PREFACE It is with considerable satisfaction that we present the sixth volume of the series of popular lectures by members of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. Although the lectures included in this volume were delivered during the period of the Great War, their average attendance compared favorably with the attendance of similar lectures during the five years previous. The greatly increased demand for copies of the first five volumes of this series was also most encouraging, many thousands of copies having been distributed among the officers and men of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps of the United States in all parts of the world. If this volume receives a similar reception the efforts of the University and its faculty will be amply repaid. THE AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE By GROVER G. HUEBNER Assistant Professor of Commerce and Transportation There was a time in the history of American shipping when the United States had a large and growing merchant marine which handled over ninety per cent. of the country's entire foreign trade and shared also in the oversea's trade of Europe. From colonial days until 1861 American sailing vessels were known at all the maritime centers of the world and American shipyards built many ships for European ship owners. No square-rigged vessels were better known than the old American clipper-ships; and the fore-and-aft sailing vessel reached its highest point of development in the American schooner. There were sailors in those days, generations of whom regarded seafaring as a permanent profession; and merchant traders like Girard and Peabody, who looked upon ships as essential parts of their trading equipment. So important was the foreign trade that a substantial part of the population depended upon it for a livelihood. Merchant ships were considered a national asset and foreign trade and ocean shipping were part and parcel of the nation's prosperity. As the natural resources of the country developed and the population spread throughout the interior, domestic trade gradually outstripped foreign commerce and a growing part of the people became interested in domestic rather than foreign markets; in highways, canals and railroads rather than in seagoing vessels. Congress in 1815 and 1828 withdrew the discriminating tonnage and import duties which had favored American ships since 1789; home markets and domestic industries after 1818 were encouraged with protective tariffs except in a few exceptional years; and American vessels began to encounter more active foreign competition. In the 40's and 50's subsidies were paid to a number of American lines to counteract the growing competition which developed when steam became a factor in deep-sea motive power, but the subsidy plan was short-lived. The proportion of our entire foreign trade conducted in American vessels gradually declined from 92.5 per cent. in 1826 to 65.2 per cent. in 1861, but so long as most ships were wooden sailing vessels the United States remained a maritime power. Indeed our deep-sea tonnage reached its highest point prior to present war conditions, in 1861 with 2,497,000 tons gross register. REASONS FOR DECLINE OF SEA-GOING TONNAGE The absolute decline in deep-sea shipping did not begin until the Civil War. At the close of that war the gross tonnage engaged in the foreign trade was reduced by nearly one million. Until 1880 it averaged about one and one-half million tons gross and then it declined with but few short interruptions to a minimum of but 726,000 tons in 1898. Thereafter the gross tonnage engaged in the overseas trade remained at a low level until the first year of the war in Europe. It rose to 943,750 tons gross in 1905 but by 1910 had fallen back to 782,517 tons. In the latter year but 8.7 per cent. of the value of our foreign trade was carried in American vessels. 1. Competition with Foreign Vessels The reasons for the decline in our deep-sea merchant marine were various and are of interest because they shed light upon the changing conditions of the present and their probable effect upon the future of our shipping industry. The losses during the Civil War were but the beginning. A sharp line of distinction lies between the registered merchant marine engaged in the foreign trade and the enrolled and licensed marine which is engaged in the coastwise and Great Lakes trade. The gross tonnage of coastwise and Great Lakes merchant vessels grew rapidly from 2,704,544 tons in 1861 to 6,668,961 in 1910, for it was protected from foreign competition by a statute which barred foreign ships from domestic shipping. The decline occurred in that part of the merchant marine which was engaged |