Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-10-28

| few coastwise schooners going
Yes, it was the tramp that done 1t, y
added another; but the tramp's turn
| is coming too. With the liners get
tin bigger and faster all the time and
| running to all sorts of places where
they never used to go, the tramp has
got mighty little show left. The liners
took away the West Indian trade and
now they've taken the South Ameri-
can trade. Pretty soon they'll take the
rest of the trade with Australia and
the east and then the tramp Will be
where the sailing-ship is now-on the
scrap heap"
Whether this prediction is likely to
be realized for many years to come or
not, may be a question. There are
many tramp vessels-a few sail but
mostly steam-plodding the hign seas
still. There are many out-of-the-way
corners that the liners are not likely
to penetrate soon where the sharp-
eyed wanderer can pick up profitable
cargo. But it is true beyond question
that q decided change has taken place
within the past few years in the han-
ding of ocean traffic. The business
is expanding, is being organized and
systematized in accordance with the
methods that prevail in other lines OF
human industry. The great maritime
companies are sending their fast boats
to ports and over routes that former
ly had 10 depend upon the casual SER
vice Of the tramp and the tramp is De-
ing crowded into the background, of
the main routes and into the less de-
srabe trade just as the sailing-ship
was crowded out generation ago
when the operation of tramp steam
ships was in it's prime as prohtaple
business. Romance undoubtedly Will
be the loser by the change, but the
commercial interests of the world will
be the gamer for 1t Is resulting in the
more rapid and more economical con-
duct Of the great business of inter-
changing the worlds products.
The tramp as a distinctive class OF
ocean steamship Is Of British origin,
and it's greatest numbers still hail
from the British Isles and from the
Scandinavian countries of northern
Europe The term was originated to
apply to the freighter Of the type that
figures frequently in Kipling's stories.
They were brought out in the period
of the great expansion of steam navi-
CATION during the latter half of the
nineteenth century. The early ones
be made to float" Cheaply built,
they were as cheaply outfitted from
the sales of refuse naval stores and
cheaply manned by sailors who could
not get a berth from respectable
agents. They disregarded the require
ments Of the Plimsoll marks and every
severe gale sent numbers of them to
the bottom. Hundreds of them are
rotting now in the depths of the At
lantic, and, as an old navigator phras-
ed it, there Is a ridge Of them extend
ing from Bilboa, Spain, to Cardiff and
Swansea where they ran in the coal
and iron ore trade Thus in its origin
the tramp was a true outcast Of the
sea, combining the greed and con-
sciencelesS owners and the reckless
ness of worthless mariners. They rep
resented the get-rich-quick idea in the
development of ocean trade, but many
of them were so rottenly constructed
that they defeated their builders pur-
pose by going to the bottom in the
course of their first few voyages.
Later on the name tramp lost its
sinister significance and came to be
applied to any steamship that follow
ed no regular route but went wherever
cargo was to be had. 1t is in this
form of a cheaply operated but sub
stantial vessel that the tramp survives
today. picking up the crumbs that the
in too much of a hurry to claim.
The United States has had little
share in the development of the tramp
steamer. It's rise took place in the
period following the civil war when
the American people were too much
occupied with the problems and prof
it's of internal development to pay
much attention to the comparatively
modest returns from ocean trade. Few
of these vessels have ever voyaged
under the American flag and these few
are now mostly on regular routes. The
typical tramp, however, usually flying
the British or Norwegian flag, though
pretty nearly crowded off the we'll
travelled lanes of the North Atlantic, is
a familiar sight in many ports. She
follows no fixed route but goes wher-
ever the call of trade is heard. In
this respect she is like the Yankee
clipper and those other earlier ships
of sail which she has displaced. The
tramp may start from a British port
with a load Of machinery for Brazil,
proceed next to New York with car
go Of coffee. run in ballast to New Or
leans and there take on a cOnsign-
ment of cotton that will carry her
back to her starting point. Or she
may traverse all the Seven Seas in her
trade peregrinations before turning
her prov toward her home port. Cap
tain and crew seldom know when
they start on a voyage what remote
parts of the world they may not visit
before they see their homes and fam
lilies again.
The influence that is forcing the
tramp steadily into a less and less
conspicuous and important part as a
carrier of the worlds trade is the tre-
mendous development within recent
years of the modern liner with her
great speed. her huge carrying capac-
ity and her regular routes and sailing
dates
Some kinds of traffic can wait on
time and tide, but other kinds must go
straight through regardless of all
other conditions except the necessity
of reaching the appointed goal in the
shortest possible time. The tendency
of modern business is to include a larg-
er and larger proportion of the null
tiplying objects of international eX
change within this classification. AS
trade and wealth have increased the
numbc. of persons from any one
country who desire to travel to other
countries for pleasure or profit has
grown tremendously. To meet these
demands the present fleet of great
ocean liners has been developed. grow
ing ever larger. Swifter and more nu-
mcrous \ hundred swift liners COM
prise the fleet that regularly plies be-
tween New York and the ports of
northern Europe and the Mediter- J