the five years from 1914 to 1919 by 6 per cent, the cargo moving capacity of the world's merchant marine had been reduced by one-third. The explanation given for this anomalous situation is that strikes, inadequate port facilities and shortened working hours of longshoremen have so crippled the efficiency of the world's merchant marine that the time of the ships at sea has fallen from 75 per cent before the war to 48 per cent in 1919. This means that on the average, more than half of the world's tonnage is held in port, moored to piers, waiting to be loaded or to discharge cargo more often than actually loading or unloading. The captain of one of the largest ships under the American flag was reported as saying that the discharging and loading of his cargo took about as many days as hours in pre-war times. The American International Corporation kept a log of the performances of the first 37 ships delivered to the Shipping Board and allocated by that Board to various steamship companies: "A faithful record showed that on eighty voyages to one hundred different ports the thinty-seven vessels steamed 427,814 miles, carrying 600,000 tons of cargo. Although the ships are equipped with the most improved machinery for expediting loading and unloading, the log details that the fleet was at sea only 48 per cent of the time. Only five of the ships were detained for any considerable period of time for repairs. The log of the ships for August and September cites some of the delays with which shipping is having to contend. It follows: Seven ships at Liverpool unable to move on account of strikes and congestion. Held for period of days-40, 43, 45, 19, 19, 55, and 22. Three ships in Havre, 25, 30, and 27 days-strike. One ship in London 29 days-congestion. One ship in Cardiff, 28 days-coal strike. One ship in New York, 22 days-strike. Two ships in Marseilles 29 and 27 days-congestion." 1 The Port Facilities Commission of the United States Shipping Board in a very valuable report on "Economies effected by the more rapid turn-around of vessels in United States Ports" (prepared by T. W. Cleworth) arrives at the following interesting conclusions. The figures refer to an average size, steel, coal-burning vessel of 6,450 deadweight tons, which handles both cargo and passengers. The average daily expense in port is calculated at almost $4,000, so that a reduction of the stay in port from 15 to 5 days means a saving of $40,000, or more than 5 per cent of the capitalization of the vessel, which is put at less than $800,000. The following table gives the additional steaming radius gained by shorter turn-around. The question of the commercial efficiency of a cargo carrier thus practically resolves itself into a ratio of the time spent at sea, when the vessel is performing useful work and earning money, to the time spent in port when loading or discharging, or idly waiting for its turn. 1 See Annalist, Nov. 3, 1919, p. 349. REFERENCES ABBOT, W. J. American Merchant Ships and Sailors. (1902). BANK OF THE MANHATTAN COMPANY. Ships and Shipping of Old (1915). DOMINIONS' ROYAL COMMISSION. Final Report. (London, 1918). KIRKALDY, A. W. British Shipping. Book I. (1914.) MARVIN, W. L. The American Merchant Marine. Its History and NATIONAL FOReign Trade CouNCIL. Ocean Shipping. (1917.) SMITH, J. R. The Ocean Carrier. (1908.) STATE STREET TRUST COMPANY, Boston. Old Shipping Days in Boston. (1918.) TALBOT, F. A. Steamship Conquest of the Sea. Chap. I. (1912). UNITED STATES. Commissioner of Corporations. Transportation by Water in the United States. Part I, Chap. II. (1909). Commissioner of Navigation. Annual Report. House Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries. Ex- Shipping Board, Port and Harbor Facilities Commission. CHAPTER VIII MOTIVE POWER The romance of the sailing vessel.-On the basis of motive power ships may be divided into many classes, provided we include ships of all sizes and all ages. The muscular strength of man and beast, used to this day to move canal boats in many parts of the world, the power of river currents, which carried the primitive. Coracle,1 and other forces must be mentioned. But in modern ocean transportation we rely on three forces only: wind, steam, and gas explosion. In each case we have a great variety of systems and devices by which these forces are harnessed and utilized. Although the history of the sailing ship reaches far back into dim antiquity, the greatest progress in its development was made during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Strange to say, the sailing ship reached the height of its perfection at the very time when the demonstrated advantages of the steamer pronounced the doom of that picturesque and romantic type. The present generation is so accustomed to look upon the steamer as the only ocean carrier, that it is hard to believe that but thirty years ago the sailing vessel not only outnumbered the steamer but provided as well the larger tonnage. We note from the table given on page 134 1 A primitive vessel used on the Severn, made of skins sewed over wooden ribs; cf. in modern technology, skin of a steel ship, seams of wooden or steel ships, etc. that the sailing vessel reached the height of its evolution after 1850 and did not begin to decline until after 1880. As late as 1890 sailing vessels had the advantage over steamers in regard to tonnage, and as late as 1896 in regard to numbers. The rapid advance of steam is all the more pronounced when we consider that because of greater speed and regularity, the working capacity of the steamer is estimated to be four times as great as that of the sailing vessel-ton for ton. According to Lloyd's Register published October 13, 1920, of the world's total tonnage of 100 tons and upwards, recorded by Lloyd's, 76 per cent use coal as fuel; 16.3 per cent are fitted to use oil as fuel for boilers; 1.7 use oil in internal combustion engines, and 6 per cent have sail power only. 1 From Répertoire Général du Bureau Veritas, 1918, 1919. 250 tons and upward. |