SHIPPING: Full Steam Ahead

The U.S. came out of World War II with a swollen freight fleet and a passenger fleet shrunk to half the prewar size. When shipping companies laid plans to build up the passenger fleet from 350,000 tons, a lowly fifth among the nations of the world, they found themselves stranded by high building costs. Even with the $178 million which Congress had voted in shipping subsidies, shippers were afraid to take a chance on the big, fast ships which they need to compete on the North Atlantic and the U.S. needs for defense purposes (i.e., military transports). Last week, with the Navy offering to chip in, it looked as if the shipping program was finally ready to get up steam.

U.S. Lines offered to pay $25 million towards the cost of a $65 million-plus liner which would be the biggest and fastest ever built in the U.S. Two days later, Moore-McCormack Lines, Inc. offered to invest $20 million in two new speed liners for its South American runs, to cost a total of $50 million or more. This week the Maritime Commission is talking over similar proposals with American President Lines, American Export Lines, Grace Line, Farrell Lines and three smaller companies.

As all the proposed new ships would include “defense features” (e.g., extra fuel tanks, space for guns), the Maritime Commission was sure that the Defense department would put up enough extra cash so they could be built. Said Vice Admiral W. W. Smith, the commission’s chairman: “It looks good for all of them.”

The Black Queen. The queen of this new fleet, a 48,000-ton superliner, will give U.S. Lines something to brag about. Designed by Manhattan’s Gibbs & Cox, No. 1 ship architects for the Navy, the ship has a high pressure steam power plant similar to that used in World War II’s destroyers and cruisers. Though smaller than prewar liner plants, it is much more efficient, and will give the superliner a top speed of over 33 knots, enough to bring the transatlantic record to the U.S. for the first time. Though the ship will have little more than half the tonnage of the 83,673-ton Queen Elizabeth, the superliner will carry 2,000 passengers, only 200 less than the Elizabeth, plus a crew of 1,000 (or 12,000 and crew as a troopship).

With low fuel consumption and big payloads, U.S. Lines President John M. Franklin is confident that the superliner can be operated at a profit.

The Red Queen. If so, it would be another radical departure, as no U.S. superliners have ever made money over any length of time. A case in point is the 26,314-ton America, present queen of the U.S. commercial fleet. Built for U.S. Lines eight years ago at a cost of $17,586,478 (of which the Government paid one-third), the America was bought by the Government for $10,853,791 in 1942 for use as a troopship (the West Point), was reconverted at a cost of $6,883,424 and chartered to U.S. Lines in 1946. Last week the company bought the America back for only $7,500,000—25% of it cash and twelve years to pay. Even with these easy terms, the America was obviously no bargain: the commission had to throw in a ten-year operating subsidy before U.S. Lines would agree to take her.