Duty of tonnage

“ Vessels entering otherwise than by sea from a foreign port at which tonnage or lighthouse dues or other equivalent tax or taxes are not imposed on vessels of the United States, are exempt from the tonnage duty of two cents per ton, not to exceed in the aggregate ten cents per ton in any one year. ”

“ It appears, in every point of view, highly desirable, that the duty on foreign tonnage should be increased. A duty of ten dollars per ton does not seem greater than what is required for the protection of American vessels. But I cannot form any correct estimate of the probable addition resulting to the revenue from such increase. Much would depend on the suppression of the trade carried on by American vessels with enemies' licenses. ”

“ Ames.—The gentlemen from the southward, who suppose their States most likely to be affected by a discrimination in the tonnage duty, have concluded their arguments with a candor, which I conceive does honor to their patriotism. They declare themselves willing to encourage American shipping and commerce, though they do not join with us in the sum we think necessary to be laid on foreign tonnage to accomplish so important an object. ”

“ If the produce is held so high as not to bear the expense of transportation, the merchants who import will be obliged to send off money in payment. In order to remedy these inconveniences in future, it will be necessary to hold out sufficient encouragement for the construction of vessels. Perhaps it may be good policy to allow a moderate tonnage duty at this time, to be increased hereafter. ”

“ And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the owner and master of every steam vessel engaged in the transportation of freight or passengers, at sea or on the Lakes, Champlain, Ontario, Erie, Huron, Superior, and Michigan, the tonnage of which vessel shall not exceed two hundred tons, to provide and to carry with the said boat or vessel, upon each and every voyage, two long-boats or yawls, each of which shall be competent to carry at least twenty persons ”

“ Now, net tonnage means that part of a vessel's carrying capacity which remains for the accommodation of passengers and freight after all its own requirements have been met, a large allowance having always to be made for such spaces as engine room, crew room, coal bunkers, etc. ”

“ On an average 50,000 tons a week are being torpedoed or mined, and our losses tend to augment rather than diminish. Nor is that all. Not only is our merchant tonnage being whittled down below the minimum needed for our strict requirements, but we are also being hindered from utilizing the transports available. ”

“ Our tonnage exceeds that of any European nation, except Great Britain and Holland; and if we must have a navy to protect our commerce, it must bear some proportion to the extent of our coast, to the amount of our tonnage, and to the navies of the European nations. ”

“ They must enter into an engagement that the projected ship shall be able to carry so many passengers and so many tons of cargo, and to attain a specified speed on a given consumption of coal per day. Let us say, for instance, that the stipulations are these: Accommodations for 600 saloon passengers, 150 intermediate passengers, and 1,500 steerage passengers; registered tonnage, 6,000, speed, 19 knots on a consumption of 300 tons per day. ”

“ A country can, or will, pay only so much for its war fleet. That amount of money means so much aggregate tonnage. How shall that tonnage be allotted? And, especially, how shall the total tonnage invested in armored ships be divided? Will you have a few very big ships, or more numerous medium ships? Where will you strike your mean between numbers and individual size? ”

“ Registered tonnage is all the enclosed cargo spaces and it is on this tonnage that ships pay all claims, such as wharfage, pilotage, light and canal dues. But when describing the tonnage on her naval fleet, England measures displacement, that is, in terms the cubic feet of water the ship would displace. ”

“ Even the constitution of the armada which is to convey it to its point of disembarkation by no means represents a purely naval problem. Until the sailors know what the composition of the military force in respect to men, animals, vehicles, etc., is to be, they cannot calculate what tonnage will be required, or decide how that tonnage is to be allotted for transporting the troops oversea. ”

“ In burden they varied from thirty or forty to one hundred tons, [Footnote: This was the maximum tonnage for which the Navy Board paid, but when trade was slack larger vessels could be had, and were as a matter of fact frequently employed, at the nominal tonnage rate.] the smaller craft hugging the coast and dropping in from port to port, the larger cruising far beyond shore limits. For deep-sea or trade-route cruising the smaller craft were of little use. No ship of force would bring-to for them. ”

“ But, if I am mistaken in these views, and it should experience any reduction, the increase in our coasting tonnage, resulting from the greater activity of domestic exchanges, will more than compensate the injury. Although our navigation partakes in the general distress of the country, it is less depressed than any other of our great interests. The foreign tonnage has been gradually, though slowly, increasing, since 1818. And our coasting tonnage, since 1816, has increased upwards of one hundred thousand tons. ”

“ Now, to show the enormous importance of that load of tonnage, that tonnage that is greater than any other city in the world, I undertake to say, and do say, that there are not 1,000 people, men, women and children, connected directly or indirectly, with moving that traffic between the land and the water in both directions. There is such a thing as doing a very large business without a harbor at all. ”

“ In this year a little over a million tons, nearly 1,100,000 tons, will be built in this country and 330,000 tons will be acquired abroad, so that this year the tonnage which we shall acquire will be 1,900,000. This is purely mercantile marine. Bear in mind the condition under which the tonnage is built. It is the fourth year of the war. There is a difficulty in labor and great difficulty in material. You require steel for guns and shells for the Navy, because the ship-building program of the Navy has gone up considerably in the course of the present year. ”

“ He clearly pointed out that the restrictions respecting tonnage would prevent them from being so perfect as a greater scope would enable him to make them, but that each should, notwithstanding, prove superior to her class at the time in existence ”

“ Taking one-tenth as representing the one voyage and return in the year of the more distant traffic, and one and a half outward sailings for the other nine tenths of tonnage, we arrive at the approximative fact, that the foreign trade does in reality employ no more (repeated voyages allowed for as before stated) than the aggregate tonnage of 1,258,000, instead of the 1,797,000 gross tonnage as apparent. ”

“ Yet the German and Austrian raiders, mines, and submarines sank fifteen million tons of shipping, which is not far short of a third of all the merchant tonnage in the world; and the submarines sank more than the mines and raiders sank together. (Ships are measured by finding out how many cubic feet of space they contain and counting so many feet to the ton. Thus you get a much better idea of how much shipping a country has by counting in tons rather than by the number of ships; for twenty-five ships of one thousand tons each have only half as much sea-power as one ship of fifty thousand tons.) ”

“ Each company knew that the addition of new steamers to its fleet would only pay if part of a carefully considered plan, and if, in course of time, such an increase of tonnage would give it a claim to an increase of the percentage of traffic allotted to its services. ”

“ The transports engaged by the Admiralty were the property of thirty-six owners, mostly Liverpool or London firms; their average size was 6,400 tons gross, ranging from 12,600 to 3,500 tons, the range of speed from nineteen to eleven knots. The proportion of tonnage per man and per horse turns out, over the whole, four tons per man, twelve and a half tons per horse. This estimate is made by calculating the tonnage per man on the infantry ships alone, and allowing for the men at that rate by casting out the tonnage per horse over the transports which conveyed both men and horses. ”

“ From many other indications we can conclude with certainty that everywhere there is a shortage of tonnage. We may with safety assume that English shipping still amounts at the moment to 20 million tons, gross tonnage. Of this at least 3.6 million tons are requisitioned for military purposes, and half a million tons are occupied in coast traffic; about 1 million tons are under repair or temporarily unfit for use; about 2 million tons are taken up in supplying the needs of England's Allies; so that for her own supplies at most 8 million tons are available. ”

“ I have great hopes now for the future of the American merchant marine. We have added 300,000 tons in three months and there is as much more existing American-owned tonnage that probably will take the flag. ”

“ The tonnage required for bulky articles will be generally one third more than their actual weight; but the tonnage of ordnance, shells, shot, &c. will be equal to their weight. If vessels be paid according to the tonnage they carry, the masters will of course stow away as much as the ships will hold; but if, by the voyage, they will be averse to loading their ships too much; a naval officer should therefore always attend to see that the ships are properly stowed. ”

“ There is considerable competition, which, of course, has the effect of reducing the rate of freight. The lowest apparent tender, however, is not always accepted, as it occasionally happens, that, from peculiarity of construction, a vessel of less registered tonnage will afford greater accommodation, and, consequently, convey a greater number of prisoners than one of larger burden. ”

“ Displacement tonnage is that which is invariably used in respect of warships, and is the actual weight of water displaced by the vessel whose tonnage is being dealt with. Men-of-War are designed to carry all their weights, including coal, guns, ammunition, stores and water in tanks and in boilers, at a certain draught, and the tonnage attributed to them is the weight of water which at that designed draught they actually displace. ”

“ The four desiderata of a modern cargo-boat are that she should have a low registered tonnage in comparison with her capacity, ample water-ballast tanks, large hatchways, and holds as free from obstruction as possible. Three or four methods are practised by builders for attaining these objects, and every builder has made modifications of them as time has shown the necessity of the changes to meet varying trade conditions. ”

“ I think it wrong to detain foreigners caught here by the embargo; but in permitting them to take our vessels to return in, we do what is a matter of favor, not of right. Of course we can restrict them to a tonnage proportioned to their numbers. In the transport service I believe the allowance is two tons to every person. ”

“ The engine power and general outlay do not increase as rapidly as the tonnage of the vessel and her [Pg 79] capacity for carrying. While a ship 2,500 tons at 12 miles per hour on a passage of 3,250 miles would make the cost per ton for the transportation of freight $22.75, one of 20,000 tons, under the same conditions would reduce it to $9 per ton. Yet it is hardly probable that we shall ever profitably employ steamers of over 10,000 tons tonnage in the passenger, mail, and freight business. ”

“ At the present time it is the navigable depth of ports and canals, and the need of adequate dry docks, rather than the obtaining of cargoes, which are the controlling factors in the size of great ocean vessels. But the heavy interest on the capital cost of these vessels and their working expenses call for the utmost despatch in their loading and discharge, and with the simultaneous arrival of several vessels of large tonnage, the question of prompt discharge is one of great and increasing difficulty. For many modern steamers will carry 10,000 tons of cargo, and some a great deal more ”

“ This gives us a total of more than one thousand four hundred ships with an approximate total deadweight tonnage of 7,000,000 now under the control of the United States Shipping Board. In round numbers and from all sources we have added to the American flag since our war against Germany began, nearly 4,500,000 tons of shipping. Our program calls for the building of 1,856 passenger, cargo and refrigerator ships and tankers, ranging from five thousand to twelve thousand tons each, with an aggregate dead-weight of thirteen million. ”

“ On all ships or vessels hereafter built in the United States, belonging wholly, or in part, to subjects of foreign powers, at the rate of thirty cents per ton. On all other ships or vessels, at the rate of fifty cents per ton.
Vessels built in the U.S., in the coasting trade, to pay tonnage but once a year. Sec. 2. Provided always, and be it enacted, That no ship or vessel built within the aforesaid States, and belonging to a citizen or citizens thereof, shall, whilst employed in the coasting trade, or in the fisheries, pay tonnage more than once in any year. ”

“ In the case of tugs engaged in foreign service and which are therefore subject to tonnage duties, it becomes important to see that the net tonnage, which should ordinarily be a very small figure, is held to the lowest limit. For instance, seagoing and oceangoing tugs have been reported with a tonnage as low as eight and ten tons. On the other hand, many American tugs of no larger capacity are in the habit of carrying a net tonnage far exceeding this amount. ”