Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1855-06-28
Decline of Commerce and Navigation In
the United States.

The Boston Courier, in an article relative
to commerce and navigation has the following
paragraphs. We copy them because they ara
of importance and, inasmuch as they do not
account for the depression of the carrying
trade, we think they ought to be answered.
The SHIPPING INTEREST. The New York
Shipping List copies from a New Orleans pa
per the report that two large and costly cotton
ships had been taken up to proceed from that
port to Calcutta in ballast, as an additional
evidence of the depreciation of the shipping
interest, and appends thereto the following:
The present unfortunate condition of our
mercantile marine may be ascribed to de-
creased exports to Europe, material falling
of IN California and Australia shipments to
gether with the revulsion Of trade during the
past year and a half. For many months past
our first class ships have been earning barely
enough for sailing and other incidental ex-
penses. There are, Of course, few excep-
tons to the general rule, as those which have
been chartered by the English and French
government for the Crimean service, and many
of those engaged in the trade between the East
Indies and Great Britain, will satisfactorily
demonstrate. The Guano traffic has also fur
nished remunerative employment for quite a
fleet OF yessels-but this opportunity is no
longer afforded. The number Of Deal Char
tiers this season has been comparatively small.
and rates have declined since the opening Of
the season. Yet, low and unremunerative as
these rates are, ships lying for months idle at
Southern ports waiting cargoes, have been in
duced to accept them, acting upon the princi-
| pie that half loaf is better than no bread
From this port there is but little freight offer
ing in any direction. With the exception of
limited corn shipments, there is scarcely any
heavy freight going forward 20 Great Britain,
and for what little there is, not much better
than ballast rates are obtained After next
harvest, there will most probably be revival
In the carrying trade, particularly if there
should be an abundant yield Of cereals and
foreign demand for them, of which the pros
poets at present are encouraging. But we are
DEPRESSING we set out simply to copy the an
nexed paragraph from New Orleans paper
&c The ship National Eagle was cleared
from this port, in ballast, on Saturday, for
Calcutta and yesterday the ship Stephen
Glover was also cleared in ballast for the same
port. 1t must be hard time for the shipping
interest when ships, that cost in themselves
alone handsome fortune to build, have to
leave our port and traverse twelve thousand
miles of ocean to seek empl These
are the first ships that have ever cleared from
this place to Calcutta, and we hope they may
be the last that will depart from here without
carrying more valuable cargoes than stone
ballast."'
There is no actual diminution in the carry
ing trade or freighting business Of the world
and, we are surprised that gentlemen who
ought to be well advised in relation to the sub
ject display most extraordinary Ignorance
touching it. There is an actual demand for
the same amount of tonnage now, that there
was fifteen years ago-for the same number Of
ships that there were then employed; but, noA
for the class of ships now in existence. For
instance, at rough guess, New York had,
in 1910, four hundred ships a few Of which
exceeded five hundred tons, government adj
measurement. There were few Of nine hun
dred and thousand tons-such, for instance.
as the Dramatic Line Of European Packets,
owned by Edward X. Collins, and the late
James Foster. Between I849and 1913, there
commenced kind of mania for the building
of larger class of vessels and between that
time and this, hundreds have been constructed
Of fifteen hundred, and two thousand tons
In the year 1916, when the panic was got
up through the agency OF. spectators, in the
alleged famine that was not only to desolate
Ireland, but all Europe, the whole western
continent ran mad with the contemplation of
immense profits they fancied were to be made,
by specializing on the bowels of furnishing Eu-
rope.
In the month of January or February, 1915,
we think it was, -four paid freight of nine
shillings sterling to Liverpool; Indian corn
about fifty cents the bushel, and every other
species of breadstuff, in the same proportion.
The consequence of these immense rates, was
the construction of ships of enormous size. TO
take place of the smaller ones. The building
of this class of vessels has been steadily pro-
crossed in. till ship of thousand tons is
now considered but little better than cock
boat.
The high freights of the year 1916, had an
other extraordinary effect on commerce and
navigation. 1t called into the carrying ser
vice half Of the mercantile ships Of the Brit
ish East India Company, the charter Of which
had just then expired; and, many of them ar-
irving in this country in ballast, after the pan
ic was eliminating, came near rotting at our