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SHIPPING . To the floating See also:log and See also:paddle of the primeval
fisherman must doubtless be attributed the first beginning of the
See also:great See also:industry of See also:merchant shipping. The hollowing
See also:long serve to convert the embryo See also:craft into a See also:vessel navigable in the smooth and narrow See also:waters which lapped the shores of the Mediterranean and the far distant See also:East. The coastal villages had need of worked See also: See also: The proximity of Italy to the See also:Holy Land tended greatly to the prosperity of the See also:Italian shipping. In very early days the commerce of northern Europe was principally carried on by inland routes. With the increase and See also:civilization of the populations, the cities on the navigable See also:rivers and on the sea found the See also:advantage of ocean commerce, and strove for supremacy in trade. In Britain many an ancient seaboard See also:town, from See also:Bristol to far north See also:Inverness, largely owing to the enterprise of the Flemish and the See also:German merchants, became important as a trading centre. The English merchants were not without ships, but the See also:foreign traders were enterprising and wealthy, and in their emulation for the renowned English See also:wool and for English hides were prepared to venture much. In those days and for several centuries later the See also:history of shipping was a history of arbitrary restraints, of claims for exclusive rights of trading and See also:navigation, and of pretexts of various kinds, resulting in captures and burnings, in embargoes and confiscations in See also:port and in fierce See also:reprisals. The merchant-See also:man was a more or less armed vessel prepared alike for aggression or defence, a See also:condition of affairs to which has probably to be attributed the occasional construction of vessels of a See also:tonnage then remarkable. The ships of See also:Spain and See also:Portugal, of See also:England and the See also:Netherlands—of See also:French shipping for a considerable See also:period there was comparatively little—homeward See also:bound from Indian ports and factories and from the New See also:World's trading settlements from time to time were preyed on by one another. The Algerian and See also:Barbary corsairs, with nothing to lose and everything to gain in merchandise and captives, were the dread of all who sailed the seas from See also:Lisbon to See also:Gibraltar—and indeed still farther north—and within the straits. The See also:insurance of the voyagers against See also:capture and the See also:payment of See also:head-See also:money for their See also:ransom was a well-established See also:system of the times. In England, the Cinque ports, in See also:consideration of valuable privileges, were specially engaged to hold vessels at the service of the See also:state, but on need arising the ports at large were called upon for ships and men. These demands at times became oppressive. Thus we read that in 1371 it was complained in See also:parliament
arty of a log and the addition of a skin sail would before
history.
that owing to the demands of the king the merchants were being ruined and their mariners driven into other trades. The size or measurement of ships was assessed on the basis of their capacity to carry tuns of See also:wine, the first step in the See also:present system of tonnage measurement. Ships sailed in fleets, one or more of their masters being appointed admirals, to be obeyed by all the company. In times of See also:special maritime disturbance an armed See also:fleet convoyed the merchantmen, much, no doubt, to the added cost of transport. The great source of England's See also:wealth was her wool, of which the abundance and fineness gave rise to a wide demand. Staples or licensed entrep8ts or marts were set up for this and other produce at certain towns in England and overseas, English merchants associating themselves at such foreign staples. In like manner foreign trading See also:societies located themselves under certain privileges and obligations at English marts, to the great increase of ship-ping, more especially of foreign bottoms. About the See also:middle of the 15th See also:century a considerable use sprang up for shipping in the See also:carriage of See also:African slaves to Portugal, their captors being the See also:Moors. In later years this See also:melancholy trade found large employment for the ships of See also:Liverpool, Bristol and London, trading with the distant west. Pilgrimages, too, were bringing profit to the ships, a constant stream of the devout with their offerings journeying on the one See also:hand to the See also:shrine of St See also: Thus in very early days the northern seas were thronged with See also:rival fishing fleets, which, from about the middle of the 15th century, began to find their way to the See also:banks of See also:Newfoundland. At the See also:close. of the 16th century the See also:whale was being pursued by rival fishermen on the See also:Greenland coasts. See also:Queen See also: Great building of ships took See also:place, for which bounties were granted by the queen, and Elizabeth set herself against the Hanseatic league. At the close of her reign the See also:Steelyard was shut up, and the Dutch were competing successfully with the Hanse towns, of which " most of their See also:teeth were out and the See also:rest but loose." In the early days of commerce the risks were too considerable to be borne byindividuals, who accordingly associated themselves as companies of merchant adventurers for the purposes of their particular trade, exclusive rights and privileges being granted to them by their own See also:sovereign, and corresponding facilities on the part of the foreign states or cities traded with. In England certain of these societies, notably the company of See also:Russian merchants, the See also:Turkey merchants and, for long, the East India Company, occupied positions of See also:influence and importance, the last-named company especially becoming possessed of much shipping, including large vessels, well armed, for See also:prize-making or defence. The needs of trade and shipping were for long but little under-stood and often arbitrarily obstructed, but as a broad See also:general principle it was recognized by the See also:crown that the See also:national trading interests required for their protection special privileges and concessions. Thus the patent granted by Elizabeth to the African adventurers in 1588 was expressed to be on the ground that " the adventuring of a new trade cannot be a See also:matter of small See also:charge and See also:hazard to the adventurers in the beginning." At the middle of the 16th century See also:Antwerp was at the See also:zenith of its great prosperity. It was described as the general See also:store-house of the world, and it was stated that so many as 2500 vessels might be seen lying in the See also:Scheldt at one time. These, however, were mainly foreign, Antwerp being a mart or emporium to which other nations traded. Towards the close of the century this great city's peaceful See also:population was, in the name of Holy Church, crushed under the See also:iron See also:heel of See also:Christian Spain. Its traders fled from See also:cruelty and See also:torture largely to See also:Amsterdam, about this time the northern entrep6t for Portugal's East India trade. The Hollanders, profiting by the decline of the Hanse towns, were now greatly devoting themselves to See also:shipbuilding and to foreign trade. They, like the English, hampered in their navigation by hostile and unfriendly occupation of the ports of See also:refuge and supply at the two great See also:southern capes, were See also:bent on discovering a north-east or north-west passage to the East. This enterprise and the See also:desire for gems and See also:precious metals, as to the existence and abundance of which there were many false beliefs, added greatly to the knowledge of the distant seas and shores, on which many settlements were being established. To such settlements the See also:attention of the French was now directed, with much encouragement to their shipping by the powerful See also:Richelieu. The East Indian settlements and shipping of the Portuguese were being persistently harassed by the advancing Dutch, while the See also:rich treasure ships of Spain were laid wait for and captured by English shipping, greatly to the Spanish loss. But the Dutch especially were prospering. Amsterdam, a vast trade centre supplied by Dutch shipping, had between 1571 and 165o trebled itself in size. So far back as 1603 Sir Walter Raleigh, in his statement to King James, had complained that the vessels of the Dutch, by See also:reason of their greater capacity and smaller crews and consequently See also:lower freights, were cutting out the English ships or See also:driving them into the See also:Newcastle See also:coal trade. By such enterprise the Hollanders gradually became the carriers for the English merchants. English bottoms were neglected and English See also:seamen took service with the Dutch. Affairs for English shipping had about 165o reached a crisis. There existed, moreover, great animosity between the English and the Hollanders. In the defence of the national shipping the great Navigation See also:Act was in 1651 placed upon the British See also:statute-See also:book. Under this far-reaching act the trade between England and her colonies and the British See also:coasting trade was strictly ;on:Act confined to English bottoms, English owned and 1651, manned substantially by English seamen. The act contained further provisions in support of British shipping, the effect of which was greatly to See also:prejudice foreign shipping in its competition for the British carrying trade. It is not impossible that some of the regulations of the act may have proceeded from the animosity already mentioned (See also:Adam See also: Towards the second See also:half of the 18th century the See also:foundations were laid of the present great shipping industry on the Great Lakes. See also:Oak See also:timber of large size was now becoming scarce in England, and in the interests of the See also:navy restrictions were placed upon the East India Company as regards its use. British merchant shipping, too, had apparently outgrown the supply of seamen, for towards the close of the century it was permitted to British vessels to carry foreign seamen to the extent of three-fourths of the See also:crew. The traffic in African negroes gave much employment to British shipping. The war with See also:America led to the harrying of British commerce by See also:American privateers cruising off the English coasts. War premiums were very high and the insurance obtainable was insufficient. Partly on this See also:account and partly owing to the fact that about 10oo British vessels had been taken up for transport and other public services, whilst many more were sailed as privateers, the Thames was now full of foreign vessels loading British cargoes. During the See also:absence from the West Indies of the British fleet under See also:Admiral See also:Byron, engaged in conveying homewards the West Indian merchantmen, two valuable British islands were captured by the French. The hostilities of the rival states were being fought out at sea, with peaceful commerce as their See also:objective. The seas swarmed with privateers, armed and equipped as sordid speculative enterprises, occasional rich prizes stimulating the greed of many citizens, not a few of them, no doubt, the owners of ships and merchandise which had in like manner fallen to the enemy. The French See also:privateer " Bordelais," captured by the English in 1799, is reported to have taken in four years 164 prizes, of the See also:net value of £1,000,000 See also:sterling (See also:Mahan). Between May 17 56 and See also:July 17 57 a total of 772 French vessels was captured by the British, whilst 637 British ships were taken by the French. It was declared in the House of Lords in See also:February 1778 that the value of the British captures of American vessels had amounted to £1,808,000, against which that of British shipping captured by America had been £1,800,000. Towards the close of the prolonged hostilities which concluded in 1815 Liverpool and See also:Glasgow were holding public meetings and urging upon the See also:admiralty and the See also:throne that they were being ruined by the want of protection to their shipping. In 1786 an act was passed (26 Geo. III. c. 86) for the encouragement of shipping, in which the See also:personal liability of shipowners, till then unlimited, was in certain cases of their loss of cargo now limited to the value of the vessel and her See also:freight, the first of progressive acts of thelike nature. See also:Smuggling was for long the cause of serious loss to the national See also:revenue, and an act was passed declaring forfeited any British sloops or cutters found within four leagues of the coast if provided with a bowsprit exceeding two-thirds of the vessel in length (27 Geo. III. c. 32). In 1797 the English and Scottish private vessels numbered together 12,995 of 1,385,252 tons burthen. With respect to tonnage, in the days of wooden vessels the See also:weight of cargo which a ship was capable of carrying was about See also:equivalent to her own displacement or breaking-up weight. Nowadays, owing to See also:steel construction and the See also:adoption of a See also:fuller See also:cross-See also:section in ship designing, the carrying capacity of a cargo steamer is reported to be about double, or even more than double, the ship's own weight; but types of steamers of course vary. The Board of Trade ton is 100 cub. ft., purely a measure of permanently covered in space, and not to be confounded with the ship's capacity to carry dead-weight, of which capacity the registered tonnage is consequently not to be regarded as an See also:index. For the purpose of a rough and ready calculation, however, the dead-weight carrying capacity of an See also:average cargo steamer may be taken to be about twice that of her net registered tonnage or a little more. The See also:chief See also:object of fixing and registering the See also:gross and net tonnage is the See also:establishment of a basis of See also:assessment for tonnage dues and for liability for payment of See also:damages caused by wrongful navigation or otherwise. The present diversity in the designs of steamships is in no small degree due to a desire on the part of shipowners to possess vessels which with a minimum of registered tonnage shall provide a maximum of cargo space.
The close of the 18th century was marked, especially in America, by attention to the possibilities of See also:steam navigation. A new era in shipping had dawned, and See also:year by year 19th and step by step, from See also:river craft to See also:short-voyage century. vessels, the new See also:motive See also:power gained ground. In 1833 the See also:Canadian vessel " Royal See also: The use of steam was becoming general, to the See also:gradual displacement of sailing vessels, though the Australian trade for some considerable time continued to be carried on by sailing ships of wide renown. The opening of the See also:Suez See also:Canal and the See also:provision of coaling stations on the long sea routes eventually, however, placed the bulk of the Australasian carrying trade in the hands of the steamship owners, the principal employment for large sailing vessels now being in the Pacific trade. Probably in great part on account of the cost and difficulty of See also:fuel supplies, the Californian wheat trade, and the See also:guano and the nitrate trades of the South Pacific, are thus still competed for by sailing vessels, some of them of remarkable capacity. For some years the possibilities of iron in shipbuilding had been slowly gaining recognition, to the eventual displacement in Great Britain, though not in the See also:United States, of wooden hulls. Partly as the result of the war between the Northern and Southern states and partly owing to the superior advantages of iron hulls, not yet constructed together with the great export trade for which these were now in America, the United States now further lost place as ocean carriers. In 1908 the chief employment of her ocean shipping was on the Atlantic coast and in the Gulf of See also:Mexico. The steady increase in steampropelled vessels resulted in the establishment of many coaling stations in distant parts, with much employment of shipping to supply them. Towards the middle of the 19th century British shipowners were greatly alarmed at proposals to See also:repeal the navigation acts, and in spite of their petitions and remonstrances, and of demands that the See also:bill, eventually introduced, should at least require See also:reciprocity, in 1849 the proposed measure became an act, the coastal trade being in 1854 similarly thrown open, this latter measure being induced by the need for British ships and seamen for the purposes of the See also:Crimean War (See also:Lindsay). Probably in no small degree owing to the discovery of See also:gold in See also:California and See also:Australia about this time, and to the further employment provided for shipping by the Crimean War and by the necessities of the Indian See also:Mutiny, the direful forebodings of British owners as to the consequences of the repeal of the Navigation Act were not verified. In 1856 the Treaty of See also:Paris and its appended See also:Declaration pronounced, amongst other notable clauses affecting maritime warfare, the abolition of privateering. To this great treaty most of the maritime states in course of time gave their See also:adhesion, the United States and Spain, however, not yet being signatories. The altered conditions as between warships and merchant vessels, and the disabilities imposed by See also:neutrality laws have, however, in themselves done very much to render privateering as formerly conducted no longer possible. But the Declaration, notwithstanding, the employment of duly commissioned merchant vessels may still be resorted to by the state for the destruction of commerce and for other belligerent purposes. In 1858, after great difficulty and outlay, See also:Brunel's huge ship the " Great Eastern" was floated on the Thames. The vessel, having a length of 679 ft. and a See also:burden of 18,337 tons gross and 13,344 tons net (See also:Lloyd's See also:Register) and being provided with six sail-carrying masts, was furnished both with a See also:screw propeller and with paddles. Highly successful as an See also:engineering enterprise, commercially she was from the first a ruinous failure. Under the remarkable development of the Atlantic passenger traffic, however, the size of steamships steadily and continually increased. In 1873, as the outcome of a prolonged public agitation See also:con-ducted by Mr See also:Samuel See also:Plimsoll, member for See also:Derby, a royal See also:commission was appointed to inquire into his allegations that many lives were lost owing to the unseaworthiness of ships. In 1876, under pressure of public sympathy with the views of Mr Plimsoll, an amended Merchant Shipping Act was passed (39 & 40 Vic. C. 80), making it a penal offence to knowingly send a ship to sea unseaworthy, and requiring a loadline to be fixed on British vessels, the See also:line to be indicated on ocean going vessels by what is now universally known as the Plimsoll See also:mark. The opening in 1869 of the Suez Canal created a revolution in the eastern shipping trade. Year by year steamships increased greatly in number and in burden. With improved conditions of steam navigation the supplementary use of sails was generally abandoned, masts being retained only for signalling purposes and as attachments for cargo hoists. New conditions in ship construction, the commercial demand for expedition and the manufacture of new articles of commerce together resulted in an increased See also:risk of See also:fire on ships both at sea and in port, with great loss primarily to underwriters, more especially by the flooding of holds full of valuable cargo. To overcome this danger steam-ships are being increasingly equipped with an apparatus which on the outbreak of fire enables the holds to be filled with a fire-extinguishing See also:gas. The invention and adoption of See also:refrigerating machinery and insulated holds resulted in the development of a vast trade in frozen meat and perishable produce. The See also:triumph of See also:Germany in the Franco-Prussian War awoke in the Fatherland a spirit of See also:industrial enterprise which greatly increased the population of her manufacturing areas. The supplies required by the prosperous industrial populations and the national demand for raw materials for the manufactories, laying themselves out, filled the German and other North Sea ports with shipping. Germany, able to consume whole shiploads of various foreign products, now imported these direct instead of in parcels through London and other ports. Unwilling that the profit of carrying her great and increasing trade should be reaped by foreign bottoms, Germany turned herself to shipowning and shipbuilding, and with remarkable success. So great, indeed, was this success that important lines of German steamships rapidly grew up as competitors with British and other lines in foreign trades. Both in bringing See also:home raw materials and in enabling German manufacturers to send their products to foreign consumers at See also:low rates of freight, the German shipping was now greatly increasing the national prosperity. In return, the state neglected nothing which would promote the success of its industrial centres in their competition for foreign markets, or which would assist the development of the national shipping. Rates of carriage from inland centres to the shipping ports were, in the See also:case of goods intended for shipment by German vessels, considerably reduced by the state See also:railways; and whereas in Great Britain shipping subsidies or subventions are granted essentially if not solely for services to be rendered, in Germany the granting of subsidies has also in view the development of the national shipping. The notable growth in Germany's trade and shipping is in fact believed to be in no small degree attributable to a system of subsidies to shipping in See also:conjunction with preferential railway rates on German goods despatched for shipment under " through " bills of See also:lading under the national See also:flag. In the Far East also, a new and important maritime competitor has sprung up, the industrial and commercial awakening of See also:Japan having been attended by the creation of a See also:Japanese merchant fleet and by much enterprise in the national ship-building. To the name of every Japanese merchant vessel is added the word " Maru," in ancient times a masculine " humility See also:title," but in its present use having the approximate signification of " dearest" or " esteemed." The following figures, supplied by Lloyd's Register, recording the number and tonnage of German and Japanese steamers and sailing vessels of See also:loo tons and upwards, illustrate severally the See also:recent maritime progress of the two countries: Germany. Japan. Year. N0 Sailing N0. Sailing Vessels Net, No. ng Vessels Net, Gross. Steamers Gross. Tons. Tons. 1 890 1875 1,569,311 289 171,554 1900 2178 12,650,033 1066 574,557 9 4,3 45 1908 steamers 1806 3,839,378 865 1,140,177 only In consequence of an act passed by the French See also:government to grant bounties on sailing vessels constructed and owned in France, the owners of such vessels found it to their profit, the See also:bounty being assessed on distances sailed, to engage in long voyages, with the earning of freight as a secondary consideration. This See also:procedure being found to operate prejudicially on the freight earnings of sailing vessels generally, and more especially in the Pacific trade, an See also:international See also:meeting of the owners of sailing vessels was held at Paris in 1903, with the result of the formation of the Sailing Ship Owners' International See also:Union to maintain rates of freight, French owners identifying themselves with the See also:measures decided on by the union in the common See also:interest. Influenced, no doubt, by German example, certain French steamship companies about this time decided to grant preferential combined tariffs on goods sent from inland centres of See also:production in France for shipment by their vessels, to the great dissatisfaction of the owners of foreign steamers loading for similar destinations at French ports. Early in 1902 a shipping See also:pool or " combine " was effected in the case of certain important British steam lines engaged in the North Atlantic trade. The combine, involving vast See also:capital values, was engineered by a well-known New York business house largely interested in American railways. In England it was variously attributed to a resolve on the part of American traders to See also:share in the transport of the national trade; to a desire on the part of the lines concerned to effect economies by a consolidation of management, and to a See also:scheme intended to benefit certain great American railways. The transaction gave rise to much comment in Great Britain, being by not a few regarded as contemplating the eventual See also:transfer of the lines to American owner-ship. And indeed, though the steamers continued to be under the British flag, the extent to which they remain substantially under British ownership cannot be affirmed. It was stated in 1908 that on completion of its building See also:programme the combined fleet would consist of 132 vessels of together, 1,159,704 tons. The general adoption of steamships in place of sailing vessels was gradually followed by their separation into two classes, one devoted to a fixed service on See also:regular lines of employment, the other to promiscuous trade. The former class are now known somewhat vaguely as " liners," ranging, however, from the first-class See also:mail and passenger steamer on the one hand, to the regular cargo steamer on the other. To the second class belong the " seekers " or " tramps " which come and go wherever profitable employment offers, and which more especially See also:lay themselves out to be chartered to carry full cargoes of coal, timber, wheat, nitrate, jute and such like. These vessels, some of which are of great capacity, are frequently in competition with the liners. This competition sometimes results in " cut rates " of freight, to the serious loss of the great shipowning firms and companies. With the establishment of regular lines, moreover, there grew up competition between rival lines, with similar results. A See also:solution was found by the creation of working agreements between rival lines at agreed rates of freight, but the lines thus associated were still exposed to the attacks of " tramps " upon what the See also:liner owners regarded as their privileged trade. Fierce conflicts from time to time ensued, with great disturbance of the freight See also:market and with consequent loss or inconvenience to the merchants themselves. As the result, shipping " rings " or " conferences" were created in many trades, the owners of the liners undertaking to provide the traders with a regular service accompanied by advantageous conditions, whilst the traders undertook to ship only by the See also:conference steamers. In order to ensure this support, the shipowners instituted the system of deferred rebates, under which each merchant, at the end of a year or other fixed period, should be entitled to a See also:discount or See also:rebate on the amount of freight paid by him during such period, provided that he should have shipped no goods at all by steamers outside the conference, the discount only to be paid after a further fixed period of six or nine months, during which time also he should rigidly support the conference lines. In the event of failure to comply with the conditions, a merchant is exposed to See also:forfeiture of the rebate, and in addition to measures in the nature of a See also:boycott on the part of the conference lines. Notwithstanding, attempts are from time to time made by steamers outside the See also:ring to gain admittance, with the consequence of occasional freight See also:wars, and with the incidental result that goods are sometimes carried, for example, from America to a British See also:colony at lower rates of freight than similar goods manufactured in England. Mainly on account of complaints made against the working of the South African ring, a British royal commission was in 1906 appointed to take See also:evidence and See also:report upon the subject generally. With the growth of populations and the development of means of transport, both by land and sea, a great increase arose both in production and See also:consumption, and competition became very keen for markets, both home and foreign. In this competition the cost of carriage is always an See also:element of great importance, even though the freight payment may See also:bear but an insignificant relation to the value of the goods carried. For in See also:modern trade rivalries every See also:penny saved in charges See also:counts with the importer, and if goods of a similar See also:kind can, by reason of lower transport charges, be obtained a fraction cheaper from one industrial centre than from another, the tendency is to give the preference to the centre orcountry which can deliver most cheaply to the consumer. Trade follows cheapness, and, with the world's industrial development, the striving for cheapness took at the outset the See also:form of economies in production. The day of small trade with large profits was passed, and producers of all kinds now aimed at a large output at diminished cost, and contended themselves with a smaller ratio of profits on a larger business. The utmost economy was studied with a view to successful competition, especially in over-seas markets; and in this struggle for the cheapening of supplies the cost of transport became an important element. The fact was recognized that the ship is but a See also:link in the chain of connexion between producer and consumer, and the system of " through " bills of lading was introduced, under which a particular steamer line or railway service contracted for the through-carriage of goods in conjunction with other lines, with the object and effect of cheapening the transport as a whole. Individual shipowners, in order to obtain cargoes for their ships, were in turn driven to devise economies in transport, with the result that rates of freight were continually reduced. In modern ocean carriage size means cheapness, the transport of a given weight of cargo being cheaper in a single vessel than in two vessels each of half the size. For not only does this concentration of carrying power effect economy of See also:officers and crew, with their See also:wages, provisions and See also:accommodation space, but in ship-building also size makes for cheapness. Thus, if, for example, two steamers each carrying 2000 tons will cost together say £4c,000, a single vessel of equal carrying capacity can be supplied for £35,000. Or, put another way, if for £40,000 two steamers can be built to carry between them 4000 tons, for the same sum a single vessel can, it is stated, be provided to carry 4700 tons. Consequently, the size of vessels is continually on the increase, and no sooner is a navigable channel at much cost made deep enough for the great vessels knocking at the See also:door of the port, than still larger are constructed, and shipowners complain anew that the See also:harbour See also:depth provided is insufficient. The constant demand for greater depths resulted in the production of See also:mammoth dredgers of which, also, the size and power are continually increasing. At the present time it is the navigable depth of ports and canals, and the need of adequate dry docks, rather than the obtaining of cargoes, which are the controlling factors in the size of great ocean vessels. But the heavy interest on the capital cost of these vessels and their working expenses See also:call for the utmost despatch in their loading and See also:discharge, and with the simultaneous arrival of several vessels of large tonnage, the question of prompt discharge is one of great and increasing difficulty. For many modern steamers will carry 10,000 tons of cargo, and some a great See also:deal more; so that, with old-type railway trucks carrying ordinarily only about 8 tons, it not infrequently happens that the discharge' of the ship, equipped though she be with remarkable facilities for landing her cargo and assisted by discharge into See also:barges, is impeded owing to deficiency of shore clearance. If 8 tons be taken as the capacity of an See also:ordinary railway See also:truck and 30 trucks be allowed to a See also:train, it will be obvious that a single modern cargo ship will require a vast procession of See also:rolling stock to clear her cargo. A single cargo of 10,000 tons, for example, will require some 1250 railway trucks for its removal; or, allowing 6 yards' length to the truck, 7500 yards of rolling stock, without engines and vans. And, in fact, congestion of shipping owing to delays is frequently the cause of See also:bitter complaint in the case of certain ports. Trucks of much increased capacity are now being introduced, but for various reasons their adoption is very slow. In port polemics the See also:argument is sometimes heard that the backwardness of this or that port will result in the trade being driven elsewhere: the ships, it is said, will remove it. But the ship is but the See also:blind See also:instrument of trade, to come and go where and as trade calls it. The ship will, however, sooner or later require a higher See also:rate of freight for ports of slow despatch, and this increased expense in transport will undoubtedly operate in favour of rival ports. For the ports themselves are but stepping-stones to or from a market or industrial centre, and the market will always select the cheapest route for its trade. With the increase of populations in the Old World and the development of new countries, the transport of emigrants and of travellers for business and for See also:pleasure became a highly important and lucrative source of employment for steam ship-ping. It is now indeed becoming a common practice on the part of ocean steamship companies to employ a surplus or superseded vessel of their fleet solely in carrying See also:holiday tourists to a See also:succession of foreign ports. In regular traffic the demand for increased speed and greater See also:security and comfort on the part of ocean travellers resulted in the competitive See also:evolution of passenger steamers of dimensions and See also:draught which create an increasing See also:strain on port and See also:dock authorities. These remarks must not be concluded without mention of the important part played in the evolution of modern shipping by the system of marine insurance and by the rules of See also:classification. For the cost of insurance is a heavy tax on the profits of the shipowners, and only by providing vessels of the best construction and maintaining their reputation can owners gain the advantage of low insurance rates. And not only so, but by the merchants also, to whom insurance premiums are a no less serious consideration; vessels of the highest class and reputation are insisted on with a view to cheap cargo insurance, inferior ships being consequently placed at a serious disadvantage. On the other hand the rules of construction and classification of the Society tion of Lloyd's) are most exacting, and any failure to comply from the totals as appearing in Lloyd's Register. surance as well as to her employment in successful competition for See also:Russia. ports, the great society offers every facility for the classing of the home shipping:- and inland city, and therefore shipped by the fastest vessels. Competition for freights and competition for passengers, these are the great and beneficent forces which are silently but irresistibly developing the ship, while insurance and classification are the potent handmaids of this competition. Number and Tonnage of Steamers and Sailing Vessels (of too tons and upwards) belonging to various countries as recorded in the 1908 Edition of Lloyd's Register or Book. See also:Country. Vessels. Tonnage. (Net for Sailing Vessels and Gross for Steamers.) United See also:Kingdom 9,542 17,318,351 United Kingdom and Colonies (A) 11,563 18,709,537 United States (B) . ." 3,480 4,810,268 Germany . 2,178 4,232,145 See also:Norway . . . . 2,148 1,982,878
France 1,517 1,883,894
Italy . 1,098 1,285,225
Japan (Steamers only) . 865 1,140,177
Russia (C) 1,381 974,517
See also:Sweden . 1,542 904,155
Spain . . 551 701,278
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