OUR MERCHANT NAVY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4589, 4 December 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR MERCHANT NAVY.

: (From Land and Water.) At a' time when universal attention is directed to matters l connected with merchant ships and merchant seamen, it is interesting .to survey the progress made by our commercial navy during recent fortunately, the opportune publication by the Board of Trade of authentic ; tables bringing down the history of .British merchant i shipping to the'end of--1873, supplies the information necessary for this purpose. Going so far back as 1833, we find the shipping entered and cleared in the ■United Kingdom classed 70’5 per cent. as British, and 29'5 foreign, while in 1873 the percentages were 68*9 and 31T ; thus showing a slight .gain to the foreigners during the interval,- .Had it not been, however* for the civil , -war .in the United States, which transferred a great deal of the American ocean-carrying trade to - England, 'the falling otf in the tonnage of British ships entered and cleared would have been much more marked. In 1860 their per-, centage had fallen to 58 "2 against: 41’8 for foreigners ;.in the succeeding year the respective figures were 60'0 and 40'0; and 1862, 62’3 and 37;7. • From: that date the British tonnage began to rise and foreign to fall, until in 1867, the former stood at 70‘7, and the latter at 29 - 3. Since then the percentages have remained almost stationary, with a slight tendency towards decrease on the British' side, and increase on the foreign. Under the head of “Aggregate tonnage of Merchant Navies of the British Empire, United States, France, Holland, and Norway, from 1815_ to 1873, or for as many years as can be given,” some interesting figures are to bo found. In the year of the battle of Waterloo, now just sixty years ago, the, Empire possessed 2,681,276 tons; while, in 1873 the amount credited to her was 7,294,230 tons, being the greatest quantity mentioned in her annals, except in 1865, when the tonnage was 7,822,60-1. But it must not be supposed that she has advanced alone. • Taking 1850, the earliest year affording, data for comparison, her tonnage is again at 1,232,962, that of the United States at 3,385,266, that of France at 688,153, that of Holland at 396,124, and that of Norway at 298,315. But by 1873, the United States owned -1,639,203 tons; France, 1,068,031 tons; Holland, 522,368 tons; and Norway, 1,120,450 tons, the increase in the last instance being nearly quadruple. Taking these five nations together, they are; found collectively possessing 9,098,820; tons of merchant shipping in 1850, of which the British empire owned: rather less than half, while in 1873 the total was 14,644,282 tons, and the proportion slightly more in'our favor. From a comparison of these figures one fact of very great importance, bearing on the supply of merchant seamen, is brought, into vivid light. While the five named countries only required in 1850 sufficient sailors to man 9,098,820 tons of shipping, twenty-three years afterwards they needed a supply for 14,644,282 tons. Hence, as the number of men who take up with a; seafaring life from natural affinity or the influence of early circumstances is, and must he, limited, this constantly increasing demand for, seamen has served to deteriorate the quality of the , supply. Probably in this fact, will be found one of the causes lending to the more frequent loss of ships through what mariners of the old school would consider want)of seamanship. Not less suggestive, as showing how easily, the; oqean-oarrying ’trade of a country may fall into the hands of .rival ..nations ,are the figures . giving the tonnage of the,United States. , In 1871,, when; civil wav broke out, she .possessed 3,642,628 tons of ocean shipping, and 2,839,399 . tons employed in coast and river traffic. In , 1864 the former had fallen to 1,081,894 tons, nor bas it since recovered,,the figures for 1873 being 1,423,288 tons, while the Home shipping increased in the interim to ~3,215,915. i Thic •latter fact shows thatjthe immense falling off in ocean-going tonnage cannot be-attributed to more restricted i trade, since that would have equally affected (shipping: purler both- heads. Hence it is impossible to doubt that the : increased cost of insurance consequent upon the proceedings of the Alabama and her consorts, had tor its direct effect the transfer of a. great portion of the United States ocean-carrying trade to nations that could sail their ships at ordinary risks. ; This fact wo commend to the notice pf . those well-intentioned zealots who .apparently wish to . reform, the whole shipping trade tofu England withbut regard to the. iucrenm of expense; thrown upon owners.'. The -margin of profit oh shipping ventures being [already very narrow, owing to excessive com- . petition both at. Home and abroad, remedial legislation should be so framed as to give full conßideratiou to this important factor in the

case ; otherwise it may happen that England will find herself with a fleet of perfectly seaworthy merchant ships rotting in her harbors for the want of remunerative employment. The dearth of sailors, consequent upon increased demand, is strongly brought out in a table giving seamen’s wages iu each year from 1848 to 1874. Taking five principal English ports—Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, and Newcastle-cum-Shields—the average rate paid in 1848 was about 475. per mouth, while in 1874 it ranged between 60s. and 705., with exceptional instances of 80s. and even 90s. Even at this la ter rate supply frequently proved unequal to demand, the superintendent at Poplar reporting “a very limited supply of men throughout the year; masters have managed to fill up their crews (sometime-* with difficulty), but have had no choice.” The way in which “ filling up ” is contrived comes out in Table No. 22, giving “ the numbers of British and foreign seamen serving in registered sailing and steam vessels of the United Kingdom from 1851 to 1873.” In the former year 136,144 English sailors were so employed against 5,793 foreigners, the percentage of the latter to the former thus being 4.2. In 1873, the numbers were 182,399 and 19,840, and the percentage of foreigners 10.87, or more than two and a-half times as much as in 1851. As foreign sailors, taking them all round, are not considered nearly so efficient as the old class of English AB.’s, it follows that the average quality of crews employed in our merchant ships has steadily deteriorated. The succeeding table shows that there has also been a very important falling off in quantity during the last twenty years. In 1854 the proportion of men to each 100 tons of registered sailing and steam ves-els (excluding river steamers) was 4 - 36, while in 1873 it had decreased to 3 - 52, or - 84 of a man less to each 100 tons. When this fact is coupled with the much larger admixture of foreigners, there can be little question that our ships are far less efficiently manned at present than was the case some 1 twenty years since At the same time as the cost of sailing has gone on steadily increasing year after year, owing to the rise in wages, the benefit resulting to shipowners from employing fewer hands, is nearly balanced by the difference in the price of labor. , This is easy of proof. A ship of "1000 tons register would have carried in 1854, according to thq proportion of men to tons then existing, 43'6 hands, at a monthly cost of £l2O, talcing average wages at 55s per head. In 1873, when the proportion was 3’42 and the average rate of wages about 655., the number of hands would be 35'2, and the monthly cost £ll4. On the other hand, the shipowner got less value for his money at the latter date, owing to the greater proportion of foreign seamen. From a consideration of the foregoing facts it would appear proved that .while England barely holds her own at present in the carrying trade of the world, the slighest addition Co the cost of sailing might serve to turn the scale in favor of her rivals. Therefore, while freely-admitting the necessity Of amending the Merchant Shipping Acts,' especially in regard to unseaworthy vessels, we would earnestly counsel those who have taken the matter in hand to do their spiriting gently. A branch of industry providing well-remune-rated work for 202,229 men, and giving profitable employment in the many millions sterling sunk in 7,294,230 tons of shipping, ought not to be lightly destroyed.