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LT ee THE MARINE REVIEW ~ VOL. 43 CLEVELAND JANUARY, 1913 NEW YORK No. J Ship Building on the Lakes While Bulk Freighters Are Conspicuously Absent There is Nevertheless a Good Program HE ship yards of the great lakes have 52 ves- sels under construction for ]913 delivery. The list includes seven bulk freighters, three passenger steamers, two package freighters, three oil steamers, three oil barges, one car ferry, fifteen barges, three lighters, nine dredges, one floating dry dock, one lighthouse tender, one tug, one tunnel launch, one machine boat and one scow. Of this program the American Ship Building Co. is building 16, the Great Lakes Engineering Works 21, 16 of them being intended for service on the Black Warrior River in Alabama, the Toledo Ship Building Co. one, the Mani- towoc Ship Building & Dry Dock Co. five, the Col- lingwood Ship Building Co. three, the Kingston Dry Dock Co. one, the Polson Iron Works two, and Johns- ton Bros. three. Again subdividing the program, the American Ship Building Co. is building six bulk freighters, two passenger steamers, one package freighter, three oil steamers, three oil barges and one lighter. Of this program two bulk freighters, the James A. Farrell and the Percival Roberts Jr., the passenger steamer See-and-Bee,' the package freighter Calgarian, and. Oi Barge (No. 83, have already been launched. The Great Lakes Engineering Works is building one package freighter, one passenger boat, two dredges, 15 coal barges and two lighters. Of this program the package freighter Boston has already been launched. The Toledo Ship Building Co. is building a car ferry. The Manitowoc Ship Building & Dry Dock Co. is building three dredges, one float- ing dry dock and one scow. The Collingwood Ship Building Co. is building one bulk freighter and two dredges. The Kingston Ship Building Co., Ltd., is building one lighthouse tender, the Polson Iron Works one tug and one tunnel launch, and Johnston Bros. one machine boat and two dredges. It will be observed that this program is one of great variety. Lake ship builders have developed the habit of going to the coast for contracts when lake ship building is slack. Six of the vessels which the American Ship Building Co. are building are for salt water service of the Standard Oil Co. Eighteen of the vessels under contract by the Great Lakes En- gineering Works are for coast service. It is probably true that from now on the leading lake ship yards will not be without orders from the coast, for it has been demonstrated that they can underbid coast yards. The seven bulk freighters included in the 1913 program have a carrying capacity of 62,000 gross tons of ore on a single trip, or 1,240,000 tons of ore ~ in an average season of 20 trips. During the past 11 years bulk freighters having a carrying capacity of 42,058,000 gross tons have been added to the lake fleet. The 1913 program will increase this to 43,- 298,000 tons, which is greater than the ore movement of any single year with the exception of 1912. Altogether 35 vessels were launched on the great lakes during 1912, exclusive of Canadian tonnage. Thé list includes 11 bulk freighters (six for the coast), six package freighters (three for the coast), three oil barges for coast service, three passenger boats, one conveyor boat, one sand steamer, one oil steamer, two scows, one car ferry, two tugs, one bridge pontoon, one floating dock, one barge and one stern wheel steamer for Kootenay Lake. Of this program the American Ship Building Co. built 16, the Great Lakes Engineering Works 10, the Toledo Ship Building Co. four, the Manitowoc Ship Building & Dry Dock Co. five, and Rieboldt, Wolter we -CO, one, Considerable remodeling of the older type of craft is now going on in order to make them more adapt- able to the unloading machines. The ship yards are therefore quite busy on this class of work, removing stanchions and 'tween deck beams, compensating for the loss of strength by girders running between the hatches directly under the spar deck. The older type can no longer be handled expeditiously under the unloading machine and'as dispatch is the prime asset of the business they have to be altered to meet the changed conditions. The ship building program is not rich in bulk freighters, and it is probably wise that this condition obtains. If no additions are made for say another , year, the trade will probably have well digested present capacity. The lake trade is one which increases by leaps and bounds and no one can accurately measure it. The best that anyone can do is to attempt to foresee its development for the year ahead. Fortunately a gage exists for 1913, as tonnage has already been covered for the movement of at least 45,000,000 tons of ore. The movement will in all probability reach 50,000,000 tons. This movement, long dreamed of, is now about to be realized. :