Graham guardian., 1900-03-23
SAILORS ARE SCARCE
The Demand for Them Now Far
Exceeds tae Supply.
Germany suffers from Creates
Shortage Than Any other Ma
tion--whst Has Caused the
scarcity.

AcHrciIS.
At the beginning of 1899 the total
number of men in the service of the
German navy was &5,4oO, iLe.uuing the
otnceIs and engineers aI.o a lew sur
geons, guush.llhs aLu pSyn,asiers.
from Berlin IL is lepoiI>u ,nat with
the rap.G groN,h "L0 pa, sc iuriher
Increase OF tLe herman t,.,J here has
beer. on increasing scar. trained
young saiioIs. a iSw ys,,.a ago Ger
many furnished large fs.il Of the
crews "a Eng .lsh vessels, - To-Day the
crews of Gei nan Nesse.s ore partly
composed Of foreigners. hi'ii The ooub-
ling of The German navy, as contem-
plated, this d4.Ieuliy viii hoi ease and
steps are being taken 10 meet IL. AT
Bremen the North German Lloyd COM
pany is organizing n cadet school to
train young men Tor the company's
service.
The demand for additional sailors in
Germany, is not limited TO the govern
ment service, however, iCr the two
chief German lines of ocean steam-
ships have, collectively, crews of 4,S00
sailors, exclusive OF the lines connect
ing German ports with other countries
in the enormous and constantly i'm
creasing German shipping trade. Here
tofore a country supplying many other
countries with sailors has been Sweden,
but the increase of foreign commerce
of that country and the demand for
Swedish sailors for Russian ships has
diminished the number cf such sailors
available. Moreover, Germany is only
one of the countries in which there has
recently been an extensive development
Of the naval armament and an enlarged
demand in consequence for sailors.
At the beginning of the year 1893 the
total number of men in the naval serv-
ice of Great Britain was 100000. Of
whom &c, eco were officially described as
"officers and seamen," and $4,000 were
marines" Since then a further in
crease of 6OO0 naval men has been au-
thorized and the transport service Of
the English government to South At
rica has made necessary the increase
in the number of sailors.
There has been a very considerable
increase Of sailors in consequence of the
enlargement and improvement of the
United States navy, and the demand
for them in the merchant marine OF
the country has been increasing corrc-
spondingly. The American line en-
ploys $500 sailors, and the enlargement
of ocean travel this next summer TO
and from the Paris exposition will make
further demands upon the service of
sailors In all transatlantic lines. Two
European countries which are adding
considerable to their naval equipment
are France and Russia, and the in
creased Dutch commerce makes neces-
sary the employment of consider
able number of Dutch seamen under
the hcme flag, Dutch sailors having
excellent repute and numbering in all
more than 10000, Of whom less than
10000 are in the naval service of the
country.
Sailors almost uniformly, it is an
axiom of the sea, come from countries
having a large water coast and from
parts of the country nearest to the
coast line. There are, it is computed,
y quarter of million sailors connect
ed with the navies of the various
countries and 750,0C0 sailors employed
IN commercial navigation, England,
the United States and Sweden ranking
in this order in that regard. Ger
many, France, Italy and Holland are
large commercial nations, too, and 1t
has been observed generally that Ger
man sailors come from the northern
provinces of the country, particularly
the Baltic and the North sea, while
French sailors almost uniformly are
drawn from the two provinces of Brit
tany and Normandy.
The threatened dearth of available
sailors, which some German compa-
nies are seeking to provide against by
the establishment of cadet school,
affects other countries as well. and
unless all indications are at fault the
demand for sailors next summer win
be more extensive than ever before in
the worlds history.-N. Y. Sun.