Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-03-25
Ocean Tramps.

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For the benefit of the reader unfa-
mliar with the lingo of shipping men,
it may be we'll to define what consti-
tutes a tramp steamship" says Aims
lees Magazine. briefly it may be
said that a tramp is a merchant steam
vessel that runs no regular route, and
is ready for the service of anybody
who wants to pay her owner a reason
able sum to take cargo to any port,
remote or near, in the world. The
owner OF tramp finds it more profit
able sometimes to charter her for a
year to line that needs her pending
the building Of a new ship, than to run
the chance Of getting series paying
cargoes within that period. Some of
the old, single screw liners have de-
generated into tramps, and even few
Of the transatlantic record holders Of
twenty years ago or less have gone
cargo seeking in many ports. That
might have been the fate of the old
Guion steamship Alaska (Which as
tonished the world in 1883 by covering
the sea space between Queenstown and
New York in six days and twenty-one
hours) If she had not been greedy
coal concumer, and therefore 'too ex-
pensive for tramp service. Above all
things, the tramp must be economical
in the use of coal. AS the Alaska was
not fit to be tramp, and was too old
and, comparatively, too slow for a
first-class liner, all that her owners
could do was to sell her for old junk
which they did last June. Previous to
that she had been used Off some time
as tenement in an English harbor.
The tramp tonnage runs into the
millions, and over half of it is under
the omnipresent red merchant ensign
Of Great Britain. More than three
quarters of the tramps are OF British
build. They fly the flags of all nations
but flag does not always indicate the
nationality OF the owners of the ship.
Many tramps over whose taffrail the
Norwegian flag floats are owned by
Americans, and some of the old sea
nomads OF British registry are the
property of speculative Yankees. Next
in order of number to the British
tramps are the Germans, with the
Norwegians a close third. There are
comparatively, small number of
French, Russian, Italian, Austrian,
Swedish, Spanish, Chinese and Japa-
nese tramps Nearly all tramps flying
the flags of the last three nationalities
are of British construction. There are
very few American tramps. The pio-
neer Yankee craft Of this sort was
launched only a year ago. She is the
Winifred, and is now doing service as
a coaster for the Morgan line, plying
between New York and New Orleans.
She is the first steamship designed in
America especially for carrying cargo
anywhere. There are others but not
many tramps, flying the Stars and
Stripes. They are merely naturalized
Americans, however Some acquired
American registry during the Spanish
American war, when they were pur-
chased by the government for use as
transports. After the war they were
sold. and their purchasers, being most
ly Americans. put them under the en-
sign Of Uncle Sam. The Wlnifred be-
longs to Miller, Bull C Knowlton, of
New York, who run line of passen-
ger and freight ships between New
York and Porto Rico She was built
by the Bath Iron Works company, OF
Bath, Maine. 1t was expected that she
would do most of her "tramping" be-
tween ports of the United States and
those Of the West Indies and Central
and South America. She is a steel
vessel OF $500 tons, gross measure
ment. and is 305 feet long over all.
She is capable of carrying about $500
tons dead weight, and is equipped
with triple expansion engines that
were expected to give her a speed of
about 10 knots an hour when loaded.
She did not develop this speed by
more than two knots, and her owners
have sued her builders for non-fulfill-
ment Of contract. She is a very hot
ship in the stokehold. One effect of
The requirement by the United States
Of new territory in the West Indies
and the Pacific. American steamship
men confidently declare, will be the
of large feet CT modern
rramps, the keels of some of which
ire already laid"
A great many people are wondering
when the Marietta dam across the