TONNAGE OF MERCHANT VESSELS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3315, 6 September 1911, Page 8

TONNAGE OF MERCHANT VESSELS.

" A SHIPBUILDING RECORD

Shipbuilders have a- reputation for setting up records. This time it is not with respect to the size or the speed of individual ships, but with regard to the tonnage of merchant vessels under construction.. Lloyd’s Register gives the figure- a,t 30th June last as 1,476,304 tons, the biggest ever attained. To get anything approacliing it Ave must go back to- September, 1001, when the total avus 62,000 tons less. The return does not, of course, mean that practically a. million and a half tons of shipping have been ordered during the past quarter. What it implies is that at the end of the quarter previous accumuiatiomis and new orders bad between- them provided work, in various stages of completion-, to the extent notified. It is well ‘lrnoAvn that shipbuilders) have in many instances had to decline- additional contracts because they could not oromise delivery. It is worth noting that the -present return, which is exclusive of warships, relates to a period ini which private shipbuilders have undertaken a- great deal of warship construction. It ’ folloAVs that the industry is working at a. high pressure, in, sharp contrast Avith those gainful periods of depression which regularly characterise it. In the, main this activity is tlie outcome of the enterprise of British shipowners, for 1,200,000 tons out of 1,476,000 are intended for the United Kingdom. British colonies are England’s best- outside customers, Avith Norway. Holland, and Germany following , in the order named. The return slioavs that there are at present tAvo vessels of over 20,000 tons now building in British yards. One e.-f them is the Aouitania, the Cunard leviathan and the other the White Star Line’s Titanic. Avihioh is completing