Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1903-01-26
BUT FEW OCEAN cREYHOuNps.
Only Twenty Steamers Have Speed of
Over Twenty Knots

over Twenty Knots
The world hears so much about
ocean greyhounds that break the rec
ord and of the fierce competition to
cut down the time for crossing the At
lantic that it may readily be pardoned
If 1t thinks steamers of more than
twenty-knot speed far more numerous
than they really are. A table printed
in the report of the Commissioner Of
Navigation, compiled from Lloyds Reg
lister, of the date of July /, 1902,
sought to disabuse the public mind Of
Its error on this point This table
takes cognizance of all screw steam
ers in the world Of 1000 gross tons or
more of twelve-knot speed and up
ward.
Or the 1888 steamers covered by the
compilation only twenty had authenti-
Gated speed records of twenty knots
and over. OF these twenty, seven
were British, five German, four Amer
lean. two French and two Russian.
or the 1,23S steamers, AGO were Of
twelve knots, 1864 of thirteen and 1876
OF fourteen. After passing fourteen
knots. the classes rapidly diminish in
number. Thus there were only nine
of nineteen knots and only eighteen of
eighteen knots. Judging from this ia
Bile. seventeen knots Is regarded as the
happy medium between speed and
profit, for there were fifty-seven of
this class, of which nine were under
the American flag.
From table accompanying the one
referred to 1t Is apparent that there
are few commercial inducements to
build very large steamers Of very high
speed. In the last two years there has
been only one addition to each Of the
twenty-knot, nineteenknot and eight
een-knOt classes. whereas there were
at the time the enumeration was made
tl9O2) fOrty-siX more twelveknot
steamers than there were in 1900.
Classified by flags Great Britain owns
more than one-half Of all the 1000
ton steamers in the world, having 664
under her register. Germany comes
second, with 127; France third, with
116, and the United States fourth,
with 1OS. Japan is a poor fifth, with
forty
These tables make manifest that the
general tendency in steamship con-
struction for profit Is to combine great
cargo capacity with the smallest coal
consumption consistent with fair
rate of speed. Tramp steamers, or
those employed in regular freight lines,
are laid down on much larger dimen-
sions, but with very little effort to
raise the speed of this class. Thus we
find steamers of the American Hawaii
an Company, designed to carry freight
around Cape Horn, though averaging
nearly 5000 tons, have only eleven
knot speed. The Standard Oh Com
pany is building big tank steamer
of 1900 tons. The two mammot h
steamers building for j. j. Hill at New
London, of 21,OOO gross register. are
but fourteen kuOtters. Such steamers
are built to carry tremendous cargOes,
whereas the passenger flyers have COM
paratively little space for freight. The
passenger flyer is a big advertisement
for the line to which she belongs. says
The Boston Transcript. bringing to it a
business which. while not Immediately
profitable to her, gives real results to
her owners by being diffused among
its vessels. which. being slower, are
less extensive to Onprate