Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1901-07-11
TO TOW ACROSS OCEAN
TRAMP STEAMERS TO BE SUPER
CEDED SOON BY BARGES.
This Country by British
Capitalists

Boston Letter The freight-carry-
ing trade OF the world is to be revolu-
tionized. Large tug boats, towing en-
ormous barges, or trains of harges. are
to he a familiar sight to the trans-A
lantic traveller before long according
to the belief OF some Of the most prom
inent marine engineers and others who
Will inaugurate the enterprise
One Of the pioneers of this movement
will be the bulk oil barge which will soon
start upon its trans Atlantic career at
ter having demonstrated its usefulness
for coastwise work along the Atlantic
seaboard for several years. These
barges WEI first utili.ed by the Stand
ard Oil company to relieve their pipe
lines. and soon proved so useful that an
| enlarged sphere Of usefulness was
| sought for them
| The development of the ocean going
tug has been gradual and its steady en-
croachment on the coastwise freighting
service has sealed the doom o. the
schooner for local trade
So convinced are the Britishers Of the
possibilities OF the tug barge arrange
ment for haulinS freight cheaply across
| the Atlantic that Il batch OF English
capitalists are ready To invest largely in
a venture to establish regular trans
| Atlantic lines. Their agents are in this
city at the present time and in CONVERSE
ton with one Of them | learned that
the question Of utilizing this method of
freighting had been under consideration
Tor some time among shipping men.
We are satisfied said the gentle
man, that reduction of fully 40 per
cent In the cost of hauling cereals, car
| casses fruits and the thousand and one
| articles carried by freight steamers
| can be made,
Our English sidewheelers are ont of
date and absurd compared with the
magnificent craft ! have seen here, and
our orders Will be placed on this side.
both for the parges and tugs Our
scope of oneration viii extend from
Canada To Central America and we are
now requesting designs from your best
ship builders with a view to making Sc
lections.
The barges viii be- equipped with re-
frigerators. so that all classes of prod
ucts can be hauled ON them In addl-
ton to cheapcniug the price of freight
ing the speed of the tugs will be much
greater than that Of the steamers. This
|
tage for marketing tropical fruits in
England as you have here. There would
be an enormous market for this perish
able stuff If il could be packed SO that
ii could be landed in English ports in a
good condition for sale
with the steamers 1t has been i'm
possible to handle this class of stuff
along with the rest of the miscellaneous
l lxr4.t ,g,..,
have bargos specially constructed for
the carrying OF fruits, and others for
the carrying OF careasses and game.
They Will be loaded from the wharves
wherever the produce may lay and
without transference to lighters. landed
directly at the wharves In London and
Liverpool
Ocean tug boats are not altogether
novelty on the other side. a large one.
owned by Newcastle eorncern. towed
the new drydock across the Atlantic
from the Tyne to Havana.
Il have been inspecting some Of the
tugs owned by the Boston Towboat
company and the Luckenbachs The
NJ r. Luckenbach. understand has
made as high as 1874 knots an hour and
Is equipped with 100 horsepower This
| remarkable vessel can run for "a hours
without burning more than Is tons OF
coal and with crew OF only II men,
hauling 1900 tons Of freight She has
a fuel capacity Of $50 tons. so would
have no difficulty In getting across the
Atlantic.
| "The tug Tamague. owned by the
| Philadelphia Reading company. Is an
other fine vessel. | find that with her
| 050 horsepower she has an enormous
| capacity for work In one month she
| has towed "a 900 tons OF coal between
| Philadelphia and Boston. Compare this
| carrying capacity and the expense Of IL
| with that OF carrying the same quantity
Of goods on an ocean steamer. pre-
sumo that s 900 month pays the ex-
pense Of running the Tamague. Now,
with the increase In size there IL "A de-
crease In cost both In the building and
running Of tugs. and there Is little
doubt but that when We have got start
the tramp steamer will have ended It's
days. The tug barge and the palace
| liner built for speed and the comfort Of
passengers VIII be the only features To
count with In transatlantic shipping
after a while
EDWARD MCCARTNEY.