the EMPRESS OF Britain is still very much in the air but it is not by any means abandoned and nobody will be surprised to see the order placed at any time, prob- ably with John Browns, Clydebank, although other yards have hopes. Held Up Work Resumed It is interesting to note that ships which have been held up on the slips for a long period, some of them for three to four years, are now being completed. Many of them have changed hands while they have been on the slips, the companies originally ordering them having collapsed or not being in a position to complete their construction, but others have been restarted for their original own- ers. Sir Joseph Isherwood’s arceform hull has made its reputation and his courage in speculating on the con- struction of three ships has paid. He was prepared to go further and lay down ten, but there seems to be no need for this, for orders for tank steamers, built on the principle, are coming in from abroad. And when British owners are in a position to use government money for new con- struction it is expected that quite a batch of arcform ships will be laid down. Similarly the various inven- tions which have recently been put on the market for the improvement of the steam machinery of cargo vessels,