Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-16
Carrying Ocean Freight
Bv Frederic j. HaSkin

place to place, like the old-time tramp
printer. When the average tramp
steamer gets a charter its usual COM
pensatlon Is about $500 day, although
it may be less and 1t may be more
Rates have ben known to fluctuate
800 per cent in single fortnight 1t
depends upon the law of supply and
demand. If there are more cargoes to
be carried than ships to carry them.
the shippers may have the prices put
up to an eXorbltant figure. On the
other hand, if the supply of ships is
greater than the number of cargoes.
the shipmaster may find himself ground
down to the last cent. Thus the
chartering Of tramp steamer becomes
as much of a gamble as a stiff game
of poker and the master and the ship
per each makes the most of the situ-
alton when it favors him, knowing
that the conditions may be reversed
next time.
The average freighter of the seas
takes things leisurely until such time
as a new tariff law goes into effect
Then it tries to reach port in time to
avoid increases of duty. The usual
custom in the United States has been
to make a law take effect at midnight.
allowing the custom houses to remain
open until that hour for the receipt
of goods under the old rates. But it
was different at the New York custom
house this year. Collector Loeb shut
up shop at the usual hour of closing.
and Uncle Sam was at least 5000, 900
richer by the operation. There were
hundreds of importers who were
caught mapping, thus helping to swell
the revenues under the new tariff. A
single ship which was urged by wire
less to hasten to port had to pay
$4,000 more on its cargo than If it
had reached the custom house a few
hours earlier.
Perhaps nothing has contributed
more to the ability of the world TO
secure good things to eat than arti-
hclal refrigeration. By means of cold
storage on shipboard the people of the
far north are enabled to eat the fruits
that have been sweetened by the
tropical suns. and tropical peoples are
able to eat the delicious ice cream
that comes from the cold north. There
are diHerent ways of producing re-
frigeration on shipboard, the familiar
ammonia process being one. But per-
haps the most unique way is to pro-
duce 1t by air equalization. This
process consists in the placing of the
air under tremendous pressure It is
then driven through an engine much
as steam is forced through the cylin-
der of locomotive and this results
in taking away it's heat. 1t is possible
by this process to cool a chamber
down to 140 degrees below zero This
method of refrigeration is costly of
installation, but rather cheap in opera
tion.
The steamship papers recently print
ed a most interesting series of pictures
of grain steamer on the Black sea-
1t was covered with ice rom stem to
stern, and looked as if it might be a
giant icicle formed as the stalagmite
on the floor of a cave-by dripping
from above. The ice at last became
so thick that the crew had to leave
the ship and it drifted ashore, where
it lay with it's cargo until the opening
of the next season.
The worlds record for long steam
ing was made recently by the Head
ington, a tramp which reached New
port News from Seattle. For sixty
eight successive days 1T steamed on
it's journey, during all of which time
1t made neither a stop nor slow
down. Forty days sailing without a
stop or showdown is not infrequent,
but 1t is very seldom indeed that a
ship passes the fifty-day mark without
break In discussing this feat sea-
men all agree that it was triumph
for the makers of the engines and
boilers, but above all triumph for
IllC NlilSI eng lllGeT anu Ills IIl6Hs lneY
say that the best engines in the world
could not keep going continuously for
more than sixteen hundred miles, un-
less they were manned by an extraor-
dinarily capable lot of men.
The aggregate tonnage of all the
vessels in the merchant marine of the
world amounts to more than 81, 100000
tons, and England has half of this,
as well as half the freight carrying
business Of the seas. 1t is said that
one Of the reasons American shipping
lags IS the fact that it costs so much
more to operate a vessel under Amer
lean registry than under foreign reg
istry. The crew. to begin with, costs
the shipowner twice as much, and 9TH
er things are in proportion. Even the
fruit steamers that ply entirely in
American waters are not under Amer
lean registry. Some of them are un-
der Norwegian registry, and it is a
standing joke among the men who go
to sea, that Norwegian ships get short
of rations when two days out. On
the other hand, ships under American
registry are obliged to furnish as good
rations at sea as on land.
TOmorrow-American Antiquarian Society.