PANAMA CANAL REGULATIONS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14975, 23 May 1914, Page 13

PANAMA CANAL REGULATIONS.

FBEAK SHIPS TO BE BUILT. . (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, April 17. Juet as freak chips were built by enterprising- owners in the early days of tho Suez Canal, the idea, being, to save canal dues, bo we are threatened with further "orginality in design in'the new vessels to pass through the Panama Canal. Swedish, firms are stated to be responsible for .the intention to "drive a coach and four" through tho regulations governing "the Canal, and eight large ships will be constructed of a- type never yet built.

It appears that along the" Chilean coast; near Coquhnbo, are' immense iron ore de posits, but it hae never yet paid to trahsporti them to the manufacturing centres. That is \ hardly surprising when it is remembered that iron ore at Middlesbrough is now quoted at ISe per ton, and freights for nitrate from Chile to the United Kingdom last year touched 40s per ton, and rates by the long sea route to the Atlantic coast of North America were similarly high. , . The Panama Canal will revolutionise the situation, and the Bethlehem. Stoel Company has contracted with. Swedish firms for■ Mw transport of the raw material to Eaetern ports during the next, ten or twelve years For this purpose six or «i#ht B teamers wittt. a deadweight capacity of lftflOO tons each are to bo buUt, and British £n»Wen wiU. probably:be invited to'tonder.,These- boats are to be'designed for this, particular trade. The the Swedish *™«J« ts .» combining to their advantage the facts that iron ore bulks very email, and that, for the purpose, of the Canal du*s, spaces, usable only for water •ballast shall bo ex.--empftd froL measurement; The , therefore that the new »^P 8 , 8^ all . be lp with deep spaces for water hallast, t leaving only a comparatively small space for the iron ] oto canroes The whole of the interior of a ship caTncver be fully laden with.such a heavy cargo as iron ore, and the tooraney. to be given by the "ballast spaces" will be ust as g important as the buoyancy given by any parts of an ordinary ship. Yet the now voxels will.be "freak"-ships. **•«»?«£ ance of the new plan may be gathered irom the estimate that the shipe, carrying I*ooo tons'deadweight wiH pay no more d«"V built on the ordinary system carrying about 5000 tons deadweight.