The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

eT tttUGHiiii i= iinnnlr ttt ttt itttntttintiinLE a Lc : Ao 7 : = A Snappy Summary of the Leading Events of the Month in the g = Vessel. Construction Field = = : 2 OO OtNtttHVVHtiI«GZ«= tt ~=ZI=I iT TTT TTT TTT TTTTTTEt: British Firms Pl N THE weeks immediately preced- the British government, since the American construction came in the ing this country’s declaration of war, has been heavily interested in middle of February, when contracts war against Germany, the ambi- tious plans of the leading British ship- ping companies and of the British government itself to build a large number of ships in this country, were gradually being disclosed. With the backing of the British government, the Cunard Steamship Co. was under- . stood to have decided to order 114 large passenger steamers from ship yards in the United States, at a cost of $120,000,000. This fact was re- vealed by agents of the line at a meeting of representatives of the larg- est ship building plants in America, held in Philadelphia late in March. At about the same time attention was drawn to the entrance into the mar- ket of another large British shipping company of equal importance as the Cunard line and closely related to the government. The name of this com- pany was not made public, but it was reported on good authorvity that if ‘satisfactory arrangements could be made with the builders, contracts for upward of a dozen large vessels would be placed in this country. Shipping men believed that the sudden develop- ment of the demand from British owners resulted from the sanction and approval of the government, and saw in this possible evidence that the gov- ernment is lending its support to the movement, toward consolidation of shipping ownership in Great Britain. The placing of contracts was carried on with as great secrecy as possible and was handled directly from the home offices, rather than oo agents, it is said. The new Cunard vessels will range in size from 8,000 to 17,000 tons. A large number of them will be built in Delaware river yards, such as the New York Ship Building Co.’s plant at Camden, the Cramp ship yard and the Harlan & Hollingsworth - yards in Wilmington. The plant of the Bethlehem Stéel Co. at Sparrows Point, Md., of the order. Shipping men regard the contracts as being practically governmental, as also will receive some the Cunard line. The determination to construct such an immense fleet of steamers is looked upon as evidence German Tonnage in Neutral Ports At this time, when Germany ts - destroying shipping without regard to flag or condttion, and the seizure of German ships in American ports has been effected, it is interesting to note again the amount of German tonnage still tied up in neutral ports, particularly as there has been some talk, most recently in Holland of taking over German vessels to re- place those sunk. In many instances the tonnage in neutral ports is not nearly as large as the amount that | the. neutrals have lost. Following is a summary showing the number and tonnage of German ships m neutral ports. No. of Tons steamers. gross. Argentina (ii oreutaccn utes 38 195,483 Brazilicvs cc cccemuasree sui 27 142,511 Canary <islands ies. 21 84,296 Cn Ge ax i aaa acai et enaecane © 31 175,265 Colombia soe h 2 os oes 4 14,575 Colonie ok Kearse acraeiane 4 15,569 Denwiark: $e bead oe aes 2 3,516 Dutch East Indies...... 40 ° 191,237 GECOCE i ccsas oe cca eas 9 19,567 Plotland sarc are ice asa tie esis 57 142,376 MEXICO! ik ik ottiahere cists onte 8 14,067 INWOBWay cic vs ce nates ste 55 80,148 U8 Je Kalo Pe Seis eres NER MIC 1 17,082 Pet Os Sens ae oe tee a 4 18,133 St. “Michael (Azores).. 2 7,091 Stare 2 iisatos iaioisis Sore celeale 9 19,252 SAMI Tisrce wie Seale ion alot ace 42 118,962 Sweden conn Goes cscs 7 12,404 Palanan catcnG pol aiarwcaioece i 6,330 Dba c oe tices eieceee he 357 1,277,864 SEIZED IN RECENT WEEKS | Bi abe sks meme ashen trrr pm eye caer Tne 9 19,808 Cuba ok ike sev atelacate 6 17,750 aw adits vctan a re esace wen praecs 9 35,023 Philippine Islands....... 24 87,896 POTtO: o RICO Ws oe sstess aes 1 3,537 Virgin islands. s4 ae 2 7,712 United: States. .4a- se 72 553, 689 Total Sac aaeetaute wees as 123 725,415 Grand 2 total 2c sieves sce 480 2,003,279 that the British government is deter- mined to hold its standing as mistress of the seas, despite the ravages of the . German submarines. The first intimation that the Cunard company was seeking steamers of 181 were closed for 12 steamships, at a cost of $30,000,000, for the Royal Mail line, a Cunard subsidiary. The full extent .of the Cunard line’s building program was not revealed, however, until the Philadelphia meeting. Two weeks earlier, every ship yard of any size along the Atlantic coast received specifications from the Cunard com- pany and was asked to send a repre- sentative to Philadelphia. At the meeting, the Cunard agents showed how gigantic were their plants. Each ship building company was asked how much work it could under- take and what prices it would charge. The replies of the various companies were not made public, but it is un- derstood that the combined American yards were found to be able to han- dle the entire contract. Some Under American Flag It is understood that the Cunard line is planning to place some of the new vessels under the American flag, | thereby abandoning its custom of many years of being a purely British concern. This will be done for the purpose of entering the coastwise trade of the United States. The placing of at least four more Cunard contracts was reported later. Two ships are to be built at the yards of J. N. Duthie in Seattle and another Seattle plant, the Ames Ship Building & Dry Dock Co., has re- ceived contracts for “more than one vessel,” according to a man closely in touch with the industry. These four contracts brought the number of ships so far ordered by the Cunard line from American builders and of which announcement has been made, to 18. The 14 already announced are distributed as follows: Todd Ship- yards Corporation, 6; subsidiaries of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, 6; Sun Ship Building Co., 2. Great Lakes yards are known to have received large orders from the Cunard com- pany. One such order is _ said to call for 33 boats of the same type; another for 17 sister ships.