THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MUST BECOME 



SHIP-MINDED 



By Edward N. Hurley 



Chairman, United States Shipping Board 



THE Germans used to complain, 

 before the war, that only a small 

 proportion of the American tour- 

 ists who visited Europe each summer 

 filtered through to their country. Eng- 

 land, France, Belgium, Holland, and Italy 

 got the heavy battalions of the American 

 tourist army. The Germans felt neg- 

 lected, especially as many of our tourists 

 traveled in their big liners. Berlin even 

 undertook to overcome the handicap of 

 distance by organized attractions de- 

 signed to make it a rival of Paris. But 

 the percentage of real American tourist 

 travel to Germany was small — most 

 Americans who crossed the Rhine went 

 for purposes of study or business. 



During the past summer, however, this 

 situation has entirely changed ! 



We have sent abroad in three months 

 a number of "tourists" greater than the 

 entire eastbound passenger travel for an 

 average pre-war year — that is, the total 

 eastbound passenger traffic in 1913 over 

 the North Atlantic routes was 718,373, 

 while this summer 300,000 American sol- 

 diers have been ferried over the Atlantic 

 in one month. Many of them went in the 

 big German liners, now used as trans- 

 ports by Uncle Sam. Some of them 

 landed in England, others in Erance, the 

 old tourist points ; but every one of them 

 was dominated by the desire to cross the 

 Rhine and visit Germany and interview 

 the Kaiser in Berlin ! 



Which goes to show, perhaps, that there 

 is always some method of getting things 

 started your way. 



BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND ITALY AIDED IN 

 TRANSPORT OF TROOPS 



We could never have carried out the 

 big job of transporting troops and sup- 

 plies to Europe without the help of Great 

 Britain and her Allies. During the past 

 summer, at times of maximum troop 

 movements abroad, British ships have 



carried as high as 80 per cent of our sol- 

 diers, while more than 50 per cent are 

 now going across in British vessels. Aid 

 has also been furnished us by France and 

 Italy. On September 1 of this year the 

 United States Shipping Board controlled 

 nearly 10,000,000 dead-weight tons of 

 merchant ships, comprising seized enemy 

 ships, requisitioned and chartered foreign 

 ships, old American ships pressed into 

 service, and new ships owned by the 

 United States Shipping Board. 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF OPERATING OUR 

 MOTLEY FLEET 



It is a great Armada, this army supply 

 train to France, for it is almost double 

 the whole German merchant marine at 

 the outbreak of the war. But it is also 

 rather a motley collection of bottoms — 

 old ships and new, big ships and little, 

 the Leviathan and the ocean tramp, the 

 steel tanker and the wooden coaster. 

 Moreover, it is operated under difficulties 

 that have probably never confronted any 

 other nation. We have had to train mer- 

 chant officers and seamen. There have 

 been complications in loading and unload- 

 ing, both on this side and abroad, due to 

 the diversity of cargo handled and emer- 

 gency pressure put upon port facilities. 

 Our Armada, being made up of diverse 

 sizes and speeds, has not lent itself to 

 standard operation. Finally there has 

 been the very definite handicap of convoy 

 -traffic, which pulls ships down to moder- 

 ate speeds, lengthens the average voyage 

 while at sea, and hinders turn-around at 

 the ports, because convoyed ships must 

 wait their place, regardless of efficiency 

 in loading or unloading. 



We are doing the job assigned us to- 

 day with the help of the British, French, 

 and Italians, and when one remembers 

 that the American military force has been 

 multiplied by five this year, with a cor- 



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