Shipping Services for American Foreign Trade— The Present Situation

Abstract

W ITH a total of 16,324,024 gross tons of shipping, privatelyowned and government-owned, the American merchant marine now stands a close second to the merchant shipping of the United Kingdom, which is only about 2,000,000 tons larger at the present time. This total of 16,324,024 tons includes our smaller coastwise vessels and the 2,595,062 tons of shipping on the Great Lakes engaged in port-to-port commerce. Considering only the seagoing vessels of upwards of 500 gross tons, the American merchant marine has an aggregate tonnage of 12,264,282, of which privately-owned tonnage represents 4,810,520 gross tons, and United States Shipping Board tonnage, 7,453,762 gross tons. This American fleet of seagoing vessels is somewhat more than twice as large as the entire German merchant shipping before the outbreak of the Great War. Of all of our seagoing American merchant ships of upwards of 500 gross tonnage, 1,974,965 tons are enrolled for the coastwise trade and 10,289,317 tons are registered for foreign commerce. All of the recent notable increase in American merchant shipping has been in the amount of tonnage engaged in carrying overseas-the coastwise tonnage having remained almost unaltered. The 10,289,317 tons of seagoing vessels registered for foreign commerce at the end of 1920 show an