The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-08-19
FREE TRADE TALK.
An Old Shipmaster's Very Pc
culiar Ideas.
THE SHIPS FOR PUGET SOUND.
Captain John Goldman Says Composite
Vessels Could be Built Here-The
Behring Sea Matter.

Readers of the New York Ersni.q Post,
the New York Commercial Advertiser, and
of the Boston papers are accustomed to
look for the familiar initials -. c., n::for
anything over that signature is sure to be
written with vigor and with dashes of caus-
tic humor which make the contribution
interesting, no matter what the subject.
The writer. as is well known, is Captain
John Goldman, an old shipmaster who has
explored every corner of the world. He
handles without gloves almost any topic of
general interest, but his life on the sea
has made shipping and navigation laws his
hobby.
Captain Goldman has been stopping at
the Rainier for few days, comparing the
Seattle of to-day with the town as it was
two years ago when he made his first visit
here. Like everyone else who has not
been present to watch the growth of the
city, he is astonished at its pro-
gress and at the development of the Puget
sound country. To PosT-INTELLIGENcER
reporter to whom he talked in the incisive
style which appears in his articles, he said
he was greatly pleased with this country
and firm believer in its wonderful future
possibilities.
This white-haired ship-master is q DEM
ocrat, because. as he declares, he is free
trader, and the Democratic party is the
only one that will give free trade. OF
course, free ships are the main article of
his political creed, and he is always ready
to try to convince the listener that laws to
give us free ships would at once revive
our languishing merchant marine. In his
room yesterday afternoon he began the
topic dear to his heart: Eyes, l have
always taken q great interest in shipping,
having passed thirty-three years of my life
on the ocean. When we had only sailing
vessels costing US no more than English
men were obliged to pay for them, we
could not only compete with them, but
were fast gaining on them. We
built better vessels; we sailed
them more economically. 1t was on
that account that England repealed her
navigation laws in 1849, and allowed her
people to buy our ships. When England be-
gan to build the iron ships that superseded
our wooden ones, and all other nations
availed themselves of the opportunity
to purchase that class of YES
sells, the United States alone de-
MED its citizens the privilege. Con-
sequently while the carrying trade of every
European, and even Of the Japanese and
Chinese has enormously increased, ours
has diminished to nothing. This is what
has resulted from protecting American
ship-builders who built no ships. 1t be-
came the best protection to your rivals in
the ocean.
And now" continued Captain Goldman,
"it is proposed to reward those dogs in the
Manager, the American ship-builders, for
the influence they have exerted in destroy
ing the business of American sailors by
comforting on them bounty. Sailors do
not ask for it. We do net ask to be put on
level with Frenchman whom God never
intended for sailor. Engllshmen have no
bounties. AS to subsidies, England pays
them for the benefit of her peo-
pie who are scattered all over
the globe, as we paw railroads
and stage coaches for carving the mails
all over this continent, not for the purpose
of building railroads and stage coaches,
any more than England pays them for the
benefit of ship building. In fact, no Brit
ish sailing ships are subsidized, and only
per cent of her steam feet get any pay for
carrying the mails. No, sir, so long as we
keep up high tariff which prevents for
eign commerce, see no use for subsidies,
and as for bounties, l want no charity hos
pitfalls for the men of my profession. They
would be disgrace to the American flag,
and to every American sailing under it.
On the contrary, a policy of free ships
costing nothing to the nation would give
our seamen an honorable employment and
such ships introduced into the merchant
service would incite our ip-builders to an
emulation they would never attain if pro
tected' by the government; and they would
soon furnish ships as good and as cheap as
We could obtain from abroad"
When questioned about Puget sound
shipping, Captain Goldman said: II have
often wondered why the people of Puget
sound, with its unsurpassed harbors, do
not engage more extensively in ship
building. 1t is true the wooden ship is fast
becoming obsolete, but composite ships
could, it seems to me, easily be built here
English ships are constantly coming to
Seattle in ballast to get grain, and they
would bring very cheaply the iron frames
of ships which could be made at any of
the English ship-building centers. The
iron frame could be brought in duty free if
the ship is to engage in foreign trade, for
under our tariff laws material for ship
building is entere rec if the vessel is to 60
into foreign commerce, though there is
duty if the craft is to do any coasting
trade. But even if your shlp-builders paid
the duty here, / should imagine that it
would pay them to get iron frames
made in England and then plank
them with fir. covering the planking
with copper sheathing. Your fir here is
very cheap. and it is good material, for it is
strong and lighter than the teak which the
EnglishEput on these composite frames.
Of course. too, coppered ship has the ad-
vantage of not requiring frequent dockage.
Oak is now and then used, but it is not as
good as fir, for it contains pyroligneous
acid. The effect is that the action of that
acid and the iron makes the oak about the
iron become soft and crumbling. / once
mad vessel of that plan. and l got rid of
1t as soon as l could. The advantage of
an iron frame over wooden one is that it
taxes far less room, and really enables a
vessel to carry 20 per cent more freight.
vi course, I've not lived here and have
made no exhaustive study of your con-
ditlons, but l think, with your cheap fir,
me harbors and growing carrying trade,
there Is chance for you in building COM
posite ships as Ihave described"
Captain John Goldman gave some inter
esting views about Alaska, which he de-
scribed in brilliant series of letters to the
New York E'e-ahlg Posi- a year or two ago.
so far as the Behring sea trouble goes. he
thinks that rather than fight we should lei
the seals be exterminated What if they
are?" he asked. Whose loss is il? There
was time when buffalo robe cost S..