The herald., 1893-01-16
ARE IRON SHIPS THE BEST?
Mercantile Matters Worthy of
Mature Consideration.
How Americans We're Bulldozed by
the British Underwriters.
The Tariff on Iron and Bow 1t Has
Swept American Commerce OF
the High seas-RecOllections
OF 40 Years Ago.

steamer Winfield Scott, afterwards
wrecked on Anacspa island opposite
Ventura. After stay of six months
there, was removed te Benicia and
worked there two years as time keeper
in the machine shops under the hill
where John Heenan, afterwards famous
in the prize ring, swung his big sledge
and made himself otherwise useful. In
those days an English ship was about to
be seen at the rate of one in ten, in fact
just about as scarce as American ships
are now.
THE CRIMEAN WAR
broke out in 1854, and so far from the
British having monopoly OF the carry
ing trade then as now, the British gov
ernment actually chartered eleven
American sailing ships to carry troops,
horses, artillery and munitions of war
to the Black sea. These were the
Nightingale, Sweepstakes, Young Amer =
ica and Game Cock, built at New
York; the Typhoon and Governor Nor
ton, built at Portsmouth, n. H, and
the Great Republic, Sovereign of the
Seas, Witchcraft, Panther and War
Hawk, all built at Boston except the
Witchcraft which was bit of Salem
architecture. 1t was not till nearly
eleven years after the surrender of the
harbor of Sebastopol that the iron sail
ing ships began to make their appear
ance, although there had been iron
steamships as early as 1889. But the
iron sailing ships first came into use in
1865, just after American insurance
companies had been almost bankrupfed
by the destruction of American ships
through the instrumentality of Con-
federate privateers, such as the Shenan-
doah, Alabama, Sumter and Florida.
The British underwriters knew that
they held the whip hand over our
American insurance companies and
acted accordingly.
LOWER RATES UPON IRON SHIPS
was the watchword of the Britishers,
and such is the utter cowardice Of
American capital that they pleaded
guilty before being indicted, and sur
rendered before gun was fired. OF
course, there is one thing in favor of
iron ships-they do not damage their
cargo by "sweating" as wooden ships
often do. Having this point in their
favor, the British underwriters went on
to dictate terms to the American insur-
ance companies, which practically threw
the American ship out of the considera-
ton. Today the dangerous iron ship
commands 2 shillings per ton higher
freight upon grain from San Francisco,
Portland and Tacoma, to the United
Kingdom, than the wooden built ship
of American architectural; and yet the
a.. - e -
show that, while the average age of
Canada or Norway ia over II years, the
age of the iron ship is less than 12!
Just about that time came another cir
cumstance which had its effect in sweep
ing American commerce from the seas.
l allude to the Republican system of Civ
ing away the public lands to corpora
tions to aid in the building of railroads.
THE NEW ENDOWMENT.
The war waa over and the men whose
names had made American shipbuilding
famous in the first half of the century
had grown old, rich and selfish. The
Aspinwalls, Griswolds, Gebhards, Ker-
mits and Suttons saw that their chill
dren were never to have the came op
portunities for making money that they
had enjoyed, because steam was bound
to supercede canvas. Here was new
field for the employment OF capital. The
ships were all old, and they could better
afford to give them away than to re-
build them. The bonds of the Central,
Union and Northern Pacific roads at 6
per cent per annum were far better
investment, because the roads had not
yet got to paying basis and their bonds
could be bought at a heavy discount.
And so it was that the men whose en-
terprise had whitened every sea with
American canvas closed their eyes to the
question of maintaining our commercial
prestige and bought railway bonds, in
order that their sons might show their
industry by cutting off the interest cou-
pons after their fathers were dead. And
this was America, mistress of the seas
up to 1862.
FIGHTING THE DEVIL WITH FIRE"
Heinrich Hilgard, better known to the
world of finance and commerce as Henry
Willard, had long witnessed this unjust
discrimination against American wood
en- ships by the underwriters, and re-
solved to give the John Bull insurance
folks dose of their own medicine. Viii
lard said he was in favor of "fghting
the devil with fire." and so he went to
work and incorporated a shipbuilder's q
company on Staten island, to build iron
ships. Had this company begun on a
small scale they might have pulled
through, but they built three enormous
chips at the very start and launched
them right in the midst of season
when wheat charters were at their very
lowest. Consequently the thing proved
failure and everybody lost money or
the venture. The ships referred to are
the Thomas F. Oakes, the Clarence s.
Bement and the W. II. Starbuck, all
built of iron and rugged with iron masts.
They are about 5000 tons each, gross
measurement.
ANOTHER CAUSE OF THE FAILURE
was to be found in the management Of
the concern. Willard was no shipbuild-
er himself but, had he taken Captain
Bolles off his Oregon line OF steamers OF
old Captain Morse OFF the Spreckels line
and placed either of those gentlemen in
charge of the work, hundreds of thou
sands of dollars could have been saved
But there were wheels within wheels.
Bement had some property near Port
Richmond that was wholly unproduc-
tive and he had relative in the navy
named Gorringe, who commanded the
steamer in which "Cleopatra's Needle
was brought over from Alexandria to be
placed in the Central park. Bement
would not take etock in The new concern
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