Chapter XX: The Future of the Mercantile Marine

If the attention of the reader has been thus far secured, he will have appreciated the fact that to any nation owning a seaboard the possession of a Mercantile Marine is as important as having a fighting Navy. We have seen that Great Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Japan—not to mention the rest—all realise more than ever the prime importance of an efficient and adequate merchant fleet. You find this in the official statements as well as in the remarks by their shipping experts. As we said at the beginning of this volume, it has taken a great war to cause this right thinking, but you may be assured that from now onwards the merchant fleets are coming into their own, and the service is going to be regarded before long with some of the old respect that was ascribed to it in the palmiest days of the sailing ship.

It is sea-borne trade which makes a Mercantile Marine. It is the great coalfields conveniently near big harbours that have helped to build up the modern British marine after her shipping was temporarily eclipsed by the American. The development of the world consequent on the coming of the industrial age, the great increase of overseas trade therefrom resulting, caused a loud and universal call for cheap maritime carriage. The steamer satisfied that call, for the reason that she was built economically near to the coalfields, and economically propelled because she had cheap coal. She could therefore afford to carry goods cheaply. Then, as we have also seen, this tramp is the forerunner of the liner, and so the story goes on like a stone gathering momentum as it comes down the mountain.

So it all depends on cheap fuel quite as much as on cheap labour. The Scandinavians have had the latter for years, but it never enabled them to build up such a merchant fleet as one might have expected. The world’s greatest shipping centre to-day is the Port of London, notwithstanding the great set-back it received during the war, when the presence of German submarines in the English Channel diverted much of its ancient trade to western ports. Had it not been for the possession of an enormous merchant fleet, consisting of a large proportion of small and moderate-sized steamers, the Allied cause would most certainly have been lost, irrespective of the Army in the field or the Navy at sea. The British and German blockades, though exerted in the one case by big ships and in the latter by submarines, had the same effect: the paralysing of the merchant fleet. Take the blockade away and the war could have gone on as long as a couple of men were alive. The pivot of the whole thing is therefore the merchant ship, and she in turn depends on her fuel.

The fuel of the future will be oil, and you will find only a minority of experts to deny this. Whether aircraft will ever become the principal passenger-carriers over the world is possible, but remote. For the carriage of goods the dependence will remain on merchant shipping, and one of the incentives to the use of oil-fuel will be brought about by increased competition. Oil is the more economical fuel, for the reason that, other things being equal, one ton of oil-fuel as now used in Diesel engines drives a vessel three times as far as one ton of coal burnt under the boilers of a steamship. And yet oil is twice as efficient as coal when the ship has water-tube boilers and geared turbines. This is the statement of Sir Westcott Abell, the Chief Ship Surveyor of Lloyd’s Register. The biggest liners have now been converted into oil-burning, and it is conceivable that before long we may have Diesel-engined Atlantic leviathans instead of steamers. The absence of boilers will mean more room for passengers and cargo, therefore increased earning capacity.

Whether we think of oil as used for Diesel or for steam engines, it certainly looks as if the future Mercantile Marines of the world will be in the main oil-driven. In that case the outlook for the British Mercantile Marine, which has been based on cheap coal, may cause some anxiety. The possession of ample oil-wells in other parts of the world may, and probably will, get over the difficulty; but it is one thing to have coalfields at home, and quite another consideration to fetch oil from the other end of the earth. Moreover the commercial fight for oil-areas may conceivably lead to international strife, and the prolongation of the war might depend on how long the supplies of oil could be maintained for the shipping. In any forecast of the world’s Mercantile Marines due regard must therefore be paid to the use and supply of oil.

The introduction of oil-fuel into the modern Atlantic ships has done away with the old, laborious work of stoking, and necessitated from the fireman a higher skill, more technical knowledge and keener concentration; and he has to be on the move continually in order to see that the burners are in good order and the flame is continuous. During bad weather, or fogs, fires can be extinguished, and thus economy gained. More bunker-fuel is being consumed on the ocean at the present than ever, and although during the last twenty years a complete revolution has been made in the engine-room by the use of turbines and geared turbines, it is only with the introduction of oil-fuel that the stokehold has become more progressive. In many cases ex-naval men are now employed in the British oil-fuel liners. Their experience of years in oil-fuel ships well fits them for this skilled “stoking” in the modern merchantmen. And here may be the beginning of another improvement. It is well known that the crew’s accommodation in most men-of-war is superior to that in most merchantmen, especially in regard to cleanliness. During the war it was surprising to naval officers commanding armed merchant cruisers that such conditions were allowed in liners which would never be tolerated in fighting ships. One British admiral, in particular, was so impressed as to express his opinions afterwards in print. Now, if the introduction of highly skilled ratings from the Navy continues, it may be taken as certain that the standard of life in the crew’s quarters will become higher and thus a high-grade type of man will be attracted. There is going to be a general levelling up in the Mercantile Marines of the world, so long as there is peace assured. The world is wearied of war, and asks only to be allowed to develop its resources in peace. Every one nowadays is interested in commerce, and the time will come when the practice which existed in the East India Company’s ships will be reverted to. Only the sons of the best families will be thought to be good enough for the national merchant ships: only the best sons will offer themselves for the honour of controlling the ships which maintain the country’s life-giving trade. In the time of the Elizabethans, before the East India Company; in the Spanish and Portuguese and Venetian trade supremacies, the pick of the nation were engaged in overseas commerce; and in the twentieth century, when so much technical knowledge, so much responsible capability are required of a man, none but the best types of officers and men should be accepted or offered. Permanent employment, good pay, pride in ship and service, high standard of accommodation, and the most careful selection of candidates will go a long way towards bringing about this desired end.

In the olden days the sailor was a very gallant fellow, whose job it was to go aloft and lay out along a yard and handsail in the foulest weather. At sea he was heroic; on shore he was often a drunken reprobate. Things have altered. The modern shipman is just as gallant, as we know from his exploits afloat during the war. But he is better educated, uses his head more and his fists less. He reads and thinks and reasons for himself, and if he knows nothing of the old seafaring, he is highly skilled in the working of the hundreds of wonderful appliances which are essential to the modern merchant ship. To him the shore is not always symbolical of debauch. He is better treated than his ancestors, and his undoubted rights have begun to be respected. The result is that there is a general improvement going on through the Mercantile Marine not merely in regard to the ships themselves, but in the personnel.

The romance of the sailing-ship days has to be merged to-day in the bigger romance of sea-borne trade. It is ridiculous to say, as one lecturer recently stated, that the Mercantile Marine has no fine traditions like the Navy, and therefore there is no enthusing force at the back of it. To make such a statement—and I regret to say that it was uttered by a distinguished merchant ship captain—is to be ignorant of sea history. During the recent war, during all the previous wars, through the ages of peace, back and back as far as we have any records, you will find the marine merchantman doing fine things, piling up the finest traditions. If that is not so, the whole purpose of this volume has been missed. I have endeavoured to show what the Mercantile Marine has done for the world throughout time in all kinds of ships. Sailors are a conservative race, and there is at heart very little difference between the best of each century. To them we all owe more than we can ever repay or even realise.

Whether the average merchant ship of the future is to be the cruiser-stern vessel with oil-fuel and geared turbines, or with Diesel engines, matters less than the spirit which animates the officers and men. In the British Mercantile Marine the officers are drawn from many sources, but the chief training establishments are in the _Worcester_, lying in the Thames, the _Conway_, lying in the Mersey, and in the Nautical College, Pangbourne. It is to these three institutions especially that we look for the future mercantile officer, on whom great responsibilities rest for the upholding and carrying on of the magnificent heritage of tradition. In the United States this preparation for the sea is being carried out with that thoroughness which was shown during the war for making sailors out of raw landsmen. The recruiting for the American Mercantile Marine, according to the latest official report to hand, already consisted of a personnel which was 68 per cent. American. Its Sea Training Bureau has training stations and training ships, and in the first three years turned out between 30,000 and 40,000 unlicensed ratings. In addition, there are the Navigation and Engineering Schools and advanced courses for men already holding licences. Such subjects as the operation, repair, adjustment and general upkeep of marine turbines, and matters dealing with electricity and oil, are included in the last-mentioned curricula. The result was that in four years licences were granted to over 10,000 graduates as masters, first, second and third mates, chief engineers, first, second and third assistant engineers. And by means of a Sea Service Bureau maintained at various Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coast ports, during one year over 100,000 officers and men were placed in United States ships.

Thus, with glorious traditions behind them, and an equally glorious future in front, the Mercantile Marines of the nations of the maritime world have every reason to be proud of their respective services. Competition there assuredly will be, not merely between British and American, but, presently, German merchant fleets. That is all for the good of the services concerned and for the world in general. The lesson from past history is that maritime legislation in the long run is better omitted except where it is necessary as a reply to that of another country setting up unfair competition. The real freedom of the seas is to allow the merchant ship to pursue her way freely, unhampered; and to find her trade where she can, and be allowed to develop that trade as it has been in the past by Venetian, Spaniard, Dutch, Briton, American and others. To interfere with this system is to court trouble which in the long run fails to benefit the very organisation it was intended to protect. Navigation laws are all very well in intention; but far better still is it to allow free trading over the seas, free flow of emigrants and commerce, fair opportunities for all. The best must win in the last instance, but why not let each marine go about its own business as each trading concern ashore is allowed to carry on its own affairs? The merchant fleets mean too much to be controlled by the State in any country, except under exceptional circumstances and with the most weighty excuse. That is one of the lessons in the history of our subject, and we may leave it at that.