owing to the superior advantages of iron hulls, not yet constructed
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 Mexico.
The steady increase in steam-propelled 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 repeal the navigation acts, and in spite
of their petitions and remonstrances, and of demands that the
bill, eventually introduced, should at least require 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 Crimean War (Lindsay). Probably in no small degree
owing to the discovery of gold in California and Australia about
this time, and to the further employment provided for shipping
by the Crimean War and by the necessities of the Indian Mutiny,
the direful forebodings of British owners as to the consequences
of the repeal of the Navigation Act were not verihed. In 1856
the Treaty of Paris and its appended 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 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 neutrality laws have, however, in
themselves done very much torender 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, Brunel's huge ship
the “ Great Eastern” was floated on the Thames. The vessel,
having a length of 679 ft. and a burden of 18,337 tons gross and
13,344 tons net (Lloyd's Register) and being provided with six
sail-carrying masts, was furnished both with a screw propeller
and with paddles. Highly successful as an 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 conducted
by Mr Samuel Plimsoll, member for Derby, a royal
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 oience to knowingly
send a ship to sea unseaworthy, and requiring a loadline to be
fixed on British vessels, the line to be indicated on ocean going
vessels by what is now universally known as the Plimsoll 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 risk of 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 steamships
are being increasingly equipped with an apparatus which
on the outbreak of fire enables the holds to be filled with a fire extinguishing
gas. The invention and adoption of refrigerating
machinery and insulated holds resulted in the development of
a vast trade in frozen meat and perishable produce.
The triumph of Germany in the Franco-Prussian War awoke
in the F fatherland a spirit of 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,
together with the great export trade for which these were now
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 ship owning
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 home raw materials and in
enabling German manufacturers to send their products to
foreign consumers at 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 case of goods intended for shipment by German vessels,
considerably reduced by the state 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 conjunction with preferential
railway rates on German goods dispatched for shipment
under “ through ” bills of lading under the national flag.
In the Far East also, a new and important maritime competitor
has sprung up, the industrial and commercial awakening
of Tapan having been attended by the creation of a Japanese
merchant fleet and by much enterprise in the national shipbuilding.
To the name of every lapanese merchant vessel is
added the word “ Maru, ” in ancient times a masculine “ humility
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 loo tons and upwards, illustrate severally the recent maritime progress of the two countries z-Germany. ]apan.
Year' Sailing Vessels Net Sailing Ve sels Net No' Steamers Gross. NO' Steamer; Gross.
Tons. Tons.
1890 1875 1,569,311 289 171,554
1900 1710 2,650,033 1066 574,557
1908 2178 4,232,145 . . ..
1908
steamers ISO6 3,839,378 865 1,140,177
only
In consequence of an act passed by the French government to grant bounties on sailing, vessels constructed and owned in France, the owners of such vessels found it to their profit, the bounty being assessed on distances sailed, to engage in long voyages, with the earning of freight as a secondary consideration. This procedure being found to operate prejudicially on the freight earnings of sailing vessels generally, and more especially in the Pacific trade, an international 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 Union to maintain rates of freight, French owners identifying themselves with the measures decided on by the union in the common 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 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 pool or “ combine ” was effected in the case of certain important British steam lines engaged in the North Atlantic trade. The combine, involving vast capital
