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

a eeeeeeEeEeEeEeeooooreeeororeeee May, 1925 Launch Ore Carrier A Swedish shipbuilder has launched the new diesel-engined ore carrier SVEALAND which is being built for the Bethlehem Steel Corp. It is said the new vessel will be the world’s largest motor-driven cargo carrier. A_ sister ship, the AMERIKALAND, also is under construction in Sweden. These vessels will operate between Cruz Grande, Chile and Chesapeake bay carrying iron ore for Bethlehem’s blast furnaces. The SvEALAND and AMERIKALAND will measure 20,600 gross tons. They are 167.66 meters in length, 21.94 in width and will have a draft of 10.41 meters. Originally planned before the war, they are now being completed at the Tirfing Wharf in Hamburg, where diesel engines are being utilized. The SvEALAND was. completed in March and the AMERIKALAND was ready MAKINE REVIEW to be launched about the same _ time. Contracts for their utilization were signed with the American steelmakers some: time ago, involving a period of 20 years. Contracts for the construction in Swe- den of a new state owned icebreaker of the most modern type have also been signed this year. It is to be built by the Lindholmen company of Motala and Gothenburg, which won the award in competition with seven other Swedish shipbuilding concerns. It will have a length of 56.2 meters, a width of 17 meters and a draft of 6.3 meters and displacement of 2400 cubic meters. It will be constructed of almost exclusive- ly Swedish materials—will burn oil and can develop under forced draft not less than 6000 horsepower. It will be ready for use early next year. The same con- cern is now building a 7300-ton motor- driven cargo boat for the Swedish East India Co. 177 John Coleman Dies John Coleman, marine manager of the Great Lakes district, for the Babcock & Wilcox Co., manufacturers of water tube boilers, with offices in Cleveland, died April 18 at Lakewood hospital af- ter a short illness. Mr. Coleman, who was 58 years old, had been associated with the Babcock & Wilcox Co. for about 30 years and had many friends in lake maritime circles. He was for- merly an engineer on the lakes and his first command was the steamer F. E. SPINNER. Mr. Coleman was located in New York for a number of years, but for the last four years he made Cleveland his headquarters. His wife, two sons and two daughters survive. His loss will be greatly felt by his associates and by his many friends, who appreciated his ability and his lovable character. Pacific Mail Strongly Protests Sale In the controversy which is now rag- ing between the two bidders for the five government-owned ships operated in the transpacific trade the shipping board itself has been split into two opposing camps. A complete review of the arguments before the supreme court of the District of Columbia on vacating or making permanent the temporary injunction obtained by the Pacific Mail restraining the execution of the sale to the Dollar interests, — appears elsewhere in this issue. The general position of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. is presented by Gale H. Carter, its president, who said in part: “The Dollar bid is no more a cash or all cash bid than was its purchase from the board in 1923 of seven 502 foot ‘President’ vessels on which it has not yet paid a cent except the 2% per cent all bidders are obliged to de- posit with their offer. The Dollar interests at that time gave the gov- ernment a letter of credit for one- fourth of the purchase price payable in two, years after final delivery of the ships and not due until early next year with interest at 4% per cent. “The Dollar bid for the five 535’s in the transpacific trade also gives the bidders the option of making the first payment of one third of the price by means of a letter of credit payable May 1, 1927. After this first payment is made two years after delivery of the ships the Dollars will have 10 years more in which to pay the bal- ance, the government’s only security being notes covered by a mortgage on the ships. The government will have no claim on the earnings made by the Dollars on the ships. “The Pacific Mail will pay to the shipping board $1,250,000 cash on the nail the instant the ships are delivered to it and will pay the balance in bonds due in 15 years.. The bonds will -be secured by a mortgage on the ships and further by a lien on all the earn- ings in excess of interest on capital which will be limited to the value of the ships, and which earnings are to be paid into a building fund for con- struction of new naval auxiliary ships to replace the present ships as they inevitably wear out and become ob- solete. “The Pacific Mail bid is more of a cash bid than the Dollar offer and the bonds offered in payment by Pa- cific Mail are better secured than the deferred payment under the Dollar bid, to say nothing of the Pacific Mail guaranteeing a minimum of 10 years maintained service and as much longer as the shipping board deems neces- sary in America’s most strategic trade route as against a maximum of five years offered by the Dollar interests.” In specific reference to the answer filed by the shipping board in the su- preme court of the District of Colum- bia on April 17, Mr. Carter also said in part as follows: “The answer cannot truly be con- sidered the answer of the entire ship- ping board but only of the four mem- bers out of seven who voted for the sale. Practically every vital statement in the answer has already been con- tradicted’ in the public statements of the three members of the board who voted against and denounced the sale as violating every principle of the mer- chant marine act. “This is particularly true of the statement that the Pacific Mail’s opera- tion of the ships have shown a heavy loss to the government. The minority members of the board unitedly opposed the sale on the grounds that it was not necessary to sacrifice ships that were showing a substantial profit and they set forth what that profit was. The only way the accounts can be tortured into showing such a heavy loss is to adopt a basis of calculation never used by the board in its own operations. Even on this basis no other passenger line can make a showing anywhere near as profitable as the Pacific Mail since it began to operate these govern- ment ships. The Pacific Mail would not have bid $1,125,000 more than the Dollar bid if the service were not profitable. The Dollar interest would not be so eager to capture the Pacific Mail business were these ships showing a loss. “It is true the Pacific Mail in 1915, when controlled by the Southern Pa- cific railroad, sold certain transpacific ships to the Atlantic Transport Co., an American corporation. With the sub- sequent sale of two of these ships to the Japanese the Pacific Mail had noth- ing to do.” “The Pacific Mail is controlled by purely American interests. The Inter- national Mercantile Marine owns no stock and has no voice in its affairs.”