The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-14
SGR(JNEMAH 6 EVANS.
DgUG DEPT.
GOOD sAILORMEN SCARCE.
Demand for Them Now Exceeds IN

Demand for Them Now Exceeds the
Suppiy-CauScs for the Shortage.
3 At the, beginning of 1899 the total num-
Der of men in the service of the German
navy was %. AGO. Including the officers
and engineers and few surgeons, gun
S smiths and ypaymasters. From Berlin it
Is reported that with the rapid growth
and proposed further increase of the Ger
man navy there has been an increasing
scarcity OF trained young sailors. A few
years ago Germany furnished a large
part of the crews of English vessels,
but today the crews of German vessels
are partly composed of foreigners. With
The doubling of the German navy, as
contemplated, this difficulty will increase,
and steps are being taken to meet it.
AT Bremen the North German Lloyd
company is organizing a cadet school to
train young men for the company serv-
Ice
The demand for additional sailors in
Germany is not limited to the govern
ment service, however, for the two
chief German lines of ocean steamships
have, collectively, crews of 4,SG0 sailors,
exclusive of the lines connecting Ger
man ports with other countries in the
enormous and constantly increasing
German Chipping trade. Heretofore 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 of 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.
There has been a very considerable In
crease 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 mas been increasing correspond
ingly The American line employs 1850
sailors and the enlargement of ocean
travel this next summer 10 and from the
Paris exposition will make further de-
mands upon the service of sailors in all
Transatlantic lines. Two European coun-
tries which are adding considerable to
their naval equipment are France and
Russia, and the increased Dutch COM
.nerce makes necessary the employment
of a considerable number of Dutch sea-
men under the home 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
largo water coast and from parts of the
country. nearest to the coast line There
are, il is computed, quarter of million
sailors connected with the nayies
of the various countries, and $1,000 sail
prs 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 German
sailors come from the Northern provinces
ofs~the country, particularly the Baltic
and the North sea, while French sailors
almost uniformly are drawn from the
TWO provinces Of Brittany and Nor
mandy.