The Wyandotte herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1879-1943, 1940-06-14
Trade Grows at
Baltimore Port
Foreign Commerce Clearing
Attains 20-Year Peak
This Year.

WASHINGTON, D. c. Foreign
srade clearing through the port o:
Baltimore has this year reached
[O-year peak, giving the Maryland
metropolis in the first month of the
year foreign trade valued at more
than $25,O0O,OOO
Baltimore earliest claim to in
ternational fame came through the
development of the Baltimore clip
pcrs, long, low, fast sailing vessels
OF the schooner type, which sailed
the seas at the beginning of the
Nineteenth century," says the Ma
ional Geographic society.
Ships of this type were impor-
tant factors in the sea battles of
I0l2, this naval experience further
developing the clipper They were
reputed the fastest ships that could
be devised by human ingenuity, and
were extremely popular with priva-
teers, smugglers and slavers even
before 1900. They thrilled the mid
century by crossing the Atlantic In
Is days.
Received First Steamer.
The port of Baltimore received
The first steamship to steam and sail
westward across the Atlantic. This
was the City of Kingston, arriving in
1883. Clearing from her birthplace,
London, she was sailing from ia
maica TO New York when engine
trouble caused her to put in to the
Baltimore Shipyards for repair. She
had made the trip to Jamaica in
20 days. In the German submarine,
Deutschland, Baltimore received the
first commercial undersea voyager
20 cross the Atlantic.
AT Baltimore was built the ia
nous Constellation, first of the &C.
inch gun frigates of the United
States navy, launched there in 1897.
Completely rebuilt several times,
the Constellation is still afoat, tied
up at Newport, r. l. Maryland pro-
Glded Is ships for use by the young
y. S. navy in the War of 1912, in
addition to nearly a hundred priva-
teerS. In Baltimore were made the
iron plates for the famous Monitor
To-day Baltimore is an active
shlpbuilding center, with much of
the steel plate received from the
clty'S own steel mill. This Balti-
more mill employs about 10000 men
and IS running full time in the max
ing of steel plates, sheets, rails,
wire and tin plate. The tin plate
IS big item IN foreign trade, 60
ing to the far corners of the earth.
Ships bound for Japan seldom leave
without picking up some of this tin
I'm addition, Baltimore has nine
plants engaged in the fabrication of
steel for structural work, and the
port is nearer the steel CenterS of
Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Cleveland,
Gary and Chicago than any other
major port.
Hest to 1000 Ships Annually.
Baltimore had been the colonial
center of population, and as the pop
ulation center shifted, it moved
steadily due west from Baltimore,
leaving this Atlantic port the near
est TO the greatest number of per-
sons in the United States, the clos
est port to the interior of the coun-
try. It exports from 38 states and
routes imports to 33. Baltimore's
vast and varied industries are in
themselves responsible for large i'm
ports and exports.
Automobile shipments from De-
troit frequently cross Lake Erie by
boat to Buffalo, whence they are
transported over highways 10 the
Iort of Baltimore, which receives
many other automobile shipments
From Baltimore the cars go to
Americas far-hung foreign market
or to cities along the southeastern
coast. TO ports on the Gulf of Mex
leo, and, through the Panama canal
to South Americas Pacific ports
"Aoout 1000 ocean ships enter the
Baltimore harbor annually. The port
last year had 81 steamship lines op-
Grating 62 oversee and coastwiSe
services. In the overseas traffic,
80 lines had 40 services.
The port of Baltimore is not on
the ocean, nor is it, strictly speak
ing, on Chesapeake bay, but on the
Patapsco river, II miles from it's
entrance into the bay, and los miles
from the Virginia capes. The ex-
pansion of the Chesapeake and Della
ware canal, making it navigable by
-ocean-going vessels, has made the
port more accessible to many Eu-
ropean ports.
The harbor has a water front of
127 miles, with about IS miles de-
veloped. The % railroad piers alone
will accommodate 80 vessels draw
ing "a feet of water. One terminal