Britain Has World's Biggest Merchant Fleet

Chronicle (Levin), 22 November 1949, Page 5

Britain Has World's Biggest Merchant Fleet

Received Mondav 7 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 21. Though Britain today owns only 22.4 per cent of the world's shipping eompared with 41.0 per eent in 1914, she still owns by far the largest of the world's merchant fleets and has also the largest new tonnage under eonstru'etion. These figures are revealed in a comparison of world shipping statistics re-Jt-ased by the National Federation of American Shipping and republished in Britain. The United States, which owns 14,000,000 tons of merchant shipping coinpared with Britain 's 21,000,000 tons, is the seeond largest sliip owning nation with Norway in third place displacing .Japan vvlio occupied this position before the war. Today Japan llas only 1,000,000 tons of merchant shipping coinpared with 7,100,000 before *he entered the war. Germany no longer figures ainong the world's major shipping nations. Today she has only 182,000 tons coinpared with over 5,000,000 before the war when she had the world 's flfth largest merchant fleet. Her place has now been taken by Panama. The figures sliow that in spite of war -osses, world shipping • fleets will soon tutal 89,000,000 tons or 13 per eent mere than in 1939. World tonnage in''icased from 45,400,000 tons gross in 1914 to 80,290,000 tons gross in 1948.