GERMAN SHIPPING.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1915, Page 12

GERMAN SHIPPING.

ONE MAN'S CREATION. The news which recently came from Europe thai the great Hamburg-Ame-rika steamship line had filed its petition; in bankruptcy, and that the Norddout-cher-Lloyd line was expected to follow its example, was scarcely likely to cause surprise, for the paralysis of German shipping brought about 'by the war has affected these two famous concerns most of all. Hundreds of large modern steamers are tied up in German and in neutral ports, and these even with the depleted crews are costing their owners enormous sums for upkeep. The famous Vaterland, for instance, the gTeat Hamburg Atlantic liner, which cost nearly two millions to build, has been laid up in New York Siarfoor for a year, and it is calculated that if maintenance, depreciation and interest upon capital be counted the owners are out of pocket £25,000 weekly. The total cost of maintaining the unemployed ships of the Hamburg line alone is set down 'by shipping authorities at £40,000 a day. The affairs of the Norddeutscher. Lloyd line—a truly colossal company, with its working capital of £10,000,000 and its fleet of four hundred steamers, running on forty lines —are so closely interwoven with those of the HamburgAmerika line that the total failure of one firm must mean the rum, partial or complete, of the other. A writer in a British trade paper, however, declares that it is possible that the German Government, if Its finances permit—a contingency which seems 'extremely doubtful—will come to the rescue and give such aid as will save the senior partner in the joint firm at any rate from absolute collapse. The managing director, Herr Ailbert Eallin, is a close friend of tiie Kaiser, who once spoke of him as Germany's trade pathfinder, ahd-the Kaiser, it ia well known, has taken a personal interest and pride in the great Norddeutscher-Lloyd and its splendid ships. The story of 'Herr Baffin's career is practically the story of the HamburgAmerika line since 1886. In that year Ballin joined the managerial staff, on the purchase by the Hamburg line of its progTessive rival, the Carr service of steamers. At that time, aa the shipping writers recalls, the Hamburg-Ame-rika fleet consisted of twenty-eight steamers, which .covered five routes. At the (beginning of the present war it had a fleet of over 200 vessels travelling on forty-five regular routes. In ISSG the capital was £750,000; in loss than thirty years it had been multiplied exactly ten times, while the gross annual profits had been raised from £125,000 to £2,825,000. In the pre-Ballin era the total tonnage of the line was 00,000; it was placed at about 1,500,000 last year. "ißoilin, by perpetual care and industry," it is recorded, "built up the 'business*. He had to overcome the opposition to his new ideas of the conservative Hamburgers, Unit the greybeards of the directorate were gradually removed through his influence, and he' developed the line so that its services literally linked together all the corners of the earth, while a fleet of swift steamers was built whose fittings inaugurated a new era of comfort and luxury in 0.-ean travel.. His latest move showed how acute he was in following every development of the opportunities for' the shipping trode, for he inaugurated barely two years ago a service between the Eastern and Western Coasts of the United States via the Panama Canal." Six years ago Herr Ballin became director-general of the entire organisation, and .year toy year he extended the power and profits of his vast trading machine. He drew a huge salary, £20.000 a year, and he was worth it to the concern. Now his grand fleets are rusting at their anchors or at them' quays, and the business lies in uins. Herr Ballin, however, ia not idle; he is acting as director of the German milrttury transport and supply system,