SHIPPING.

Evening Star, Issue 14633, 1 August 1911, Page 2

SHIPPING.

BELFAST OFFICER HONORED BY AMERICAN GOVERNMENT. Mr W. J. Christie, of Belfast, who is at present chief officer of the Liverpool steamship British Snn. has been awarded a handsome binocular glass, suitably inscribed, by the President of tho United States, as'a recognition of his meritorious and humane services in rescuing the captain, his wife, and six men who formed tho crew of the American schooner Cox and Green. They were taken off their sinking vessel in the North Atlantic Ocean on 20th November last. Mr Christie played a leading part in the rescue, as he was in charge of the lifeboat, which was manned by a crew of four men. An Inter- , esting feature of tho rescue ’las that the ’ master of the schooner was'married shortly before the vessel left port,-arid his bride was accompanying him "on the voyage as their honeymoon. The vessel was bound from Baltimore for Bath with a cargo of coal, and had encountered a scries of heavy gales, in which she had sustained such damage that she had become leaky and waterlogged. ’ The captain’s young bride took her lull shave in the arduous work of keeping the vessel afloat until succor arrived. Captain Hayns. of the British Sun, was awarded a cold watch, chain, and charm, and the boat's crewgold medals. BIG WAVES AND BIG SHIPS. In a graphically-written article in the * Pall Mali Magazine’ on ‘The Ocean Wave,’ ilr William H. Rideing remarks that the ship is not yet built, and is not likely to be built, that can remain absolutely stable in the angriest Atlantic weather, though now and then one hears of passages made without a single case of sea-sickness on board. Such immunity should be attributed to tho smoothness of tho sea on exceptional occasions, and not wholly to the design and size of the ship. The Mauritania and the Lusitania, each of 32,000 tons, roll and pitch occasionally, and the latest White Star liners, of 40,000 tons, and the projected Hamburg-American liner, of 50.000 tons, must also yield more or less to the seas that are raised on the Atlantic by gales which sometimes blow unceasingly week after week and month after month. Nevertheless, the enormous increase in the size of modern ships, their bilge keels, and their improved engines, are doing much to reduce, if they do not altogether eliminate, the 1 discomfort of storms. When, 50 years and more ago, the largest ships were of 5.000 tons or less, they often came in showing damage. The seas swept them from stem to stern, and it was not uncommon to hear of boats, skylights, and ventilators being carried away; even the navigating bridges went, with the ill-fated officers on them sometimes. In heavy weather passengers were not allowed on deck at all. The tables were set with “fiddles” on, small wooden compartments to keep the dishes from slipping, contrivances that are no longer necessary. Funnels, or smoke stacks, round or elliptical, were flattened or torn out of their sockets when the steely cables meant to secure them snapped. Rails and stanchions of the same metal were curled up like ravelled string and wisps of straw. Some of us, Mr Rideing adds, can remember what happened to the Germanic in April, 1885. A hurricane was blowing, and before she could recover from one sea another burst over the bow, dark and as solid to the sight as % wall of bluish lava towering above the fore yard. The captain (Charles W. Kennedy) was standing by the helmsman in the wheelhouse, and cried out to him: “ Hold on for your life!” The next moment both of them were flung off their feet, and everything in the room was afloat. The wheelhouse itself had collapsed. Nearly all the lifeboats and the davits holding them, the compasses, too, had gone. The forward steam winch, tons in weight, and riveted to the deck, had been picked up like a chip and dropped 20ft away from its place. Another winch, aft, had gone overboard altogether. Think of a wave with force enough to pluck out of their foundations veighis like these, integral parts of the ship, and bolted into her frame!

A DARING VOYAGE. On Saturday, JungvlO, there sailed out of the harbor of Providence, Rhode Island, the small auxiliary yacht Sea Bird. Her destination is Naples and other Italian ports, and her crew is composed of Mr Thomas Day, editor of the ‘ Rudder,’ and Mesesrs Theodore Goodwin and Fred Thurber, all experienced yachtsmen. The voyage is an exceedingly venturesome one, is the Sea Bird is only 19ft long on tho waterline, has a beam of 8.33 ft, and a draught of 3.66 ft. She carries a small 5 h.-p. petrol engine, and spreads 4CCft of canvas. Mr Day says that he expects to make Nipples in a little over five weeks, and he does not intend to push the boat, bnt to take things easily and make holiday. The boat has a small cabin, in •which two men can sleep at the same time, and for a boat of her class is very comfortable. They are taking 38 gallons of petrol for the engine, a very full list of stores, and plenty of water and fuel. PASSING OF THE SAILER. Two old shipmasters were passengers by the outward bound Medic from Sydney the other day. One of them had been engaged for over 40 years in the British-Australasian trade, and this is what he had to say to a ‘Telegraph’ representative concerning its decline : “The vessels are disappearing so rapidly that you can almost count those that are left on your hands,” remarked one captain, “and they are not likely to be replaced, except with auxiliary power, and this is not deemed practicable, excepting in the case of the coastal fleet. Let me see how many of those sailing ships are left in the intercolonial trade. There are tho James Craig, Joseph Craig, Jessie Craig, and Laura Craig, Hanaa Isle. Bona, May Isabel, Senorita, Rio, Laura, Maroro. Daniel," Helen Denny, and Aldebaran. These are nearly all New Zealand and Sydney owned. There Lre also several Sydney sailers in which auxiliary engines have been fitted.” “What sailing vessels are likely to come to Australia from oversea?”—“The only vessels that are likely to come here will be an occasional one going to Newcastle for coal, or a ship from Home to load wool or wheat.' In a good season they might come for such a cargo, but as far as the sailing ships are concemed. the high insurance rates altogether bar them from making a living.’’ “What are the insurance rates?’ - —“As far as wa are concerned, we are paying 10 and 121 per cent., and the companies will not insure a vessel over 20 years of age. The rate is out of all proportion in comparison with steamers. I can quite understand high rales of insurance on old ships and vessels that are out of date: but to charge it on the new class of vessels is out of all reason. It seems to me that in many quarters it is desired that ships should disappear altogether. In order to keep these steamers going, they fall hack on the remedy 'of high insurance rates on sailers, with the result that most of the .vessels are going into the hands of foreigners. You will understand that many of the shareholders in the largo steamship companies are shareholders in the insurance companies, and. as you know, there ere wheels within wheels. Other nations are buying these vessels at such an absurdly low figure that they can easily make them pay. I have seen many ships 15 to 18 years old, that cost upwards of £30,000 to build, sold for from £2,000 to £3.000. I blame, in a way, the British owners—or, rather, the large shareholders —who encourage the building of tho vessels which are really of more tonnage than they require. It is no wonder foreigners can work a ship like that and make it pay when they get it at one-tenth the price which it cost- Most of these ships have been fully kept up- They are good, true ships; and a good iron ship is practically as good as the day she was built, provided she has been kept up to the mark.” “You think the day of the sailer is past?” —“Yes; I certainly thing so, unless some auxiliary power comes into vogue that is •heap and easily installed, and owners are lot hampered by the actions of the different tolonial Governments in compelling them to •any engineers when really a boy might control the power. When the oil engines came into use the colonial Governments mads all sorts of restrictions, and insisted that even nnAll schooners should carry an engineer utd pay him £ls to £2O a month. It is impossible to make such boats pay under the nrcumstanccs ’ “ Into what markets ate the English ships going?”—“They are in most cases being purchased by the Norwegians, whilst Germany has secured quite a number, generally the larger class of vessels. The smaller class of vessels are going to the Italians, and being "'disposed of in the chief Mediterranean ports. As our sailers get lost or condemned, they will never be replaced. The only sailing ves-

1 sols that you are likely to see in these waters, in the future will be owned by foreigners, who, having purchased them, at - such ridiculous low figures, may be able to make them pay. Besides the reasons which I have stated for their disappearance, there is The fact that steamers arc deemed so much more reliable as to the time they will arrive, and very often, when a market has to be caught, this is a matte- of much importance." Referring to the disappearance of the larger lype of sailing vessels, the companion to the first speaker pointed cut that a number of ,the ships were going into the hands of shipbreaking companies, who purchased them for - the sake of the parts and material which they contained. Now and again one might expect to see a sailer in these waters with explosives, or coming for a cargo of coal, but these visits were becoming less frequent. As far as the oversea business was concerned, it was a dying trade.