SAILING SHIPS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20290, 24 December 1927, Page 9

SAILING SHIPS.

PAST DISAPPEARING FROM THE 1 SEAS. There is a passage in the annual report of tile British Sailing Ship Owners’ Association which must call up feelings of regret, says the Sheffield Daily Telegraph. It shows that the sailing ship is fast disappearing from- tile seas. Seven years ago Urn world gross tonnage of that species of vessel amounted to 3.409,000 to-day it has declined to 1.926,000. Even thes e figures do not reveal the whole story, for were barges and similar rraft excluded the world tonnage of real -ailing vessels of ICO tons gross and upwards is seep to be only 1,153,000, and of that Great Britain and Ireland claim but 25.7C0.

It is true we still keep nn building new ships—l 34 were added to the national re. sristnr last year—but this was much more than counter-balanced by the removal of nn Fewer than 218. Steam and oil arc displacing what was, perhaps. th P most picturesque achievement of man in his endeavour to harness the forces of Nature. Between the mast less and sailloss steamer and the birdlike outline of a ship under full canvas there is no more comparison in point of beauty than there is between a modern flour factory and an old-time windmill. While wo must regret the disappearance "f the white wings from 11re seas we cannot stem the current which ha* brought it about. Beauty must give place to utilitv : that is the beginning and enditm of the whole matter.