TWO HUNDRED SHIPS

Grey River Argus, 7 August 1925, Page 5

TWO HUNDRED SHIPS

Ford’s Big Bargain MILLIONS OF DOLLARS LOST. WASHINGTON, August 5. Ford’s bid for two hundred wooden ships has been accepted by the l.'ui'ed ■States Shipping Board, They will bscrapped in seven months. (Received August (i at 5.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, August 5. In .selling the two hundred nici'Chant biarine vessels to Mr Henry Ford, for th,, sum of 1,7(X>,00t) dollars, on Tuesday last, August 4th, the I nited States lost some millions of dollars. The ships were built in war time at a cost of between seven hundred and eight hundred thousand each. These vessels were sold to Mr Ford for £530 dollars each. Mr Ford will scrap most of the ships shortly’. He has the permission of the Shipping Board to retain and fit out with Diesel equipment fifty of the vessels for the trans-Atlantic and the South American trade, but it is understood that he will retain only one or two.

The disposal of these vessels to Mr Ford leaves 321 merchant vessels still on the market, for which the U.S. Shipping Board will soon ask for bids clearing lip these surplus vessels, which are now clogging the harbours and lagoons of the Atlantic.