Port of New York Authority Changes Retiring Chairman, E. H. Outerbridge, Highly Eulogized

At a meeting of the Port Authority on March 27, 1924, Commissioner E. H. Outerbridge retired as Chairman, and introduced Mr. Otto B. Shulholf, appointed a Commissioner of the Port Authority by Governor Smith to succeed Mr. Outerbridge.

The Commission passed the following resolution in appreciation of Chairman Outerbridge:

"The Commissioners of the Port Authority desire to record in this minute the invaluable services rendered to the States of New York and New Jersey and to the work of the Port Authority since its inception by Eugenius H. Outerbridge, its Chairman, toward removing intolerable congestion and expensive conditions of handling traffic and toward developing the Port of New York.

"Appointed by the State of New York as one of its three Commissioners, Mr. Outerbridge was elected Chairman at its organization meeting.

"He came to the Port Authority with a fund of experience in the matters with which it had to deal that was unusual. Having been President of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, for many years an outstanding figure representing the highest interests of the Port as steamship operator, merchant, and financier, he had acquired through long experience a wide and diversified knowledge not only of the transportation conditions obtaining in the Port District on both sides of the Hudson River, but of their relationships with the nation at large.

"Later, when he was appointed by the State of New York a member of the New York, New Jersey Port and Harbor Development Commission, he was enabled to apply intensively his business experience and vision to the monumental work of study and planning, in collaboration with our late Chief Engineer, Mr. Cresson, and his very able staff, that was embodied in the Joint Report with Comprehensive Plan and Recommendations submitted by that body to the two States in December, 1920. He, therefore, became Chairman

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of the Port Authority at its organization April 25, 1921, with an added mastery of the problem of Port development conntributing to the report in December of that year, that outlined the economic needs of commerce and the broad considerations of public policy which bore upon the interests of the Port as a whole, as well as the relations of each part. "This report had to suggest plans for prompt relief and to project larger plans for future development far ahead, in order that the growth of the Port District under the treaty between the States, their enabling acts, and the approving direction of Congress might be symmetrical and just. sent of the municipalities and of all local bodies having to do with trade and transportation within the Port had been secured and exhaustive conferences with the representatives of the carriers had been held before recourse was had to the legislative powers which finally made the Comprehensive Plan as presented by the Port Authority the law of the land. "To this work, unsparing in its demands upon his time and energies, while his leadership won constant and wholehearted public consent during the crucial stages of organization and during the enlightenment and reconcilement of the great interests and of the public whose cooperation was invoked, he devoted himself without counting the sacrifice to his health and private business.

"It can be very properly recorded here that without his masterly ability, his knowledge of men, his acquaintance with the leaders of commerce and finance in New York, as well as with the representatives of the railroads, the work of the Port Authority would have lagged and would never have progressed to the stage to which it has attained. It was with keen regret that the members of the Port Authority learned that Mr. Outerbridge had tendered his resignation to the Governor of New York many months ago, and that it was only through the urgent request of the Governor that he remained a member of the Commission. Nevertheless, during all this period, even after he had submitted his resignation he continued the service that he was rendering these two States. He retires after the active cooperation of the trunkline carriers entering the Port District has been assured through their recent agreement with the Port Authority for the effectuation of the first step of the Comprehensive Plan. "Therefore, be it resolved, that we, his associates, cannot (Continued on Page 32)

HE distinction of being the first passenger steam

at Stapleton, Staten Island, fell to the lot of the splendid Dollar Line steamship President Harrison, which inaugurated the round-the-world passenger steamship service of the Dollar Company, sailing from San Francisco on January 5. The Dollar Line in its roundthe-world service is to be congratulated on being able to utilize one of the finest of this cluster of piers upon which the City of New York has expended $25,000,000, and it was additionally fortunate to be able to avail of the highly skilled services of the Union Transport Company, famed for its quick discharging and rapid turnaround successes. While the Dollar Company is pledged to the Government to operate this round-the-world passenger steamship line for at least five years, it will find that the use of the Municipal Staten Island pier will help to give enduring permanency to the first round-theworld service established under any flag.

The President Harrison came from Boston, passing Sandy Hook at 6:42 in the morning of March 27th, proceeded right past Quarantine and at 7:45 was moored to her berth on the south side of Pier 15, Union Transport Terminal, at Stapleton, Staten Island. At 8:00 o'clock the immigration service tug hove alongside and inspected the passengers while the ship lay at her berth. The first passenger landed at 8:15, passed the customs inspection on the wharf, jumped into a Yellow taxicab and reached his hotel in Manhattan at 9:40 in the morning.

Passengers Dubious at First Finally Delighted The fact that the Dollar liner planned to dock at Staten Island at first brought out considerable discussion among the passengers, the thought being that it was not near enough to Manhattan hotels, a prejudice soon dissipated. Hon. John A. Lynch, President of the Borough of Rich

mond, accompanied by a committee of members of the

headed by its president, Max Thaten, after witnessing the docking of the President Harrison, boarded the vessel and heartily welcomed the master of the ship and his distinguished party of travelers. When the character of Staten Island's transportation facilities was explained to the ship's passengers, and they realized that they were but thirty minutes from Broadway, Manhattan, and that they could all be at their New York hotels by ten o'clock, they were highly pleased and considered themselves as extremely fortunate, a feeling that was enhanced when Captain Ahlin, master of the President Harrison, told them that it would have been impossible for him to have docked at any Manhattan North River pier before ten o'clock, after which the customs inspectors, and that it would have been noon before they could have reached their Manhattan hotels.

San Francisco Chamber of Commerce's Touring Committee

It turned out that the round-the-world initiatory trip had been made by a committee of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, headed by Mr. Philip S. Teller, the committee's chairman, who realized that the President Harrison was making history in an unexpected way by berthing in Richmond Borough, and, in addition, being the first passenger liner to enjoy that distinction. When this became known among the passengers they disembarked in a state of high good humor. Borough President Lynch offered to expedite the transfer of passengers to Manhattan by bringing to the pier one of the fast new municipal ferryboats, but this hospitality was not availed of because the Dollar Company had provided taxicabs to whisk the passengers to their several destinations in Manhattan. (Continued on Page 22)

LOS ANGELES BILTMORE HOTEL

LOS ANGELES CAL
JAMES WOODS V.P

AND SHIP NEWS

THE BELLEVIEW BELLEAIR FLORIDA EARLE E. CARLEY V.P.

Dollar Passenger Round-the-World Liner

Docks at Staten Island

(Continued from Page 20)

Captain Ahlin Likes Staten Island's Piers Captain Ahlin warmly expressed his pleasure at the ease with which he was able to dock the President Harrison, and predicted that it would not be long before other passenger liners would realize the advantages to be had at the city's Staten Island piers, the avoidance of trouble, and the quickness of getting into their berths. Owners and officers of twin-screw ships, said Captain Ahlin, would find that they could, if they wished, berth their vessels at Staten Island without the aid of tugs. He was also pleased to find the wharves double-deckers, of the most modern construction, and unexcelled by any piers in the world, there being, too, plenty of water in the slips at all times to enable even the largest liners to dock with ease and safety.

sufficient area readily to receive from five to eight thousand tons of freight with a few days' time. To our mind the Staten Island piers meet every important requisite, particularly Piers 15 and 16 of the Union Transport Terminal, pioneers in the operation of this round dozen of new municipal wharves. First of all these piers are double-deckers, so as to make easy the separation of passenger and freight operations; secondly, the piers are from 1050 to 1125 feet long and 130 feet wide, with a minimum depth of water of 30 feet at low tide and slip room of from 275 to 360 feet at the bulkheads, thus eliminating all possibility of pier congestion. Each of these Union Transport piers provide 256,500 square feet of covered shed and floor space, and are provided with cargo masts which can be used for extra burtoning systems, so that a steamer can be worked with a greater number of gangs than is possible at a single deck pier, or a pier not so equipped.

It transpires that the Union Transport Terminal was able to work 13 gangs simultaneously in the discharge of the cargo of the President Harrison, and that it required the whole lower deck of Pier 15 (1050x130 feet) to accommodate that part of her cargo destined for New York, when properly piled and sorted according to bill of lading marks. It is well known that neither the Hoboken or North River piers are large enough to accommodate such quantities of freight at one discharging.

Service

The steamship President Harrison is one of seven new passenger steamships purchased by the Dollar Company from the United States Shipping Board which maintain a service with but fourteen days of interval. On this, the first trip of the first ship of the new service, a party of San Franciscans, members of the Chamber of Commerce, manufacturers, business men, and others, under the auspices of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, made the round voyage for the purpose of advertising American trade through the world. There was also on board an exhibit of samples of various American products and manufactures, which have been inspected by businessmen and others in the ports of Honolulu, Kobe, Shanghai, Manila, Singapore, Penang, Colombo, Aden, Suez, Genoa, Marsailles, Boston and New York, there being yet ahead of her Havana and the Panama Canal, then Los Angeles, before returning to her port of departure, San Francisco.

Staten Island Piers Best Meet Dollar Line's Needs

The selection of a modern terminal suitably located at New York has probably perplexed the Dollar Line officials, but it is believed that the testing out of Staten Island's facilities has solved that problem. Doubtless. this fortnightly round-the-world service hinges largely upon the one necessity, that of maintaining schedule time, which, in the last analysis, means expeditious discharge of large quantities of cargo which each steamer of the President class must carry to help sustain capital investment and operating costs. As New York is naturally a heavy port, it necessarily calls for modern piers of

The Richmond Borough Board of Trade & Transportation, which has taken a keen interest in attracting business to the new city piers at Staten Island, was represented at the docking of the President Harrison by a committee to welcome the ship, her master, her passengers and her company, composed of the following members: Max Thaten, President; J. A. Savadel, Recording Secretary; H. Fitzsimons, Field Secretary; A. R. Smith, Editor THE PORT OF NEW YORK AND SHIP NEWS; A. W. Clapp, Oscar A. Krueger, Frank B. Sterner and C. T.

Bright Star Battery Co. in Hoboken

Harrison S. Colburn Co. has leased the third floor of the Hoboken Terminal (21,000 sq. ft.) to the Bright Star Battery Co. for the Eclipse Machinery Co. of Elmira Heights, N. Y., for a period of years.

Some American Shipping Figures

On January 1, 1924, there were 2,023 vessels over 500 tons' register, aggregating 6,241,659 gross tons privately owned in the United States. At the same time the United States Shipping Board owned 1,404 vessels of over 1,000 tons, aggregating 6,546,484 gross tons-this out of a total of something more than 16,000,000 gross tons of shipping of every kind owned in the United States, which grand total is five million tons less than the registered tonnage of Great Britain.

The Great Port of Antwerp

During 1923 no less than 9,351 vessels, of 17,349,098 tons entered the port of Antwerp, Belgium, as compared with 7,056 vessels, of 14,146,819 tons entered in 1913, which shows that the chief port of Belgium-which is the most densely populated country in the world-is back into her stride as one of the world's greatest ports.