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18 MARINE REVIEW. OUTPUT OF SCOTCH SHIP BUILDERS. IN 1900 IT WAS ABOUT ONE-QUARTER OF THE WORLD’S NEW TONNAGE—INTER- ESTING SUMMARY OF SHIP BUILDING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM— PROGRESS OF THE INDUSTRY. From a special correspondent at Glasgow. Writing early in December last about the work and prospects oi Scotch ship builders, I said that when the figures for 1900 were complete it would probably be found that the Scotch output for the year exceeded half a million tons. The returns now are complete (though some of the newspapers were rather “too previous’ and therefore inaccurate in their figuring), and they show that the Scotch output of new vessels in the clos- ing year of the nineteenth century was a record one, being 406 ships of an aggregate tonnage of 541,031 and of an aggregate engine power of 478,936 I.H.P. Of this great total the ship builders of the Clyde (Glasgow, Greenoch, Dumbarton, etc.) contributed 318 vessels of 492,609 tons, and 447,428 I.H.P.; the ship builders of the Forth contributed thirty-three vessels of 16,402 tons and 6,490 I.H.P.; the ship builders of the Tay (Aberdeen) fourteen vessels of 21,689 tons and 17,228 I.H.P.; and the ship builders of the Dee (Dundee) forty-one vessels of 8,381 tons and 8,790 I.H.P. No othcr single ship building center in the world can ap- proach the output of Scotland. In England the Tyne comes out best with 825,277 tons, the Wear with 258,940 tons, the Tees and Hartlepool together with 307,932 tons. But, of course, there are several other build- ing centers in England which bring the aggregate of that portion of the United-Kingdom into the forefront. The following little formula shows at a glance the distribution of the industry in the United Kingdom: SHIP BUILDING OF UNITED KINGDOM IN 1900, 2 Tonnage. I. H. P. No. of vessels. LAIN ea iaa whe cis duce vos0 tes 873 996,320 631,107 PSCOPATIG sac tes ca Ges cho plas 406 541,031 478,936 TTS UY ga KOR SES a ~ 26 187,493 . 67,600 PANN oa Bosh acole waco 9h 1,245 1,674,844 1,177,643 As the output of the world in sea-going vessels was probably not more than 2,370,000 tons last year, the United Kingdom furnished one-half and Scotland very nearly one-fourth, of the whole. The largest product of any one firm in Scotland was not that of a builder of crack ocean liners or battleships, but that of Russell & Co. of Port Glasgow, who turned out 60,339 tons of good, honest cargo “tramps” ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 tons each. The second largest, however, was A. Stephen & Sons, with 34,555 tons of “liners.” Then came Charles Connell & Co. with 32,316 tons, principally of “liners,” and then William Denny & Bros. with 30,600 tons of a mixed assortment of “liners” and passenger boats. Other notable outputs were those of Scott & Co., 29,970 tons; D. & W. Hender- son & Co., 28,930 tons; John Brown & Co. (Clydebank), 26,250 tons; William Hamilton & Co., 21,600 tons; Caird & Co., 22,714 tons; the Fair- field Co., 17,765 tons; and Barclay, Curle & Co., 17,650 tons. After putting into the water all this tonnage in 1900, Scotch ship builders began the new century with orders on their books to the extent of upward of 500,000 tons, of which 450,000 tons was in the hands of builders in the Clyde district. Not many new orders have been booked since the year opened, but it is known that a good many are only being held in suspense until prices settle down. Ship owners seem of the opin- ion that costs have not yet reached “hard pan,” seeing that coal is still coming down and is bound to come still lower within the next month ‘or two, unless labor troubles arise with the miners. The decline in prices of ship building material, and consequently. of ships, has been almost as rapid as the rise. In January of last year steel ship plates were £7 15s. per ton and they rose up to £815s. in April; indeed, even higher figures were asked, though probably not paid. In May there was a decline to £8, after which there was a steady descent until the present quotation of £6 15s. was reached. We began the year, _ therefore, with plates just £1 per ton cheaper than they were a year ago. At the beginning of 1900 the cost of 10-knot boats of about 6,000 tons capacity was about £910s. per ton. It rose to £10, came back to £9 10s. and today may be taken at £9, though not, perhaps, for very early deliv- ery. But ship owners seem to think the £9 per ton dead weight is too much to pay for new cargo boats when freights all around are on ‘the down grade. Of course, the regular mail and passenger lines have to consider not so much the prime cost of ships as the necessity of looking ahead to keep their fleets always up to the time of day. Here it should be explained that the statistics of output we have given do not quite agree either as to number or tonnage with the figures issued by Lloyds’ Register. This is partly because Lloyds’ returns only include vessels over 100 tons, whereas our figures include all the vessels launched; and partly because of the difference in some cases between builders’ measurement and Lloyds’ measurement for purposes of registration. It may be further noted that the output in 1900 was practically all in steam tonnage, there being only 0.7 per cent. of the total in sailing tonnage, and it was practically all steel, 99.1 per cent. of the whole number of vessels peas peut of that material, with only 0.8 per cent. of iron and 0.1 per cent. of wood. Some of the notable products of the Clyde ship yards last year were the Tunisian, 10,676 tons, built by A. Stephen & Sons for the Allan State line; the Evangeline and Loyalist, each 3,900 tons, built by the same firm for the Furness-Leyland line; the Atinda and Itola, each 5,200 tons, built by Wm. Denny & Bros. for the British India line; the Rimutaka, 7,700 tons, by the same builders for the New Zealand Shipping Co.; the Lyris- trata, a steam yacht of 2,000 tons, by the same builders for Mr, J. Gordon Bennett; four boats of 7,000 tons each, built by Scott & Co. for the Ocean ‘Co.; the Shinano Marie, 6,000 tons, built by D. & W. Henderson & Co. for the Japan Steamship Co.; Assyria, 6,350 tons, by the same builders for the Anchor line; the Vaderland and Zeeland, built by John Brown & Co., ‘Clydebank, for the Red Star line; three 7,000 to 8,000-ton boats built for the P. & O. Co. by Caird & Co.; a first-class cruiser and an Indian troopship, built for the government by the. Fairfield Co.; the Ikhoona, 2,300 tons, for the British India line, and five steamers of 750 tons each for the Newfoundland trade, built by A. & J. Inglis, But this is only a rapid selection, as we would need several columns to describe all the [January 81, miscellaneous craft, from battleships to barges, turned out by Clyde ship builders for service in all parts of the world. It is interesting at the beginning of a new century to note the tre- mendous development of the ship building industry. In the year 1807 there was practically no ship building at all at Glasgow, for the Clyde then was only a ditch and all the building of vessels for Glasgow mer- chants engaged in American, Canadian and West Indies trade, and in the Newfoundland and Greenland fisheries, was done at Greenoch. The present firm of Scott '& ‘Co. began ship building at Greenoch as far back as 1710, and has retained its firm name to this.day. It may be doubted if such expansion and trade record in ship building can be paralleled else- where in the world. The demand was then chiefly for vessels for the herring fishery, but by the middle of the eighteenth century Scott & Co. were building stout wooden sailing traders of 500 tons or so for English owners. The next development in ship building was at Port Glasgow, a place just next door (so to speak) to Greenoch, but created by Glasgow merchants as a sea port for their vessels which could not get up and down the then narrow and shallow river; and it was at Port Glasgow that John Wood & Co. built the first steamer that ever churned the waters of the ‘Clyde, to wit, the famous Comet. That was just ninety years ago, and for some years afterward John Wood & Co. did most of the steamer building there was to be done. The next steamship builder was William Denny, who, in 1818, began the business which has developed into the present enormous establishment of William Denny & Bros., Dumbarton. Some twenty years later the famous Robert Napier, one of the founders of the (Cunard line, who was an engineer and iron founder, began to build ships and founded the yard now run by William Beardmere & Co., in the neighborhood of Glasgow; and about the same time was founded by Robert Barclay the well-known ship building and engineering firm of Barclay, ‘Curle & Co. These, of course, were the days of wood and before the publishing of records of annual outputs. By about the middle of the last century the ship builders in the Glasgow district were Robert Napier & Sons, Barclay, Curle & Co., Randolph, Elder & Co. (afterwards John Elder & Co., and now the Fairfield Ship Building & Engineering Co., Ltd.), A. & J. Inglis, Alexander Stephen & Sons, J. & G. Thomson (afterward 'Clydebank Ship ‘Building & Engineering Co. and now John Brown & Co., Ltd.), and Tod & '(McGregor. The last named firm is now extinct, but the yard is occupied by D.:.& W. Henderson & :'Co., who have built all the Anchor liners, and many a goodly vessel and shapely yacht besides. By about 1860 the output of the Clyde ship yards was not more than 35,000 tons per annum—not as much as half a dozen of the yards can each turn out now with the greatest ease. Within the last forty years, therefore, the Clyde industry has developed more than twelvefold, and it is not unlikely that the Clyde output alone may this year reach 500,000 tons and that of all Scotland 600,000 tons. It is true that all the yards are not fully booked, though most of them have work on hand to keep them busy until 1902. But the very fact that some of them see slackness ahead is enough to make them bustle around for business and adapt themselves to the ideas of ship owners. The year has begun with a large decline in coal and a considerable slump in pig iron. If last year ship builders were worried by rising prices, which must have tended to make some of their contracts unprofitable, and must have made the year an anxious one for all of them, this year they can preserve easy minds on the subject of material. With coal and pig iron coming down as they are doing, ship building material is bound to become cheaper as the year advances. Bottom dollar will probably be reached within the next six months and in the meantime even the most conserva- tive ship owners will be compelled to replenish their fleets: for not only is there the natural shortage by wreck and superannuation of the past year to be made good, but there is also to be replaced a very large amount of second-hand tonnage sold to foreigners, and there are more naval con- tracts to be placed. Altogether it is not improbable that British ship builders generally and Scotch ship builders particularly, may have a larger output this year than even last. Up to the present, however, the writer is bound to say there is no appearance yet of a rising wave of orders. Even the contracts for two monster Cunarders of the Saxonia type, which have been in the air for some weeks past, have been indefi- nitely suspended. _ Unsatisfactory, from a financial point of view, as last year was for ship builders, it was worse for iron smelters and iron and steel manufac- turers. The latter had for the greater portion of the year costs of crude iron and fuel rising against them whilst the prices of the finished materials were being forced down by American and German competition; and smelters were unable, so they say, to get prices for pig iron high enough to compensate them for dear coal, dear ore and high wages. Even since coal came down to about the level of the end of the year several furnaces have been damped out because of the low prices now obtainable for pig iron. Yet pigs are still not cheap enough to please consumers and there has been no hurry to resume operations in any of the finished iron and steel works since the new year holidays. Indeed, several large makers ad- mit that they intend to remain closed until the end of January, in order by curtailing the consumption, to bring coal down. ‘Although 1900 began with an unprecedented demand for pig iron, the Scotch smelters during the year put out only 1,153,896 tons, or 12.942 tons less than in 1899. The average yield per furnace dropped from 270 to 265 tons per week, owing to the inferior character of the ore now being im- ported. The local consumption of Scotch pig iron decreased by 3,672 tons and of all pig iron by 158,672 tons, owing to the depression in the local malleable iron and steel trades. But the exports increased by 19,819 tons and the stocks were reduced by 142,394 tons, the total consumption (home and foreign) being so much in excess of the production. There are now twelve furnaces fewer in blast in Scotland than at the end of December, so the output of pigs in 1901 promises to be considerably less than in 1900. Thomas Drein & Son, the boat builders of Wilmington, Del., have lately been awarded the following contracts: Twenty-four 28-ft. patent, beaded, metallic life boats and eighteen sea life. rafts for steamers on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts; fifty-eight 22-ft. boats for steamers building on the great lakes; sixteen 24-ft. boats for Gulf of Mexico steamships; two 14-ft. boats for steamer building on the Hudson river; two 16-ft., one 14-ft., one 20-ft. and two 18-ft. boats for New York, Norfolk and Gulf of Mexico tugs.