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

February, 1922 disposed of others to Dutch concerns at a much lower price. The material in these latter ships is entering Germany in large quantities, for not only is the initial cost much less, but the carriage of the steel straight up the Rhine is comparatively small. Recently the author- ities went one better and sold a number of ships to a British firm which is taking them over to be broken up in Germany by German labor under experienced British supervision. All charges, from the purchase price to the import duty, are greatly reduced, but there is the greatest indignation that British men-of-war should end their days in this fashion, particularly among the men who fought in them during the war and among the workmen who see themselves being cut out by the cheapness of German labor. Thus it will be seen that the poor out- look of the shipbreaking industry in England is due purely to local causes which should have no influence on the business in other countries. In its advertisement, the United States navy department describes two cruisers as being suitable for conversion into merchant ships, which draws attention MARINE REVIEW to the work which has been done in this direction during and after the war. Some of the interesting examples come from the western side of the Atlantic where the British light cruiser CHARYBDIS was converted during the war and earned for herself the reputation of being the most uncomfortable passenger carrier afloat. But as she practically saved the island of Bermuda from starvation during the acute period of the ship shortage she may be said to have much more than justified her existence. Another con- version was the United States cruiser Boston, which became a freighter quite early in the struggle. To show how she compares with a modern freighter the following table is interesting: Boston Cricket (1884) (1913) Gross tonnage ss: iiinlsi teers caters 2557 1136 Net tonnage, for dues, etc...... 1538 773 Deadweight tonnage, earning.... 2500 2500 ORV er Ae ie sare etc as Moc n iba ereual Sebmaaeee 44 27 Indicated horsepower, coal con- SSULETEPCLOM 25 ie Goruielaraee ele athe arene 500 950 MDGS CRMOLS s siac vacculsle welerners 1 93%4 This comparison shows clearly that the converted man-of-war has not the least chance of competing succesfully with an up-to-date cargo steamer unless the de- mand so far exceeds the supply that 63 anything which floats will be able to earn profits for her owners no matter how inefficient she may be. The old French cruiser Dupuy Dr Lome, which cost many thousands to convert into the cargo steamer PERUVIER, is another case in point, for she failed to complete her maiden voyage to Bahia. She was towed into Pernambuco after something like a dozen breakdowns on her way out, and was then towed all the way home to Antwerp, where she has been laid up many months. In her case, however, it is only fair to say that nearly all the trouble was caused by the machinery and especially by the type of ‘boilers which did not satisfy the merchant firemen. On the other hand the United States de- stroyer WorbEN and certain German war- ships have made a much better showing, but in their case increased capacity was ob- tained by replacing the old steam engines by diesel machinery. Also they are not engaged in what might be described as cut-throat competition. With as much surplus mercantile tonnage on the mar- ket as there is today the best disposi- tion of the obsolete man-of-war un- doubtedly is the scrap heap. Plan To Develop Shipbreaking in U.S. HERE do all the old ships go is not as facetious a question as it may appear upon its face. Obviously it is impossible for a_ ship to disappear through a mere sale. A steamship line may sell off its old steamers as they become antiquated and most of the premier steamship lines do this, but such ships are purchased by smaller concerns and they are con- tinued for a time in operation. The selling and reselling of a ship does not dispose of her; ultimately she must be destroyed and removed from the chan- nels of trade. Disposition of outworn ships is a problem in which the insurance companies are especially concerned, and their concern frequently amounts to as much as that of the owners of the ships. The manner of disposing of outworn ships has been a question to which Am- ericans have given singularly little thought during the years past but it is now becoming a question of real import- ance. Some method of disposing of out- worn tonnage is essential now that the United States navy will have about 800,000 tons of ships to scrap under the naval holiday agreement. Ship breaking as an industry has been distinctly developed in England. It is an industry which must be developed in the United States. Breaking up of out- worn ships is the best method of with- drawing tonrage from the steamship market. It is believed by the experts who have studied it that such a method would, in the end, represent dollars saved to the shipping industry and an insurance of normalcy to the shipbuild- ing industry. It would mean a saving to steamship owners as they will be able to measure with accuracy the depreciation upon a ship down to a point where it is reasonable to retire her and sell her to some ship breaker. And by having a ship-breaking industry in the country, the shipbuilders will have reason to expect that all outworn tonnage will be properly withdrawn from _ operation and_ thus make room for new construction. Ameri- cans so far have shown but little in- terest in the ship-breaking business, so when the navy department was presented with the problem of scrapping a large number of its capital ships under the naval limitations agreement entered into with the other naval powers of the world, the question was forcibly brought to the front. The suggestion came up in the councils of the navy in Washington about the first of December, and so quickly was progress made that a con- ference was called to meet at the navy yard in Philadelphia two weeks later. At that conference various representatives of the navy came up from Washington and some 150 representatives of various private businesses were called in. The representatives of private interests in- cluded financiers, shipbuilders, steel com- panies, technical publications, etc. The conference was addressed by Admiral Nulton, the commandant of the Phila- delphia yard, and by Captains Robert and Chetham. The navy has several hundred thousand tons of vessels to be scrapped in the near future although the offerings made at Philadelphia on bids which were opened Jan. 16, or one month after the conference in question, included only the battleships MAINE, Mussourr and WISCONSIN, the targets ex-monitor Purt- TAN and ex-monitor MIANTANOMOH, the cruiser MEMPHIS and the monitors Ozark and TonopaH. Only three of the battleships and the two monitors are at the Philadelphia navy yard. These ves- sels at present are practically nothing more than hulks, notwithstanding the fact that they were in active service a year ago. The thorough way in which the navy has stripped them of every moy- able thing of value was a_ practical demonstration of the efficiency which can be obtained through a ship-breaking in- dustry. The cruiser MEMPHIs is now a wreck at Santo Domingo, D. R. The cruiser BrooKLYN is at Mare Island, Cal., and