The New York herald., 1921-09-04


near future. German silence on these
points Is not a conspiracy of deep
secrecy to hide information which any
one can gather who takes the pains. 1t
Is, however, undoubtedly an enort TO
avoid arousing anxiety and snoulder-
ing hostility ABROAD through boasting.
The best picture of the present effort
In Germany to reconstruct merchant
marine can be gathered from character
istic details In the reconstruction OF
three OF the largest and most energetic
companies, the Hamburg American
Steamship Company. the North German
Lloyd and the Hugo SHINES lines.
OF all the lines. the Hamburg-Ameri-
can Steamship Company was hardest
hit by war and by defeat. The Ham,
burg American Steamship Company de-
livered 17S ships, totalling 1.235 1857 Brit
ish register tons to the Alliks. almost
half the total amount of German mer-
chant ship tonnage.
With the idea that 1t Is better to
divide the pie and to have a small slice
rather than to be off the sea altogether.
the Hamburg-American Line concluded
the now well known and successfully
functioning agreement with the Harri-
man group to build up joint service.
Less well known is the working agree
ment the Hamburg American concluded
with the Williams Diamond line, assur-
ing regular ship sailings between Ham
burg and San Francisco.
The Hamburg American Company
made similar pools and working
agreements with smaller lines at home,
all OF which, tend toward rapid return
of the Hamburg-American to world mar
kets. This led to the forming of pools
and working agreements with the Woer-
mann and East African lines. and the
assimilation of the Levant lines. The
Hamburg-American also has exchanged
blocks of shares with the Hamburg
South American line.
The Hamburg-American Is intro
ducing three ships of class
adapted to meet new shipping con-
ditions, moderate sized third class
passenger ships OF $4,000 tons each. with
much freight space. These are the Ba-
varia, Wurtemburg and the Saxony, all
of similar construction. The old peutsch-
land has been renovated and 'rechris-
tened the Hanso making Its maiden
voyage to New York as a third class
passenger ship the middle of September.
An important recent purchase Is the
Cap Polonia, a new German ship re-
turned by the British. This 1S,00O-ton
ship is one of the finest In its class.
saw it recently just after 1t was docked
at Hamburg. / was then of the Inn
preston that the British must have
some particular reason to favor the
Hamburg South American line to re-
turn a first class ship Of this sort.
asked one Of the directors II this was
the case. He denied this. adding that
German firms can now buy back almost
any German ship in England at very
low price. Elsewhere 1t was rumored
that the English shippers Lamport &
Jnlt xfhiC ia
associated. lent their friendly interven-
ton. 1t is significant that the terms
of the sale are not known.
Discussing this sale with director.
learned that they regard this purchase
even at the low price as something OF
a speculation only justified because they
know the construction of the ship to be
thorough and because 1t is new and i'm
mediately available. In general. Ger
man lines prefer to pay more for new
ships exactly adapted to future needs
rather than to buy back old ones. Many
of the old ones are antiquated and are
too large fuel consumers to meet pres
ent straitened shipping conditions.
A series OF transactions about which
little is known abroad are purchases OF
ships from Scandinavian countries, no.
tably from Sweden. The Hapag has
bought several freighters. apparently
on an outright sale basis where the
property changed hands, but where in
reality the transaction is but camou-
fiaged charter.
Fewer Facilities IN Bremen.
The ships transferred in this way sail
under the German flag and with German
crews. At the end OF certain number
of years they revert to their original
owners. Such transfers have the double
advantage to the Germans OF giving them
ships without delay and without burden
ing themselves with old tonnage. To
the Swedes 1t means a modest return.
which is better than having their ships
lying idle in ports at home 1t is said
that the Danish Government has not yet
permitted this sort Of transaction.
For various reasons the North Ger
man Lloyd has been much slower In
coming back on an Independent footing
than the Hamburg american line. The
original agreement with the United
States Mail Steamship Company leaves
the Bremen line less freedom than the
Hartman one, and indeed tends to make
the N. G.. L. more the agents OF the
American firm. Bremen has not the
same port and shipbuilding facilities as
Hamburg. In general the N G. l.. seems
to have adopted a policy of waiting de-
velopments In the immediate future
rather than putting back German ships
on the sea at all costs. as the Hapag is
doing. The N. G. l.. has, however. two
new $4,000 ton ships. the Tegesach and
the Bremerhafen, in the Brazil-La Plata
service.
= Hugo SHINES. the uncrowned king of
Germany. has now broadened his inter-
ests from the river shipping. at which
his family amassed large fortune, to
world shipping. Not content to be
modest second. he began pushing the
Hamburg g-American line In South Amer
lea, and now proposes competing else
where in the world ports. He had the
lead on the Hamburg American because
he already had several ships which he
could use for South America, while the
Hamburg American lost all its ships to
the Allies. He now has launched three OF
four $4,000 ton passenger ships named
after -udendorff. Hindenbnrg and
Tirpitz. He also Is launching several
1000 ton freighters. among which are
the East Prussia. Upper Silesia and the
Havesstein. Two OF these ships have
bodies composed Of two submarines built
together, with prows and sterns added.
From the progress already made, Ger
man shipping firms have proved their
will to live, and will no doubt be an i'm
portant factor again in world trade
Handicapped in wealth and immediate
tonnage. they are making the fullest u.s.
of their ability to offer low rates, and
OF their adaptabillty to new conditions.
Already they are picking up the crumbs
of trade which fall From richer tables