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1902.) MARINE REVIEW. a 23 OCEAN TRANSPORTATION FOR COAL. By ROBERT P. SKINNER, CoONSUL-GENERAL TO MARSEILLES. I am asked to supply definite information on the subject of heavy transportation of coal from Great Britain and America to France, for the purpose of demonstrating the propriety of building special coal-carrying steamers. In the actual condition of the carrying trade, the complaint of all owners is that the business is being done on unprofitable terms, if not with absolute loss to themselves; 5s. 6d. (equal to 7 francs, or $1.35) per ton from Cardiff to this city is at this writing a high price. More charters are being written at $1.20, and they hover between tlfe two extremes. From Baltimore or Newport News to Marseilles, the present price is fairly firm at 9s. ($2.25), and the difference between these rates is $1.10. Hardly more than a year ago, the difference between coal rates from Balti- more and from Cardiff to Marseilles ranged from $2 to $2.80. While the depreciation in freight rates is very generally explained by the release of tonnage heretofore required by the British government for war operations, the superabundance of new tonnage and the large number of ships con- tracted for and in process of construction, the change in the relative difference between the rates from Cardiff and Baltimore to the Mediter- ranean is attributed to special conditions. It is pretended that a very large number of steamers have recently gone to the United States for grain or cotton which have not been offered for shipment, and that these ships have therefore been forced to take what they could get in the way of cargo, upon any terms, with the result that the relative difference between American and British coaling ports has been hammered down fully 50 per cent. My informants believe that when this large quantity of tonnage now in American waters returns to this side, it will engage in whatever may be offered in Europe at that time, in preference to re- peating the operation of carrying coal at 9s.; since, while there may be no money in bringing British coals into the Mediterranean for about 5s., there is always an opportunity to go from Marseilles to the Black Sea or to Spanish ports, where grain or iron ore may be picked up for delivery in England, while there is substantially nothing in the way of cargo to be taken back to New York. A steamer of 3,000 tons cargo capacity can today load at Cardiff with navigaticn coal of the type usually required in this city at 12s. ($2.92) a ton. Assuming the owner to have contracted for payment at the rate of 7 francs ($1.85) per ton for freight (and this is today the very outside price), he must calculate upon expenditures amounting in all to 5.30 francs ($1.02) per ton before he can begin to take into consideration depreciation and profit. The official charges would perhaps vary somewhat from the figures I am about to give, but experience shows that upon a vessel of 8,000 tons the items of expense per ton, amounting to 5.30 francs, actually average as below. Assuming that the local charges at Baltimore would be the same as at Cardiff, and making due allowance for the increased length of the voyage, I establish the comparative cost per ton of delivering 3,000 tons of coal at Marseilles from either Cardiff or Baltimore as follows: 'Cardiff. Baltimore. Description. Francs. Frances. Trimming at Cardiff and port charges.... 0.70 $0.135 0.70 $0.1385 Port: charges at: Marseillesoc... cu kc ores .60 115 .60 115 Discharging at "Marseilles. .2::. .cc6 ssi 1.25 241 1.25 241 Deduction on freight (a common practice in lieu :of. re-weighing iss .ui...45 00 .096 160, 21096 Fuel for voyage (10 tons per day, costing s.,at- Gardift;or 8s. at -Baltimore)*..> . 160 .096 65 125° Wages and ship general expenses, at £10 peralay: (about ia os eho Coan Wb is 88R) Dbbe ably 'Total cast per $0 65. ek 5.30 1.02 6.35 1:22 *Steamers from Cardiff require three days for loading, ten days for the voyage, five days for discharging, and two days allowance for Sundays and holidays--twen- ty days in all; steamers from Baltimore require twenty days, instead of ten, for the voyage--thirty in all. : Thus, the owner shipping from Cardiff may look for depreciation, repairs, and net profits from the difference between 5.30 francs and an ex- treme of, say 7 francs per ton, while the owner shipping from Baltimore must look for his from the difference between 6.35 francs and 11.25 francs-- the apparent discrepancy being very much to the advantage of the steamer . from Baltimore. But it requires one-third more time to ship from Balti- more, and the prospect of return cargo, moderately certain in the first case, is equally remote in the second. It will be noted that in practice, as much time is required for loading and discharging cargo from Cardiff as the voyage, properly speaking, demands, and it may be assumed that one of the first efforts of American navigation companies will be to reduce this extended period. Demurrage charges in this port are practically un- known, and discharge facilities are at present limited to 600 tons per day. The market becomes a more valuable one every year, the tendency of the established lines being to frequent this port for the purpose of coaling, and the total annual requirements having doubled within the last three or four years. There is also a prospect of supplying the Swiss market from this port, and to that end the Paris, Lyons & Mediterranean Ry. Co. has prepared a tariff reducing the rate from Marseilles to Geneva from 14 francs ($2.70) to 11.85 francs ($2.28) per ton. This tariff requires the sanc- tion of the minister of commerce before it can become effective, and for some unknown reason this sanction has not yet been obtained. If the lower rate is adopted, it is moderately certain that a very considerable interior business will be done in consequence. ' Except for the troublesome question of return cargo, it would be easy to assert that the American voyage, including delays for loading and dis- charging, being one-third longer than the Cardiff voyage, requires in fair- ness a rate only one-third more than that of the latter, the longer time at sea being perhaps overcome by the advantage of cheaper fuel. In practice. the American exporter is at present paying more than this one-third, and there never was fair ground for the former difference, which ranged from Ts. to. 12s. ($1.70 to $2.92.) Whether general rates be high or low, some- thing like 1,000,000 tons of foreign coal must be laid down annually in Marseilles, and the fitictuation in the relative rate from Cardiff or Balti- more will largely determine the proportion of American trade in this region. Standard navigation coal from Cardiff is today selling at 22s. ($5.84) in Marseilles. It costs 12s. ($2.92) at Cardiff, or 13s. ($3.16) 'with the ex- port tax included. American competing coals are being sold here at a discount of 1s. 6d (86 cents.) Experience and prejudice, or whatever the controlling causes have been, have set this margin as a measure of com- parative quality. American coal at the seaboard, then, must be sold low enough to cover the higher freight charge and a persistent prejudice because of quality. The items average now from 4s, to 5s. In other words, it must be sold, quality for quality, at f. 0. b. prices dangerously near 8s., or perhaps 9s. ($1.94 or $2.19), and every cent under these figures represents the advantage which our dealers have in the Mediterranean market at present. We have sold 184,797 tons of American coal in Mar- seilles during eleven months of 1901, against 941,171 tons of British coal. It gave entire satisfaction. I have before me a letter from Worms & Co., the heaviest single importers, in which they say: "Our importations of American coal during the year will approximate 100,000 tons. The prin- cipal companies to which we have sold it regularly are the Peninsular & Oriental Steamship 'Co., the British India Steam Navigation Co., the Nippon Yusen Kaisha Steamship Co., and the Messageries Maritimes Steamship Co. They have all declared themselves very well satisfied with the quality of the fuel." The steamship companies to which Messrs. Worms & Co, refer are the largest doing business in the Mediterranean. During the 'year, local selling prices went to pieces, and a dealers' war has prevailed until a week or two ago. This has involved the making of many contracts for next year's delivery at prices certain to net a loss of from 30 to 75 cents per ton, unless market conditions change materially. One dealer has figured out for me about 500,000 tons already contracted for, and seems to think that these contracts will tend to diminish American importations next _ year. I do not think so. The Paris, Lyons & Mediterranean Ry. Co., which requires 300,000 tons, has not yet closed, I understand... All this is guesswork, to some extent. There is no war either for.or against Ameri- can coal. It has demonstrated its excellence, and it will come in when the _ price permits it. Meantime, the war between the dealers has ceased, and they are taking no new contracts at less than 22s. ($5.34,) -American an- thracite in the meantime has invaded the market, and would control it _ were not the fuel itself so hard to secure. .With American mines taxed to _ supply domestic demands. it may be said that the European is at present ire interested in American competition 'here than is the American him- self. He ee As the case stands, dependent as we are upon foreign ships, we are in the Mediterranean coal trade, and we can probably remain, but there is always an "if." If, as at the height of the war excitement, we must again pay 21s. ($5.10) while Cardiff pays but 10s. or 12s. ($2.48 to $2.91) it is obvious that we can not cut our f. o. b. prices to that extent. That we could pay that enormous freight at one time was only because the f. o. b. prices at Cardiff were well over twice what they are today. Thus, while reasonable business policies encourage faith in the permanency of our Mediterranean coal trade under existing conditions, the mere memory of freight rates once paid is a standing menace. I have always contended, and still maintain, that our commerce in coal can be guaranteed only by the land transportation. lines engaging in the ocean carrying trade. Even a very small fleet of icolliers controlled by the coal roads would provide a steadying influence-of inestimable value. It may be doubted whether the owners of colliers are losing anything today, in spite of their cry of dis- tress. They have been enjoying abnormally high prices, and the years of plenty have been followed by a year of famine. Business is dull every- where except in the United States, and even there the freight furnishers - are refusing to ship, hoping for better times abroad. In shipping circles, a gradual stiffening is anticipated soon. As an independent proposition, _ the creation of a fleet of coal carriers--particularly if they should be of modern type, capable .of loading and discharging promptly--seems favor- able, and, contemplated as an enterprise of one of the seaboard coal roads, _ it is not only attractive; but almost an imperative requirement. The foreign market is the only thing that will guard the mining companies _ from stagnation, in the event of dull domestic. trade. The threatened ' through bill of lading from the mine to the consumer abroad is one of those moral influences that is today holding down: the level of ocean freight rates. A gentleman largely interested in foreign transport enter- prise tells me that every Atlantic carrying company is shortening sail with a view to this contingency. He says: 9 °° Eee "The American railroads are so important in themselves and drain such vast producing. areas, thus contributing. the bulk"of east-bound _ freight, that they cannot afford to remain in any sense dependent upon _ foreign navigation companies to take' these goods to' market. Whether they buy us out and run our ships for their own account, or secure legis- | lation which will lead to the construction of a purely American fleet, it amounts to the same thing in the end. The railway companies can stand hard times-as.well.as the British ship owner, and: when:the good times come their stockholders will pocket. the profits, instead. of, ours. The through bill of lading would simply leave us without anything to stand upon, in so far as American trade is concerned." oP Owing to extensive improvements in its plant and the large volume of business on hand, Moran Bros. 'Co., Seattle, Wash., have issued bonds to the extent of $500,000, secured by a mortgage on the property. It is understood that every bond issued has been sold. The canal association of greater New York has indorsed recommenda- tions made by Governor Odell in his recent message to the legislature for the extension and enlargement of the canal locks to 1,000 tons capacity and the deepening of the Erie canal to 9 ft. Rear Admiral W. K. Van Reypen, chief of the naval bureau of, medi- cine and surgery, will retire voluntarily on Saturday of this week with the rank of senior rear admiral and will be succeeded by Medical Inspector Presley M. Rixey, who has now the rank of commander. .