130 EFFICIENCY IN THE OPERATION OF STEAMSHIPS. 
for the year ending December 31, 1914 (interfered with, of course, by the war being on 
and what was happening then), the fuel expense was 18.91, and the fuel expenses by De- 
cember 31, 1915, had sunk to 16.58. The vessels were practically nearly all motor ships. I 
have here not only percentages with regard to fuel consumption but the percentages for 
wages and provisions. They began, for the year ending December 21, 1911, at 11.13; the 
next year 12.44; the next year 10, and the next year 11.44, and for the year ending Decem- 
ber 31, 1915, a rise in wages made it 13 per cent. 
This chart covers some ten or twelve items, including classification, repairs, stores, and 
maintenance and another item, loading and discharging, showing all the way from 12 to 
13 per cent. 
The point I want to make in regard to this is—if you gentlemen will turn to the table 
on page 125 of Mr. Sullivan’s paper and look down the column to the tenth item for the 
engineering department, you will find where our prices for chief engineer are $240, $250, 
and $225, and if you turn to the list of wages under the heading “Danish” you will find 
for the chief engineer $236, the amount being figured in dollars rather than krone; for the 
first assistant engineer, $182.75; for the first mate you will find $161.25 as against $275; 
in the case of the third assistant engineer, $123.63 as against $130.00; and then, in the case of 
the oiler, you will find $96.75 against $65.00. Apparently the Danish scale of wages in the 
engine room does not vary very much from our own. 
I think that Mr. Mallory will bear me out and that Mr. Donald will also agree to it, 
that really, when you get down to it, this whole thing comes down to just one question from 
the standpoint of who puts money into American ships—what it is necessary to know, on 
the part of the American people, to induce them to give that assistance. In my opinion one 
thing is very essential, and that is the cost per ton-mile—the cost of operating the ship per 
ton-mile. I have been anxious to see the figures furnished by this Society, or by the oper- 
ating department of a steamship line, which would show an analysis of the cost per ton-mile 
on the Atlantic. As Prof. Sadler will bear me out, they have been very thorough, with 
regard to lake shipping, as to the way in which they have handled that subject. They have 
taken the trouble not only to give the ounces of coal per ton-mile but to give us—and I do 
not see why we do not have that on other classes of ships—they have taken the trouble to give 
us the admiralty coefficient and the chance to determine, really, how good vessels 
are of similar kinds. 
We all know it is not fair to compare ships of different lengths and different speeds, 
but the bulk of the carrying trade of the world is all done by boats of about the same speed 
and nearly of the same length, and I say in the majority of cases that they are all susceptible 
to a fair analysis on the basis of the admiralty coefficient. It may interest you to know that 
I have one blueprint which was furnished me very kindly by the American Shipbuilding 
Company, and the coefficient, you see, is very high. 
3 
Constant = BxS? == Sy, 
Ps 
D = displacement in tons. 
S = speed in knots per hour. 
I. H. P. = indicated horse-power. 
I think, if you will analyze most of our salt water ships, you will find you have a won- 
derful result when you get to three hundred. I think most of the older members will remem- 
