SHIPS AND THE SEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 118, 21 May 1910, Page 12

SHIPS AND THE SEA.

MEECHANT SEEVICE. Shipowners have complained frequently during recent years that there is a shortago of officers in tho mercantile marine of Britain, _ and tbe Imperial Merchant Service Guild has replied that the eupply has always been in excess of tho demand. Some of the officers concerned have added that the conditions in the servioe are co bad that only the ignorance of the lads who are anxious to go to sea, and of their parents, has enabled the supply to be maintained. This view is put forward by Lieutenant Newton, R.N.R., who staEes in a published article that tho mercantile maTino offers only the hardest, most inade-quately-remunerated, and most precarious of callings. A boy etarts his sea- career on a sailing 6hip, raid- has four years of srronuo\is work and rough living before he commences to earn any money. Then he must go to a "cramming Echool" and have his examination fees paid before he becomes the possessor of a second mate's eettifioate. He may expect to receive £54 a year 0,3 second mate, and he must save sufficient for his schooling and examination fees if he is to secure certificates for oompeteney as mate, master, and, il he is ambitious, extra-master. By the time he has obtained the final certificate ho has been about eight years at sea, and probably is twenty-five years old. He may now hopo to bo appointed sixth officer on a mail steamer, at a salary of £6 or £7 a month, out of which he must supply his own uniforms. _ If ho is fortunate enough to have no accidents, he will rise in fifteen years to the command of a cargo boat, and will bo paid about £275 a year. Ahead; of him will ho tho few "plums" of the profession, in the shape of the command of great Atlantic passenger steamers, but comparatively few men can hope to reach tho maximum salaTy of about £600 a year. Ths worst feature of the whole system, adds Lieutenant Newton, is that in almost every company promotion, is made by seniority. The zeal of the ambitious is stifled, while- every officer knows alwaj-s that an aocident, even of the most unpreventablo oharacter, will mean disgrace and perhaps the endl of a career. The prospectp held out to the lad at the bottom of the ladder certainly are not very attractive. DESTRUCTION OF DERELICTS. In the House of Commons a few weeks ago Mr. Morton asked the President of the Board of Trade whether the British Lrovernment intended to do anything to assist in the destruction of derelicts in the Pacifies and Atlantic. Mr. Buxton, in replying, abated that tho subject of 'the destruction of floating derelicts was very tully considered by a committee ia 1894 •V? ,r, ro P°rtod' that the danger of collision with dsrelicts in. tho open sea was very small, tiiat the chances of discovering such derelicts was infinitesimal, and that the destruction of certain classes of dere-licta when found was a work of great difficulty and. might create additional dangers, while the cost of such an undertaking would be out of all proportion to any possible benefit. Having regard to this report, the fitting put of a vessel for the destruction of derehota would not, ho said, be- recommended. DISAPPOINTED HOPES. With the completion of the first quarter of tho year enquiry is natural as to how lar the promised improvement in the shipping trade has materialised (says the LonX° n aily Telegraph). Tho answer must be that a good many of the hopes entertained a little while back have been disappointed. The troubles in the coal trade ansmg out of the Minors' Eight Hours a ct iv *£? , Prolonged coal strike in New bouth Wales, the disastrous shortage of hoj"ew"rd cargoes from tho River °Plate —all these, are adverse influences which r-dped to inako profitable business difficult, borne shipowners have done better than others, but that is only another way of sayinnr that what improvement there is is partial. There is certainly no boom as yet m shipping Meanwhile owners of newer tonnage are probably doing fairly well, though not so well as they anticipated, and owners of older boats are largely out of tho running. There is still a good deal of. tramp shipping which could be advantageously scrapped, but it involves a sacrifice, often for the benefit of others, which i 3 unwelcome. If tho shipping trade were prosperous all round the fact would soon be reflected in the shipbuilding yards by a considerable demand for tramp steamers. It is significant, therefore, that orders for this description of vessel aro relatively light. Something is doubtless due to the iact that t.ho {.peculator is still kept under more or less effective restrictions. All the bame, if shipowners woro making a good deal of money we should doubtless see orders given out freely enough from one source or another. The mainstay of shipbuilders has for some little timo past been found in tho demand for passenger and cargo liners. Year by year the cargo liner continues to press tho tramp, vying with him in picking up what in days gone by were unconsidered trifles. But business will never be so regularised that tho tramp will find his occupation gone. NEW GERMAN LINER. Very few details have, so far, been available as to tho character of tho mammoth lmoi which the Hamburg-American Company is building. The subject was touched upon in .lie briefest tcr«os in the company's annual report. Now a writer in 0110 of the Gorman newspapers vtntures tho statement, that the vessel will not reach tho size of the forthcoming White Star liners, but will be half as large as the George Washington, tha now Xord-Deutscher Lloyd liner. This vessel has a gross register of about 27,000 tons, and that of tho Olympics and Titanic is commonly talked of as 45,000 tons. If the fi«=ertion is correct that the new steamer will be half as large again as the Georgo Washington, she will work out at 40,000 tono. or very little less than the Belfast leviathans. It is pafo to say that something will depend upon harbour conditions at Hamburg, but it may be doubted \vhethpr, if anything in tho way of deepening is required, the Germans uould haggle abou.; it as Southampton has done. On the subject of epeed, this German writer states that the new liner will perhaps steam faster than tho George Washington but that ehe will not aim to eclipse the German express Eteamers or iho Ciinard greyhounds. This can quite lie believed, for the Hamburg American Lino has given no sign of any desire to recapture the bluo riband since tho Deutschland lost that, coveted honour. Herr Balhn, apparently, has hh own ideas as to what constitutes an economical speed for a first-class service, and this despite the dictuif. ol this German writer that steamship companies, no more than railway companies, can refuse to recognise that the highest degree of comfort in travelling is compatible with great speed. Another statement is that the now Ham-burg-American liner is to be the first of a quartette. But this class of boat generally hunts in couples, at all events to bugin with. QUEENSTOWN VERSUS FISHGUARD A deputation 1 p.cently waited on Mr. Herbnrt Samuel, the British PostmasterGeueral to urge on him the claims of Queenstown in regard to t.he American mail service. It was pointed out that a serious injury would be dorm to tho wholo of the south of Ireland if the fast Ciinard mail steamers were allowed to call at Fishguard and to pa?s Queenoiown. Tho Postmaster-General pointed out, however, that by calling at Fishguard the mails arrived in London on an average threo and three-quarter hours earlier than they used to, which meant the difference between catching the night mail out of London and having to wait for tha Tuesday morning mail. The Lusitania and Mauretania only carried 10 per cent. Irish mail, the other 90 per cent, beinjr for Great Britain, find thorcfnro to delay this large proportion of (ho mail, and miss the night train, would be a very 6orions matter.

It is reported by the Grabamstown Journal that General Botha docs not appear to bo in anything like robust health, although he states that his health i« much improved ap 9 result of the treatment prescribed in Europe. <