WORLD'S SHIPBUILDING

Southland Times, Issue 20044, 4 December 1926, Page 4

WORLD'S SHIPBUILDING

FIGURES FOR 1925-26. 1 HUGE MERCHANT TONNAGE. ‘The tmfoiwl ultwiing down of blast furiuHW mid of steel works and forging in Ih<’ United Kingdom the iwull of tlw ooid dispute- -and the ctHWoiiuent stoppage of the supply of inalei'ittlf* twmlitd to iihi|>buildJng and piigiinwiiig lmv§ dealt tluwe industries a liphvv blow JUpI el e time when there were iudh’Mlione "I mi approaching improvement hl Hade for winch the country has lipph waiting m) long/' 'he annual re p.H-l O i LlovdG Keglatm of Shipping for Bish m

Ilia stoppage, Ihr report any*, occurred too lalp In maha It* effect fell to any Milißlnntlrtl p-Henl Upon the kooW’a operations in Ilia yem' under review. Indeed, Hip poeipty'R w<"l< lit home and abroad show-fl a plight iiarnaw’ over that of the prpi-pdine yprti' regnnh the tonnage of yppqpln (iiHuplaied under purvey. lhe full plTw‘l. of Ibe Pluppaga will not Im» shown until the voniplela rcluriw, arc made up for thp current twelve month*. But that it will Im RPrioua is already indicated by the falling oil in Hip ainounl nl new work coming forward, and Hup falling off will nocessardy go on increasing until a attlemcnt of the

coal dipputn Ip arrived al. During the year ilic committee p;uwed plena lor 301 new vohhtlk of 1,089,300 tone gropp. Tlaw figures are substantially below thoHU lor the corres|)ondmg period hud year, <8 the total projected tanting'O no Ichh than 08.3 jicr cent is to bo built in Great Britain and Ireland. Allboiigh there was a falling off in the tolid as compared with last year, the |M*rccntngo of the amount to be built at Homo shows an increase of 13.3. For thi’ year ended June 30 the committee assigned climses to 419 new vessels of 1,330,507 tons gross. The countries in which the major portion of the 419 new vessels have been built are indicated in the table below: — No. of Aggregate Whore Built, Vessels. Tonnage. Great Britain and Ireland 27 198,172 Germany 269 807,627 Italy 20 69,690 Merchant vessels afloat at the end of June, 1926, holding the classificaXion of Lloyd’s Register, amounted to 29,172,698 tons, and tliis figure is the highest which has ever been recorded. It may be added that the end of June, 1926, there were under construction throughout the world to the classification of this society 297 vessels, of 1,391,033 tons, and it will therefore be seen that the aggregate of shipping which holds, or is intended to hold, the classification of Lloyd’s Register amounts to 9854 vessels, of over 301 million tons gross. A very interesting feature of ship-building during the past year has been the introduction of the “Bracketless System,” a modification of the well-known Isherwood system, in which the brackets attaching the longitudinals to the bulkheads have been dispensed with, suitable compensation for the discontinuity ' being otherwise provided. Several oil vessels have been contracted for on this system, to be built to the society’s classification, and the performance of the first, which has recently been completed, will be followed with keen interest, in view of the novel principles embodied in its construction. The past twelve months have been remarkable for the number of vessels of all types built to the society’s class which have been fitted with oil engines as the means of propulsion. No fewer than 113 vessels agregating 601,427 tons gross have been constructed under the supervision of the society’s surveyors in which this type of engine has been installed, and it may be added that this figure is easily the largest that has been reported hitherto for any one year, and is nearly double the amount of new tonnage shown last year.