The list above as usual contains no steamers built exclusively for the foreign trade, although the Honolulan and Georgian will be registered. For the second successive year the two largest ocean steamers built in the United States have been built under the protection afforded by the application of the coastwise laws to trade between Hawaii and the mainland of the United States and to trade by way of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Still another year has passed without the construction of a squarerigged sailing vessel. In 1905 the Bureau reported that "the existence of the square-rigged American fleet can not under present conditions extend beyond twenty years. At that time there were 276 such vessels of 322,288 gross tons under the flag. On June 30, 1911, there were only 165 such vessels of 192,878 gross tons, or an average annual decrease of 7 per cent in both the number and the tonnage of this fleet. To the westward of the Pacific terminus of the Panama Canal an area of variable, uncertain, and light winds extends so that sailing vessels can not use the canal except under almost prohibitory towing charges for part of the distance on the Pacific. The Suez Canal greatly accelerated the normal decline of sailing vessels, and the opening of the Panama Canal will exert to a less extent a like influence.

During the past year only one large wooden schooner was built. The tendency of navigation on both our Atlantic and Pacific coasts is to substitute large seagoing barges for types of sail vessels built 10 or 15 years ago for these trades.

The following summary of the vessels just named and of vessels of over 1,000 tons built during the preceding four years shows the changes in the larger form of construction for the five-year period:

COMPARISON OF VESSELS OF 1,000 GROSS TONS AND OVER BUILT, 1907-1911.

CONSTRUCTION DURING THE CURRENT FISCAL YEAR.

Latest returns show the new merchant tonnage officially numbered amounts to 95,944 gross tons, compared with 141,189 gross tons for the corresponding period during the previous fiscal year.

For some years this report has contained a statement based on reports of the principal shipbuilding companies showing the merchant vessels under construction or under contract on the 1st of July.

These tables are printed this year to preserve the continuity of the record. They indicate a construction for the current fiscal year less than that of the last fiscal year. Since July 1, however, contracts have been entered into for the building of five 11-knot steamships of about 6,600 gross tons for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Co. and for three oil-cargo boats of a somewhat smaller tonnage. It is not probable, however, that any of these vessels will enter into trade before July 1, 1912. The course of American seaboard shipbuilding during the current fiscal year will depend so much upon legislation at the coming session of Congress that conditions during the coming summer can not be anticipated at this time. If the coming opening of the Panama Canal shall stimulate shipbuilding, results will not appear in the current fiscal year's figures, but the returns for the year ending June 30, 1913, will show great activity.

The present and recent conditions of the steel shipbuilding industry in the United States are shown by the following table, giving the number and tonnage of steel vessels under construction or under contract on the dates named:

In accord with the custom of the Bureau for some years past, American builders of steel vessels were requested to make a return showing the steel merchant vessels under contract or under construction at their respective establishments at the beginning of the current fiscal year. The Navy Department, the Revenue-Cutter Service, the Bureau of Lighthouses, and other branches of the Government engaged in operating vessels for public purposes were requested to furnish a similar statement of vessels building or under contract in private yards for their service on that date. The details of these statements are tabulated in Appendix E. The following is a

summary.

NUMBER AND TONNAGE OF STEEL MERCHANT AND Government VESSELS UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN AMERICAN SHIPYARDS ON JULY 1, 1911, WITH CAPITAL INVESTED AND MEN EMPLOYED.

NUMBER AND TONNAGE OF STEEL MERCHANT AND GOVERNMENT VESSELS UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN AMERICAN SHIPYARDS ON JULY 1, 1911, WITH CAPITAL INVESTED AND MEN EMPLOYED-Continued.

Besides the Navy vessels included in the tables above, the battleship New York, 27,000 tons displacement, of 21 knots speed, is being built at the navy yard at New York, and the Navy collier Jupiter, 19,360 tons displacement, of 14 knots speed, is being built at the navy yard at Mare Island. The Argentine battleships Rivadavia and Moreno have been launched and are being completed at the Fore River Shipbuilding Co., Quincy, Mass., and the New York Shipbuilding Co., Camden, N. J., respectively.

TRADE OF OCEAN STEAMERS.

The following table shows the ocean steamers of 1,000 gross tons and over built in the United States during the decade according to the trade for which they were originally designed. Of the 6 transAtlantic steamers, 3 have been transferred to the Belgian flag and 3 have been sold and put into the Hawaiian sugar trade. Of the 4 ships built for the direct trans-Pacific trade the Dakota was lost and 2 were sold to the Panama Railroad Steamship Co.

TRADES OF OCEAN STEAMERS OF OVER 1,000 GROSS TONS BUILT, 1902-1911.

WORK OF SHIPPING COMMISSIONERS.

Summaries of the work of shipping commissioners for the past fiscal year, so far as they can be expressed in statistical terms, are printed in Appendix A. At the beginning of the past fiscal year there were 17 shipping commissioners, with 34 deputies; in all, a total of 51. On July 1, 1911, the number of offices was unchanged, and the number of deputies was 32.

The following summary shows the aggregate routine work and salaries of shipping commissioners for the past decade:

The number of seamen shipped, reshipped, and discharged has risen from 176,836 in 1902 to 367,023 in 1911, an increase of 107 per cent in the volume of routine work. The amount of salaries paid to shipping commissioners and their clerks has risen from $58,988.36 in 1902 to $67,155.90 in 1911, an increase of 13.8 per cent. The average cost of services per man has decreased from 33 cents in 1902 to 18 cents in 1911.

During the year 30 collectors of customs acting as shipping commissioners have shipped 2,352 seamen and discharged 1,141. Whenever during a year the number of seamen shipped, reshipped, and discharged before a collector of customs reaches 1,000, inquiry is made as to the desirability of establishing a shipping commissioner's office in the district. The table of work performed by collectors of customs as shipping commissioners in Appendix A shows why the Department has not recommended to Congress any new offices. Unless American shipping shall increase, the shipping commissioners' offices at some of the ports where the work is decreasing should be given up, and the work transferred to collectors of customs. Under the sundry civil appropriation act of June 20, 1910, the offices of shipping commissioners are now maintained only at such seaports as Congress specifically provides and a maximum salary is appropriated for each commissioner. If the volume of work performed by him and measured by the schedule of fees in section 4612, Revised Statutes (shipment foreign trade $2, near-by foreign and coasting $1; discharge and settlement of wages, foreign trade 50 cents, near-by foreign and coasting, 25 cents), does not reach the salary, payment is only for work done. If there are advantages in Government supervision of seamen, the present system is efficient and economical. The clerical force is provided for by a lump appropriation. That appropriation for the current year was reduced below the estimates, based on the actual pay roll. Reductions were thus compelled. The restoration of the roll is recommended in the estimates.