The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1884-03-28
TRAMPs OF THE OCEAN.
Cheap Vessels Which Sailors Call
Dangerous and Which Merchants

Cheap Vessels Which Sailors Call
Dangerous and Which Merchants
New York SUM-
"Why do so many sailor men speak
of the independent steamers with con-
tempt and apparently as if they hated
the sight of what is called tramp?"
was asked of an old ship captain who
was visiting the school ship ST. Mary's.
He said:
"They are built in the British yards
by contract of poor materials in the
greatest haste. They are built in the
cheapest way possible. They have low
power engines put in them. They are
manned with as few men as possible.
They pay the lowest wages. They are
sent to any port where cargo can be
had at any freight rates. Then another
carry is taken. and so they run hither
and yonder, always shorthanded, al
ways overloaded, and always with just
enough provisions on board to last
them through, and no more, so that if
they are delayed by broken machinery
they must either starve their men or
beg from passing ship. They cut
under rates to get cargoes, and then
skimp in every quarter to get divi-
dends."
"They are not very pretty to 1ooh
at?"
"No. Paint costs something; so does
oil and emery to clean bright work. A
holvstone for the decks is expensive.
But the worst thing to be said about
Ethem is that they are not ito go to
sea in foul weather. if you look at
them you will find that the forward half
is just like pit. They can take ON a
deck load OF 500 tons of water at one
plunge. Sometimes that load comes on
with such force that, striking the house
amidships, the momentum of the ship is
wholly overcome, and she lays on the
water trembling from stem to stern.
Sometimes the bulkhead gives way, and
then the stokehole fills, the fire is put
out, aud the boat rolls in the trough of
of the sea until she goes to pieces. Over
the after part of many of them is a poop
deck When the wave comes on for
ward it fills in the gangways under the
poop, and the ship rolls on her beam
ends, because she cannot get rid of that
deck load Those that are built flush
"Tramps," said an employe of Funch,
Edge & Co., vessel agents, ''are freight
steamers that do not run in any line.
Since 1877 an enormous number have
been launched at the Glasgow yards.
Money brings very low interest over
there, and capital found a better return
in certain class of freight steamers.
These steamers are built plain, but
strong. The model is for a large car
rier, instead of for a quick passage
They ordinarily vary in size from 900
to 1,SO0 tons net register. They will
carry nearly so per cent. more tons of
dead weight than they register. The
engines for steamer of 1000 tons
would probably be of 300 nominal
horse power. The power is great
enough to give the vessel d speed of
nine knots. They spread only enough
canvas to keep them steady when in
gale. They consume twenty tons of
coal a day, where an ocean greyhound
will burn 260. They bear about the
relation to the swift passenger
boats that freight train bears to the
express"
There seems to be a prejudice
sailors" was suggested.
Eyes. 1t is unwarranted. The same
are employed to oversee the
building of the tramps that inspect the
line steamers. They are built of the
same materials, by the same men, in the
same yards. Some men hold stock in
both kinds of steamers. Did you never
hear of a line company leasing an out
side steamer? It's done often to get an
competitor out of the way, or
because business is good and more
capacity is wanted. Would
they lease rotten tub? Look in Lloyd's
register and see how the tramps are
rated. The talk that ships are insured
heavily and sent to sea to sink presup-
poses that insurance agents are fools.
''It is said that the cargoes carried
are so large that the vessel is jeopar-
died"
That is sometimes true in all vessels
except those devoted to passengers.
The tramp owners are no worse than
others. The insurance people look
after that so closely that it does not
often occur. AS to the model of the
tramp steamer, it must be said that
great and honest difference of opinion
prevails among ship-builders as to which
is the safest. Men who put hundreds
Of thousands of dollars into steamers
may be supposed to take as great an
interest in the way those vessels stand
the wear Of sea voyages as disinterested
people could"
A Divers Experience.
Inter Ocean.