The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-01-13
From the Boston Globe.

From the Boston Globe.
 THE bureau of navigation, connected with the federal department of
 commerce and labor in Washington,
 in it's annual report to Congress, makes
 public @ great deal of information of
 value to all interested in the maritime
 affairs of the United States
 The bureau is required by law to re-
 port in detail the increase of vessels of
 the United States >sd to investigate the
 operations of the laws relative to naviga- ton.
 Comparing the total documented ship ping of the United States on June 30, 1896 and on June 30, 190o it is found there was
 an increase of AZ per cent in the total tonnage during that period The largest increase of gross tonnage in this period | of ten years was on the Atlantic and gulf coasts. being 765. .SS2 tons A third of
 our merchant marine is employed on the | great lakes.
 l The increase in shipping generally throughout the world has been greatly in advance of that of the United States. yet
 our domestic or coasting trade has ad- vanced, 1t is said, as rapidly as the ship | ping of the rest of the world.' The rest
 of the world, however. is engaged more
 in ocean than in coastwise traffic. l Our backwardness is to be traced di- ] rectly to our shipping in foreign trade, | and Is due more particularly to the in- | ability of the sailing vessel to compete | with the more economical and efficient ocean steamer.
 That our progress in ship construction is very slow is admitted everywhere. On
 June 30, 1906, the merchant marine of the United States, including all kinds of documented shipping. comprised 25, ,006 ves-
 sels of 6,456.543 gross tons.
 The list of merchant vessels of tho United States for 1906 gives the usual number of the crew, exclusive of the master of each documented Amreican vessel, so far as reported. The crews of
 steamers aggregate 96,S97 men; of all vessels barges and canal boats 53,69S, in
 all 150,590. To this must be added 25,O06
 masters, making a total of 175,596 The
 returns are virtually complete, as the
 only ones not received are the crews of
 332 steam vtssels (mainly motor boats), l67 sail vessels and 229 barges and canal
 boats-in all FPS vessels. This is less than
 per cent of the total number of vessels
 and less than Ia of per cent of the total
 tonnage. An estimate of 1900 men. includ- ing masters, will amply cover them, mak- ing in round numbers a total of 177200
 men required to man all the documented merchant vessels and yachts or the United States
 These figures are not very encouraging when the prosperous American merchant
 marine of the past is considered. yet they
 show some little progress in the last ten years in spite of the inaction of Congress. During the past fiscal year 1221 vessels of 4lS,745 tons were built and documented in the United States, compared with 1102
 vessels of 316 gross tons for the pre- vious year. The steel steam tonnage built was 11S,790 gross tons greater than dur ing the previous fiscal year.
 An important fact is that at home and abroad the calendar year 1906 may be accepted as the date of the definite adop- tion of the turbine prin<ple in the his tory of merchant shipping. For several years the principle has been applied ex- rerimentally. and the British steamship Victorian with turbine engines made a reasonably successful trip across the At lantic in April, 1905 The launch a few months ago of the 25-knot subsidized Gu narders Mauretana and Lusitania. and the definite adherence in October of Lord Pirrle. the worlds leading builder of merchant steamships. to the turbine prin- ciple and the launch of the Governor Cobb in this country, transfer the tur- bine from the region of experiment to that of a commercial fact
 As fine and fast ocean steamers can be
 built in this country as elsewhere and