THE PANAMA CANAL.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLI, Issue 1, 10 July 1914, Page 6

THE PANAMA CANAL.

FREAK SHIPS TO BE BUILT. Just as freak ehips were built by enterprising owners in the early clays of the Suez Canal, the, .idea- being to save canal dues, so wo are threatened with further originality in design in the new vessels to pass through the Panama Canal. Swedish firms are stated tD be responsible for the intention to "drive a coach and four" through the regulations governing the ca.nal, and o:ght large shirs will be constructed of a type never yet built. It appears along" the Chilian coast, near Ccquinrbo, 'are immense iron ore deposits, but it has never yet paid to tionspcrfc them to the manufacturing centres. That is hardly surprising when it is remembered that. iron ore at Middlesbrough is now quoted at 18s. per ton, and freights for nitrate from- Chile to the United Kingdom last year touched 40s. per ton, and rates by thei long sea route to the Atlantic cc:.st of North America were similarly high. The. Panama Canal will revolutionise the situation, and the Bethlehem Steel Company has contracted with SKvedish firms for the transport of the raw s material to eastern ports during the next 10 or 12 years.

For tlrs purpose six or eight steamers with a deadweight capaeitv of about 16,000 tons each, are to be built, and British builders will probably be invited to tender. These boats are to •be designed for this particular trade. The ingenuity of the* Swedish firms rests in combining to their advantage the facts that iron ore bulks very sma'l, and that for the purpose of the Panama Canal dues, spaces usable only for water 'ballast shall be exempted: from measurement. Tlie proposal is inerefore that the new ships shall bo fitted with, deep spaces for water ballast, leaving only a comparatively small space for tlie iron ore cargoes. The whcJe of the interior of a ship can never be fully laden with such a heavy cargo as iron ore, and the buoyancy to be given by the "ballast spaces" will be just as important as the buoyancy given by any parts of an ordinary ship. Yet the new vessels.will bo "froak ' ships. The importance of the new plan may be gathered from tlie estimate that the ships carrying 16,000 tons deadweight will pay no more dues than vessels built on the ordinary system carrying about 5,000 tons deadweight.