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18 MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. LIVERPOOL SHIPPING LETTER. Mersey Board to Undertake more Important [ ock Improvements-- Greater Depth Proposed for Manchester Ship-Canal. Liverpool, Nov. 30.--With the view largely of retaining North Atlantic trade for this port, the Mersey docks and harbor board has decided to carry out a comprehensive scheme of new works and dock improvements which involve an expenditure of a very large sum of money. In the first place it is proposed to build a new branch dock near the Canada basin, which will have quays 'on each side over 1,000 ft. long, fitted with coaling cranes and having standing room on each quay for between 7,000 and 8,000 tons of coal. Another new dock of modern description the board also proposes to build on the Cheshire side of the river Mersey. The site is that of the present Victoria wharf, and the new dock is to have on its quays two sheds, each 1,400 ft. long, and a third one 430 ft. long. Then again it is also the intention of the dock board to greatly improve the railway facilities at several of the docks which up to the present have been sadly deficient in this respect, while the foreshore near the entrance to the Birkenhead 'docks is to be dredged and deepened to 18 ft. below old dock sill in consequence of vessels of deeper draught now using these docks. These projected new docks and other improvements for facilitating the rapid handling of cargo are announced at an op- portune time, for many were beginning to despair that the dock authority was growing more and more out of sympathy with the pressing needs of the port, whose traffic has during the eleven months of the current year increased approximately by no less than 1,300,000 tons, This rate of increase, which will in all probability be maintained, warrants the port authority looking well ahead, and the additional tonnage that is being put in the North Atlantic trade fully justifies this enterprise. There is another item of great import to shipping and especially to the transit trade. For the greater part of the present year the Mersey dock board and the many railways running into Liver- pool have been in negotiation for a common reduction in their several transit charges, but while the railway companies were 'willing to grant certain concessions in their rates, the dock board persistently stood out against any reduction in dues. The parties failing to come to a common understanding broke off the negotiations some two or three weeks ago, but I understand that -now the dock board has invited the representatives of the several railway companies to a conference to be held in London a week hence, when the question will be further considered. The issue is a momentous one for the transit trade of this port. The Manchester Ship-Canal Co. also proposes to effect some important changes in the depth of the waterway with a view of rendering more safe the navigation of the canal by vessels of deep draught, chiefly those trading to North Atlantic ports. In the coming session of parliament the company will apply for 'powers to increase the depth of the canal from 26 to 28 ft., and to vary the respective levels of the rivers which flow into it. The ship-canal in this period of shipping depression is making some headway, and it is felt that by deepening the canal 2 ft. as pro- posed a larger type of vessel will be attracted to Manchester. To increase the depth of the canal beyond 28 ft. is an impossibility with the sills at their present level. We are of course very much concerned.just now in the con- veyance of the American mails to this country, in consequence of the change made in the sailing days of the American Line from New York. So far there has been little difference in the times of delivery of the mails at the London post office, but if there is any advantage it would appear to be slightly in favor of the Cunard Line, whose steamers on the average are the fastest. But this policy of change from one company to another, or at all events dividing the mails is viewed with some misgiving by commercial men in the north of England and Ireland, who fear that the United States postmaster-general is departing from the long-established custom of giving the mails to the fastest steam- ers, irrespective of nationality, which may, under certain cir- cumstances, render their chances of sending replies by the out- ward steamer sailing the same day, impossible. If the Southamp- ton route will, as a general rule, expedite the delivery of mails due here on Saturday, business men generally will welcome the departure, but this is felt to be impossible of realization, and therefore the expectations which induced the American postal authorities to make the changes indicated have not beén fulfilled. For Ireland and the whole of the north of England the Cunard liners have a very great advantage over their American Line competitors, while for the return or westward-bound mails, the Queenstown route is vastly superior to the Southampton one, as mail matter can be posted up to a late hour on Saturday for the outgoing Cunarder. The experiments are, however, interesting and will prove to have served some purpose if only the delivery of mails is facilitated whether by the Liverpool, Southampton or Plymouth routes. The founder of the transatlantic cattle trade, Mr. George Roddick, president of the Liverpool Foreign Cattle Traders as- ° sociation, was recently entertained to a complimentary luncheon' and presented with his portrait in oils, an illuminated address and a service of silver by his numerous colleagues in the cattle shipping trade. It was in 1874, when the herds in the United Kingdom began to be greatly reduced in numbers, that Mr. Rod- dick went to Canada and the United States for supplies. In fos- tering the cattle trade he was the means of starting the building of those large steamers which were built especially for the trade, and which have done so much for the general trade of this port {Dec. 10, and the country. In this connection it is worthy of note that a cattle trade section has just been formed and associated with the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. STORY OF THE AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE. Mr. Winthrop L. Marvin, formerly of the Boston Journal and the author of the work entitled "The Merchant Marine of the United States," has prepared a very plain story of the weakness "and strength of the American merchant marine as summarized from the official figures of the government for 1903. Mr. Marvin latterly made a tour of the western states in an endeavor to stimulate interest in the subject of American shipping. His in- terest in the subject is deep. He writes as follows: There are, all told, 24,425 vessels of an aggregate tonnage of 6,087,000 in the merchant marine of the United States. This looks like an impressive total--and so it is, until it is analyzed. Then the American citizen is astonished and chagrined to find how weak his great country actually is upon the ocean. The Ameri- can fleet, excluding the whale and fishery tonnage, consists ot two chief divisions: Tonnage registered for foreign trade .. Tonnage enrolled or licensed for domes- tie -tfade. - i i ey Boe That is, more than five-sixths of the merchant shipping of the United States is now engaged in lake or river or coastwise ser- vice. It was not 'always thus. Forty years and more ago, our American merchant fleet, in 1861, was almost equally divided, as follows: Tonnage registered for foreign trade. .2,496,000 Tonnage enrolled or licensed for domes- te TIME a Ne ee es 2,704,000 This domestic tonnage has almost doubled since 1861, in spite of the immense growth of American railroads, while the deep-sea tonnage, owing in part but not wholly to the civil war, has, two- thirds of it, vanished from the ocean. Under normal conditions, the deep-sea tonnage of the United States ought to have expanded since the civil war, in harmony with the increase of our for- eign commerce. If it had continued to grow, as it was grow- ing, and as our domestic tonnage has grown, instead of a mer- chant marine of 6,087,000 tons we should now have a merchant. aie of 10,000,000 tons, about equal to that of the United King- om. It is significant that the decline of our merchant shipping has been.entirely in that part of it which is exposed to cheap-wage, often subsidized foreign competition, and is unprotected by the government. Laws as old as the nation, framed by Washing- ton, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and their successors, exclude foreign vessels from the coast trade, the lake trade and the river trade of the United States, and reserve absolutely to American vessels the carrying of freight and passengers from one Ameri- can port to another. This is the rigidly protective policy under which our coastwise tonnage has grown to five times the do- mestic tonnage of Great Britain. This is the policy under which the American tonnage on our northern lakes has increased from 613,000 in 1876 to 1,902,000 in 1903. But while the coast, lake and river shipping has been thus protected, and has prospered as has no like tonnage in the world, the American fleet registered for ocean carrying, from an Ameri- can to a foreign port, has had none of the consistent protection which has been bestowed upon other industries. Instead of doub- ling, as the protected coastwise tonnage has doubled, this ocean fleet has actually fallen off to about one-third of the total of 186r. This has not been from any lack of trade to carry, for since 1861 our exports and imports have increased fourfold in volume. In 1861, American ships conveyed 65 per cent. of our overseas com- merce; 1n 1903, only 9.1 per cent. This decrease of our ocean ton- nage has gone on steadily with no apparent reference to tariff policies or changing administrations. In 1865, when the civil war ended, we had 1,518,000 tons of shipping registered for foreign trade. In 1873, we had 1,378,000 tons; in 1883, 1,269,000 tons; in 1893, 883,000 tons; in 1903, 879,000 tons. It has been said that American shipping registered for ocean trade has not for many years been protected by the government. l'his is true of the industry as a whole, but there is need-of some qualification as to a part of it. In March, 1891, congress enacted a postal aid law offering moderate subsidies on rather severe terms to American steamships carrying United States mails to foreign countries. This protection, of course, was limited in its appli- cation. It could not be applied to sail vessels or to ordinary cargo steamships. Moreover, the law as the senate passed it was cut down one-third in the rate of the subsidies by the action of the house. But this measure has been availed of by half a dozen excellent lines of American steamers--one to Great Britain, one to Cuba and Mexico, one to Jamaica, one to Venezuela, and one to Australia, while under other laws mail compensation is paid to an American line to the Isthmus of Panama and across the Pacific to Japan and China. These mail payments, amounting to $1,400,000 a year, or less than the British government gives to one British line, the Peninsular & Oriental, have enabled the American steamship companies to renew their fleets and improve their service, and have saved to the United States a small but fine, stanch and efficient nucleus of a modern naval reserve. Besides these mail steamshi American cargo steamships in t 879,000 ps, there are a few, a very few, he ocean trade, several scores of