When the armistice was signed a large number of vessels were building in the shipyards of the United States, the majority on slips which had only recently been erected, and it was believed to be the' intention of the American Shipping Board to challenge the supremacy of Great Britain as the leading ocean carrier of the world.
In the early days of last year a big "cut" in Britis Western Ocean freights caused a sensation on the other side of the Atlantic, and since then the volume of American shipbuilding has declined. How great has been the fall in the tonnage under construction was shown in the statistics of "Lloyd's" published recently, the tables indicating that at the end of December there were on the slips over 500,000 tons less than at the end of September.
The Shipping Board is now credited with another ambitious. scheme, under which, according to a telegram from a Liverpool correspondent, it proposes to cut severely into the British passenger carrying trades, Towards the end of the war the United States decided to build 40 large vessels for the transport of troops. It was not known in shipping circles, says the correspondent, that the Shipping Board had in mind the idea to compete in the British
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