The Little River news. (Ashdown, Little River County, Ark.) 1897-current, 1918-06-12
MERCHANT MARINE
OF u. S. is SECOND
Is Now Exceeded Only by That of
Great Britain-TOnnage is
10,000,0 90-Many
New Ships.

Washington, June S-The steady
growth Of the American merchant ma
rine in ali classes of vessels WAS re-
vealej today for the first time since
war began in statistics from the De-
partment of Commerce, showing that
in the first five months of this year
there have been built in this country,
and officially numbered by the Ba-
reau of Navigation, total Of 629 YES
sells of 055 gross tons
The merchant fleet O. the United
States now amounts to approximately
100000 gross tons, not including
merchant craft under control of thu
army ana navy as transports 3nd sup
ply ships At the beginning of Jan
uary, 26,742 merchant vessels of 9,443-
224 gross tons were flying the stars
and Stripes on trips across the At
lantic with food and munitions into
the Caribbean and P2ciic with Amer
lean products for foreign customers
and on the lakes and rivers Of this
country as part of the nation tr~n5-
portation system.
Second to Hritain
This tremendous feet is second to
the merchant tonnage of Great Brit
ain. 1t includes all TIE new vessels
built under the direction of the Ship.
ping Board and thousands OF other
ships, smaller in Individual tonnage.
but greater in aggregate carrying ca
pacity, which play so large part in
commerce in the main tenance Of -.
vOrable balance of trade
All merchant vessels are required
by law to register with the Naviga-
ton Bureau of the Department OF
Commerce and to receive an official
identification number before being
permitted to fly the flag of the
United States.
The number is awarded when the
finished ship is measured from gross
tonnage capacity, which is the content
of the ship in terms of 100 cubic feet
and the internationally accepted meth
cd of expressing size. The Shipping
Board, building exclusively cargo
ships, has adopted lightweight tonnage
as the medium OF computing new ton
age, lightweight capacity being the
actual weight of cargo and bunker
coal which can be carried.
Many New Ships.
ship is about SO per cent greater th7n
it's gross tonnage, but in a passenger
vessel is less, because the space is oc-
cupied by passenger accommols-
tons. The former German liner Water
land, now the Leviathan, has a gross
tonnage of $4,000 but lightweight
which illustrates why, in dealing with
these types CT ships, gross tonnage or
the actual size, regardless of the space
allotted to cargo. has been chosen in
ternationally as more truly indicative
of the size of fleet
There has been steady increase in
new ships this year, the May tonnage
being three times as great as the Jan
uary output In the first month OF
1918 there were 81 ships Of 64,795
tons given official numbers. In Feb
ruary "a ships of 117,6Oi gross tons
were numbered. March saw a notable
jump. in the production OF small
ships, numbers being awarded to 1873,
the tonnage being 147,145. The rec
ord in April was 165 ships of 163,O5O
tons and in May 1856 ships of 194,464
tons.
In single month this year the
American merchant fleet has seen 6
growth almost as great as during the
entire first year of the European war