Freighter

“ In practice, however, these ships range, perhaps, from five to fifteen thousand tons, and as they supplement, to some extent, the freight-carrying passenger ships of the lines to which they belong, their speed is high, for freighters. They make, perhaps, fourteen or fifteen or even sixteen knots an hour, and they are likely to be fine, wholesome-looking ships, handsome in their lines and proud in their appearance. ”

“ Many of the modern freighters constructed abroad are mere steel boxes, pointed at the ends, with an engine, a propeller, and a rudder. Our lake-freighters are sometimes described as being "built by the mile and sold by the foot," but their effect upon transportation costs has been little short of marvelous. ”

“ They usually carry no flag, and are dirty and lack paint, but they carry a load that would interest the most blasé European. Those bound up-stream, under full sail, like ourselves, are piled with European boxes and bales, from stem to stern; and on top of the freight, in the midst of the freight, sitting on it, stretched out on it, peeping from it, is another cargo of human beings, men, women and children, black, yellow, clothed in all the hues of heaven and the rags of earth. It is an impassive load that stares at us with incurious, unwinking eyes. ”

“ As you land you are struck on all sides with the unusual activity around you. Long sinuous trains of loaded cargo trucks are coming and going, locomotive whistles warning the pedestrian to beware, lines of rails intersecting each other, crowds of lumpers, and the busy air of a large shipping centre bewilder you, and you are carried back to some old-world port where ships of all nations call and disgorge their lading. ”

“ Shipping may be divided into two classes, both of which are of national importance. The liners, which comprise fixed services of passenger and cargo [Pg 75] ships. These services must be maintained, and new tonnage built at whatever cost to replace lost ships. The other class is our cargo ships. Many of these conduct regular services; others are what are known as “tramps,” and go where the best freights offer. It is the owners of the tramp steamers who have realised large profits by selling their ships. ”

“ And then along comes a fast freight which slows up a little at the town; and off of it drops a black bundle that rolls for twenty yards in a cloud of dust and then gets up and begins to spit soft coal and interjections. I see it is a young man broad across the face, dressed more for Pullmans than freights, and with a cheerful kind of smile in spite of it all that made Phœbe Snow’s job look like a chimney-sweep’s. ”

“ In these days a ship is often chartered to carry a cargo to a particular port, and there the captain obtains another cargo, such as the market affords him, to some other port, and so he may wander over the world in the most unforeseen manner before he finds a profitable opportunity of returning to his starting-place. So, probably, in those times the spirited merchant would not merely oscillate between home and a given foreign point, but would carry on a traffic of an adventurous and hazardous but exciting kind, from one of the great European ports to another. ”

“ Its commerce is speculative but vast and successful. It is a frequent circumstance that a ship goes out without a cargo for a voyage around the world. In such a case the captain puts his elder children to school, takes his wife and younger children and starts for some semi-barbarous place where he procures some odd kind of cargo which he exchanges with advantage for another somewhere else; and so goes trafficking around the world, bringing home a freight of the highest value. ”

“ Between the freight cargo, and the correspondence which controls it there is a great difference. Rapid transport of letters, intelligence, and passengers, and leisure transport of freight, is the law of nature, and to attempt to reverse it is but to attempt that which will never be successfully done, simply because wholly unnecessary in any permanent economic sense. And not only is higher speed than that of clippers unnecessary in ordinary freight transport, but it is clearly impossible in any normal condition of trade. ”

“ Clearing a cargo from an English port was a complicated process. When the goods were brought down to the wharf they were taken over by the packer and his underlings, whose duty it was to pack them and enter them at the custom-house, giving a true inventory of the contents of the bales. The merchant having paid the duties to the customers, the latter sent ‘cocketts’ or tallies for the same to the searcher, who searched the ship to see if they were true. ”

“ The manner in which the freight business is conducted affords a good illustration of the high degree of development to which modern business methods have attained. Freight is accepted by each railroad for shipment not only to all points on its own system, but also practically to every railway station in the country, and even to many foreign cities. ”

“ The only trade in which it has ever been supposed that steamers of any description whatever could carry freight is that between Europe and the United States, where there are large quantities of rich, costly goods, in small and valuable packages, which pay an extra rate of freight, as express goods ”

“ At the termination of the voyage, he must deliver the goods to the consignee or his agents. A landing upon the wharf is a sufficient delivery, if due notice be given to the parties who are to receive them. He is not, however, bound to deliver until the freight due is paid or secured to his satisfaction, as he has a lien upon the goods for his freight; but the consignee can require the goods to be taken from the hold, in order that he may examine them, before paying freight. ”

“ The old salt, the able seaman who has rounded the Horn, the skipper who has stood unflinchingly at the helm while the green seas towered over the stern, looks with contempt upon the fresh-water sailor and his craft. Not so the man of business or the statesman. The growth of lake traffic has been one of the most marvelous and the most influential factors in the industrial development of the United States. By it has been systematized and brought to the highest form of organization the most economical form of freight carriage in the world. ”

“ The great quantity of coarse freights, that could only be profitably carried long distances by water, has revolutionized the type of vessel used for its transportation, making large steamers imperative, consolidating interests and cheapening methods. It is usual for the vessels in the grain trade and in the iron-ore trade to make their up trips empty; but in consequence of the admirable facilities provided at terminal points, they make very fast time, and carry freight very cheaply. The cost of freight per ton-mile fell from 23/100 cent in 1887 to 8/100 cent in 1898 ”

“ The ship will, however, sooner or later require a higher rate of freight for ports of slow despatch, and this increased expense in transport will undoubtedly operate in favour of rival ports. For the ports themselves are but stepping-stones to or from a market or industrial centre, and the market will always select the cheapest route for its trade. With the increase of populations in the Old World and the development of new countries, the transport of emigrants and of travellers for business and for pleasure became a highly important and lucrative source of employment for steam shipping. ”

“ The $1.25 which carries a ton of freight one hundred miles on land, carries it a thousand miles on water. Merchandise delivered at the nearest salt-water port is almost as good as delivered at any other port in the world. The day of the brotherhood of the nations is at hand. ”

“ The tiny boats run day and night in the season, and though it is dark within, and though there are a thousand piers, no freight that starts underground for a leaf is ever landed on the way for bark or woody fiber. Freight never goes astray, nor are express packages miscarried. ”

“ To the second class belong the “ seekers” or “ tramps” which come and go wherever profitable employment offers, and which more especially lay themselves out to be chartered to carry full cargoes of coal, timber, wheat, nitrate, jute and such like. These vessels, some of which are of great capacity, are frequently in competition with the liners. This competition sometimes results in “cut rates ” of freight, to the serious loss of the great ship owning firms and companies. With the establishment of regular lines, moreover, there grew up competition between rival lines, with similar results. ”

“ Those who have the command of the Sea Trade, may Work at easier Freight with more profit, than others at greater: for as Cloth must be cheaper made, when one Cards, another Spins, another Weaves, another Draws, another Dresses, another Presses and Packs; than when all the Operations above-mentioned, were clumsily performed by the same hand; so those who command the Trade of Shipping, can build long slight Ships for carrying Masts, Fir-Timber, Boards, Balks, &c. ”

“ The train is practical only because the railroad company maintains freight and passenger stations, foreign and domestic agents, and all the detailed [Pg 277] force that a modern railroad requires. Furthermore, it sends its trains over certain routes at certain specified intervals, ready to move freight and passengers as they are ready to be moved. So must a shipping line be operated. Ships must be where they are needed, else freight accumulates or is diverted to other lines. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Today, 95 percent of our imports and exports are moved by water—more than one billion metric tons of cargo—and our waterways currently handle 140 million passengers a year. Our domestic fleet is one of our most productive and cost-effective modes of transportation, moving 24 percent of the Nation's cargo at less than 2 percent of America's total freight cost. ”

“ The vessel is simply a great steel packing-box, with rounded ends, made strong to resist the shock of waves and the impact of thousands of tons of iron poured in from a bin as high above the floor as the roof of a three-story building. With vessels such as these, the cost of carrying ore has been reduced below the level of freight charges in any part of the world.
Yet comfort and speed are by no means overlooked. The quarters of the officers and men are superior to those provided on most of the ocean liners, and vastly better than anything offered by the "ocean tramps." ”

“ Where there are abundant water-ways to compete with the railroads, the freight, which seeks the easiest routes, goes to them, and the railroads have to rely more largely upon passengers; where water-ways are more rare, as on the great Continental plains, the freight is of necessity carried on the railroads, and they find in it the source of their most lucrative business, by the side of which the passenger traffic may sink into relative insignificance. ”

“ How to catch a freight without walking to a station was the problem. I noticed that the track came up a steep grade, culminating at the point where I had tapped it, and I knew that a heavy freight couldn't pull up there any too lively. But how lively? On the opposite side of the track rose a high bank. On the edge, at the top, I saw a man's head sticking up from the grass. Perhaps he knew how fast the freights took the grade, and when the next one went south. ”

“ Our commercial ships and marine infrastructure-and the dedicated men and women who are part of our maritime industry and U.S. Merchant Marine-continue to meet the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing marketplace and the expanding globalization of trade. Our merchant fleet is a key component of our Nation's intermodal transportation system, carrying more than one billion tons of cargo between domestic ports and supporting our connection to overseas markets. ”

“ The crew receive no wages, but have all a share in the venture, and in general, I believe, they are the owners of the whole freight. They choose a captain, to whom they entrust just power enough to keep the vessel on her course in fine weather, but not quite enough for a gale of wind; they also elect a cook and a mate. ”

“ We are often put to great loss, and cannot execute orders, by not getting them up in sufficient time. If you lose the opportunity of shipping by a vessel that sails only once a year from a port you lose the order. I have experienced considerable difficulty by that. The correspondent says, if you can ship my goods by such a vessel, send me the order; and if you cannot get them ready you lose in the trade.
9. Do you consider the canal and waggon communication sufficient to enable the merchants to execute their orders with promptitude and certainty? ”

“ If, prior to the commencement of the voyage, a passenger has become incapable of making the voyage because of death, illness, or any other act of god, the carrier may demand three-tenths of the freight, and if any of such reasons have occurred after the commencement of the voyage, the carrier may, at his option, demand either three-tenths of the freight or freight in proportion to the carriage performed. ”

“ In addition to the freight facilities offered by any individual railroad, there are what are known as fast freight lines. These agencies enable through and prompt shipment from inland points in our own country to inland points in another. An individual railroad may operate in connection with several such agencies. A certain railroad, 215 for example, is combined with nine fast freight lines. Freight agents of local roads in the principal towns usually represent the fast freight lines and are prepared to transact business. ”