The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1918-02-09
OLD SEA PORTS
COME TO LIFE
Revival in Shipping Brings Pros
perity to American Sea-
board Towns.
ONCE BUSY MARTS OF TRADE
Same Spirit That Made Old Salem
Rich Now Seen In Merchant Ma
rines's DeveEopment-New
Ports Springing Up.

Washington.-Onee effect of the pres.
ent rapid expansion of the American
merchant marine is a sudden and IN
precedented revival of business at Ger.
tain American ports which a few years
ago were thought to have passed their
zenith.
Bath, Me-, is cited as an example,
In the prosperous nineteenth century
days Of sailing ships Bath was the
country's leading shipbuilding port. II
declined steadily after the introduc.
ton of steel as building material.
Now Bath, building both steel and
wood vessels, is so prosperous that the
housing of the workmen taking jobs
there is pressing problem. The same
is true of several other North Atlantic
ports, while in other sections ports
are springing up where none existed
before.
Close observers of the present re-
vival In shipping say that before the
United States shipping boards present
construction plan is completed-a plan
by which a vast new merchant fleet is
" NC DlOuSul IulO DtlHo uSNClOp-
ment of American ports will parallel
on larger scale that which took
place in the good old days Of the
square riggers."
In earlier times, as at present, every
body in a port touched by the pros
perity of seagoing was keenly inter-
ested in shipping. Present-day secre-
cy about contracts, sailings and divi-
dends, had it's prototype in the secrecy
that enveloped such matters more than
a hundred years ago, in score of
American ports, notably in Salem,
Mass.
In those days, we are told, trivial
merchants sometimes drove the work
of preparation for voyages night and
day. Ships which set out for foreign
ports were watched when they slipped
their cables and sailed away by night"
Personal Touch In Voyages.
In those times there was a more per-
sonal touch in voyages than now. as
every man making voyage was al
lowed a certain space in the hold for
goods of his own People in the home
port of ship outward bound intrust-
ed their savings to their seafaring
neighbors for ventures in far coun-
tries.
This spirit Of commercial adventure
Is finding expression today on larger
and less personal scale, say the experts
of the shipping board; and these stu
dents of conditions trace the present
Of the nation for seafaring
to beginnings In definite periods In
which our old-time ports were at the
height of their prosperity. In so do
ing, they cite Salem as a good exam
pie of what venturesome people may
gain upon the sea.
Salem at one time stood at the head
IF the cities Of the United States in
he value Of it's imports.
In 1912 it had 125 ships in the deep
water trade, and of these, SO were
Cast Indiamen. These vessels brought |
lome cargoes Of fabulous richness
'ilks, indigo, spices, ivory and other
of the far East.
There are old people living in Salem
Who remember when the city's ancient
were full of "hemp from
-uzon, pepper from Sumatra, coffee
rom Arabia, palm oil from the west
cast Of Africa, cotton from Bombay,
uck and iron from the Baltic, tallow
rom Madagascar, salt from Cadiz,
zine from Portugal and the Madeiras,
gs, raisins and almonds from the
TOW es,I
'hina; rum, sugar and molasses from
he West Indies; ivory and gum-copal
rom Zanzibar; rubber, hides and wool
'om South America. whale oil from the
rctic and Antarctic, and the sperm
'om the South Seas"
Pioneers in Commerce.
Salem ships were pioneers in open
lg new routes of commerce. Salem
erchants were the first to bring pep
or from Sumatra, rubber from South
merica and coffee from Mocha. The
alem ship Recovery, Capt. John
opes, was the coffee pioneer, and be-
veen the landing Of her first cargo Of
lie fragrant berry in 1898 and 1905,
alem imported not less than 12,OOO,-
70. pounds of Mocha coffee.
Salem men were perhaps no more
tive than other American deep-water
ilors of the period but their records
ere better kept. They abound in
cries of their adventures.
Examining the causes Of Salem's
eat fame won upon the sea, recent
storian of the merchant marine found
at it was mot in her harbor nor In
r store of shipbuilding timber.
was Salem men. ~. Americans
the Americans who built up the ro-
antic commerce that left no sea I'M
sited, no land unexplored.
leir business required iron will and r
N nerve, noble Imagination, belief t
themselves and in their fellow man." |:
The case of old Salem, and Of the n
wer ports now fiourishing under the Il
petus of the country's present COM I
,rcial expansion, convinces the mari c
ne specialists that the quality which a
N in both cases is a constant one, ii
Ing nothing less than American en- ]
prise. II