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GAS-DRIVEN OCEAN
FREIGHTERS
By MONROE WOOLLEY
T R A V E L E R S from Norway
report that the population of
the country is ship mad. The
fact is, marine mania is a
world malady now, and the
masses are ready to take "flyers" in ship
investments. In Norway everyone, from
the servant girl to the capitalist, is investing
eagerly all surplus savings in
ships.
This craze is working such damage to
other industrial projects, due to a pronounced
scarcity of capital for other enterprises,
that the Norwegian Government
has been compelled to forbid the
purchase of additional ships by its citizens
without the government's permission.
What is taking place in Norway is
being likewise enacted in our own country.
Especially is this true in the far
west. In olden times the ports of the New
England States held the palm as the shipbuilding
center of the country. Now this
reputation has swept across the continent
to the Northwestern States, with a revival
of sailing ship construction. Before the
war sailing ships were about to give up
the ghost for good before the onslaughts
2K
of the modern steamship. They were
then as much out of place as horse-drawn
vehicles are now in automobile parades.
But scarcity of over-ocean carriers and
an over abundance of cargoes has served
not only to resurrect dilapidated sailers
from seaside cemeteries, but it has developed
an unprecedented era in the building
of old-fashioned wooden ships of a
new type—the modern American motorship
!
The motorship is the most economical
type of carrier to operate. It is a wonder
the type did not come into general
use long ago. The ships cost far less to
build than steamers, cost less to operate,
and carry more cargo. They are the last
word in marine efficiency.
There are two types of these ships:
full-powered craft built for speed to
compete with big steel steamers, and the
auxiliary motorship. It is the latter type
which is just now creating a craze in the
West, and the world over for that matter,
in marine investments. When winds are
favorable the cost of their operation is
negligible; with adverse winds or no
winds at all, auxiliary power from
cheaply operated Diesel oil engines will
THERE IS A MINT OF MONEY IN MOTORSHIPS NOWADAYS
This fleet of vessels, most of which are of the small wooden sailing schooner type, are in violent
demand at present. Each boat carries, in addition to its sailing equipment, a sturdy gasoline motor
to drive it through the calms it encounters.
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