Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-12-25
The Limits Of the Shipbuiiding Revival.

The Limits Of the ShipbuiIding Revival.
American shipping has a staunch and
consistent friend in the Boston Journal,
and in a recent editorial that paper
points out the danger of misinterpret-
ing the significance of the present
shipbuiding boom. While the present
boom is a substantial actually and
worthy all the congratulatory comment
which it is receiving, it does not mean
our foreign shipping is reviving. That
still languishes in the need of national
legislation which it is hoped is not far
off. The Journal points out that while
it is true that $4,000 tons met register)
of shipping have been launched in
Maine since Jan. l. and that SO, 600 tons
more are on the stocks or under con
tract nevertheless when one looks be-
low the surface and ascertains the
character of this tonnage. it becomes
necessary to temper eXultation. Prac-
are intended primarily for the coast
wise trade. They are good vessels. as
a rule, very large and very cheap and
efficient carriers. But they represent
additions to that branch of our mer-
chant marine which is and always has
been strong and prosperous. The
plain truth is that this extraordinary
activity in Maine shipyards holds out
no hope whatever for the restoration of
the Stars and Stripes to the high seas.
Nobody understands this better than
American shipbuilders and shipowners.
These giant four, five and six-masted
schooners which are the prevalent
Maine type are being constructed for
a traffic which is absolutely protected,
for our cOasting service is very proper
~ reserved by law to vessels built and
owned in the United States. This is a
trade in which foreign competition is
impossible. When California was ac-
quired 80 years ago, the great traffic
which the gold discoveries Immediately
created between Boston, New York
and San Francisco around Cape Horn
was classed by our government as
coastwise traffic, and it was the Cali
fornia demand for swift-sailing clip
pers which contributed more than any
other one cause to the shipbuilding
boom of 1S50-55, when the American
merchant tonnage reached it's actual
maximum.
Not all the new Maine craft of this
year are fore-and-afters. There are
two very large steel ships and a steel
barque, the Arthur Sewall, the Edward
Sewall and the Kaiulani. But these
square-riggers have not been built for
the general foreign trade. The two
ships We're especially designed for the
long coasting voyage between New
York and our Pacific ports, with per
haps an occasional run with wheat to
Europe if freights favor. The barque
was built as her name implies, for the
trade with newly annexed Hawaii, Il
traffic which will be restricted to
American vessels. as is already the
carrying between Porto Rico and the
| United States
| This is what the Journal means
when it says that the renewal of pros
perity in the Maine shipyards holds
out no direct promise Whatsoever of
an increased participation by Ameri-
| can vessels in the overseas commerce
| of the United States, 80 per cent of
which is now monopoliZed by foreign
ers. And virtually the same thing can
be said of the shi ebulding boom in the
| steel yards of the Middle and South
ern states. These concerns are crowd
ed with orders. but their new tonnage
is intended either for our few sub
sidiZed ocean mail lines, or for the
| coastwise lines which are protected to
the point of exclusion. 1t is well that
this important economic truth should
be perfectly understood. Our deep sea
carrying still langushes. 1t awaits the
| potent force of regenerating influences
which have not yet been set in opera
| ton.