Maritime transport

“ Last September, the Secretary of Transportation presented to the Congress a blueprint for modernizing our Marine Transportation System—the waterways, ports, railways, and roads that move people and goods to, from, and on the water. We must build more and better ships, modernize our shipyards, create deeper ports for today's ever larger containerships and ocean liners, and maintain a skilled maritime workforce. ”

“ It is true that commerce in neutral ships can then enter other ports of the United States than those named; but what a dislocation of the carrying traffic of the country, what failure of supplies at times, what inadequate means of transport by rail or water, of dockage, of lighterage, of warehousing, will be involved in such an enforced change of the ports of entry! ”

“ It is very probable that the whole system of the ocean will be materially changed; and that while clippers and slow propellers carry the fine freights, fast vessels filled with their own power will carry the mails and passengers. And in doing this, they can not, of course, support themselves; neither will they conflict with private enterprise in freight transport. It is now the case to a large extent on most of our American lines. ”

“ Another use for large airships would be the carrying of freight of high intrinsic value, such as valuable ores, from places otherwise inaccessible, or not provided with other means of direct transport. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When the means were wanting for the inland transportation of these bulky commodities, only a few countries, such as Phœnicia, the Italian cities, Portugal, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the British colonies in America, could develop an important maritime commerce. During the past fifty years, the improvements in transportation have been such as to enable all industrial countries, inland as well as maritime, to engage extensively in the world’s trade. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Developed transport increased Exports. Similarly our Export Trade was of a most restricted nature before the development of inland navigation, but with its progress the facilities for transit were greatly improved, and the exports of Great Britain soon increased to much greater proportions. ”

“ The 21st century will hold new challenges for our maritime industry, including an anticipated doubling of cargo and passenger traffic in the next two decades. If we are to meet those challenges, we must maintain a robust U.S.-flag fleet, crewed by American mariners. ”

“ It is no less true that British commerce, conducted by ships obtaining ready access to foreign ports by traversing ocean highways, had made much greater progress at an early period in our history than industries dependent on inland highways that were then either non-existent or scarcely passable ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the case of ocean steam navigation, the cost of transport is so much lower that an ocean steamer often conveys cargo across the Atlantic for about one half the price at which cargo is carried from London to Liverpool by canal, although the distance in the former case is about [388] seventeen times that in the latter. In Germany again, where much more effectual use is made of the inland waterways than in England, the rate varies from ·18 to ·48 of a penny per ton per mile. ”

“ Great guns, railway trucks and engines and rails form a part of these stupendous freights. There are many harbours in the South but few capable of berthing, loading and unloading the largest liners, and if we would criticise these operations, and free criticism of them has been, after our national manner, plentiful, we should understand that to the transport work of peace that of the greatest of wars has been added, and understand too that the shipping problem involves much more than ships, and requires to-day something like the higher mathematics for its solution. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Cargo-handling compares favourably with the most advanced ports. Efficient, modern methods, a plentiful supply of labour, lighterage, road-transport and experienced staffs, capable of undertaking any operation from the stowage of special cargoes to the handling of heavy-lifts and bulk oils, make the Port popular with all connected with shipping. 750,000 measurement tons (mainland) and 230,000 measurement tons (island) of godown space is equipped for ordinary, refrigerated and dangerous goods storage. ”

“ One thinks of the old merchant marine in terms of the clipper ship and distant ports. The coasting trade has been overlooked in song and story; yet, since the year 1859, its fleets have always been larger and more important than the American deep-water commerce nor have decay and misfortune overtaken them. It is a traffic which flourished from the beginning, ingeniously adapting itself to new conditions, unchecked by war, and surviving with splendid vigor, under steam and sail, in this modern era. ”

“ You were the first to give the travelling public the convenience of a speedy and reliable transit between the two great continents of the world by initiating a regular service of twin-screw steamers of high speed and unexceptionable accommodation.
“You also set the shipping world the example of the great economy possible in the transit of the world’s commodities in vessels of greatly increased capacity and proportionate economy, which other nations have been quick to follow and adopt to their great advantage. ”

“ Every day, merchant ships carry the Nation's domestic and foreign commerce, acting as an integral part of our seamless transportation system. Those aboard go to sea to move American goods and materials, to help provide aid and comfort to others around the world, and, when necessary, to defend our interests and to seek international peace. ”

“ In regular traffic the demand for increased speed and greater security and comfort on the part of ocean travellers resulted in the competitive evolution of passenger steamers of dimensions and draught which create an increasing and inland city, and therefore shipped by the fastest vessels. Competition for freights and competition for passengers, these are the great and beneficent forces which are silently but irresistibly developing the ship, while insurance and classification are the potent handmaids of this competition. ”

“ Transports, when continuously employed and utilised both ways, are cheaper than freight ships. Under the transport charter the vessel, though engaged for a named period certain, is at the disposal of the Admiralty so long as the Government choose to retain her, except when it is expressly stipulated otherwise. ”

“ Unquestionably the power to regulate commerce includes navigation as well as traffic in its ordinary signification, and embraces ships and vessels as the instruments of intercourse and trade as well as the officers and seamen employed in their navigation. ”

“ Because of the length of time taken in transit this line does a greater freight than passenger business. Its rates are governed by those of other European steamship companies, since they are united under a gigantic ocean-carriers' agreement, which will be discussed later. ”

“ The present condition of our inland transport is a subject which calls for the close attention of all who are in any way interested in the commercial prosperity of the country at large. The enormous increase in our imports and exports demands a corresponding increase in the facilities for inland transport. ”

“ We must ensure our maritime system can meet the challenges of the 21st century. As cargo volume is expected to double within the next 20 years, a viable maritime network will help our country compete in our global economy. ”

“ Every vessel belonging to a citizen of the United States, bound from a port in the United States to any foreign port, or being of the burden of seventy-five tons or upward, and bound from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, shall be provided with a chest of medicines ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Ocean, Great Lakes, and inland river ports and terminals are among our most important national assets. They have contributed substantially to the shaping of our early history as a Nation and fostered the industry and trade which helped build many of America's great cities.
Today our ports are vital links in the total transportation system which serves this Nation's domestic and international trade. Their continued development is indispensable to our economic and military security. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nor can a port become highly important if its trade is all in one direction. If it imports but does not export, ships can come loaded but must go away empty, and to do that they must charge very high and possibly prohibitive rates for the freight they bring. If the port exports but does not import, then ships must come empty before they can secure their cargoes, and the result is the same. A healthy port, then, must have a constant and steady stream of freight bound in both directions. ”

“ The first railway cars having compartments for passengers, baggage, and freight were changed to express trains, where speed and comfort are the first considerations, and freight trains, where carrying capacity is the main object. In just the same manner, and for the same reasons, the ocean traffic is undergoing changes. The day cannot be far distant when the passenger ships will take only passengers, mails, specie, and express packages. ”

“ Aside from these considerations, the supposed advantage to be derived from allowing cargo to come in, when considered intrinsically, is without force. Under this theory, two vessels would depart on the same day from a foreign port; one bound to a port in the United States, with cargo, under a charter to foreign citizens to convey their goods into this country; the second ship proceeding in ballast, under charter to American citizens to proceed to the United States and there take cargo. ”

“ No passenger traffic is ever carried on now in dangerous vessels upon the treacherous ocean, but solely in the safe and comfortable rocket-car through the air a thousand feet or more above the cruel waters. Steamships, electric ships and sailing vessels are still common round our coasts engaged in transporting heavy freight, but they only cross the ocean to convey some bulky produce which cannot be divided and go by car. ”

“ We have learned to build bridges and locomotives on those terms, but, in spite of the fact that our ship-builders and ship-owners are fully protected in the "home market," they have not yet learned how to combine the locomotive and the bridge into a ship fit to compete with the unsubsidized ships—the cargo carriers—now in the world's traffic.
In connection with the known degree of efficiency of the world's merchant marine, as now afloat, consider a statement that can be found on page 1248 of the Report of the Merchant Marine Commission. ”