The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-01-03
The ship-buildinr business in Baltimore has

tons.
Letters to be addressed "To THE DAILY ExcHANsI
Baltimore, Maryland !"
The shipbuding business in Baltimore has al
ways been regarded by our citizens with peculiar
interest The skill of our mechanics in this i'm
portant industrial department contributed largely
to the early prosperity of our city, and has been
in great measure instrumental in promoting its
subsequent development The fame of our clip
pers attracted the attention of capitalists to the
port from which they sailed, and advertised
abroad the capabilities and advantages of our COM
mercial emporium. Though from various causes
our foreign commerce has fallen off, the prestige
we once enjoyed has not wholly departed and dis.
tant merchants not infrequently give to Baltimore
shipwrights the preference when IN want of fast
and substantial ships. 1t is still conceded, we be-
leve that the sort of vessels which are needed for
the coasting trade can be procured here on better
terms than elsewhere, the character of
the work and the cost being considered. But even
this branch of the business seems to be declining.
While the demand for vessels of this class increases
in proportion as the material resources of the
country are augmented year by year, the follow
ing statistics will show that we have not kept pace
with it. In 1859 the whole number of vessels
built here was 40, with an aggregate tonnage of
S433 SO. During 1853, there were SO vessels
built registered and enrolled in the Baltimore dis
trict, with an aggregate of 6,263 tons; in 1857,
fifty-one vessels with an aggregate of u 059 tons;
in 1856, sixty-fve vessels of l6, s94.G7 tons; in
1855, eighty vessels, of 1G, 1880 tons; in 1854,
sixty-two vessels of %, 1864 tons; in 1853 six
ty-nine vessels of 1877 tons; in 1852, fifty
eight vessels, of 1881 tons; in 1851 eightythree
vessels of 10, 469.46 tons; and in 1850, sixty
vessels, with an aggregate Of l6, 1867 tons.
1t will be seen that during the last two years
there has been n very serious diminution of bust
ness in the ship yards. Several causes may have
contributed TO this result, and some of them may
be such as we cannot CONTROL but there is one which
we believe has more than all others, damaged the
present and future prospects of ship-builders and
which could and should have been summarily re-
moved long ago. We speak of the rowdyism which
has been licensed here for some time, and which
has nowhere displayed itself more conspicuously
than in the ship-yards Situated, as these are, in
the most exposed places, they have heen douby
subjected to those infamous visitations from which
many localities in the heart of the city have not
escaped Our readers will remember the repeated
instances of violent and lawless interference on the
part of notorious rufians with the business of the
ship-builders, on which we have from time to time
commented. The latter have been compelled to
submit to the most insolent dictation in regard to
the men whom they should employ, and the wages
they should pay, for resistance to these outrages
was sure TO provoke desperate and deadly assaults
upon those who strove to defend their rights.
He must be blind, indeed who cannot foresee
the inevitable effects that follow when such causes
are in operation. We should feel satisfied
that the decrease of business in our ship
yards was attributable, in great degree,
to the state of things we have alluded
to, even if we were unable to cite specific
cases to prove it. But these, unfortunately, are
not wanting, and we would refer again to one
which we published several months since, and the
details of which were within our own knowledge
at the time. A South American gentleman who
had purchased the bark Thistle, and who had
placed her at yard on this side of the basin to be
caulked, because he was dissatisfied with the way in
found that this measure only led to the beating and
manning of the unfortunate laborers employed by
him. He therefore sent the Thistle around to
New York, and transferred to that city an
order to build two vessels which he was making
arrangements to construct here. Nor have few
strangers only been driven from among us, for we
have incontestable information that some of the
people of our own State have been latterly sending
their soops and schooners through the canal to
Philadelphia in order to be repaired; and they do
so on the express ground that they masters of
their own business in the Southern and other
sections of this city. We submit these considera-
tons to rejecting men, confident that these are not
unfounded speculations, but are deserving of some
Investigations. We would also recommend the
few people among us, who still cling to the delu-
sion that it is almost as injurious to the CITY to
report lawleSs deeds as to commit them to push
their inquiries on that point little farther before
they settle down upon their hasy conclusions
The newspapers certainly do expose to the world
many facts which are damaging TO our reputation,
but do the interested parties who raised the hue
and cry about the defamers of Baltimore or the
mercenary souls who would conceal the existence
of plague until they sold the house it tainted,
imagine their miserable secrets would never be d.
vulged if the press was muzzled ? Can they think
the owner of the Thistle went to New York and
held his peace about the proceedings he had wit
messed here? Did Captain WHITE, of the schooner
Enterprise, return to his friends, across the bay,
and decline to tell them how fearfully he was
wounded with a bowie-knife in the hands of a well
known desperate? Has Captain LEE of the
schooner Frances Jane, returned to Philadelphia
and kept silence about The ball that was fred at
him by the same hand, and which entered "near
CHS temple" and 'lodged in the back part of his
Hhead 2" 1t is more reasonable TO suppose that
these persons, and other injured individuals have
told their several stories, and that these were be-
believed in spite of the protestations of a paper
which, at the very time was asserting that strang-
ers were never mOlested in this city. But if the
narratives of these men cassed by the incred-
ulous who did not see their wounds with mere
travellers tales, the people of Vienna could not
refuse to credit them when they witnessed the re-
turn home IF the schooner John Cooper, bringing
back one of her crew badly wounded and the
body of another, who had been shot in his berth
by gang of rufians. And three months have
not elapsed since the three last named out
RACES occurred. Perhaps if those who have
heretofore approved of reticence and deception will
find out what impressions have b en- produced
about Baltimore in the ports these vessels belong
to, they will be convinced that it is cheaper, as
well as better, to expose, denounce and repress
crime, rather than TO deny its existence until its
very rottenness precludes further concealment.
A RELIGIOUS PAPER CENsURING THE APosTLEs.-
The New York Churchman the organ of the High