The Washington herald., 1915-01-19
u. S. MAY WIDEN
. INSURANCE field
Marine Underwriters Refuse
to Accept Schooner
Cargo Risks.
MUCH COTTON HELD UP
Claim Is that Underwriters Are Vitally
Interested in Ship Bill and Trying
to Force Passage.
MUCH COTTON HELD UP
By JOSEPH p. AMIN.

Refusal of marine underwriters to in
| sure cargoes in schooner hulls is pre-
venting the movement to Europe of mill
7 lions of bales of cotton i'm the bottoms OF
the Atlantic schooner fleet, according to
| representations made to Secretary of
| Commerce Redfield.
/ Because of this attitude on the part of
Underwriters. it is not unlikely that Mr..
Redfield will ask for an extension of the
! functions of the government insurance
bureau TO permit the government to in
| sure CargOes as well as hulls. and to do
| a general marine underwriting business
in stead of merely insuring against war
| DANA ges.
Fleet Has Large Tonnage.
With total carrying capacity Of 10000
bales of cotton per trip, the American
! schooner fleet comprise registered ton
mage. for four, five and six masters. of
22S, 600 tons. while sChoOners of 1000 tons
registry or greater. aggregate 1890 tons
! and have a cargo capacity of more than
900 bales of cotton.
! These schooners were built and have
| been used for the COasting trade. but
! for some months have been practically
| idle Their owners have Offered them
to the cotton merchants for trans-Atlan-
tic use only to learn that marine under
writer's will not insure cargoes in these
| bottoms.
The charge that interest in the pas
| sage Of the government ship purchase
| bill and unwillingness 10 relieve any sit
| uation that would seem to warrant the
| enactment of the bill, is in part RESPONSE
! BILE for this attitude on the part of the
| underwriters has been brought to the at
( tention of officials here and an attempt
! is now under way to bring about a Con-
| Ercssional investigation Of the charge.
ship Owners Point of View.
The following quotation. taken from
letter to Secretary Redfeld from DR..
Stratton, president Of the Bureau Of
| American Shipping. representing the
views of the insurance companies, is de-
| cIared bv the schooner owners to be
prima faCie evidence OF an Interior motive
! in refusing cargo insurance to schOOners:
while transportation by large fore-and
aft rigEed vessels for distances of 80
/ miles and upward is doubtless among the
cheapest known, in transatlantic serV-
| ice. It necessarily involves steel hulls,
| with steel masts and wire standing rig
ging as a precautiOn against being dis
! masted of which there is always
strong possibility in the wooden vessels
with wooden masts, on which the stand
! ing rigging If set up taut invariably re-
! suits in the fracture of the mast in
/ heavy sea-way. Inasmuch as there are
| lief from this source seems to be impos-
sible."
Atlantic ship builders point to the fact
! that recent statistics cite no case where
! the wooden mast has gone before the rig
| ging and the only two sChOOners lost
recently were abandoned of the Allan
tic coast with all spars standing only
because the ice had piled so high on them
as to make II impossible to handle them
in a seventy-mile gale. The only Ameri-
can schooner wrecked recently in Euro
pean waters was a steel hull, the Thomas
w Lawson, which broke in two in
sea-way, while at the same time the
Palmer. a big wooden schooner. with
wooden masts, reached Marsailles in per-
feet safety.
Run Them without Insurance.
The schooners are so strongly con-
structed that their owners have been rum
ming them without insurance. The trips
they have been taking in coasting vOy-
Iages between points in lower South Amer
lea and Northern United States would
furnish fair basis upon which to de-
termine the insurance rate.
Speaking for the owners of these
schooners, Col. Edward c. Plummer, Of
Bath, Me. following a conference with
Secretary Redfield, said:
BY the process Of elimination and an
examination of the assigned excuses of
these insurance companies for refusing
these legitimate and frst-class risks on
cargoes carried in American schooners,
it seems that there is but one eXplana-
ton of their conduct remaining and that
is that they or the men who represent
them in this matter have a personal in
terest in seeing that this government ship
purchase bill becomes a law. To make
this bill a law it is necessary for them
to nrevent the expectation of American
products which are now suffering for
lack of vessels so that the continued cry
for transportation may deceive Con-
gress into the idea that the ship pur-
chase law is the only solution of this
transportation problem.
THE fact that during the Spanish war,
ships of second and third class were sold
IN tho limited States AT prices from two