The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-27
FREIGHT CAPACITY OF RIVER INCREASES
 WITH NEW VESSELS
By January 1 Annual Ga pacity Will Be 1,264,OOO Tons-Examples of the
 Saving in Rates

What about the freight carrying ca racity of the Warrior river craft when all the new and present towboats and self-propellers are in service?
 This question has been asked. The answer is forthcoming in exact figures as follows:
 The present craft on the river consists of the following:
 The towboats Volcano, Clio. Darling and Nugent They have each a ca pacity of 4ooo tons per month, a total of 16,OoO
 Five gas-driven self -propellers with capacity of 1,5O0 tons each, or a total for the five of 7500 tons,
 This is the present river capacity. The total is 23,50O tons per month.
 The new craft is as follows
 Three towboats, the Cordova. the De- mopolis and the Montgomery. the last of them to be launched Saturday at Jeffersonville, hid. 'The capacity of each of these towboats Is three times that of the present ones and their to- tai one-way monthly capacity will be 3 l.500 tons.
 The four new self-propelers, the Tuscaloosa and the Birmingham, which have been launched. and the Mobile and Gulfport (which will be rechris- tened Bessemer in all probability, to be launched next, will have a capac- ity each of 5000 tons.
 By September l Manager DeBardele- ben will have a fleet of 67000 tons capacity per month and by January 1, when the two remaining self-propel- lers are in service, he will have one-way capacity of 79,000 tons per month.
 AN EIGHT-FOOT RIVER
 However this capacity is based on six foot lock system. But by January l, there will be an eight foot lock sys- tenn. This will add one-third to the carrying capacity of the craft. There fore the 79,000 tons per month on six foot lock system will be by Janu- ary 1, increased to 105,o0o tons per month under the eight foot lock sys- tenn.
 This means an annual capacity, after January 1 of the new and old craft combined of 1,264,0O0 tons.
 UPSTREAM BUSINESS
 By that time there will be suf- ficient number of steel containers for
  business per annum.
 These figures are exact and ac- curate.
 The third towboat, the Montgomery, will be launched at the yards of the Howard Shipbuilding and Dock Com pany in Jeffersonville,. Ind, on Satur- day. This vessel and it's sisters each have 900 horse power and are three times the size of anything now on the -,r and pulling power they cost no more to operate than the present towboats, or about s3.000 per month
 The Cordova is to make :. her trial trip on the Ohio river next week The indications are that this vessel will be making her first trip up from Mo- hile by July 1. The other two tow- boats should follow in three and six weeks. By August 15 the three will be on the river, adding over 30,000 tons per month to the carrying capacity of the river fleet.
 BIG SAVINGS IN FREIGHT
 Another question has been asked It is this:
 "Is there real saving through the operation of this 20 per cent rail and water differential via the Warrior?'
 The answer is:
 One subscriber to the capital stock of the Port of Birmingham Corpora tion saved $1,200 on one shipment of steel billets from New Orleans to Bir- mingham by the Warrior the saving being 80 cents per ton. Had not a DOT tion of the movement gotten to the railroads. the consignees would have saved $2.000. their entire subscription on this shipment. It was not surprisx ing that this concern took out another $1 900 of Port of Birmingham stock
 About 15,000 tons of steel shapes. including billets, rails and plates, have gone down the river through Birmingport. The saving was 66 cents per ton freight and 25 cents per ton wharfage. total saving of 61 cents a ton. The 15,00o tons of steel going down the river has saved the shippers by moving through Birmingport some thing over $S,000.
 Just that fast does subscription money come back through use of Bir- mingport.
 Incidentally Manager DeBardeleben says he expects the -propellers Birmingham and Tuscaloosa to be in permanent service on the river Sep tember 1.