The Harmsworth Universal Atlas 



Relative Values and Comparisons.— 5. The Merchant Shipping of the World 



COMPARATIVE TONNAGE OF THE STEAM VESSELS OF THE PRINCIPAL MARITIME COUNTRIES. 



Ififk- 



UhJITED KI^GDOM 

 B,75£,Q0O. 



UNITED STATES 



3. GOO.OOO 



I Oversea tonnage 554,000.) 



GERMANY 

 J. 750,000. 



J APAr^ 

 aoo.oDO. 



SPAIN 

 717,000. 



NORWAY 



603,000, 



FRANCE 

 505,000. 



^--j-Vl 



ITALY SWEDEN 



460,500 375.000 



RUSSIA 

 372,000. 



COMPARATIVE TONNAGE OFTHE SAILING VESSELS OF THE PRINCIPAL MARITIME COUNTRIES. 



on same scale as the diagram of steam vessels. 



UNtTED STATES 



z.e2e,ooo 



(Oversea tonnage 345,000 



UNITED KrNCDOM 



J, BOS, 000 



NORWAY 

 640,000 



FRANCE 

 650,000. 



ITALY 

 564,000. 



GERMANY 

 SeSnOOO. 



CANADA 

 466,900. 



JAPAN 

 329,000. 



RUSSIA 

 233,000 



SWEDEN 

 ^72,000 



PORTUGAL 

 63.000. 



THE PROGRESS OF SHIPPING.— There IS no record of the 

 advent of the first sailing ship, but sails were probably used for 

 propulsion in the earliest ages of the world. Steam was first applied 

 to navigation purposes about 1707, when Papin experimented with a 

 paddle-wheel steamer in the River Fulda in Germany, and up to 

 1800 further progress was made in adapting steam to navigation. 

 Passengers and goods were still, however, carried across the oceans in 

 sailing vessels in the early years of the nineteenth century, and it was 

 not until i8ig that the first auxiliary steam-power vessel, the 

 Savannah, laid the foundation of the great '' Western Ocean " trade 

 of the present day. The Royal William, in 1833, was the first vessel 

 to steam across the Atlantic Ocean without the aid of sails : the 

 voyage occupying 22 days. The first steam passage to India was 

 made in 1825, in the Enterprise, via the Cape of Good Hope ; and in 

 the same year the William Fawcctt, the pioneer steamer of the 

 famous '' P, & O," Company, was launched. The opening of the Suez 

 Canal, in 1869, changed the course of the Indian carrying trade. Iron 

 gradually began to supersede wood in the construction of the early 

 steamers, and in 1838 the R. F. Stockton was the first iron steamer 

 to cross the Atlantic. She was also the first screw steamer used in 

 America. The Britannia of the Cunard Company was the first 

 steamer to carry the American mails. This vessel of 1,139 ^"^^^ ^™^ 

 considered a wonder in her day, but she has long been surpassed by 

 the modern floating palaces. The Mauretaiiia, launched for the 

 same company in 1906, 790 feet long, gross tonnage 33,200, with 

 a speed of 25 knots, is the largest vessel in the world. The 

 Amerika, of the Norddeutscher Lloyd, has a rate of 23J- knots, and 

 a tonnage of 23,000. The Deutschland, of the Hamburg American 

 Line, is at present the fastest ocean steamer in the worid, but 

 her record will be eclipsed by the Mmtretania when she is put on 

 service. The Victorian, of the Allan Line, launched in 1904, 

 was the first Atlantic steamer to be fitted with turbine engines. 



The Tonnage of Merchant Vessels belonging to the British 



Empire is 40^5 per cent, of the tonnage of the World. Tlie tonnage 

 belonging to the home country is 10,555,800, while 1,600,000 tons of 

 shipping is distributed among the British Possessions over the seas. 

 A fairly reliable idea of our position in the ocean carrying trade 

 may be gleaned from the fact that we have 496 vessels of over 5,000 

 tons each, while Germany has 144, France 62, Japan 26, and the 

 United States 73. The Hamburg-American Company are the largest 

 steamship owners in the world, with a tonnage of 725,000, the 

 Norddeutscher Lloyd comes next with 603,000 tons, then the British 

 India S.N. Co. with 440,000, and the P. & 0. Company with 401,000 

 tons. The number of Apprentices in the British Mercantile Marine is 

 steadily decreasing. In 1870 there were 18,300 indentures in exist- 

 ence, but in 1904 this number had dwindled down to 5,179. Exclud- 

 ing Lascars and Asiatics, the number of Foreigners employed in 

 British ships has gradually increased from 10 per cent, in 1870 to22g 

 per cent. In 1904. The total figures for British vessels include 176,980 

 British sailors, 39,840 foreigners, and 259,500 Lascars and Asiatics. 



The Earning Capacity of the shipping of the principal maritime 

 countries is taken from the latest available statistics. The total 

 amount earned annually by the shipping of the world is estimated at 

 /102, 000,000, more than half of winch is earned by British vessels. 

 Shipping is supposed to earn £2 per ton of carrying power. 



The number of vessels which passed through the Suez Canal in 

 1904 was 4,237, with a gross tonnage of 18,661,000 ; 2,679 of these 

 were British vessels, with a gross tonnage of 12,165,000. This total 

 includes several passages of the same vessel. The trrmsit receipts of 

 the canal amounted to ^4,616,000. By a convention signed in 1888, 

 the canal is exempt from blockade, and vessels of all nations are 

 allowed to pass through it in peace or war. In 1904, owing to tlie 

 Russo-Japanese war, only 6 Japanese vessels passed through the 

 canal, compared with 61 vessels of 331,560 tons in 1902. 



■\ 



SUEZ CANAL TRAFFl C. -/ 

 Annual gross tonnage of shippings ■ \ 



;7 



^—_ 



^^ - - - • jjS ^^J^-'- 



BRJTJSh 

 12.165.000 



GERMAN 

 2,736.000 



FflFNCH 

 1.167,000 



DUTCH 

 614.000. 



SHIPPING OFTHE BRITISH EMPIRE 

 compared with the Worlds Shipping. 



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THE WORLDS TONNAGE 

 Jocluding Bntjsh Empire 

 30^000,000 



TONNAGE OF 



BRITISH EMPIRE 



L2J56.000. 



AUSTflO-HUNGARlAN 

 63?,000 



ITALIAN 



306. COO 



RUSSIAN 

 250,000. 



JAPANESE 

 33,000. 



.'■l-V 



THE EARNING CAPACITY OFTHE SHIPPING 

 OFTHE PRINCIPAL MARITIME COUNTRIES. 



(Over-sea trade.) 



GERMANY 

 ile, 300.000 



NORWAY 

 £5,000,000. 



FRANCE 



l4,aoo,ooo. 



UNITED STATES 

 13,200.000 



UNITED rtlNGOOM 

 £56,000,000. 



30 



