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176 The exports of coal on which such a large share of British shipping de- pends for its livelihood, were 5,440,- 637 gross tons in January and 5,- 075,048 tons in February, making a total for the two months of 10,515,- 685 tons compared with 11,514,300 tons in the first two months of last year. The decrease’ is 9 per cent. The effect of all this has been to depress certain freight rates but the average figure has been well main- tained because of good business with the north Pacific and certain parts of the Far East. The index number of shipping freights for January was 30.8 compared with an average of 28.4 for 1923, the index for time charter rates being 21.6 in January compared with the same average in 1923. In ‘compiling this index, the geometrical average of rates for 1920 is taken as 100. Oil Rates Rise The north Pacific lumber trade is less active. The most lucrative char- ters obtained by British shippers re- cently have been for carrying oil. Naturally this trade is confined large- ly to tankers. Transatlantic oil rates have advanced about 60 per cent since the first of the year and although there are some 300 ordinary cargo steamers idle in the United Kingdom, there are no idle tank steamers. The demand for tanker tonnage has re-+ sulted from the advance in oil prices in the United States. Consumers in Europe, fearing further increases, hastened to buy supplies and then to secure the necessary ships to trans- port their oil. Oil buying has been heavy in most European countries in- cluding Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany and France.. Most of this oil is coming from California ports, the voyage consuming 35 to 40 days compared with about 22 days from the Gulf of Mexico and 15 days from American north Atlantic ports. The long .voyage has had an effect on the rates because 30,000 tons of oil can be brought from Baltimore in nearly the same time as 10,000 tons can be shipped to Europe from San Pedro or Los Angeles, with the same number of ships. Oil charters have recently been fixed at 40s ($8.60) per ton from American north Atlantic ports to Eu- rope compared with 21s ($4.50) a year ago. Current rates from _ the Gulf to Europe are about 45s ($9.70) a ton compared with 25s ($5.35) a year ago. The time charter rate for dirty steam tonnage is now 7s 6d ($1.60) per. deadweight ton per month; the rate for clean tonnage, that is, for the carriage of gasoline cA -else. east: of : Port: Sail* coal ‘is MARINE REVIEW or kerosene, is from 9s to 9s 6d ($1.93 to $2.04) a ton. Owners are finding no difficulty in chartering for a year at these rates. The advance in the price of oil, although it has been profitable to tanker companies, has had the op- posite effect on the cost of oper- ating oil burning steamships. Con- sequently the question of the cost of oil versus coal for cargo ships is again being discussed in Great Brit- ain. It is pointed out that at Port Said fuel oil is now £4 5s ($18.30) a ton compared with £2 2s 6d ($9.15) a ton for coal. Since three tons of oil may be treated as the equivalent of four tons of coal, $9.15 worth of the iatter at Port Said will raise as much steam as $13.75 worth of oil at present. Almost everywhere now much the cheaper fuel. In the past, prices of oil and coal have kept step with fair regularity, but recently the pace has been set by oil and coal prices have remained more or less stationary. How to Buy Ships Two other questions are now in the foreground of British shipping problems namely, the future of the tramp ship and the desirability of building diesel engine cargo carriers. Views representing the consensus of ' British opinion on these subjects were recently voiced by Lord °Kylsant, chairman of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. at the recent annual meet- ing of the King line of which he is also the head. Lord Kylsant pointed out that the King line had _ pur- chased five 3-year-old vessels recent- ly at a figure which was less than that paid by the original owner for one of them. Based on these fa- vorable values Lord Kylsant said: “I am sometimes asked about the future of British tramp shipping. Some people appear to be under the im- ression that because the regular liner companies have, during the past quarter of a century, considerably in- creased the number of what are known as cargo liners, the field of employ- ment for ordinary tramp ships must necessarily be greatly curtailed. In my view there is no ground for this apprehension, as tramp ships have an advantage over liners in that they are cheaper to build, cheaper to main- tain, and cheaper to run. “Therefore, wherever and whenever full homogenous cargoes are obtain- able, a well managed tramp _— ship should be able to pay its expenses at a lower rate of freight than would be profitable to a cargo liner. In thus summarizing the position of the tramp May, 1924 boat as compared with the cargo liner, we must also remember that tramp ships can be rapidly moved in large numbers to any part of the world where there is a big crop to be shipped or some other exceptional demand for tonnage. In my belief, tramps will always continue to per- form an important function in world commerce which can never be ade- quately fulfilled by any other form of ocean transport. Cheap Continental Ports “Whether tramp ships in the future will be driven, as at present, by steam engines, or by internal combustion engines (commonly called motor en- gines), is one of the interesting prob- “lems that will have to be settled by shipowners in the course of the next few years. In considering this matter there are, apart from the _ intrinsic engineering merits of the respective systems, other important factors to be borne in mind, such as the present high first-cost of motor engines, as compared with steam engines, although this great difference in initial cost will, no doubt, gradually be reduced as the makers get down their costs of production by increased manufacture. “In prewar years, British tramp owners, when chartering their steamers homeward for economic reasons gen- erally preferred British rather than continental ports of discharge, and with one or two well known excep- tions, such as Rotterdam and Ant- werp, continental ports of discharge had to pay extra freight over Brit- ish ports, with consequent advantage to the British merchant and ° Brit- ish consumer. But now, owing to the great increase in recent years in all labor costs at British ports, and the adherence to what must now be regarded as antiquated methods of discharging at some British ports, the position is virtually reversed. British owners nowadays ffind it cheaper to have their tramp steam- ers ordered to continental ports of discharge, and if consigned to a United Kingdom port a higher rate of freight is often demanded. To me this is a disquieting and regret- table state of affairs. There is the additional consideration in this con- nection that owners find that re- pairs and overhauls at continental ports are now usually considerably cheaper than at British ports, “In all efforts to reduce unemploy- ment in our midst these hard facts should be borne in mind. These ‘drawbacks of British ports will be still further emphasized by the re- cent increase granted by the dock labor employers in British ports.” * 2 i :