Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), 25 Jan 1900, p. 16

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16 MARINE REVIEW. MR. GRISCOM ON THE SHIPPING BILL. Washington, D. C., Jan. 24—It is probably unnecessary to explain to readers of the Review that Mr. Clement A. Griscom, president of the International Navigation Co., did not, in his testimony before the com- merce committee of the senate on the shipping bill, disclose any scheme on the part of his company to place their fast ships under foreign registry or that, as has been intimated, he made any threat of what the company would do or would not do. : “T have pointed out to the committee,” said Mr. Griscom in referring to his testimony, “the results that would necessarily tollow the failure of congress to enact remedial legislation for the benefit of American ship- ping interests, and in the course of my statement, I said that the mail contracts which we have do not begin to compensate us for the extra expense involved in being under the American flag. I did suggest, by way of illustration, that at the expiration of our present mail contracts, unless congress in the meantime enacts remedial legislation on the lines of the bill now before the committees, we would have to put our fast ships under the British flag; and I expressed the opinion that all hopes of con- tinuing the construction of fast liners, such as those which proved so useful during the Spanish war, must necessarily cease, unless congress took the steps we believe right and just to the shipping interests.” Along the line of the above interview with Mr. Griscom it will be of interest to quote from his testimony before the committee. He said: “Tt is proper at this point in my statement that I should inform yo1 that these four fast steamships (St. Louis, St. Paul, Paris and New York), after being charged with a sufficient sum properly to offset the opposition which follows a high-speed ship constantly employed, have never made u; a dollar. And it has only been possible for us to continue with thes> ships under the American flag because our eleven ships under foreign flags, from the beginning of our business in 1873 down to date, have given us a faifly good return. If we had invested the money, about $10,- 000,000, these four fast ships cost, in ships of the type in which we con- duct our other services, steamships of moderate speed and large capacity, and operated them under a foreign flag, we should have been far more prosperous and so far as pecuniary results is concerned, laying aside all patriotic impulses, the result would have been commercia'ly entirely satis- factory. This service of fast ships cannot be continued under the Ameri- can flag after the expiration of our present mail contract upon the terms under which they are now running. And all hope of continuing the con- struction of such ships, which proved so useful to the government in the Spanish war, will inevitably cease. If we could have remained British without any postal contract, we would have been $136,000 per annum better off. That does not include the excess cost of maintaining a 20-knot spare boat to insure the regular mail service, rather than a moderate speed one, as is permitted to our foreign competitors. This important item added to our disability $279,000 per annum, making an aggregate dis- ability of $415,000 per annum, which is the tax we have paid for raising and maintaining the American flag on these four boats. Under the bill which is now submitted to your consideration, this mail service will re- ceive $422,000 more than it now receives for carrying the mails, which you will observe, barely removes our present disability, and I hope this statement will correct the impression prevailing with some, that the high-speed boats are overpaid in the proposed new bill. “Should any one doubt the inadequacy of the mail pay under our postal law he has only to reflect that there never has been any effort made by anyone else to obtain a transatlantic contract. If the postal bill had fulfilled the purpose for which it was intended there should have been, and if the pay had been adequate there would have been, lines to every important European seaport. It is not for a moment to be considered that the development of our mercantile marine means only such ships as we have been discussing. A certain number of those are necessary to naval and military exigencies for the swift and safe carriage of mails and passengers, and perishable freicht which demands high speed, but even under the conditions of the bill under discussion the compensation for high-speed ships will not procure their increase, excepting by companies or organizations of men who have slower and larger carrying equipment to support them. It is a correct parallel to cite the great trunk line rail- roads. which run limited trains at high speed, luxuriously fitted, to pro- tect and care for certain public demand. But everyone knows that the earnings of every one of these great systems is derived from the enor- mous volume of freight and passengers carried in large quantities and at moderate speed. It is precisely so with the steamship service. It is the ‘beast of burden,’ which is to meet the great bulk of everything we have to support, and it is happily most encouraged by the terms of this bill. “The peril of having our export trade dependent upon the British and German nations being at peace with the world, for they are the great carrying nations on the sea, has already been referred to in this hearing. It requires no imagination to picture the distress that would prevail in this country if its export trade of farm products and manufactured goods should suddenly stop because either of the carriers who are our cus- tomers had become a belligerent nation. We carry only 8 per cent. of our exports under our own flag, while 85 per cent. is liable at any moment to be absolutely cut off if Great Britain and Germany become involved in war, and about 65 per cent. would be cut off if Great Britain alone became involved with a maritime nation. Already our traffic is embar- rassed because of the ships Great Britain has withdrawn simply as trans- ports in the war with the Transvaal. Suppose her flag on the high seas was threatened? “Tt is amazing that there is a legislator who is so indifferent to the interests of his constituents as to permit this situation longer to menace our export trade. When our export trade was insignificant this may not have been a pressing question; certainly congress did not think it was. But can congress now hesitate when our exports of farm products and manufactures amounted in 1898 to $1,231,000,000? Is there a reflecting farmer or manufacturer who will longer tolerate this risk? No scheme will remove this peril which constantly threatens our foreign trade that does not establish and maintain a national merchant marine.” Mr, F. T. F. Lovejoy, secretary of the Carnegie Steel Co., Ltd., re- signed a few days ago and was succeeded by A. W. Moreland, who had been auditor of the company. NEW NOTES FROM THE SHIP BUILDERS. The Electric Launch Co. of New York City, a branch of the Electric Boat Co., which recently absorbed the Holland Submarine Torpedo Boat Co., has made arrangements to erect a large plant at Bayonne, N. J. The land which the company has purchased consists of upward oi three acres above tide water and five acres under water. Six buildings, most of which will be of brick and stone, will be erected. Work upon a tem- porary building, 50 by 150 feet, will begin at once and ultimately over $100,000 will be expended in the improvement of the property. The new ship yard will give employment to about two hundred men. Mr. R. H. Langford, whose ship yard is at the foot of Baylen street, Pensacola, Fla., is engaged in the construction of a number of lighters for the use of the Munson Steamship Co. for service in gulf, Cuban and South American ports. The vessels are of two sizes, 80 and 106 feet in length respectively, copper sheathed to the load line and fitted with masts, hoisting engines and apparatus. Ten of these vessels are nearing comple- tion, three are on the stocks and work upon two others is about to begin. Denial is now made of the report recently circulated to the effect that the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad ‘Co. intends to buiid and maintain a fleet of lighters and tug boats in New York harbor. Instead the railroad has renewed for five years longer the contract which it has had for twenty years past with the Starin -Transportation Co. of New York City to do all its towing and lighterage work. The Starin com- pany has recently made extensive improvements in its equipment. The ship yard project of Townsend & Downey of Brooklyn, N. Y., who submitted a bid for one of the cruisers of the Denver class, has been incorporated. The name selected is Townsend & Downey Ship Building & Repair Co. of Brooklyn. N. Y., and the capital stock is $1,500,000. The incorporators are James A. Townsend, Wallace Downey, Samuel Q. Brown, A. S. Sumner and Uharles B. Bowers. The new ship yard and dry dock project at New Orleans now appears on the point of consummation. .Mr. Robert C. Morris of 1008 Hennen Building, New Orleans, is the prime mover in the project. Several op- tions on sites have been secured and it is expected that should no unfore- seen delays intervene the formal organization of the new company will take place within the next ten days. A new police boat, to be christened the A. S. Ashbridge, will be con- structed for the city of Philadelphia, to replace the old vessel, William S. Stokley. An appropriation of $85,000 has been made for the new boat, - the plans for which have been drawn by A. Cary Smith, the New York naval architect. Officials of the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Me., state that they are of- fered more contracts than the capacity of their plant would justify them in accepting and are undertaking only a very limited quantity of new work owing to the difficulty of securing material from the steel manufac- turers. Influential citizens of New London, Conn., are endeavoring to or- ganize the New London Ship Building Co., with a view to the establish- ment of a ship yard and marine railway at New London. A site has al- ready been selected at an advantageous point on the river. The Atlantic Coast Steamship Co. has been incorporated at Jersey City, N. J., with a capital stock of $500,000 to operate a line-of steam ves- sels. The incorporators include J. L. Crosthwaite of Buffalo, L. A. Hall, W. B. Flint and E. D. Jackson. Rumor regarding the consolidation of pro-ninent sh’p yards has agai lapsed. A stockholder in the Wm. Cramp & Sons Co. is, however, authority for the statement that a nominal option has been given on the Cramp plant. Davis & Sons, Kingston, Ont., have just begun the construction of a steamer to be placed in service on the Lake of the Woods, Canada. The vessel will‘be 70 feet in length and will be completed in time for service next summer. H. M. Bean, the Camden (Me.) ship builder, will, on March 1, in- augurate the nine-hour system in his yard. Mr. Bean has a large number of vessels under contract and will add considerably to the equipment of his plant. William Rogers of Bath, (Me., has contracted to build a four-masted wooden schooner for ‘William F. Palmer of Dorchester, Mass. The oak timber for the vessel is now being cut. The South Bay Co. of Passaic, N. J., has been incorporated to con- struct steamers by F. T. Grace of Passaic, A. D. Hitch of South O and J. C. D. ‘Hitch of Nutley, N- J. oc SHELTER FOR TORPEDO BOATS. Attention has repeatedly been called to the inadequate facilities for the care of the torpedo boats of the United States navy; indeed there is in fact almost entire absence of facilities in this regard. The Army and Navy Register, commenting on the extension of time granted for the com- pletion of the torpedo boats now building, says: It is easy for the navy department to view with equanimity the delay in the completion of the boats. The government possesses no facilities for properly taking care of the ships. They cannot be left in the open weather to the ravages of the elements, and this would be their fate were they completed upon the dates named in the contracts. It is diffi- cult to understand. why the government finds itself in the awkward posi- tion of not possessing the simple means of housing torpedo boats. It was known that there were shortly to be in the possession of the government a large number of these small vessels, requiring almost constant care, and, when not in actual use, some special means of protection under a system which would admit of their speedy utilization in time of emergency. This is the more remarkable because the navy department has had at its com- mand $150,000 for the construction of a torpedo boat shelter to be built at the Boston navy yard. This should be expended in the direction authorized, without delay, in anticipation of the completion of the torpedo boats. The naval appropriation bill should contain additional allotments for the construction of similar shelter at other points so that the torpedo boats out of service may be kept at convenient places along the coast.” [January 25, a 2 B: a a FE: q Er

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