The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-11-15
OUR PROGRESS AT SEA.
American Ship Builders Make the
Best Of Ships.
General Ignorance OF the People Con-
corning Achievements in Building
Fast Ocean Steamers-For-
eigners Astonished.

! Llnued yachting trlumphS. IN 1mpOr-
| lance transcending far the sporting
| world. says the Boston Transcript.
| Some time ago Emperor William was
quoted as saying that in building up
the German navy he would look to the
/ United States hereafter. Whether the
emperor said this or not, the fact that
it is attributed to him in Europe dem
onstrates that the revival of American
skill in shipbuilding i. attracting at
tent;on 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 accus-
toned itself to the idea of looking sea-
ward That it is waking up to the
possibility of reaping the harvest Of
the deep seas many signs betollen.
Thoughtful Americans have for years
seen the folly of abandoning the for
cign deep sea carrying trade to for
eign steamers. They have grown
weary of figuring up the millions that
20 to foreigners for freight money on
our people have been too 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 POSSIBLE
tiles 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
a newly-launched cruiser has made
twenty knots on her trial trip! There
are not many who know that TWEEN
ty-knot ship was ten years ago me-
chanical impossibility in this country.
Of the materials entering into the con-
structiOn of such vessel there were
in this country in 1888 only the inge-
nuity 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. It said
thatthe Americans were clever people,
and they had so much to learn that
they would never catch up with Eu-
rope; 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 COM
ment has changed. The London En-
CrIn a orb fnl lie 81,
men that even if the present congress
should pass a free-ship bill. its bene-
fit to English shippers would be
exceedingly limited A few Clyde
built flyers might be bought by Amer
leans and put on American registers to
form the nucleus of fast ocean serv-
ice, but that would be all. It's rea-
sons for this belief are not only the
American preference to wait until inn
provement Of processes has offset the
difference in cost between the two
but the extension of our
ship-building plants. Some of these
establishments, it declares, ARE al
most as well able to build ships as
ourselves. and the almost may be
The great plant at Newport News es-
pecially moves its admiration for its
completeness, area and appliances,
and it says of the Cramps that the
cruisers built by them would do no
discredit 10 Elswick, Fairfield OF
Skill in handling vessels comes nat
ural to Americans. We have seen it
in many ways. The yacht
race itself has more than a merely
sporting significance. It 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 fleet,
both steam and sail, we have fast
cruisers and if we do not have fast
foreign carrying trade under our own
flag we shall have only ourselves to
blame.