SHIPS AND THE SEAREDUCED DIVIDENDS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 102, 1 May 1909, Page 12

SHIPS AND THE SEAREDUCED DIVIDENDS.

The Holland-American line, like the Hamburg-AnOican, has not escaped the consequences of the serious depression in shipping, remarks a London paper. Its directors report such a considerable diminution in receipts that they intimate their intention to distribute only 2^ per cent, for 1908, as compared with the dividend of 11 per cent, paid for 1907. The line maintains a fine service between Rotterdam and New York, which caljs at Boulogne, and, as is the case with the German Atlantic companies, with which it is in intimate relation, the practical collapse of emigrant traffic to the United States has affected it most adversely. Unfortunately, this untoward condition of things coincided with the addition to the company's fleet of a magnificent new steamship of 24,000 tons, known as the Rotterdam, and built for the HollandAmerican Company by Messrs. Harland and Wolff. Those who know this vessel declare her to be one of the most luxurious examples of naval architecture afloat. The port of Rotterdam, in particular, is very proud of her. But these very big ships require filling with passengers if they are to be economical instruments of transport, and with the shrinkage of emigration it was on occasion found more profitable to keei> the Rotterdam in the Maas rather than to employ her on profitless voyages to New York. That she is destined in the future to prove a source of strength to the company is undoubted. The Hol-land-American Company has another big ' steamer in the shape of the Niew Amsterdam, a vessel of close on 17,000 tons. She, in her turn, had eclipsed in pointy of dimensions three other well-known twin-screw steamers of between 12,000 and 13,000 tons. As regards the immediate outlook, the directors of the Hol-land-American line do not speak in very sanguine tones. A telegram sent to London from Berlin credited the directors of the HamburgAmerican Company with an allusion to the " deadly competition of the Cunard steamers." They deny that they have ever made or published any statement of the kind. As a matter of fact, the annual report of the company is singularly free from comment on the subject of Antlantic rivalry. It complains that, while the Hamburg-American Company is burdened to the amount of £75,000 a year by excessive consular fees and kindred exactions, foreign shipping companies have sources of income which German shipowners lack. "In this connection," says the report, "we need only mention the policy of subventions, in our opinion highly unsound, which is constantly extending abroad, and the large sums which the British companies obtain from mail carrying as well as from the transport of goods, the introi duction of which into Germany is forbidden." This complaint about subventions will certainly cause surprise, in view of the fact that some of the German shipping companies — not the Ham-burg-American — owe so much to subsidies. British mail payments, by the way, are not of the nature of subventions, in the ordinary sense of the word. Tkey represent remuneration, and SDmethnes very poor remuneration, for work done. In their report, which is now issued, the Hamburg American Company give a iev, interesting figures. Of a total capital q{ £6,250,000, no less than £4,250,000 is stated to be invested in the company's American lines. Consequently the financial panic in the United States, with its complete disorganisation of Atlantic traffic, was bound to affect it very severely. During the year the company's laid-up ships represented an average, over the whole period, of 136,000 tons. A comparison of the work done during the two years is as follows :—: — 1908. 1007. Round voyages ... 985 1,228 Passengers carried... 280,404 470,290 Freight tons of goods 5,572,959 6,312,930 Sea miles traversed 6,866.246 7,755,471 The company's fleet is returned at 915,855 tons, as against 955,742 tons a year previously. The reduction arises from sales of steamers which were unsuitable, and the exclusion from the list of the proposed sister ship of the Amerika, the construction of which has been deferred. One of the inevitable consequences of the depression in shipping in Great Britain is, it would seem, a reduction in seamen's wages. At north-east coast ports ship-owners have announced that the average pay will in future be £4 per month, instead of £4 10s. There is the threat of a strike in consequence, but the wonder is, perhaps, that some aurh step has not been taken earlier. Incidentally it may be noted that the average rate of wages varies a good deal, and that usually, and for no wall-de-fined reason, the scale of payment on the- north-east coast is somewhat higher than that which obtains in other districts. Perhaps, therefore, Newcastle and Hartiepool owners are merely making an adjustment. As regards officers' wages, a drooping tendency is noticeable, due to the fact that there are today so many ships doing nothing. The secretary of the Imperial Merchant Searvice Guild recently reported a case in which an officer, aged 31, with, a master's certificate, has been out of employment for six months, and is vainly seeking a berth as\an able seaman. \ March 23rd was the date fixed for the launch of the Otranto, the fourth of the 12,000-ton steamers which the Orient Company are building for their Commonwealth mail service. The Otranto and a fifth steamer of the same tonnage are being constructed by Messrs. Workman, Clark, and Co., of Belfast, so that there will be an opportunity of comparing the work of Irish yards with that ot the Scottish yards, in which the three other boats have been built. To the man ip the street the ordering of five steamers of a particular type may suggest fee ultimate delivery of five boats as like as peas in every respect. In reality, these new Orient steamers will vary to a cor tain degree, especially in point of intaxnal fittings. The builder, in fact, whiis working within well-defined lines, stamps the vessel with the halL-mark of individuality. An interesting fact about the Otranto is that, before she settles down in the mail* service to Australia, she is to engage in a couple of pleasure cruises to the Norwegian fiords. The Malwa, one of the new Peninsula and Oriental mail steamships, is also booked for pleasure cruises to Norway when the season arrives. In no previous year have ocean tourists had the call 1 of two fine mailboats like these. Eiffel tower masts are to be fitted to all American battleships. The Idaho and Mississippi are already equipped with these marvellous and characteristically American structures. They are probably superior to our tripods in maty ways; but they appear altogether too ideal for laying hostile guns on. The excellence of the target that they offer seems likely to militate against their general adoption. How they compare with tripods in weight has not yet transpired. Tripods are hollow and far lighter than they look ; probably the two weights pan out fairly equally.

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