SUCCESSFULLY WITH FOREIGN SHIPS? 215 



me for some time, and I have studied it for years — I was trained under my old uncle, and 

 we realize that the main item in the cost of operation is overhead expense. 



There are very few steamship organizations the president and general manager of 

 which are on intimate terms with the masters of their ships. The ship can be in distress, the 

 ship can be sorely in need of essential repairs, which will reduce the cost of operation, and 

 the blue pencil works automatically. In some cases you have repairs approved and you pro- 

 ceed to the shipyard, and you have certain repairs made in accordance with how much you 

 yourself are on the job, watching it, watching each and every turn — and every member 

 here present today knows that to be a fact, that it is necessary to do this — and on board my 

 ship we insist on at least 99 per cent of the time being devoted to the work of making the 

 repairs and allow the repair gang only 1 per cent of the time in which to shoot craps. 



One of the most important considerations in steamship operation, and one that is 

 least considered by American operators, is the question of turn around. Your ship is 

 costing you just so much per day in port. It is costing you just so much more per day 

 when steaming at sea. When that ship is steaming at sea, she is immediately forgotten. 

 She is turned over to the master from the time she clears the custom house in New York 

 and leaves the dock, and the office force throw their hands up and say, "Thank God, 

 she's gone." 



Now, as just a simple, rough comparison, depending on my memory, which some- 

 times fails, I will try to call attention to some of the features which run into money. For 

 example, it took fourteen working days and two Sundays, overtime, and six nights all night 

 long to load my ship one voyage, and we discharged in eight working days and two hours' 

 overtime. The next voyage it took just exactly twelve days, with five days working all 

 night long, to load her, and we discharged in nine working days. You have the added 

 expense of your vessel lying idle, loading, plus the overtime of your longshoremen and the 

 overtime of your stevedores. 



One of the important considerations in American steamship operation is the analysis 

 of its cost. I got into that, gentlemen, when I was port officer of the United States Navy, 

 located in France, in charge of the movements of 300 colliers, and at that time we found 

 out what operating costs were. Admiral Sims and Captain Long would camp on our 

 trail, and there was an effort made to constantly keep these costs down, and we certainly 

 did, from time to time, make great reductions in those costs. 



With what I learned in that capacity abroad, and from other data which I have had 

 access to, much to my surprise we can show that the ships can be made to pay, but the 

 overhead is the blooming thing — that is the thing which makes it physically impossible for 

 our operators to surmount their troubles, both in the original cost, the cost of your port 

 facilities, not only at the Port of New York but all ports; and without going into de- 

 tail, I will say if we can get 100 per cent honest men in the steamship business, I think we 

 could reduce the cost of operation 25 per cent. 



The President : — The expressions of views which we have heard are most interesting, 

 bearing particularly in mind the comments of the last speaker. I think we can sum the 

 whole situation up in one single word — efficiency. That is largely true of every operation 

 in life, and if you have men whose principal concern is to see how much they can draw 

 down per day or per month, and how little energy they can put out for that amount, you 

 necessarily have disastrous results. If, on the other hand, you can develop an esprit de 



