The Hawaiian gazette., 1916-02-08
Ships Cost !
Still More
r Every Day
Examples Of High Prices Show
F. What Heights Are Being
Reached

| Steamships Of suitable class for for
eign trade operations at the present
time have reached the highest point of
value ever known. Within the past
year the value Of tonnage suitable for
ocean trade routes has more than
doubled. Recent sales Of steamers on
the Pacific Coast, along the Atlantic
seahoard and at foreign ports give
striking PROOF Of this assertion. 81.
Price Is Doubled "A. s,g..,, ..
The transfer Of the British steamer
Bunholme to new owners, which WAS
recently completed in New, York, shows
the fabulous prices which ocean ton
mage now commands. In 1918 the Dun
hOlme caught fire in New York hnr
Dor, was scuttlcd and sunk to eX
tinguish the blaze. She was later re-
hoated and in 1914 her owners of
fered to sell her for $4,000, exclusive
Of the repairs which were to be made
Ii was estimated that the vessel could
not be restored to n thoroughly sea
\ worthy condition ''ithout an expendi.
I ture Of less than $l50,OO0, which would
bring the price in 1914 up to about
$225,OOO.
! Although there were many negotia-
tons for the purchase of the ship the
deal was not finally concluded for
number of months after the original
offer, and during the interim the own.
ers advanced the selling price until it
stood at $4,000 or about double the
price at which the vessel could have
been secured in 1914, the sale taking
place at the high figure late last year.
The capacity of the steamer is be
tween 5000 and 5000 tons and her orig.
inal cost of construction was about
$250,000. |rt .#-a-.
At San Francisco ~. ..r.'
The Pacific Coast has also had ex.
amples Of the remarkable advance in
tonnage values within the past year
James Rolph, Jr., of San Francisco,
in the past two months has signed a
contract with the Moore y& Scott Iron
Works of San Francisco for the con
struetion of q steel cargo steamer 376
feet long, to be completed in twelve
months. She will be of q size similar
to the steamer Pacific and Euburna,
built by the Union Iron Works in. San
| Francisco to the order of Mr.. ROlph,
and on speculation one of which was
I sold recently to T. b. Wilcox of Port
Land, Ore, for 100000. The Wilcox
steamer will be completed in June,
! 1916, and the other, to be called the
Annette Rolph, in December, 1916. The
Pacific was sold at profit of $4,000
and the Wilcox steamer at a profit of
close on TO $325,OO0, both before the
ships were off the ways, and Mr.. Rolph
is now Negotiating for the sale of the
tAIuette Rolph, the keel of which has
only just been laid.
This is 500 . Ton
The steamer Verdun of Glasgow,
1894 tons net and 1926 tons gross, has
been sold within the past month at
| Liverpool for the extraordinary high
price of Gl55,OOO (about $40, 9O0),
which, on a lightweight capacity of
nearly 5000 tons, amounted to almost
$50 Cor about $1,000 per ton. The
vessel is practically a new one, how
ever, being launched in November,
lol4, at Port Glasgow. She is fitted
with electric lights and has 1850 tons
water ballast in usual tanks. The
length of her hull is 3S7 feet beam
81 feet aud % feet nodded. depth.
The Liverpool liner Beupark, 1891
tons register and carving about $500
tons lightweight, was also sold recent
| ~ TO Itallan buyers in the Liverpool
market for the sum of fl00,OOO (about
S500,000), which is estimated to have
been about three times the price she
cost five years ago when she was
built at an English yard.
Costs Have Doubled
At the close Of 1915 shipping values,
like ocean freight rates, were est
mated to have doubled over the previ-
Gus year. The rise in values as we'll
as rates have berOme so great that
the shipping brokers who issue cirru,
lars on the future course of the ton
mage markets have recently maintain
ed silence.
Within twelve months second hand
tonnage has been trebled or quad
ruPled in value in many instances. In
the summer of 1914, almost immedi-
ateIy before the war broke out and
for month or more after hostilitips
began, ship tonnage was practically
"a drug on the market" Cargo stea n,
ors twelve to fifteen years old, which
in 1914 could have been purchased for
$l5 or $40 ton have since advanced
in value TO $50 and $50 a ton.