no Miracles Ahead! 



cargo. This development, and greater use of steel alloys and 

 light metals in postwar ships, will give shipping companies 

 the faster ships needed to compete with foreign vessels and 

 also with air transport. 



Shipbuilders have set records in ship production, and ship- 

 ping companies have exceeded past standards in seeing that 

 every possible foot of cargo space in these vessels is utilized. 



"In concrete benefit to the war," wrote William Bloeth, 

 New York World-Telegram financial writer, "the industry 

 has delivered more goods per ship and more goods over-all. 

 The most worthwhile of these contributions has been the 

 reduction of what is known as 'broken stowage,' a term for 

 the waste space on a ship. The progress is freely called 'mirac- 

 ulous' both by experienced shipping men and by officials of 

 the War Shipping Administration. 



"Where, normally, a broken stowage of between 25 and 

 30 per cent was expected on a ship, careful attention to all 

 details by experienced shipping men has trimmed this in war 

 shipping to about 14 per cent on some routes. The figure is 

 even more satisfactory in the light of the fact that absolutely 

 no waste space is physically impossible," Bloeth adds. 



"Spaces between deck beams, where no cargo could be 

 stowed without lifting the deck and installing specially de- 

 signed packages, still are computed in the theoretical capacity 

 of a ship. Even with free-flowing grains, which can pour into 

 all crevices, 100 per cent is impossible. Even more significance 

 is added by the fact that war cargo is 'balloon' cargo, taking 

 up too much space for the weight involved. Military vehicles 

 and tanks are the worst space-eaters and are important items 

 in the cargoes being carried. The difficulty stems from the 

 fact that a ship's capacity is limited by both weight and space. 

 Bulky items don't add up to the peak weight, and heavy loads 

 that hit the maximum weight before the holds are filled are 

 considered bad stowage. These factors necessitate minute 



