THE BOOM IN SHIPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 34, 8 February 1917, Page 7

THE BOOM IN SHIPS.

AMERICAX BUILDING GREATLY INCREASED. Recent world-wide conditions have ■brought an unprecedented expansion in shipbuilding in countries not immediately participating in the war. The demand for merchant tonnage and the diversion of British yards almost exclusively to building v.ar vessels have combined to bring tremendous pressure on shipbuilding yards in other countries. The war has "made" the builders of oversea vessels in the United States, as this larger' branch of the industry was not previously developed to any great degree. Whereas the total output for American yards for ten years before the war was only 250,000 tons, no less than 1,5tw,000 tons of vessels were under contract in American shipyards in November, 191t>, including over 300 ocean-going vessels. ln the ten months ending November llth last, steel vessels ol 25.41S gross tons were built in American yards, for foreign owners, aud 78 steel vessels of 277,720 tons for American owners, and it is anticipated that the output ior 1917 will toe- about 1,000,000 tons. The pressure on the stocks is both significantly and picturesquely shown by the fact that the yards on the Great Uakes at Chicago, for instance, nearly 2000 miles from the sea, have launched, ocean steamers for Norwegian owners, and are building more. This is a new chapter in the history of navigation, the building of ocean vessels thousands of miles inland, in the very heart of a continent. We have, for a reference, a statement by Captain Robert Dollar, who is well known the world over, and in this he estimates that tbe shipyards of the world have built about 2,500,000 tons ot shipping per year for the past 15 years. What "with over 3,000,000 tons destroyed and decreased new building, there is a tonnage deficit of probably 5.000.000 already. American effort to till the vacancy in shipbuilding has lately been hampered, as the Government of that people lias placed contracts for 600,000,000 dollars worth of vessels for the American Navy, and the places on the available stocks taken by these buildings of course minimise the output of merchant tonnage. In the months after the -war. the whole attention of the world will be turned towards tlie improvement of trade and the capturing of trade routes, but the problem that will be greatest for the trade interests will not be source of supply, but means of transit. It is in view of this that America, Japan, Norway, and the other nations who have stocks available, are concentrating their attention upon the supplementing of their fleets. It will be, of course, a long while before any of the greater trading'"nations can control such a fleet of merchant carriers as tho United Kingdom has upon its registers, for the output of shipping at present in hand in the United Kingdom is 409 vessels, exceeding by about 100 the current number of ships being built in the 6tates. These figures exclude contracts for war work.