The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1918-10-22
Every Six Minutes a Merchant
Vessel Moves at an
American Port.
TRAFFIC CHARTS ARE USED
Every Minute of Time and Pound Of
Cargo Noted and Thus Each Ves-
sell Is Used to Utmost to
Speed War Plan.

! Washington.-Every six minutes
merchant vessel arrives and another
departs from American ports. From
/; north Atlantic seaports there is a
! departure every eleven minutes-one
for Europe every forty minutes. This
rate of operation does not include ves-
sells in the service Of the army or
navy.
The merchant fleet Of 1,5o0 ships
under the control Of the United States
shipping board is run as railroad, on
a time schedule. The duty of measur-
ing ships performances, with their
tasks, is lodged with the planning and
statistics division of the shipping
board, headed by e. h. Gay, formerly
dean of the Harvard Graduate School
| of business.
Obviously the division must know
| the tasks in detail, ana so IL co-ordi-
mates with the war industries and war
trade boards in determining and pro-
viding for the country's needs from
| abroad. It works on month to month
schedules, or as far in advance as it
Is feasible or possible to forecast.
Works With All Departments.
In planning the use of ships the di-
vision works with the food administra-
ton in determining the shipping re-
quirements for food; with the war de-
partment in correlating shipping with
the requirements Of the line Of sup
plies for the western front; with the
! war industries board in seeking solu-
/ ton of the problem of bringing neces-
sary raw imports into the country, and
with the war trade board in preparing
the lists Of essential imports and ex-
ports.
/ AS the country has gone more and
more on war basis, it has been re-
garded necessary to limit the list of
essential imports to less than 100.
! Data on the ships and their trade pro-
] vide the basis for operation of the
vessels under the shipping boards con-
troll. Likewise records are kept OF
neutral vessels coming to this coun-
try or linking up with it's foreign
trade.
Thus the division checks daily about
1000 vessels, 1,5O0 of them being those
of the shipping board, 5000 engaged
! directly in American commerce and
! $500 scattered over the globe and
trading for the most part. with the al
! lies or their colonies. Roughly, one
fourth of the merchant ships of the
world are watched by the shipping
board,
Charts for Each Ship.
| Ship performances against tasks are
recorded by progress charts" which
show at glance what the vessels have
/ to do and how they are doing it. Each
set of charts Is divided into ten di-
visions-one each for movements Of
vessels, turn-arounds, ships charts OF
commodities, individual commodity
charts, summary of imports, individual
trades, summary of trades, ship charts
/; of exports, performances in ports and
dock performances. Copies are dis
tributed every ten days to govern
ments which require constant inforna-
: ton about the movement of supplies.
By these movement charts any in
; formation regarding locations and
movements of vessels Is accessible,
and from past performances one may
forecast the time of future voyages.
The summary on shipping and trade,
! prepared every ten days for the war
industries and war trade boards and
the food administration, helps shape
the larger policies underlying the use
Of American ships in war time. The
chayts tell whether the ships allocated
to a certain trade are enough, too
many or too few; whether they bring
in too little or too much; whether
J they are on time, ahead Of time or
behind time and whether the trade
! movement is too slow, too fast or just
right. The charts also serve to guide
the ship control committee in the as
signment of vessels to various trades.
By comparing import requirements
against deliveries the charts show
when vessels may be transferred from
! one trade to another or released to the
army.