CARGO TRANSFERENCE AT STEAMSHIP TERMINALS. 
By H. McL. Harpinec, Eso., CONSULTING ENGINEER. 
{Read at the eighteenth general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held in 
New York, November 16 and 17, rgr11.] 
The purpose of this paper is to indicate the importance of terminals 
in water transportation, and to show the feasibility of increasing the rapidity 
of freight movements, of reducing the handling costs, and of increasing the 
capacity of existing terminals, by the adaptation of improved mechanical 
methods. 
In this is a large field for the activities of naval architects and marine 
engineers, and the subject will well repay study and investigation. 
In the railway world up to the present time, the energies of engineers 
have been devoted to the engineering problems arising between terminals, 
such as improving the performance of the locomotive, increasing the dur- 
ability of the rolling stock and the economical maintenance of tracks and 
way, while the influence of the terminals on the rapidity and economy of 
railway transportation, long neglected, has only lately been fully recognized. 
One example of this awakening is the installation of freight handling machin- 
ery at St. Louis, by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway under the 
direction of Mr. S. B. Fisher, the chief engineer. Here the operation of a 
$3,000,000 freight terminal depends absolutely on mechanical methods in- 
stead of manual labor, and a crate of eggs and the heaviest hogshead of 
tobacco, a wicker chair and a grand piano are equally well handled. 
Similarly the naval architect and the marine engineer have been con- 
cerned as to the movements between terminals rather than those at terminals. 
The design of the ship, the type of engine, the coal consumption and other 
most important details of marine engineering have occupied their minds and 
been their chief concern. 
Marine engineering should now include the many terminal problems. 
This would enlarge the day’s work with its proper recompense and should 
be a part of the curriculum in the education of the naval engineer. 
This paper with its figures and data will be confined to miscellaneous 
package freight excluding bulk freight, and mainly refers to export, import 
and coastwise traffic. Unavoidable necessity is now compelling the sub- 
stitution of machinery for the armies of men employed in this class of freight 
