Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-12-01
OUR PROGRESS AT SEA.
We Can Make Good Ships and Know
How to Handle Them.

! There is Il serious side to our CON
tinued yachting triumphs, in Importance
! transcending far the sporting world
says the Boston Transcript. Some time
ago the Emperor William was quoted
as saying that in building up the Ger
! States hereafter. Whether the en-
peror ever said this or not, the fact
/ that it is attributed to him in Europe
demonstrates that the revival of Ameri-
can skill in shipbuilding is attracting
attention abroad We should not be
surprised at learning that it is attract
! ing more attention abroad than it is
! at home. American enterprise has
| looked inward from the seaboard so
long that it has but recently accustomed
itself to the idea of looking seward.
! That it is waking up to the possibility
Of reaping the harvest Of the deep seas
many signs betoken. Thoughtful Ameri-
cans have for years seen the folly of
abandoning the foreign deep sea carry
ing trade to foreign steamers. They
have grown weary of figuring up the
|
money Oh American goods But the
masses Of our people have been so busy,
have made money too easily on shore,
to think Of turning their thoughts sea-
! ward, to appreciate the extent of the
! demands Of freight money or even to
realize the progress Of the country in
! Shipbullding, much less the possibilities
of development of our money making
! power on the seas.
| How few are the people who realize
all that is meant by the statement that
Il neWly-launched cruiser has made
/ twenty knots on her trial trip! There
are not many who know that twenty
knot ship was ten years ago Il mechan-
! ical impossibility in this country. OF
the materials entering into the con-
struction of such vessels there were in
this country in 1888 only the ingenui-
! ty and the ore. Since that time the
Steel-plate industry and numerous al
| lied businesses have been built up to
! build the ship. England looked with
amusement on the undertaking of the
! United States to build flyers 1t said
(
but they had built 20 fast steamers,
and they had so much to learn that
they would never catch up with Europe;
the Americans might turn out some
vessels only little less fast than those
launched from the European yards,
but they would not equal the latter.
Now the tone of English comment has
changed. The London Engineer, a high
authority, tells Engishmen that even
If the present congress should pass Il
frec-ship bill, its benefit to English
shippers would be exceedingly limited.
A few Clyde-blilt flyers might be
bought by Americans and put on Ameri-
can registers to form the nucleus of
4 fast ocean service, but that would
be all. Its reasons for this belief are
not only the American preference to
wait until improvement of processes
has offset the difference in cost be-
tween the two countries, but the eX-
tension of our ship-building plants.
Some of these establishments, it de-
Clares, are almost as well able to
build ships as ourselves, and the al
most may be omitted in regard to two
of them" The great plant at Newport
News especially moves its admiration
for its completeness, area and appi-
antes and it says of the Cramps, that
the cruisers built by them would do
no discredit to Elswick, Fairfield or
Clydebank.
Skill in handling vessels comes ma
tural to Americans. We have seen it
il---t""ted in many ways. The yacht
race itself has more than a merely
sporting significance. 1t signifies that
we retain our skill in building fast yes
sells and can adapt that skill to special
and peculiar types with the best re-
suits. We have a great coastwise feet,
both steam and sail, we have fast crui-
sers. and if we do not have fast for
eign carrying trade under our own
flag we shall have only ourselves to
blame