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Houston an Ocean Port (Continued from Page 53) zles. The fire boat was built by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. from de- signs furnished by Cox & Stevens, New York naval architects, at a cost, fully equipped, of $314,000. Private enterprise has been quick to see the advantages of this new port and many industrial plants and wharves have been established along the channel, until there are now 50 or more located on its banks with an estimated capital investment of over $150 000.000 and with a daily payroll of about $90,000. In addition to the above there are 32 industries located on the light draft channel above the turning basin which have an estimated capital investment of over $20,000,000 and a daily payroll of approximately $8000. Electric Power is Provided Adequate electric power for the op- eration of the many industries located along the waterway and _ adjacent thereto is provided by the Houston Lighting & Power Co., on the ship channel, which now has a capacity of approximately 128,000 kilowatts with transmission lines in all directions from the port, serving many of the surrounding towns and cities within a radius of 100 miles. Houston is essentially an oil port, located as it is in the midst of all the coastal oil fields, with pipe lines radiating in all directions to the great producing fields of Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, with one pipe line extending to Wyoming, and there is a storage capacity of some- thing like 35,000,000 barrels located adjacent to the ship channel. Ex- ceptionally convenient bunker facili- ties have been provided by _ the Houston Oil Terminal Co., at the turning basin with approximately 128,000 barrels of fuel oil storage and pipe lines extending to all the public wharves on the south side and to the Houston Compress Co. wharves, through which vessels can be furnished bunkers at the rate of 2000 barrels per hour, while taking on or dis- charging cargo. These lines have been extended to serve the new wharves on the north side of the channel. Bunker oil can also be obtained by private arrangements with some of the oil refineries located farther down the channel. United States shipping board vessels are bunkered under con- tract at Houston. The Channel Fuel Co. carries a con- siderable stock of bunker coal on hand and is equipped to bunker ships 64 at their wharves on the channel. Passenger traffic through the port of Houston has been steadily in- creasing. The French line, Ozean line, North German Lloyd line and the Navigation-Libera-Triestna, now maintain regular schedules to Houston and these schedules are supplemented by combination passenger and freight carriers which call at this port fre- quently. The first passenger motor ship to enter the Gulf of Mexico on regular passenger run, the R10 BRAVO of the Ozean line, for which Wilkens and Biehl are agents, arrived at this port on Oct. 28 and sailed on Oct. 29, 1924. The Ozean line operates from Houston to Hamburg and Bre- men via Mexican ports and South- ampton, England. The French line op- erates from Houston to Havre, return- ing via Spain and the Canary Islands; the North German Lloyd line from Houston to Bremen and Hamburg and the Navigation-Libera-Triestna to Ha- vana, Canary Islands, Barcelona and Mediterranean ports. The port of Houston is operated by the navigation and canal commission of five members, serving without pay, who are appointed two by the city and two by the county commissioners and the chairman by the city and county commissioners in joint session. These port commissioners serve for a period of two years, the term ex- piring alternate years. Under this board the affairs are handled by the director of the port. The board controls the commercial activities of the port and the con- struction and maintenance of the ter- minal facilities, and through co-oper- ation with the Federal government the construction and improvement of the waterway. What Shipping Board Says Among many of the constructive activities of the United States ship- ping board is the preparation, in collaboration with the corps of engi- neers of the army, of complete re- ports on the various ports of the country. In a review of such a re- port, recently completed, of the port of Houston, the board said: “Petroleum products exceeded in tonnage all other commodities im- ported at Houston during the period covered by the report and in point of export tonnage the same commo- dity exceeded all other exports. Cotton took second place among the exports with an annual average movement of almost 205,000 tons for the period from 1917 to 1926, in- clusive. “With the construction of modern terminal facilities both at the turn- MARINE , REVIEW—-July, 1929. ing basin and at Manchester, two miles below the turning basin, Houston is well equipped to handle in an effi- cient and expeditious manner the commerce which may flow through her port. With her large cotton com- presses, warehouses, wharves, piers, grain elevators, belt line railroad, classification yard, bunkering facili- ties, and with favorable railway rates the port is in a fair way of making a still larger contribution to world trade. “A great deal of credit is due to the Houston port commission and to the local commercial interests for their progressive attitude toward the port.” From the Engineers Report And this is what the army engi- neers say in connection with the same report: “Houston furnishes a noteworthy ex- ample of a successful port at an in- land point originally inaccessible to ocean vessels. Situated on Buffalo bayou, approximately 50 miles from the sea, its present position as an important gateway for import and export trade is due in some measure to its location as a railroad center, but principally to the enterprise of the city in carrying out a comprehen- sive plan and policy for the develop- ment and utilization of the port. “The commerce of the port of Houston has grown from 1,161,424 tons in 1917 to 12,981,113 tons in 1928. Of the total waterborne commerce at the port during the calendar year 1928, 366,825 tons were’ imports, 4,500,000 tons exports, 919,382 tons coastwise receipts, and 5,270,848 tons coastwise shipments. Petroleum products and iron and steel manu- factures were the principal commo- dities imported; petroleum products, cotton and cotton seed products the principal exports; petroleum products, iron and steel manufacturers, canned goods and sugar the principal com- modities received coastwise; while the coastwise shipments were petro- leum products, copper, cotton and rice. “The modern terminal facilities both at the turning basis and at Manches- ter, two miles below the turning basin, are served by a belt line railway con- necting with all the railroads at the port. There were 48 piers and wharves at the port in 1926 used for transportation purposes, including two grain loading berths serving a new 1,000,000 bushel capacity grain elevator. These facilities were served by 54 steamship lines plying in the foreign service and 9 lines operating coastwise.”’