FORTUNES IN OLD SHIPS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 211, 22 September 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

FORTUNES IN OLD SHIPS.

FABULOUS PROFITS SINCE THE WAR. To Ihe rise in shipping values no end is yet apparent. Second-hand boa** now fetch prices that would have beeT considered iextravagant for new vessels a cuple of years ago. Even very yld craft command more than their original cost. Twelve months ago steamers were being sold at an average rate of £7 12s ncr ton —a jump of 171 per cent. Prices have ranged up to nearly £4O per to.i for two-year-old ships, and even vessels 30 years old have fetched £27 per ton. Thi profits made on sales are so largo that many of the boats have changed hands several times during the pait couple of years. Tims one ten-year-old steamer which uas sold for £26,200 in 1914 was disposed of for £IOO,OOO last year, and has iatelv taen knocked down again for £140.000. Another v-essel—2o years of age fetched £36,500 last August, £78.000 last January, and has now realised £IOI,OOO. A third ship, built in 1891, which was priced at £7,800 in 1912, sold for £21,000 last year, end yet again for £62,000 quite recently. Four other craft, tha youngest ten years of .nge, which together were disposed of for £177,000 in 1915. have recently fetched £355,500. Two other examples may b.> given. One twenty-seven-year-old boat, which was sold Ic £45,000 in 1913, has just Keen disposed of for £IOO,OOO, and one eighteen-year-o!d craft, vrhicl realised £20,000 n 1914, has now changed hands for £155,000.

Tli. l above- representative sales relate only to steamers, but sailing ships can supply equally astounding illustration* of the phenomenal rise in values, in 1915 th? average rare per ton realised was about £4 lis, but this year the nK'an has been around £9 9s, an m-rc-nase of 107 per cent. Twenty-year-c.M ships and over have commanded £l3 per ton, whilst even craft built in tlv? seventies have fetched from £4 -o £0 per ten.