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T20 5 ’ MARINE REVIEW. [March 1, BRIGHT OUTLOOK ON THE PACIFIC. DEVELOPMENT OF SHIP BUILDING ON THE WEST GOAST, AS VIEWED BY ONE OF THE BUILDERS OF SAN FRANOISOO. Mr. George E. Billings, manager of the ship building firm of Hall Bros. of San Francisco and Puget sound, has contributed an article to the San Francisco Examiner on the wonderful development of the ship building industry on the Pacific coast. In the course of the article Mr. Billings says: “The year that has just passed has been the greatest in twenty years in the history of ship building on the Pacific coast, and the year 1900 will surpass it. Every yard, from San Francisco to Puget Sound, has had all the business it could possibly turn out. Freights on the coast were never better than at the present time, there being a scarcity of vessels to supply the demand. This condition of affairs will continue as the year advances, and notwithstanding that new sailing craft is being turned out as fast as possible, it will be harder than ever to supply the demand. _ “The causes for this state of affairs are various, the principal one being found in the war. Only a few years ago Oakland creek was crowded with steam schooners, whose owners were unable to get a charter for them. Lumber had become almost a drug on the market, and big schooners and barkentines built on the coast were chartered for deep- water voyages. With this condition of things in force came the Klon- dike strike. Then everything that could carry steam or sail immediately fitted out for St. Michael. Eastern companies, with big steamers lying idle on their hands, were not going to stand by and see the Pacific coast enjoy a monopoly of what promised to be an immense business. The result was that all sorts of craft, from big ocean-going steamers down to small schooners, came sailing around here from the Atlantic side. The Klondike trade petered out before a number of these vessels got a chance to start for the north, and when the/war with Spain broke out, there were any amount of nondescript craft on the beach, both here and at Puget sound. It seemed hardly possible that berths could be found for all of them. No one, even the wisest of shipping men, could foretell the won- derful development of the transport service. But it soon became evi- dent that San Francisco was the open door of the United States to the Philippines. The demand for tonnage became greater as the days went by, and the list of available craft was soon exhausted. With Honolulu as a stopping place, it was made possible to send even steam schooners across the ocean, a feat hardly dreamed of at the outbreak of the war. “The trade with the Hawaiian islands, since annexation, has in- creased remarkably. Notwithstanding that there were a number of ves- sels put under the Hawaiian flag just prior to annexation, with the end in view of securing American registration, the demand for tonnage to the islands is still unsatisfied. New plantations are being openéd up and older ones are being developed. Lumber, machinery and general mer- chandise are being shipped from here as fast as cargo space can be ob- tained for them, and still more vessels are being built for the trade. When the laws in the Philippines are put into satisfactory shape, vessels will be required for that trade. In fact, there has been already a move in that direction. Four cargoes of lumber have been shipped to Manila from the coast, and the time will come when there will be a procession of vessels heading in that direction. Our trade with the Orient has increased, and is increasing. The regular lines of steamers refuse freights at every sailing. The tramp steamers cannot satisfy the demand and sailing vessels are pressed into service to make good the deficiency. Japan ports are filled with our freight. In China, the English, German and Russians, besides the Chinese, are our patrons. To these ports are shipped large quantities of salt, flour, lumber, grain, agricultural imple- ments and the like, and another good market is opening up in Nicolaef- ski and Vladivostock, in Siberia. Freights to Australia have not been as high in ten years past, and the same may be said of the Orient. “There is not a port in the Pacific to which our vessels are not find- ing their way. This state of things means many millions of dollars to the harbor, which goes out to the benefit of the entire coast. The fine rains we have had give promise of a golden year for our products, and the latter will find a ready market. True, the transport rush is at an end, and many steamers chartered by the government are being turned over to their owners as fast as they arrive from the Philippines. This has been going on for some time, yet no complaint has been heard. Quite a number of these returned vessels have already found other employ- ments, and the others will be readily chartered. ‘ “Great preparations are being made here and in the sound ports for the coming season at Cape Nome. The boom of the northern diggings overshadows that of the Klondike two years ago. ‘Thousands have caught the gold fever, and people of all sorts and from all conditions of life, are getting ready to go to Nome as soon as the way is opened through the ice. One hardly realizes what this means until brought face to face with the proposition. The thousands who rushed into the Klon- dike faced all kinds of hardships and danger—from shipwreck in the inland passages to Skaguay to death by exposure on the icy trails. There is nothing of this sort to be encountered on the way to Nome. The prospector is landed at his destination from the same’ steamer on which he embarks, instead of being compelled to make several changes. This means that everybody will go by sea, and taking the rush to Dawson as a basis of calculation, it is safe to say that there are by no means enough steamers to carry the crowds. Steam schooners and all sorts of available craft will be pressed into the service, and there will be avother great scarcity of tonnage on the coast. How long the Nome boom will last, no one can venture to predict. What will become of our ships when it is at an end? That same question was asked when the transport service was in the throes of its maddest rush. Well, the decline of that business leaves us at the dawn of the greatest commercial era we have ever known. It is intended that one transport shall leave San Francisco for the Phil- ippines every fortnight, loaded with freight. That gives us four more vessels carrying our goods to the Orient than there were before the war. The trade with the Orient has but begun; that with the Philippines cannot be said to have started. When Honolulu has been ridden of the lague, a new impetus will be given to the commerce with the islands. ndeed, the plague has had the effect of opening up direct communica. tion with other ports in Hawaii, and ,at every hand we see signs of in creasing prosperity. “The Kosmos line, plying its steamers between this port and Ham burg, by way of Central and South America, will, in time, open a vast territory to the producers and manufacturers of this coast. The business — now held in Europe, and which, for geographical and other reasons, belongs to us, is bound to come our way. We have not yet begun to derive any benefits from the war in South Africa, but over there is another good market being rapidly developed for us. I see a very bright future for the shipping and ship building industry of this port.” : Mr. Billings presents in connection with this article a table giving \particulars of some twenty merchant vessels built for San Francisco owners within the past year by builders at different points in California. Included in the number are nine screw steamers and four stern-wheel steamers. Ship builders included in the list are J. O. B. Gunn of San Francisco, Sidney Newell of Stockton, A. M. Wilson of San Francisco, Alexander Hay of Alameda, William Munder of San Francisco, F. E. Emlay of Fort Bragg, William McKenzie of Oakland, M. Turner of Benicia, H. D. Bendixen of Fairhaven, H. E. Wright of Stockton, W. F. Stone of San Francisco, and George Ross of San Francisco. A PREDICTION FROM CAPT. MAHAN. Capt. A. T. Mahan indulged in some very interesting predictions at a banquet held in New York city a few evenings since. The eminent authority on naval strategy took the following sentence as the text of his remarks: “It is, however, in these wider operations which embrace a whole theater of war, and in a maritime contest may cover a large portion of the globe, that the teachings of history have a more evident and per- manent value.” “I wrote that fifteen years ago,” said Capt. Mahan. “How singularly and providentially events are showing what sea power is to be in the development of the world. Here we have had two wars with a peace conference in between. The United States was pitchforked unwillingly into the Philippines. It is impossible for us to stay there without a con- sideration, and a serious one, of sea power. The United States is com- mitted to a development of sea power unthought of when I wrote the words I have read to you. It is committed to a development of sea power by the Nicaragua or Panama canal, which ever it is to’ be, unless — there is to be a complete change of policy. ie “Whatever the issue of the war in South Africa, Great Britain is to ~be a greater power than it could ever have possibly been before this war took place. People speak of mistakes, but what is the fact? When this war is over Great Britain will be able to transmit to any part of the world more rapidly than ever before, a great force. It will be a land force, but it will be moved by the sea, and to an extent never before possible. “Now take these two events. a sea power (and even the election of Bryan cannot take us out of the Philippines), and Great Britain’s fight in South Africa. I venture, after considering them, on the prophecy that the world’s struggle is going to be divided between the power on the land and the power on the sea. I do think that this is something for you all to think of—the singular effect of two wars in the development of the sea power of the two great Eng-~ ' lish-speaking nations.” PROGRESS WITH A NEW SHIP YARD. The New York Ship Building Co., which is establishing an exten- sive works at Camden, N. J., has been quietly making most rapid progress toward completion of the undertaking. The officials, engineering and clerical forces of the company have moved into the large two-story brick office building at the plant in Camden and have permanently established the company’s headquarters there. The offices are on the first floor and the force of engineers and draughtsmen have fine, commodious quarters with ample light on the second floor. This is, of course, the first building to be completed of the dozen or more which have been under construc- tion since last autumn. The mild weather has made it impossible for work on all the structures to advance rapidly all winter. There have been very few days when outdoor work had to be wholly suspended be- cause of the cold and only brief periods when ice in the Delaware river interfered with the operations of the wharf and dock builders. As a result, it is expected that the company will be ready to begin the actual work of ship. construction by May 1. Indeed, it is stated semi-officially that plans for a large steel steamer have been in preparation for some time and that the work of construction will begin early in the spring. It is also understood that the company will bid on the next naval order for which the United States government invites bids. NEW DRY DOCK AT NEW YORK. The dry dock for which the Morse Iron Works & Dry Dock Co. has just purchased a site at Bay Ridge, near New York city, will be the largest dry dock in the United States. It will be almost twice the size of the dock now being used at the plant of the Wm. Cramp & Sons Co. and will accommodate with ease the largest vessels in the world. Mr. Morse says that contracts for all the material, with the exception of lum- ber, have already been placed and that 1,500 men will be put to work at once driving piles and erecting the workshops and electric plant. The electrical operation of the dock will be a new feature. A man at a switchboard will simply have to press a'button and the gates will be raised and the pumps set in motion automatically. Even the scraping of vessels will be done by a new electric system. Mr. Morse says that although the dry dock will be the largest in the country, it is not the intention of the company to stop at that and within the next two years the dock will be doubled in size, making it the largest dry dock in the world. _ The ship building firm of William Crichton & Co. of Abo, Finland, is preparing to make extensive improvements in its works and will re- quire a number of large tools. The question of early delivery is one of the most important involved, and ability to meet demands in this direc- tion, will, it is said, increase the chances of American manufacturers ‘securing the greater part of the contract. The United States forced to become — |