Oct. 27.
Last Sunday, according to the annual report of Lioyd's Register Shipping, was the hundredth anniversary of the establishment of Lloyd's (on October 21, 1834) asa Society representative of underwriters, merchants and shipowners. Tt had been in existence then, for 4 years in Lloyd's Coffee. House "as -.an Underwriters' Register, but the organiza~ tion as is it now known is just a hundred years old. The report contains much of technical interest to those engaged in the various phases of the shipping industry Dut, perhaps, no more pregnant remark is to be found in the whole book than the following—
In face of the existing conditions, it may not be amiss to recall the hun tired" years "of the Society's history, shipping has experienced several periods of severe depres sion; but, as time has shown, these periods "eventually passed and were succeeded by years of great activity and prosperity. This encourages the hope that, with the steps now being taken to relieve the conditions which bear 50 nly upon shipowners in general and tramp shipowners in parti cular, we may again, in the near future, see a return to a reasonable: measure of prosperity for merchant shipping. its significance is to be found in the fact that the carriage of goods lby sea cannot take place without the existence of international trade jand the statement of the position jin terms of shipping, is but one manner of stating the whole proposition. What shipping has ex-Iperienced in the last hundred years Inas been also the case with trade jim general, and the improvements which are to be found in the annual report may be taken as indications, not only of an improv-led position with regard to the business with which it so specifi~ Jeally deals, but with international lcommeree as a whole.
In this respect it is interesting.
note that the report refers to ithe continued, if somewhat slow, reduction of the amount of world tonnage laid up unemployed. In. two years it has been reduced from 15,000,000 to 8,000,000 tons. 'A picture of the development of the world's tonnage may be gained.
some very telling figures. In 1914 world tonnage amounted to 149,000,000 tons: by 1931 it had risen to 70,000,000 tons and has Inow shrunk to 65,000,000 tons. [That total is still in excess of the Jdemand of the freight market, but the gradual elimination of super-/fuous vessels leads to the nope that, in a comparatively short while, there will be a better balance between requirements and the facilities which the tonnage supplies. The increase in the tonnage Jobviously followed the necessities lot the world, firstly, during the war, and, secondly, during those years of boom, when the world Iwas busily engaged in repairing ithe enormous wastage that hostilities had brought about. The lean lyeers which have followed have ed to the laying up of a large mumber of vessels and, to a very large extent, their elimination. though not yet at a rate likely to loring the—_speediest benefit. INevertheless, it looks as if the shipping industry has learned a lesson which other departments of commercial activity have, _ap= parently, still to appreciate. They' lave discovered the need for loutting tosses and restoring their business to something more approx-mating prewar conditions. lhas been, and still is, a painful Jousiness, but the general impression to be gained from reading the report is that, if commerce as a whole were doing the same thing jas shipping and seeking to return to normal bases at a similar ate, improvement would still not be so remote as it at present appears.
While, of course, the Register idoes not deal with all the shipping lurider construction throughout the world, it covers so large portion as to be taken as ling the true state of affairs with regard to shipbuilding or at any rate to supply useful information for the drawing of comparisons. The peak year for shipbuilding' appears to have been 1919-20 Jwhen under Lloyd's supervision 1,299 vessels, representing 4,422,~ J640 tons, were under construction. For 1938-4 there were only 242 vessels, totalling 804,610 tons. In June, 1934, there were 172 vessels Jot 915,698 tons gross_under construction, of which $55,545 tons Jwere being built in the British isles and the balance of 360,153 tons elsewhere. 'The Report very rightly remarks that the confidence lof shipowners throughout the world in the survey and classifica tion of Lloyd's Register is shown by the fact that these' figures represent nearly 95 per cent. of the "total tonnage ing in Great Britain and Ireland and more than 75 per cent. of the total under construction in the world. iit is interesting to note that the activities of Lloyd's through their' surveyors stationed in so many parts of the world is extending in Jdirections other than.those solely leon nected with shipping. Thus they carry out tests on structural jane foreign governments, public takings have made use of the Society's surveyors for inspections for a wide range of material and items of machinery plant, includ-jing land engines and boilers, steam, air and gas containers, largings and castings for land turbines, electrical machinery, sro0n jand steel tubes, etc, while during the past year arrangements have Ibeen made for surveyors to act on lbehalt of Imperial Chemicals Industries, Ltd, with a view to seeing the requirements of their specifications carried out. On the whole the report is a peculiarly gratifying one, leaving the impression that the opinion commonly Jneard of a turn for the better in the commercial affairs of the Jworld is not without a very [substantial foundation in fact.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.