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OCTOBER 31, Igor. The increasing size of ocean-going ships and steamers has made it necessary to build larger docks near London for their accommodation, nearer the sea; and the very larg- est ships and steamers no longer come to the old London docks, The old fourteenth century customs still existent, with vexatious delays and heavy charges and the further ante diluvian custom of giving the Thames watermen the freedom of the river, whereby they can, as lightermen, take cargo from a ship moored in the river and land it on any of the dock quays free of toll, has resulted in so diminishing the revenues of the dock companies that they have no funds wherewith to make needed improvements. And the ware- houses surrounding the London docks are so hemmed in by the very narrow streets, so restricting the traffic that goods put into these warehouses on the dock side may not reach the delivery side and the consignees for three months, and one result of this state of things is that merchants desiring goods from distant foreign ports can have them delivered in London by way of some continental port, such as Havre, Dunkirk, Antwerp, Hamburg, Bremen, by the local steam- ers and landed at their private wharves, avoiding the Lon- don docks, and these goods will come to hand in shorter time with less trouble and expense than if landed directly by. the importing ship in London dock warehouses. And so all the ports mentioned are prospering at the expense of THE MARINE RECORD. The coal ports of South Wales, Cardiff, Swansea and New- port still derive their principal support from coal, no manu- factories of any importance at these ports, except smelting works at Swansea. The sailing ships visiting these ports are fast dwindling in numbers. The great ships that sail from Pacific Ocean ports loaded with wheat and flour are generally required to call for orders at some convenient ports as Falmouth or Queenstown, and sometimes have to deliver their cargo to some little outport, where they still excite the wonder and admiration of the country people. There has been a slow but gradual improvement going on in these Welsh ports since my first acquaintance with them in 1859: Cardiff, when I first visited there, could not have had more than 8,000 or 10,000 people; now it has more than 150,- ooo. The town of Penarth, near Cardiff, then a small ham- let, has nearly as many people as Cardiff had when I first knewit.c 4) * Glasgow, in Scotland, still holds its own as being the _ largest iron and steel shipbuilding portin the world All the improvements visible have been made within my memory of this place, dating back 39 years. It has steadily advanced in population until it is now ahead of Liverpool and Man- chester, and is far ahead of them in the number of its manu- factories of various kinds, but it particularly excels in its shipbuilding yards, which are celebrated the world. over.. THE NEW METHOD OF HANDLING COAL AND ORE BY THE BROWN HOISTING MACHINES. London. * %* The city of London as distinct from the port of London seems fast losing its ocean trade, which on account of the great length of the modern steamship, are unable to turn in the upper reaches of the river, and they have built docks to accommodate these large vessels at Til- bury—which is about twenty-one miles below London bridge. The Royal Albert dock, adjoining the Victoria dock, and about the same size (90 acres, ) is something new also since I was last in London, and there have been extensive im- provements over on the Surrey side in the shape of new and enlarged docks. The great St. Thomas Hospital, exactly opposite the houses of Parliament, has been built since 1863 also. : OUTPORTS OF U. K. Forty years have produced some changes in all the great shipping ports of the British Islands. The port of Middles- borough on the east and Barrow-on-Furness on the north- western coast of England have risen from small coasting ports to great shipbuilding and manufacturing centers. The great coal ports of the Tyne, Wear and Huber have long ago ceased to derive their sole support from the ex- port of coal, but have developed into great iron and steel shipbuilding and manufacturing cities. The proportion of sailing ships at these ports is greater than at Liverpool or London, but here, as elsewhere, sailing ships are losing their importance. ‘ The present port of Glasgow is a standing and everlasting monument to the ability, enterprise, patience and persever- ance of its citizens in making such a fine port out of such a place, so little calculated by nature for the purpose. Glas- gow is the home for a large fleet of sailing ships, but steam- ers are slowly outnumbering them. This port has the same characteristic as the port of Bath, Me., inasmuch as many ships built and hailing from the port, after leaving it for the first time, may never return until they have to be rebuilt or need new boilers or engines. Belfast, in Ireland, is now one of the most progressive ports in that country. It is famous for its great shipbuild- ing yards, which have turned out some of the largest and finest vessels, both sail and steam, in the world. Asa com- mercial port its rank is not high, nor indeed is any port in Ireland. The greatest number of ocean-going ships are to be seen at Queenstown, which, however, is only 'a a port of call from which ships are ordered to deliver their cargoes elsewhere. FRENCH PORTS. The ports of Havre and Dunkirk, in France, are not crowded with sailing ships as they used to be, but, as else- where, the individual ship is much larger. The aggregate annual tonnage of these ports show some increase, and here, as in the British ports, the steamships, both for domestic and foreign trade, are fast gaining ground. Within the last few : 9 eee QQ nn_ S04 eee years, French shipbuilders and owners, stimulated and en- couraged by a generous bounty, which enables a ship to make a fine profit, even if they have to goin ballast on the longest voyages, providing they bring back a cargo to a British or European port, have commenced building sailing ships. The spasmodic attempt to resuscitate their dying mercantile marine has come:25 years too late, and when the people object to paying this bounty any longer, which will be in a very few years, there will be French ships for sale. The Germans have been buying sailing ships and steamers from the British and Scotch yards until a few years ago, but that is over and past, and the German shipbuilders now turn ‘out ships and steamers from their own yards equal to any in the world, and several of the German Atlantic steamers have held the record for fast passages across the ocean for many years past. . 5 int GERMAN PORTS. _ The German ports of Hamburg and Bremerhaven still put on a brave appearance as shipping ports for sailing ships, ‘but here, as elsewhere, it is plain to be seen that the steamship is gaining ground very fast. Very few people in this com- munity realize the importance of California and the other Pacific Coast states in the ocean commerce of the world. On my last visit to Queenstown, Ireland, there were only five large pereetene vessels in the podborn all.of them from . the Pacific Coast, viz., three from San Francisco, one ious Columbia river and one from Tacoma, Wash. For the past thirty years the British shipowner has depended’ on his California or Oregon wheat charter as a profitable rounding up of his twelve months’ voyage. Ships are “started out from England to Aus- tralia at a nominal rate of freight, sometimes not enough to pay for handling (to say nothing of profit), From an Australian coal port to San Francisco he may make enough to pay his expenses, but his home- ward bound wheat charter he ex- pects to pay him for his year’s work. The profitable sailing ship of the future to compete with the steam tramp ought to be of not less than 5,000 tons capacity even then would not be able to do so success- fully except on long voyages. THE COMMERCIAL BATTLE GROUND The Pacific ocean, with its mod- erate and mostly steady and reli- able winds, will be the future most profitable home of the sailing ship. The ‘prophetic saying of the Hon. William H. Seward in the year 1867, when he made the purchase of Alaska, that ‘‘the Pacific ocean at no distant day would become the commercial battle ground of the world,” is fast being accomplished. ‘The United States is at this moment the power who has the greatest interests to watch over and protect. The peaceable possession of the Hawaiian Islands and the cession of the Philippines and outlying dependencies to our country by their former pos- sessor, Spain, places our country in predominent control of the commerce of the North Pacific. Of this there can be no dispute. But, although the United States, through her Pacific coast seaports, are in a position to supply the wants of all the countries bordering on the Pacific Ocean, as well as all likely customers elsewhere, they are not yet in a posi- tion to deliver the goods, for lack of the necessary shipping. A perusal of the shipping columns of the Commercial News will disclose the fact that the carrying business in the North Pacific is notin the hands of the ships of the countries directly interested. For instance, a German, Austrian or British steamship may be carrying flour to Siberia, when in all fairness an American or Russian shige should be doing the business. It is perfectly natural that a British or American vessel should be doing the carrying for British ports, but we see the ships of all nations employed at this work—even to British ports that are close neighbors to us. What interest, it may be asked, can an Austrian, an Ital- ian, German, French, or any other foreign ship have bey ond (CONTINUED ON PAGE 12).