New Porto Rico Liner Coamo Just Launched at Newport News

New Speed Record for Cargo Carriers

Flettner Still Experimenting

Luckenbach Leads Westbound

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Newark-Boston All-Water Service

New $3,000,000 Erie R. R. Pier

At the Entrance to tht Port of New York

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Morse Dry Dock Company Reconditions Two Ward Liners

Railroad Rates Within The Port Testimony offered by Billings Wilson, traffic manager of the Port Authority, at the Interstate Commerce Commission's hearing last month, shows a great lack of uniformity in railroad freight rates within the boundaries of the Port District which the Port Authority seeks to have made uniform and generally lower, as will be shown from a brief review of what Mr. Wilson brought out at the hearing, to be found elsewhere in this issue.

A discrimination against New Jersey industrial and commercial centers within the Port District is alleged in the matter of shipments to and from New England points. That section of the Port of New York, nevertheless, is growing faster than other sections in some respects, details of which are most interesting; but it is felt they would grow faster if the discriminations ceased. It is pointed out that such practices do not prevail in other important cities, and in respect to many railroad lines even within the port rates are uniform, although rates are regarded as far too high in the section complaining. The Port Authority would have a system of switching charges established of $15.00 per car instead of the present rates which average $40-a drastic cut.

Natural conditions lend themselves in this port to minimum instead of maximum transshipment charges, and the sooner the former obtain the better for the port.

Government Ships May Be Scrapped

Attorney General Sargent late last month put forth an opinion to the effect that the Shipping Board has all the authority necessary to permit it to approve the sale of 200 Government-owned ships to Henry Ford for $1,706,000 for scrapping. He holds that the proposed sale was arranged under the discretionary authority of the Board as defined in the Mercrant Marine Act giving to the Board the right to make such sales "on such conditions as the Board may prescribe. The law," the opinion continued, "authorized the Board to fix the conditions of the sale as it had fixed them, and to make the sale under the terms proposed."

Any day, therefore, we may expect that the 200 ships will be sold to Henry Ford, for scrapping. Whether or not Mr. Ford will scrap all of them, remains to be seen. It has been stated that he inserted in his bid his right to use some of the ships for commercial purposes if he saw fit, and that he plans to use fifty of them in that way, a statement, however, that has been denied, but not by Mr. Ford.

So, we are in the way of getting rid of 400 Government-owned ships, because there is another batch of 200 yet to be sold, for scrapping purposes. As the Board only owns 1,180 ships, all told, the scrapping of 25 400 of them will go a long way to relieve the world, and foreign shipping, of the competition of Uncle 25 Sam's ships. After it has sold 400 it may sell 121 25 more, a committee of "experts" having declared that 521 of the Government-owned ships were "surplus".

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It should be noted that the United States is the ONLY nation that is scrapping any of its merchant ships.

Ships For $5.75 Per Deadweight Ton It is reported that the Carolina Company, operating the six freight ships of the Palmetto Line, offered $5.75 per deadweight ton for the purchase of them, or $45,022.50 per ship, each of the ships having a deadweight tonnage of 7,830, and that President Palmer of the Fleet Corporation recommended to the Shipping Board that the latter should accept the Carolina company's offer. The Board, however, withheld its approval of the purchase, and returned the recommendation to President Palmer, asking that it be given opportunity to scrutinize the contract for purchase. This is due, it is reported, to a clause in the contract giving the Carolina Company the right to reduce the number of sailings, even to the extent of 33 1/3 per cent. It is not reported that the Shipping Board objected to the amount of the per ton bid.

A number of other bids for fleets of ships were before the Fleet Corporation, some of them, it was said, for sums per ton more than three times as high as the bid of the Carolina Company, and that, as a result of the latter's bid, and the favorable consideration it was receiving, there was a general wholesale disposition on the part of higher bidders to reduce very greatly the amount of their bids.

It will be extremely interesting to know, all in the Shipping Board's own good time, and gracious indulgence, what the details of the bids are, the recommendations, and, most of all, the terms of the sale, as to amount to be paid, and when it is to be paid.

Not long ago $30 a ton was regarded as a very low price for Shipping Board ships. Now it has dropped to $5.25. Perhaps, presently, the Board will pay a bonus or a premium to operators who will take title to its ships and agree to run them on the terms the Shipping Board prescribes. Even then, of course, the Board might make money through reducing the amount of its losses on the ships.

Shipping Preferences Harmful, Say British

If there is one thing that Great Britain is notable for it is her concern for the welfare of other parts of the world. For over eighty years she has been telling the world how much better off it would be if it would adopt free trade. An incident of such adoption would be to enable British goods to find larger markets, but that, of course, had nothing whatever to do with the matter. Having milked free trade dry, Britain is now adopting protection, but this has nothing to do, her statesmen tell us, with the superior benefits to the rest of the world that would follow its adoption of free trade.

Now we are advised that the British government is

about to issue a 700-page survey of the whole field of British overseas markets and trade, dealing with every conceivable aspect. Great Britain is on the eve of the readoption of protection for the safeguarding of her industries, but the report in question we are told “expresses the opinion that while tariffs are doubtless an important obstacle to the flow of international trade, it appears that, taking British trade as a whole, the tariff increases instituted since 1913 have not been an

important factor in retarding the recovery of British trade," that is to say, British trade succeeds in spite of the protection given it of recent years. The survey

says:

"The committee deprecates the modern tendency of nations to give preferential treatment to national shipping as injurious to international commerce."

For two full centuries, ending in 1850, Great Britain. gave preferential treatment to her national shipping, a

result of which was to make of Holland an inferior power and drive her shipping from the seas, and to enable British shipping to supplant Dutch as the world's carrier. She only abandoned the policy when she found that the cost of her iron ships was less than iron ships could be built for in the rest of the world. Presently, when Britons find that the cost of shipbuilding in Great Britain is permanently much higher than in Continental countries, it is our opinion that again she will adopt preferential treatment for her own, as, indeed, toward that her colonies now show a strong tendency.

What Great Britain thinks is best for the rest of the world she does not necessarily think is best for herself; but other nations should not disregard the disinterestedness of her advice to them as to what they should best do-the British have a really uncanny knowledge of what is best for all the world, and, if the world should really go exactly contrary to what Britons advise it might do what Great Britain really thinks would be best for it.

American Merchant Marine Policies

Federal operation of shipping or Federal aid to private owners are the only alternatives open to the United States if it would establish a sound merchant marine policy, according to Gen. J. G. Harbord, president of the Radio Corporation of America, who addressed the Committee of the Relation of the Merchant Marine to American Foreign Trade and National Defense, in India House, on July 28. He spoke as chairman of the com

mittee.

Government operation would cost about $40,000,000 annually, and the second plan could be carried through at an annual expenditure of $15,000,000, he predicted. Unless one of these plans is adopted, Gen. Harbord said he saw the "gradual but certain disappearance of our flag from international trade routes and the return to prewar trade conditions, when less than 10 per cent of our foreign commerce was carried in American vessels."

The Government now owns about 80 per cent of the 400 vessels of American registry engaged in overseas trade, the General said.

F

OR nearly sixty years (beginning in 1867) the Old Dominion Steamship Company has been operating ships between New York and Virginia ports, more latterly rendering a daily service between New York and Norfolk. The ships of the line were designed by our best naval architects aided by the practical suggestions of the officers of the line who knew just what would best satisfy travelers and what would most facilitate the handling and carrying of freight; and then the ships were built by our best builders, after which they were managed by highly experienced and able

men both ashore and afloat.

The run from New York to Norfol, Virginia, a distance of 328 miles, is made between one o'clock in the afternon and seven o'clock the next morning, giving the traveler a whole day in and about Norfolk-or as much longer as he likes and starting him back at 7 o'clock any evening except Sunday, if he wishes, and landing him in New York early the next afternoon.

The Old Dominion Line publishes a "time table" which show the coastwise points of interest en route, points familiar to all Americans and to most world travelers. It is interesting to follow it; the ship leaves Pier 25, North River, passes the Battery two miles below, then down. through the Upper Bay past the Statue of Liberty, through the beautiful Narrows, past the Romer Light in the Lower Bay, through the Ambrose Channel and past Sandy Hook, the latter 18 miles, or about an hour, from New York. Then, successively, the ship passes Scotland Lightship, Highlands of New Jersey, Long Branch, Asbury Park, Sea Girt, Barnegat, the latter 72 miles from New York; Little Egg Harbor, Brigantine Buoy, Abescon Light at Atlantic City, 105 miles from New York; Delaware Lightship, Five Fathom Bank, Fenwick Island Lightship, the latter about half the distance to Norfolk; then Winter Quarter Lightship, Chincoteague, Hog Island, and, 280 miles from New York, Cape Charles Lightship, in sight of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. Then on past Smith's Island, Cape Henry, Tail of the Horseshoe, Thimbles, Old Point Comfort and Norfolk. The charm about this run is the fact that most of the different points not to be seen without losing sleep during the night, one way, may be seen on the return trip. When the moon it at full there is no more delightful run along the Atlantic Coast than that betwen New York and Norfolk, or vice versa,

with its gleaming sea and phosphorescent wake. Among the pleasures of the trip are music, including plantation melodies, dancing, games and invigorating ocean breezes, as well as the innumerable places of attraction at either end of the run.

Always the most up-to-date ships have been employed on this famous run, which in part accounts for the steady success and ever-growing popularity of the line, the management, composed of as skilled men as are to be found in the steamship business, leaving nothing undone

for the safety, pleasure and comfort of passengers and prompt delivery of freight, much of which, from Norfolk, consists of perishable foodstuffs. In seasons this constitutes a large part of the vessel's cargoes.

Running five fine modern steamships, built, as stated, for the line, they are able to maintain a daily service with ease-in fact could double the daily service if necessary, because, in emergencies, the service has been performed by two ships, which involves unloading and loading within daylight hours of the same day and departure on the day of arrival. As these ships are from 3,000 to 5,000 tons' capacity, it is plain that only the most efficient management makes this possible.

A large number of railroads and steamboat lines are feeders to the Old Dominion Line at Norfolk, including the Atlantic Coast Line, Chesapeake & Ohio, Norfolk & Western, Norfolk Southern, Seaboard Air Line, Southern, Virginian, Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac railroads; the half dozen steamship lines running to Baltimore, Washington, D. C., Richmond and other points in Virginia and Maryland.

Adequately to handle its vast freight business the Old Dominion Line employs 18 lighters and 2 tugs of its own in New York, and 11 lighters and one tug in Norfolk. This year has witnessed the advent of the two latest and finest of the Old Dominion Line ships, the George Washington and Robert E. Lee, each of 5,000, and commanded, respectively, by Captains J. S. Hannan and Guy E. Horsley. The other three ships are: Hamilton, Captain Peter D Nelson; Jefferson, Captain A. C. Gibbs; and Jamestown, Captain W. S. Heath, the Hamilton and Jefferson each being of 4,000 and the Jamestown, 3,000 tons. Until the beginning of this month daily sailings have latterly included Sundays, so greatly is the line driven to meet the demands upon it. The

ships leave New York at 1 P. M., and leave Norfolk at 7 P. M. and arrive at Norfolk and New York, respectively, at A. M. and 2 P. M. the following day.

The George Washington and Robert E. Lee, which went into service this year, are twin ships, designed by Theodore E. Ferris and built by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company. Each is 389 feet 9 inches long, and 53 feet beam, accommodating 300 passengers in 124 staterooms, each of the latter being a revelation in the modern luxury of sea travel, no detail contributing to comfort being omitted. Beautiful beds, commodious wardrobes, thermos water bottles, electric fans, comfortable chairs, handy writing tables and cleverly arranged reading lights all do their share towards making the passenger feel that he is in a fine hotel or amid the luxuries of his own home.

The Old Dominion Line steamers offer a wide range of accommodations and passengers may satisfy their individual inclinations as to extra room charges. For those, who insist upon luxury, there are many de luxe staterooms and suite or single, with twin beds, with double bed and with private connecting bath or shower. For those, who wish to consider economy, there are a number of staterooms of more modest but equally comfortable appointments, and every passenger, irrespective of location, is assured the same courteous service, which has made the Old Dominion the standard and dependable route between New York and Norfolk..

Each steamer has three decks, a magnificent dining room, spacious lounging rooms, social halls, writing rooms, sun parlors, dancing deck, tea room and barber shop. With speed exceeding 16 knots these ships maintain their schedules easily at all times, vibration being practically eliminated through perfect engine and propeller working, this being true of all five ships.

When, nearly sixty years ago, the Old Dominion Line was established, it operated side-wheel steamships, still

affectionately remembered by a few "old-timers" who traveled upon them. They comprised the Hatteras, Albemarle, Niagara and Saratoga, with at times chartered vessels to help out in emergencies. Later ships included the steel side-wheelers, Isaac Bell, Wyanoke and Old Dominion, and the steel screw ships Manhattan, Elder, Breakwater, Richmond, Roanoke, Guyandotte and Princess Anne.

There is probably no short sea trip from New York that possesses a greater charm and interest than that of the Old Dominion Line to Norfolk. This accounts for the ships running "full" so much of the time, and for the demand for cargo space at times putting the management to its wits' ends. The fact that freight-and this is particularly true of fruit and vegetables of every kind in season-being put aboard these ships at Norfolk one day and being in the hands of its consignees in New York the next day-covering a run of 328 miles-is one that appeals to handlers of these commodities. The busy man can board one of these ships early in the afternoon, enjoy many hours of delightful daylight and evening, a comfortable and invigorating night's rest lulled to sleep by the swish of the sea along the sides of the ship, and arrive in Norfolk at 7 o'clock the following morning, with a zest for pleasure or profit, or both, as the case may be. With a full day in and about Norfolk, travelers are able to visit many of the most historical and interesting, and, in many respects, beautiful and attractive, places to be found in America. Every kind of aquatic sport is at hand for those who crave it, and the several great country clubs nearby all make special provision for travelers on the Old Dominion Line to enjoy golf games on their links to their hearts' content.

See Virginia from your own automobile. Drive your car to the pier where it will be promptly loaded aboard the same steamer on which you take passage, and unloaded without delay upon your arrival at Norfolk. Thus

equipped one may enjoy a delightful drive over concrete roads, through historic and picturesque country. A trip home may be made through Richmond, Va., Washington, D. C., Baltimore and Philadelphia, with a side trip to Atlantic City and other famous resorts along the Jersey

coast.

Visitors to Norfolk have their choice of enjoying Virginia Beach, on the ocean front, distant 45 minutes by electric cars, or Ocean View, Cape Henry, Lynnhaven Inlet, Ocean Park, Chesapeake Beach, as well as historic Jamestown and Yorktown, the one famous as the first settlement on the North American continent, and the other for the decisive battle of the Revolutionary War in 1781. It is claimed that the beaches easily and quickly accessible to Norfolk visitors are of the cleanest, safest and most picturesque in the world.

The immediate section tributary to Norfolk has properly been called the sportsman's paradise, because of the variety and abundance of game, in sea and on land. Fish abound in the waters of the bays, inlets, rivers and creeks of the tidal waters in and near Norfolk, or in the beauti

ful woodland-fringed lakes of fresh water. The fish include the huge black and red "drum", regarded as the king of deepsea fish in this locality. "Dog" fish, a species of harmless shark, afford unusual sport, running in size from 5 to 200 pounds; and in addition there are the big grey trout, weakfish and striped bass, as well as a great variety of other fish. The large-mouth black bass of the fresh water lakes is a game fish, the catching and landing of which is a memorable experience. In season quail, wild turkeys, ducks and geese abound.

Those possessing more time for sport may find it even more exciting in the near-by Dismal Swamp, where deer and bear are to be found, as well as wild fowl of every kind and in the greatest abundance. Many hours might be spent and many pages covered in describing its attractions. The charm of it all is to see and enjoy it for one's self. What wonder that the Old Dominion Line is attractive to travelers?

While what has been said may be of a character possibly to appeal more to Northerners, yet for Southerners the whole vast maritime section of which Norfolk is the cen