FOR MARINE TRANSPORTATION MEN
[Sidenote: Problems of the Near Future]
The immediate future of marine commerce cannot fail to be very greatly
affected by changed conditions. No one believes that England, Germany,
France, Russia, Austria, Japan and China will be able, before the middle
of the century, to establish a stable adjustment of the international
difficulties which surround them. No one knows what changes the Panama
Canal may make in the movement of freights within the first ten years of
its operation. No one knows to what industry the United States may next
apply the methods by which the country has created the age of steel.
Coal and the steam engine may both, within a few years, be displaced as
factors in marine transportation. Sweeping tariff changes in the United
States, in Great Britain and in Germany may vitally affect the movement
of freights. Transatlantic passenger traffic, not only a huge business
in itself, but also important, so long as it is sea-borne, in its
effects upon transatlantic freights, may become aerial instead of
marine.
[Sidenote: Technical Subjects]
Confronted by the approach of a period so full of changes, the uttermost
alertness of outlook is merely elementary prudence on the part of
everyone engaged in the business of marine transportation; and the new
Britannica reviews all the many fields of knowledge which are of
importance in this connection. It supplies technical information
regarding the construction of ships, the management of shipping lines,
marine engines of every kind, shipboard and waterside appliances for the
handling of cargo, the development of harbours and the dredging and
embankment of rivers, the building of docks, warehouses and dry docks,
ship canals and canal locks, navigation, lighthouses, lightships, buoys,
lanes of traffic, marine insurance, cold transport—every conceivable
subject with which shipping men are concerned. Articles by contributors
in twenty different countries, deal with all the world’s ports,
industries, exports, imports and shipping. The financial and legal
aspects of the business are exhaustively covered. Tariffs, legislation
affecting marine transportation, and such questions of international
policy as the command of the sea, the right of search, and the position
of neutrals in wartime are discussed by the highest authorities.
In addition to all this, the Britannica articles on these and similar
subjects contain historical sections which, in conjunction with the
articles on the history of all countries, _show how past changes, as
sweeping as these which are now anticipated, have affected commerce_.
Whether your present position—or the position you are endeavouring to
make for yourself—in relation to shipping is such that this coming
period of transition promises to affect you favourably or unfavourably,
you need to be forewarned and forearmed, prepared to keep what you have
or get what you want.
[Sidenote: An Outline of Sea Trade]
A course of reading should always begin with the study of general
principles, in order that in your subsequent and more detailed
examination of the field, the relative importance of each fact that you
master may be appreciated. The Britannica provides, in the article
COMMERCE (Vol. 6, p. 766), a bird’s-eye view of the whole subject of
marine transportation. The article would not fill more than 16 pages of
this Guide; you can read it (and digest it as you read it, so clear is
it) in an hour, and yet it will give you such a grasp of the whole
science—for it is a science—of international trade that you will spend
another hour in assorting and classifying, in your own mind, a mass of
impressions you had received before, at school or in the course of
casual reading, impressions which have not been so useful to you as they
should have been because they had not been systematically arranged.
There is no text book in existence which outlines the subject so fully
and clearly as does this one brief article—about one five-thousandth
part of the total contents of the Britannica.
This article will arouse your interest in the direct relation between
commerce, past, present and future, and the progress of civilization.
You will realize that the man who has any part in the vast shifting of
cargoes from one part of the world to another is distributing ideas and
ideals and ambitions as well as commodities, and in the article
CIVILIZATION (Vol. 6, p. 403), by Dr. Henry Smith Williams, editor of
_The Historians’ History of the World_, you will see how harbours
receive and send on to the inlands the influences as well as the
manufactures of the more advanced communities.
From these articles you should turn to the three great articles which
deal with the methods by which these wonderful results are accomplished.
These three are SHIP, SHIPBUILDING and SHIPPING, all in volume 24, and
equivalent to about 420 or 425 pages of this Guide. These three articles
contain hundreds of illustrations, more than forty being full page
plates. They are by the most eminent authorities. Sir Philip Watts,
director of naval construction for the British Navy, designer of the
Dreadnoughts and the Super-Dreadnoughts of the British Navy, as well as
of the “Mauretania” and the “Lusitania,” chairman of the Federation of
Shipbuilders, and naval architect and director of the warshipbuilding
department of Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Ltd., wrote the articles
SHIPBUILDING and SHIP (except the history of ships before the invention
of steamships, which is by Edmund Warre, provost of Eton, well-known as
a writer on nautical history). The article SHIPPING is by Douglas Owen,
lecturer at the Royal Naval War College and author of _Ports and Docks_.
In brief, these three articles in length, contents,—both text and
illustrations,—and authorship, make up a remarkable book on the subject,
valuable either as a text-book or a work of reference for the ship
builder, the marine engineer or the student of shipping.
[Sidenote: Story of the Ship]
Taking the articles separately, the article SHIP begins with a section
of nearly 10,000 words on the early development of ships. It suggests
that shells floating on the water or the nautilus may first have
suggested the use of a hollowed tree-trunk for transportation—the first
boat or “ship” (the word comes from the same root as “scoop”) as
distinct from a raft. The evolution of boat building is traced,—from
dug-out to bark- or skin-covered frame, built like modern racing-shells
sometimes ribs first and then skin laid on and sometimes shell first and
then ribs inserted. In spite of the great length of the period during
which such boats were used—of course they are still used by more
primitive peoples,—it is interesting to notice that there were local
variations which never became general, such as the outrigger and weather
platform, used in the South Pacific and not found elsewhere.
Egyptian vessels we may study in the excellent early tomb-paintings
still preserved, and one of these shows a ship, not a canoe or large
boat, such as was in use from 3000–1000 B. C., fitted with oars and a
mast in two pieces which could be lowered and laid along a high
spardeck.
The Phoenicians did more than the Egyptians to develop ship and
navigation, and a Phoenician galley of the 8th century B. C. is shown in
an Assyrian wall painting. The Phoenicians probably sailed out of the
Mediterranean, to Britain for tin, or even around Africa.
Greek ships and shipbuilding we know from a full and varied national
literature, from the figures on coins and vases, and from the discovery
in 1834 at the Peiraeus, the port of Athens, of records of Athenian
dockyard superintendents for several years between 373 and 324 B.C. We
have besides descriptions, partly technical, showing the point of view
of the engineer or architect, written by Roman authors. The article
gives a critical account of the Greek types of vessels. The growth of
Roman shipping seems to have been due primarily to political reasons and
to have advanced slowly but surely,—practical devices being introduced
to solve special difficulties in a field and on an element where the
Romans were far from being at home. A five-tiered Carthaginian galley
which had drifted ashore served the Romans as a model for their first
war-ship, and with crews taught to row in a framework set up on dry land
they manned a fleet which was launched in sixty days from the time that
the trees were felled.
[Sidenote: Mast and Sail]
Passing quickly over the remainder of the earlier period, which the
reader will find treated in full in the article SHIP, he should notice
that the sailing vessel came into use gradually for merchant use, but
that galleys (propelled by oars) were long the only type for warships.
There were some galleys even in the Spanish Armada of 1588. In the
meantime the invention of gunpowder and the development of artillery
brought about changes in size and in form, with a notable tendency to
more masts and a greater spread of sail. The discoveries of the 15th and
16th centuries and especially the consequent expansion of trade in the
17th century, all tended to increase the size and efficiency of sailing
ships. The end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century marked
the highest point in the development of American sailing ships. “The
Americans with their fast-sailing ‘clippers’ taught the English builders
a lesson, showing that increased length in proportion to beam gave
greater speed, while permitting the use of lighter rigging in proportion
to tonnage, and the employment of smaller crews. The English shipyards
were for a long time unequal to the task of producing vessels capable of
competing with those of their American rivals, and their trade suffered
accordingly. But after the repeal of the Navigation Laws in 1850, things
improved and we find clippers from Aberdeen and the Clyde beginning to
hold their own on the long voyages to China and elsewhere.”
The revolution in marine transportation by the introduction of steam is
summed up by Sir Philip Watts as follows:
Before steam was applied to the propulsion of ships, the voyage from
Great Britain to America lasted for some weeks; at the beginning of
the 20th century the time had been reduced to about six days, and in
1910 the fastest vessels could do it in four and a half days.
Similarly, the voyage to Australia, which took about thirteen weeks,
had been reduced to thirty days or less. The fastest of the sailing
tea-clippers required about three months to bring the early teas from
China to Great Britain; in 1910 they were brought to London by the
ordinary P. & O. service in five weeks. Atlantic liners now run
between England and America which maintain speeds of 25 and 26 knots
over the whole course, as compared with about 12 knots before the
introduction of steam.
[Sidenote: Iron Hulls]
The introduction of iron for wood began about the same time as the
substitution of steam for sails, and there was even more prejudice
against it. This was due not merely to the sentiment attaching to the
oaken timbers that typified “hearts of oak,” or to the “Wooden Walls of
England.” In all seriousness it was objected that iron would not float!
It was feared that iron bottoms would be more easily perforated when
ships grounded; but this was found not to be the case when construction
was careful. It was proved that fouling of iron bottoms from weeds and
barnacles might be remedied by frequent cleaning and repainting. The
most serious objection against iron was that it affected the compass;
but in 1839 Sir G. B. Airy laid down rules for the correction of compass
errors due to iron in construction. But even to-day wood is preferred
for the construction of ships for scientific expeditions to the Polar
regions where the slightest disturbance of the compass is to be avoided.
Iron and steel (first used in shipbuilding to any extent in 1870–75)
have three advantages over wooden ships: less weight; greater
durability; greater ease in securing the necessary general and local
strengths. But while iron was coming into use largely because it is more
durable, there was a great increase in the durability of wooden ships,
due to the improved knowledge of wood-preservation. At the end of the
18th century 15 or 20 years was the average life of a wooden ship; but
there are several instances of ships built in the first decade of the
19th century—or even earlier—which were still in commission at the
beginning of the 20th century.
[Sidenote: Early Steamships]
Full details are given in regard to the first ships used for canal and
river navigation in Great Britain and the United States; the
comparatively rapid adoption of steam vessels on the Irish and English
channels; and the first steamships to make long trips—the American-built
“Savannah” which crossed the Atlantic in 1819 in 25 days using steam
only a part of the time, the “Enterprise” which went from London to
Calcutta in 1825 in 103 days (64 under steam), the “Sirius,” the “Great
Western,” etc. All these were propelled by paddle-wheels. Jet propulsion
had been suggested by Benjamin Franklin in 1775 and was tried several
times with some success. But the greater success of the screw-propeller,
perfected by Colonel John Stevens and Captain John Ericsson, soon caused
jet-propulsion to be abandoned. The screw-propeller made possible—and
was quickly followed by—great improvements in engines; the gearing used
with paddles was soon given up for direct-acting engines—compound about
1854, triple-expansion in 1874.
Statistics of shipping for all countries are given in tables and
diagrams equivalent to 18 or 20 pages of this Guide.
A brief summary outline of the remainder of this article SHIP is all
that can be given here.
Merchant Vessels
Sailing Ships
Barges, Smacks or Cutters, Schooners, Brigs and Brigantines
Steamships
Types: Turtle-back, etc. Cargo Ships: Modern Developments, Great Lake
Freighters, Oil Tank Steamers, Motor Tank Vessels. Passenger Steamers:
Ferries, River and Sound, Cross-Channel, Ocean Liners (Atlantic:
Canadian, Emigrant Vessels, Liners on other Routes; Pacific Liners).
Special Vessels (Dredge, Train Ferries, Ice Breakers, Surveying
Vessels, Lightships, Coastguard and Fishery Cruisers, Salvage and Fire
Vessels, Lifeboats, Yachts). Propulsion by Electricity, by Naphtha
Engines, by Internal Combustion Engines
War Vessels
Battleships and Armour Protection; Sir E. J. Reed and the British Navy
Turret Ships; American Monitor; Sir Nathaniel Barnaby in England; the
work of Sir W. H. White; Development from 1885 to 1902; The
“Dreadnought” type—in England, United States, Germany, France, Japan,
Russia, Italy, Austria, Brazil, Argentina, etc., with Table,
“Development of Some of the Leading Features of Notable Armored
Battleships from 1860 to 1910.”
Cruisers, Second-Class Cruisers, Third-Class, Armored Cruisers,
Dreadnought Cruisers, Cruisers in Different Navies
Gunboats and Torpedo Craft and Torpedo-boat Destroyers
Submarines: American experiments in the 18th Century; inventions of
Holland and Nordenfeldt; the Goubet System in France; Submarines in
different navies.
[Sidenote: History of Shipping]
The article SHIPPING (Vol. 24, p. 983) is devoted to the history and
practice of maritime transportation. It outlines the early period of
trade, and the contest for trade among Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands
and England, especially in the period after the discovery of America,
when the prizes of commerce became suddenly so much richer. The
Navigation Act of 1651, confining the trade between England and her
colonies and the British coasting trade to English ships, was followed
by a rapid growth of English shipping. The tonnage doubled between 1666
and 1688. In the 18th century and into the 19th, the history of shipping
was primarily a contest for trade between France and England, finally
won by the latter. The 19th century, as has already been seen in the
article SHIP, was marked by the adoption of steam as a motive power. The
struggle for supremacy in the Atlantic trade and in commerce with China
and the Far East between the United States and Great Britain was won by
the latter largely for this reason—the American ship-builders clung to
the sailing clipper too long—and they were too slow in adopting iron
instead of wooden hulls. The American Civil War was an additional
set-back to American commerce. Other great factors during the last 50
years in the development of shipping, treated in the article, may be
catalogued here:
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
Improved apparatus for fire prevention.
Refrigerating machinery, making possible the shipment of meats and
other foods.
Germany’s merchant marine.
Japanese merchant vessels.
French efforts to get trade.
The shipping combine of 1902.
“Liners” and “Tramps.”
The freight rate question and increased tonnage.
Special passenger transport: tourists, emigrants, etc.
[Sidenote: Instructions for the Ship-Builder]
The third of the main articles is SHIPBUILDING (Vol. 24, p. 922) by Sir
Philip Watts. The article is equivalent to 200 pages of this Guide, and
the illustrations include more than 120 working drawings. A brief
outline of the article is all that can be given here.
_Stability_: Equilibrium, Stability of Equilibrium, Transverse
Stability, Small Inclinations, Metacentric Heights, Inclining
Experiment, Large Inclinations, Curves of Stability, Effect of
Freeboard, Effect of Beam, Effect of Position on Centre of Gravity,
Geometrical Properties, Dynamical Stability, Sailing Ships,
Longitudinal Stability, Stability when Damaged, Stability in any
Direction.
_Rolling of Ships_: Unresisted Rolling—Froude’s Theory, Resisted
Rolling, Methods of Reducing Rolling (Bilge-Keels, Water Chambers,
Gyroscope).
_Resistance_: Components of Force, Wake, Frictional Resistance, Law of
Comparison, Model Experiments, Experimental Results.
_Propulsion_: Experimental Results, Cavitation.
_Strength_: Longitudinal Bending, Transverse Bending.
_Steering_: Nature of Forces when Turning, Heel when Turning, Types of
Rudders, Experimental Results.
_Process of Design_
Registration Societies
Board of Trade Supervision
Load line and Freeboard
Loading of Grain and Timber
_Ship-yard Work_
Structural Parts
Materials
Cranes and Gantries
_Course of Construction_
Models
Laying-off
Sheer Drawing
Fairing the Body
Contracted Method of Fairing
Fairing the End
Stern Mould
Displacement Calculation
Frame Lines
Cant Frames
Double Canted Frame
Swell for Propeller Shaft
Mould for Boss Frame Casting
Shaft Struts
Sight Edges in Body Plan
Inner Bottom
Inner Surface of Frames
Outside Double Bottom
Deck Lines
Framing and Plating behind
Armour
Laying off Armour of a Warship
Order of Work
Keel
Transverse Frames
Scrive-Board
Shoring Ribbands
Deck Beams
Longitudinals
Bilge Keel
Drawings
Laying Keel Blocks
Keels and Frames
Shell or Outside Plating
_Structural Arrangements_
Longitudinal System as used in New London, Conn.; Great Lake steamer;
British cargo steamer; Atlantic liner; Differences between war and
merchant ships; Auxiliary Machinery.
[Sidenote: A Dictionary of Ships and Shipping]
The student should read the article NAVY AND NAVIES (Vol. 19, p. 299)
and refer to the Chapter _For Naval Officers_.
The following is a partial list of the articles in the Britannica of
particular value to the marine transportation man.
Anchor
Ballast
Barge
Belay
Berth
Bilge
Binnacle
Boat
Bowline
Bumboat
Buoy
Burgee
Cable
Cabotage
Caique
Canoe
Capstan
Catamaran
Cleat
Coble
Commerce
Coracle
C. H. Cramp
Sir Samuel Cunard
Dahabeah
Dhow
Dinghy
John Ericsson
Felucca
John Fitch
Robert Fulton
Gimbal
Hawser
Holystone
T. H. Ismay
Junk
Kayak
Keel
Lateen
Life-saving Service
Lighthouse
Log
Mast
Navigation
Navigation Laws
Oars
Pilot
Pinnace
Pirogue
Polacca
Poop
Pram
Proa
Punt
Quarterdeck
Quay
Random
Rigging
Rowlock
Rudder
Sail, and Sailcloth
Sampan
Schooner
Seamanship
Seamen, Laws of
Semaphore
Ship
Shipbuilding
Ship Money
Shipping
Sloop
Smack
Starboard
Steamship Lines
Tonnage
Trinity House
Turbine
Wharf
Sir William H. White
Yawl