New-York tribune., 1921-06-20
Eleven Million
Tons Problem
For Ship Board
Nearly 9,000,00 Tons of
Governments Fleet Is
Made Up of Steel Cargo
Vessels, Chiefly Tramps
2-5 Wood Boats on Hand
Passenger Liners Represent
Only $4,000 Tons; Big
Cut in Values Planned

President Harding's suggestion that
me Shipping Board should follow a
aolicy of disposing of the governments
oSned tonnage to private interests at
ne highest prices obtainahle puts
ssusrely up to the board the matter of
speedily ascertaining just how much
II market there is for ships.
Admiral Benson's recent call for
bids on some of the boards tonnage
brought little response, Offers of $50
desdweight ton were made for
some Of the cargo vessels. The shrink
aee in ship values is indicated bv the
sses that for one of the same vessels
I, bid Of S195 q ton was made about
,he time Of the armistice.
With millions of tons of ships laid
I'd al the present time for lack of
eargoes there is little expectation
among shipping men that a market can
bs found for any large volume of ton
asge in the immediate future, but the
long delayed step of writing of the
excess costs of construction due to the
var can now be taken and the prices
brought down to a level at which the
real transfer of the ships from gov
ernment to private ownership can at
least be begun.
No announcement has ever been made
hy the Shipping Board as to just how
much of its tonnage was to be classed
as thoroughly fitted to meet modern
shipping needs It is estimated, how
ever, that it will be we'll in excess of
100000 deadwei ight tons.
Board Has Huge Fleet
From report just made by the
Shipping Board 10 the Senate in
response TO resolution introduced by
Senator Edge, it is now possible to fe-
are just what the boards feet will
amount 70 and how it is divided. This
report gives the ships owned bv the
government on March I last, and the
tonnage building and to be built. the
three classes together forming the total
Of the government merchant marine.
On TINS basis, it is shown, the grand
;otal Of the boards holdings will be
1893 vessels, aggregating 11.602. .416
tens, Of which 1.457 ships Of 10,4S6190
IONS represent steel steamers. the re-
naming 1,1l6,226 tons being wooden.
composite and concrete boats. number
ing about $50.
More than so per cent of the steel
steamers are cargo vessels, tankers
representing about per cent, combi-
aaaon passenger and cargo ships about
"a per cent. Of the 584,S4S tons OF
this latter type, 277,434 tons are
sslsed ex-enemy vessels, so that the
tontri button of American shipyards
amounts to only about 100000 tons OF
liners
Tramp Types in Majority
Of the steel steamers, 1,274-aggre-
getting S,965 769 tons-are cargo yes
sels, mostly Of the tramp type. There
i2 a great surplus Of this kind of ton
nage throughout the world, and the
prospects for the sale of large vol
une OF these ships av present are not
regarded as bright. Better success,
however, is expected with the special
types OF steel vessels, such as tankers
and refrigerator steamers, and later
with the combination passenger and
cargo liners. But all these latter types
represent only about 1,625,0o0 dead
weight tons.
Included in the boards holdings are
2I5 wooden cargo steamers, of 1922 1898
tons There is little prospect of selling
these
As the Shipping Board has expended
over $4,000 000, 600 it is evident that
even the sale OF It's entire tonnage
would return only fraction of the
original expenditure. If the board has
to0O,Q00 tens Of desirable steel ships
and could dispose of them on an aver
age of $50 Z ton, which is doubtful,
the receipts would aggregate only
$500,000,d00, or less than d tenth of the
outlay. That there must be a drastic
Fe2dJustment of values is apparent.