The explanation presumably; is that the supply of such old-timers is nearly running out.
The British have already obtained here about 1,250,000 tons of these ships but there are not many more to be had, The laid-up fleet, released by Congress last May, totalled only about 125 ships to start with and over a hundred have already been sold. As time-charter rates keep rising. American ship operators are reluctant to sell their old ships except at rising
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.