The Press Wednesday, May 13, 1925. Ships That Pass.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18380, 13 May 1925, Page 8

The Press Wednesday, May 13, 1925. Ships That Pass.

Wo are reminded by a message which we print to-day from our London correspondent that Britain's shipbuilding problem is only in part industrial. When all has been said and done that can be said and done between employer and omployee there remain questions of fuel-supply and engineering that neither hours nor wages will solve. What kind of ship will our nation be building in another generation? The screw-propeller finally beat the wind no more than fifty years ago. The end of the long losing fight camo when the Thermopylae, the Cutty Sark, and the lovely ships that rivalled but never equalled them were withdrawn from the Australian wool-carrying trado; though it is pleasant to think that after years of soiling and ignoble usage the Cutty Sark is still alive, still a graceful and shapely thing, and, if a ship is sensitive as good Bailors say, is now, in.her cxtromo age, triumphing in the defeat of her old enemies: coal, steam, and the screw-

propeller. ' The coal-fired steamer is obsolete, the oil-fired steamer is obsolescent, the motor-ship, confident of coming supremacy, rides every ocean; and the queer-looking Buckau, Herr Flettner's invention, is plugging about the North Sea on trials which may yet restore to the wind something like its ancient power.- For the Buckau is a wind-driven ship—without sails. It catches and converts to its use the force of the wind • with two revolving cylinders of iron. Two revolving cylinders of iron, instead of tho Cutty Sark's high-tapering masts and spread of dazzling canvas! And yet she will not sneer at tho monstrum in forme, for td it, at once creature and controller of the air, perhaps belongs the future as to her belonged tho past. This is, of course, a hope which may only in part bo realised, or not at all, though Herr Flettner's invention seems so far to have justified what he claims for it. An expert contributor to tho "Manchester Guardian" is convinced of its mechanical soundness; the Buckau is remarkably stable in rough weather; a satisfactory average speed is maintained; and the economy in crew and fuel is sufficient to make it a dangerous competitor with faster but more expensive ships. But even should thp Buckau in the end disappoint Herr Flettner's hopes, the Cutty Sark will t*till draw consolation from steam's defeat. Figures may deeeive; but not those in Lloyd's Begister. They are unequivocal, and they as coldly portend the passing of steam fromtho sea as they recorded the passing of sails. In 1914 the tonnage of motor-vessels was only 234,000: it is now over 2,000,000. In June, 1922, the tonnago of motor-vessels under construction in tho world was one-eleventh that of other vessels: in December, 1924, it was thr.ee-fif ths. In Great Britain at the end of last year the tonnage of motor-vessels building was one-third that of steam-tonnage: in Denmark, Germany, Holland, and' Sweden the tonnage of motor-vessels building was more than thrco times that of steam-tonnage. A simple graph should show with approximate accuracy when internal-combus-tion will overtake steam and the cylinder turn McAndrew and his beloved -boilers into pathetic survivors of an age gono by. Those who have Seen or read Arnold Bennett's play "Milestones" will remember its ironic presentation of the conservatism of shipowners and' shipbuilders. The modern owner and builder, however, encourage the advanced designer with an enthusiasm easy to explain; for the motor-ship is cheap to run, while the coal or oil-fired ship is not. A coal-fired steamer of 8000 tons on a 250 days' trip at an averago speed of 10 knots burns £16,000, according to a contributor in the "New States"man": a motor-ship of the samo tonnago explodes a mere £9500. An oilfired steamer might be supposed a successful rival of the motor-ship. The oil it burns is cruder, and therefore cheaper —by about 20 per cent; b'ut five tons of crude oil arc burnt under boilers while only two are exploded in the motor-ship's cylinders for an equal result; so that the advantage is easily with the motor-ship. Further, technology i 3 rapidly evolving a design of cylinder in which cruder oils may safely bo used. This opportunity for extra profit through economy in running expenses explains the shipowner's rapid adoption of the motor-ship. It may not be long before we watch the unusual spectacle of a steamer coaling much as we now watch the arrival or departure of a sailing-vessel. The stoker and his rag may be soon a rare sight; and when the obstinate tradition of steam surrenders its funnels, as it is beginning to do, when masts are replaced by derricks which can be lowered to the deck, we shall look at a motor-liner with puzzled surprise at first, and then with dawning recognition and amusement; for we shall see something rather like the Noah's Ark of the world's childhood and our own.

A Lesson for the Riffs, There is no reason to suppose that France intends any> more in Morocco than she says—viz., to read the Biffs a French lesson. The protestations of M. Painlevc suggest that she suffered a good deal more severely in the recent attack than tin world knows, and that she is going to have her revenge, but hardly that she is about to engage in a v.-ar of conquest. It would be very difficult for her to conduct such a war, even if there were no international objections, since the territory of the Riffs is au immense mountainous plateau about half zj long again as the South Island, and of about the same width, occupied by fatatics flushed with victory and armed with better weapons than barbarians ever before possessed. Abdu'l-Karim, also, though most think of him as an illiterate savage, is in fact well educated, and only five years ago was an attache of the Spanish General Sylvestre. According to one report Sylvestre lost his temper and smacked Abdu'l-Karim's face—a gross insult to a Mussulman; bnt whatever caused the rupture between them the attach 6 left the Spaniards and returned to his tribe, a bitter enemy of all Christians. Just what his strength lis numerically no one seems to know, but all estimates give him 30,000 men, or more. He fights, too, now that he has crushed the Spaniards behind him, on a shorter line than the French, and with complete security for such lines of communication as he requires, while the French have the Atlas tribesmen on their wing and dare not risk a severe reverse. The strength—though in certain circumstances it might be the weakness —of ihc French position is a strategic railway running from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, and enclosing the Riffs in a crescent of military posts manned, armed, and provisioned by rail. So' long as they csn hold this line they are secure, and it is clearly, in the interests of our own Empire that they should not be unduly hampered in such reasonable punitive measures as they may think desirable and find possible. Britain is not anxious to make Morocco an international question so long as the Straits are secure.