SHIPPING IN NEW YORK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 94, 16 September 1914, Page 2

SHIPPING IN NEW YORK.

IMMENSE GERMAN TONNAGE IDLE. VESSELS OBLIGED TO RETAIN! CREWS. (Now York Post). Even though European merchant tpssels are securing tafcty from capture by ileeing- to neutral ports, there to lie during the war, the loss to foreign shipping which this paralysis of ocean traOie entails is incalculable. Germany and England have both issued warnings to all vessels of their merchant marine to tie up in the nearest neutral port to avoid capture. Great Britain and France, because of their preponderant combined strength, aro not so likely to abandon their usual trade routes. It is conceivable, however, that the German navy might prove formidable to the enemy's shipping if it should come out of the first clashes with France and England without being too badly crippled. Some idea of the financial burden which Germany will be called upon to bear in various parts of the world, wkere merchantmen are interned, can be gained by survey of the German ships now bottled up in tho ports of the United States. in the Gulf ports, where lumber consigned chiefly to Germany and England is loaded, German tramps and liners are always to be found in numbers. The German Consul in Mobile has already warned them to safety. Others will tie op in Pacific Coast harbors. Baltimore is likely to be a haven for a goodly number of German merchant vessels, but the port of New Ttork will hold the hulk of them.

In gross tonnage, more than 300,000 tons of German merchant shipping ia tied up at New York docks, and th« prospect is that it will remain there for some time. During this interval, except for the single cost of coal consumed, the expenses of the vessels are as great as during the time that Uu>j are, actually earning an income for their owners. Even in the matter of coal, there ia considerable consumption, foi on most of the boata steam is kept up constantly in order that all may be in readiness for hurry orders or in case of such an emergency as a fire among neighboring shipping or on docks. As for the other expenses, they art very heavy. Kaeh German ship must retain its complete, crew, and pay and provide for the men during the' time they arc held there. F.very member of the crew ia signed for a voyage beginning in a German port, and his contract is made out to cover the time until he shall return. This, according to an officer of one of the big German lines, is a but den which every ship here is bearing. I'o cite, only the vessels of two line*, the North German Lloyd and the J lam- I burg-American, tho German fleet here represents the flower of the Kaiser's mercantile marine. The list includes, with tonnage: The Armenia, 5500; Hamburg, 10,500; Koenig Wilhelm 11., 10,000; Nassovia, 4000; Pennsylvania, 13,300; Pisa, 15,000; President Grant, 18,000; Prinz Joachim, 5000; Vaterland, 41,500; Allemannia, -M500; Graecia, 3000; Prims Eitel Friedrich, 5000; President Lincoln, IS,000; George Washington, 25,570; Kaiser Wilhelm 11., 19,300; Barbaross#, 10.018; Grosser Kuerfuerst, 13.102; Friedrich dor Grosse, 10,075; I'liuzt-M freue, 10,881.