the Atlantic-Gulf routes is somewhat greater than the differentials maintained on the Atlantic Seaboard. Such lower rates are helpful in providing wider markets. 4. Port Traffic. While a large portion of the traffic moving through ports of the United States is classed as foreign trade, a large amount of traffic also originates at United States ports and is destined to other United States ports. This situation prevails not only at the smaller ports, but also at the larger ports including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and others. Coastwise and intercoastal trade is therefore of decided interest to many ports of the United States and an important source in increasing the amount of traffic moving over their port facilities and in providing employment for many of their citizens. II. STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF THE DOMESTIC MERCHANT FLEET The coastwise and intercoastal trades, taken as a whole, cannot be considered a sick industry. Total traffic, due largely to the movement of petroleum, has enjoyed a substantial, long-term growth and is currently at its highest levels. The improvement in the volume of coastwise and intercoastal traffic since World War II, however, has not been uniform as to type. Passenger, ship transportation as such has been abandoned and the volume of package freight has decreased sharply. On the other hand, bulk cargo shipments excluding coal, both dry and tanker, have increased in volume. Bulk cargoes are principally industrial or proprietary in nature while package freight operations are largely of the common carrier type. Vessels transporting balk cargoes have been able to meet the competition of inland carriers in part by the adoption of technological improvements in loading and discharging methods and equipment, but the break-bulk trades have not been able to obtain comparable results. An analysis of the size and composition of the coastwise and intercoastal fleet, and of its traffic patterns, is given below: A. Sise of the Coastwise and Intercoastal Fleet The changes that have occurred in the number and deadweight capacity of ships employed in the coastwise and intercoastal trades since World War II are shown in Table 1. Significant highlights are as follows: Between 1939 and 1954, the total number of ships of all types The decline in total deadweight tonnage, however, amounted to The dry-cargo ships in these trades decreased both numerically The average deadweight tonnage per ship, both dry cargo and tanker, has increased substantially. This is due primarily to the fact that the war-built ships that now make up the greater part of the fleet are larger than their prewar counterparts. In the case of the tankers, part of the increase in average deadweight is due to the postwar construction of supertankers with deadweight ranging from around 18,700 to 32,500 tons. TABLE 1 UNITED STATES-FLAG OCEAN-GOING SHIPS ACTIVELY EMPLOYED IN THE * As of June 30 for years 1933-39, inclusive, and as of December 31 thereafter. None of the 28 combination ships in the 1939 coastwise and Tables 2 and 3 show that the postwar coastwise and intercoastal fleet no longer comprises the major part of the U. S. merchant marine, as it did before World War II. Before the war (1933-1939 average), 54 percent of the ships in active service were in the coastwise and intercoastal trades, as opposed to 46 percent in the offshore trades. Since the war (1948-1954 average), only 35 percent have been engaged in the coastwise and intercoastal trades, as opposed to 65 percent in foreign trade. In terms of deadweight tonnage, 40 percent of the prewar seven-year average was engaged in foreign trade and 60 percent in coastwise and intercoastal trades. The postwar average shows an exactly opposite distribution, namely, 60 percent foreign and 40 percent domestic. Military planners have evolved a formula for measuring the relative lift capabilities of the various types of ships in the merchant fleet in terms not only of numbers of ships and deadweight tonnage, but also applying the factors of speed and port time. By this formula, the percentage relationship of any given type of ship or of a group of ships of various types can be established in terms of "notional" ships (Liberty in dry cargo and T2 in tanker). While any such broad formula may not be strictly accurate when used in measuring ships in a particular service because of variations in length of voyage and proportion of in-port time, the "notional" ship concept does provide a better measure of lift capabilities, especially from a defense point of view, than does a straight comparison of either numbers of ships or deadweight tonnages. In terms of "notional" ships, the total coastwise, intercoastal and acncontiguous fleet has increased from 521 ships in 1938 to 539 in 1954. Within this total, however, the dry-cargo segment has declined from 318 nctional ships in 1938 to 161 in 1954, or a reduction of about 50 percent. The tanker segment has grown from 203 notional ships in 1938 to 378 in 1954, an increase of 86 percent. B. Speed and Age of Ships in the Coastwise and Intercoastal Trades A comparison between prewar and postwar ships in the coastwise and intercoastal trades in terms of age and speed is given in Table 4. In brief summary, this table reflects the fact, first, that the war-built tankers had somewhat higher speeds than their prewar counterparts, while the average speed of the freighters was unchanged; and second, that the age of the ships in these trades has been determined generally by the period during which large numbers of ships were constructed for war purposes. Between the World Wars, the coastwise and intercoastal fleet consisted mainly of ships built during World War I. Since 1945, the fleet has consisted primarily of As no information is available on the identification of tankers in the noncontiguous trades in 1938, this computation necessarily includes all ships, dry cargo as well as tanker, in these trades. TABLE 2 TOTAL NUMBER OF UNITED STATES-FLAG OCEAN-GOING MERCHANT SHIPS * As of June 30 for years 1933-39, inclusive, and as of December 31 thereafter. 1/ Noncontiguous excluded. |