The record-union., 1898-03-16

ON CARGO VESSELS.
But If economy is practiced on the
lady of the ocean, as Kiphng calls
the liner, it is ON a small scale COM
pared to that followed on the poor
old cargo boat" An examination of
the annual statements of a number Of
tramp steamer concerns flying the Brit
ish flag will show that the masters of
these vessels receive not more than $50
per month. The deckhand of an or
binary river craft would howl like a
Ceylon pirate if he had to do as much
work as some of these Captains for as
little money. Of course where such
poor salaries are paid to master mar
iners who have hundreds of thousands
worth of property at their command
there is generally a leak. and the butch
er, baker, candlestick maker and even
the stevedore and the ship chandler
at ports where this cheap sample Of
tramp touches, has to furnish rebate,
which the Captain pockets without the
formality OF informing the ships hus-
band.
The other day the British Board of
Trade suspended for three months the
certificate of the Captain of the Bee
croft The investigation, held at Liver
pool, showed a unique and startling de-
vice on the part of the master of that
vessel for pocketing the wages of his
crew during a voyage. 1t was shown
that the Captain took a big stock of
liquor to sea with him, which he re-
tailed to the men during the trip. He
had among other spirits twenty cases
of whisky, for which he paid So 80 a
dozen bottles, and this stuff he sold to
the men at about 81 bottle. The car
penter's bill for whisky, gin and beer
during the voyage amounted to $67.
SOME ECONOMIES.
The Ashby of West Hartlepool is run
on an economical plan if ever a ship
was. On a passage from Baltimore to
Bilboa the ship averaged 91h knots an
hour on a consumption of ten tons Of
coal a day. This coal cost but six shil-
lings a ton, which made the daily ex-
penditure for fuel about S14 80. The
engines of this ship, although of the
triple expansion type, are made with
view to economy as well as for speed.
There are but three engineers on the
Ashby, including the chief. The dom
keyman stands watch, but does not.
of course, get engineers pay. The ship
has a dead weight capacity of 1850
tons, and Notwithstanding this fact,
her entire crew list, including officers,
numbers only twenty-one men. This
is certainly one of the samples of tramp
steamers that has reached the polx1I
where freights must be remarkably low
if she cannot be made to pay
The Buckingham is another sample
that averages ten knots an hour on a
consumption of fourteen tons of coal
day, has a displacement of 200 tons
and carries a crew of twenty mine men
all told the A BIS, or sailors, of which
get only S12 month OF course the
shareholders Of these ships make
lot of money through this economy
Take the Crescent as a sample of profit
Here is a craft that has paid 1889 los
per sixty-fourth share for five and one
half years work. Her original cost is
understood to have been 1880 per six
ty-fourth share, so that she left over
21 per cent. per annum continuously
for five and one-half years. Rock bot
tom prices for wages and Klondike
finds for profits were never in the rush
for gold with the successful poor old
cargo boat. Mail and Express.
Save money by buying your tea and
coffee of j. McMorry, 531 NJ