Note. Measurements are given, in conformity with shipping practice, in cubic feet and twelfths of a cubic foot. Thus, "8-9" signifies eight and nine-twelfths cubic feet. Stowage represents the number of cubic feet of cargo space in which a long ton (2,240 pounds) may be shipped. Thus, 110 cubic feet is the cargo space required for a ton of abrasives packed in cases averaging 178 pounds gross and measuring 8-9 cubic feet. Stowage factors of some important commodities.Furthermore, we have extracted from the bulletin, which covers sixty-nine pages, the data referring to the most important commodities: REFERENCES HURLEY, E. N. The New Merchant Marine. (1920). JOHNSON, E. R. Measurement of Vessels for the Panama Canal. (1913). JOHNSON AND HUEBNER. Principles of Ocean Transportation. Chap. IX. (1919). NATIONAL FOREIGN TRADE COUNCIL. 1917. Ocean Shipping. Sec. Ed. UNITED STATES. (War Trade Board, Bureau of Research and Statistics). Stowage of Ship Cargoes. (1919) (Department of Commerce, Bureau of Standards). Table of Unit Displacement of Commodities. (1919). CHAPTER XII COAL-THE KEY TO THE CARRYING TRADE Coal a corner-stone of British Maritime supremacy.Of all the multitude of commodities that are carried by the ships of the world, coal is in a class by itself. An unknown English writer of the seventeenth century said: "The coal trade is indeed the refuge and mother of our entire shipping industry." It represents a very large proportion of the railroad traffic of industrialized countries, but it has an even greater significance for ocean shipping than for land transportation. This significance can best be explained in the light of British experience. England, more than any other country, has been an exporter of coal. It is therefore valuable to know what Englishmen think of the importance of the coal trade to their country. They duly recognize in their coal exports one of the three pillars upon which their monumental carrying trade rests. In the British Board of Trade report on "Shipping and Shipbuilding Industries" to which we referred before, we read as follows: "In the period up to the outbreak of the war we were the ocean carriers of the world. Our carrying trade was dependent on three main factors: (a) The strong industrial position of the United Kingdom itself, based on free access to the markets of the world for foodstuffs and raw materials.— (b) A world-wide Empire with well-distributed coaling stations and ports of call. (c) A large coal export trade which provided ships with outward freights which would otherwise have been lacking." Another departmental committee was appointed by the British Board of Trade to report on the position of the coal trade after the war. The chairman of this committee was the late Lord Rhondda, formerly Mr. D. A. Thomas, the head of the great Cambrian Coal Combine. The committee saw fit to introduce its report by an "essential preliminary consideration" as follows: British appreciation of the economic significance of coal exports. "The report is drawn up on the assumption that it is essential to the national interest that the export coal trade which before the war amounted to about one-fourth of the entire output, should not only be maintained, but that every effort should be made to increase it. "If the export of coal were stopped, or even materially reduced, this would result in the throwing out of employment of a vast and varied body of workers, and the loss of a very large amount of wealth to the country, now distributed in wages and in the maintenance of industry. It would have a serious effect on the shipping tonnage carrying on the overseas trade from our ports and would raise the level of homeward freights and increase materially the cost to the country of foodstuffs and raw materials. It would increase the cost of producing coal required by every industry and householder in the country. It would lead to a serious depreciation 1 Board of Trade Report on Shipping and Shipbuilding Industries After the War, p. 71, § 123. |