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ni,iitv'n I, , J3 9 "S" HOUSE FLAG floats Over Best anil Fastest Am erican Sailing Ships. BUSINESS OF MR. SEWALL Talks of Building and Maintenance of Vessels Known Here Yards Sending Out the Clippers. HATH, Me. Without break for near y .seventy-five years has the Sewall private signal, a white "S" on a blue ground, fluttered from the maintop of some of the stanchest, finest, swiftest vessels in the American merchant ma rine, carrying the Stars and Stripes into every foreign port. From the first ship, built entirely from American material, cut on the banks of the Ken nebec, to that now being built entirely of American material from the mines and forges of Pennsylvania, the Se walls have been pioneers in ship-build ing and shipping masters. Arthur .Sewa.l, the present head of the yard and of tho family, is best known to the American public as the recent candidate with 'Mr. Bryan on the Democratic Presidential ticket, but o every person who has -given the American marine the least attention he is known as the leading shipping merchant and ship-builder of New- England. As has been shown by his political course, Mr. Sewall is in all things a radical, but more successfully so in shipping than in politics. When he began building the great wooden ships which are largest of their class and the pride of the American marin the Rappahannock, the Shenandoah the Susquehanna ?nd the Roan ok he was laughed at, and his bankruptcy was .predicted, yet it is a fact that these ships have been the only ones nia'L nave pant well during the recent repression in frieghts. The Rappahan nock was burned as the result nf nnn taneous combusti On in its parori Kiit tho other three have been steady iiiuney-winners. Again Mr. Sewall Was laughed at ana considered all but insane when he announced his intention of hnnrfino- c steel sailing ship at Bath. But ,the dirigo, .01 z,bib tons burden, which .was launched in the spring of 1S94, lias jjioveci nis wisdom. Although built cn liiw MVfimeuec Dy American workmen tho Dirigo contains considerable for eign material, her angle irons, plates frames and strakes havine- hPPn im. ported from the Clyde under the act cn. congress admitting them duty free. But this dissatisfied !Mr. Sewall, and he obtained estimates from the Carne gie .and other steel wonks, with such resuus tnat he says today: "We can put down material for stpei ships cheaper on the Kennebec after three years' experience than the fa mous Scotch bui'.ders can on the Clyde after thirty. We have today .the cheap est steel in the world. Last year we produced almost as much steel as Great Britain, and I believe thrt fore .this year has closed -we shall have oecome the first steel-nroducins- conn try in the world. This is the result of the Government encourasdne- the steel industry, and I believe the same results can be produced in our mer chant marine by pursuing the same policy. "I have one shin on the wnvs Tin tv almost framed in, which will be built irom bow to stern from American steel put together by American workmen under the American flasr. nn.i WiM,i o very short time win io-; ' anocher and larger ship. Neither has been named yet. The one now in the ,s i'racucany a duplicate of the Uirigo. except that her lines have been made a little finer, especially in that she is. sharper aft. She will be about three thousand tons, and much faster than the Dirigo. The one which will c uum soon win be about twentv feet iiufet-r ana on similar lines, and with a carrying canacitv nf r,,. v,.. :LlnS- B,ot!Vcf thp ships will be "iiiiii; vessels. "Then you do no: believe that the day icr sailing ships has passed a seems to be the opinion of the Fn- "As long as the wind blows and the trees grow there will be sailing ships built and business to keep them busy There will always be a chance for them to compete against steam in traf fic where time is not a factor, or where delay is actually a good thing. For in stance there is the wheat crop. In July or August it begins to be ready for de livery, and in a short time the whole .rear's supply is ready for shipment. But the consumption of a crop stretches over the whole year. Shipping wheat in sailing vessels consumes several months' time, which would otherwise require the storing of the wheat. Sail ing freights are. actually less than steam freights phis storage charges. So. you see. here is business which sailing ships can hold. Then, again, take railroad materials, especially rails, which are manufactured faster than they can be used, and where the delay of sails over steam is better thin storage. "Of course, as in all business, it is a case of the survival of the fittest, and as smaller ships are relatively rnore expensive than large ones, small ships cannot malke money, and will have to make way for large ones. For instance, the only ships of our firm which have paid of late have been the 0 (J cooooooooooooooo 0000000000000000000000000 o 0 o 0 o 0 o 0 o 0 o 0 The above illustrations were reproduced from drawings furnished by the designer, Vi.o Jacob-en, expressly for the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, with a view of giving- the public an idea of the prizes offered by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Cooper for a Military Shooting contest. The shield will be of polished silver, convex in shape and with the ornamentation in high relief. It will be mounted upon a plaque or bracket covered with dark velvet, and is intended for a wall decoration. The medal is to be of gold, about the size of one of the three interlaced laurel wreaths, and goes to the highest individual scorer. THE PACIFIC COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER: HONOLULU, APRIL 21, '1 jm- DEPARTMENT TROPHIES. oooooooocooooooo 0000000000000000000000000 1S9S. 0 O O 0 o 0 o 0 o 0 o 0 o 0 i7 three big wooden ones and tho. biff Dirigo. AVo are actually building moro steel tonnage today on the Kennebec than the Sco:ch are on the Clyde. Tha significance of this may 00 read in two ways. It may be that wo are more or it may be we are less progressive than the Scotch. Outside of this quc3- I uwn i minK tnat the explanation may I be that, thanks to our wise coasting ;laws, the New York -San Francisco i trade, which gives the bst business to sailing ships, is confined to Amer ican bottoms. "The advantage of sttvl over wool is great. While the first cost is more, the expense, of maintenance is much less, und even after years of usage you still have a good steel ship, for steel Is practically indestructible, and costs little to keep going. "Two things have prevented our turning to steel sooner. First, the fact that wo could build the best and cheap est wooden ships in the wxjrld, and knew how to handle them, from the first design to the last days afloat. On the other hand, steel was expensive, and we did not have the plants nor the experienced workmen. But the ex perience of my yard has shown that we can obtain materia! cheaper oil the Kennebec than the Scotch can onj the Clyde, and can equip on short no tice a better plant at less expense than our competitors across the water. Our only handicaps are the greater cost oZ labor and the lack of established busi ness for our ships. If we can only re ceive temporary encouragement for our shipping from the Government, steel ship yards will spring up everywhere, and it will not "be long before, as has been the case with steel, competition, will reduce the cost, so that wo can build more cheaply than any other country in the world. "We don't ask for anything abnor mal nor permanent. We merely desire to receive some encouragement from the Government to help us over the first few hard years of the business. As it is now, there is no disposition on the part of capital to go into shipping, but with such encouragement it would not be long before capital would enter the field. And once so established, tho business would soon maintain itself and draw fresh capital, as needexl, with out further aid from the Government. COMPETITION MUST RE AfET. 'But instead of this encouragement at the present time there is a disposi tion among some shiping men to avoid offending our 'British friends,' and so encouragement is refused us. But we r ust stand on our own bottom. We ar ; big enough, brave enough, strong enougn country to go it alone in the face of the whole world, if cnly we will recognize our own strength. To day our ships and the cargoes sent in) them are discriminated against with out mercy by the great English, insur ance powers; and this is right. Eng. land ever seeks to protect lier own in every way. But we must seek ta meet this competition. We must have some help to meet tme unfair advan- tages of our competitors. "It is urged against the proposal to give American ships discriminating duties that foreigners would retaliate to our disaster. But what if they did? Our exports are greater than our im ports, and it would simply result In an additional tax on the foreigners who consume what we produce. They don't buy from us because they wand to, but because the' wouldn't be in-? clined to spite themselves to a very great extent. "I tell you what," said Mr. Sewall, his clear, blue eyes fairly flashing ak 'he walked up and down the room, la his intense interest, "I want to see q more American policy toward our ship ping. I would like to see a law passed obliging not only every officer, as now, but every man on board American ships, to be an American citizen. It is a disgrace to our flag to have it carried around the world by 'Dago crews. Let every soul on board, no matter where born, owe allegiance to the flag that flies above him. Tbe United States has inherent strength, to do anything, and it can repossess itself of the carrying trade of th world if it only will. See what the Germans have done. The North Ger man Lloyd lines, among the strongest aflcat, owe their existence and pros perity to the wise policy of the Ger man Government in giving them ma terial encouragement and in building them up. Every man on board a Ger man ship is a German subject, and wherever a German sees his flag afloat he is fil'.ed with pride and patriotism. "His flag afloat always excites pride in a man, and this is only one of the reasons which makes a strong mer chant marine the great school for patri otism. Young men going into the Ger man service find no foreigners on their ships, and grow to regard shipping as a privilege that they get frcm the Government, to go into the service and to stay in it. Aside from the commer cial profits of building up our shipping ! American patriotism, and require Am erican citizenship as a qua- nicationi for shipping on an American vessel. We would not onlj- build up patriotism, we would lipvplnn nnirk. read v. natrio- tic young men of the greatest value to j us m case ct war or other emergency, j whether they would be called upon to i serve afloat or on shore." j "How would y:u arrive at th's end, !Mr. Sewall?" ! "I would begin at the prf.s-ent session j of Congress, for the sooner the better, i with a resolution by both branches j setting forth that there is an absolute meed of American ships. This would j be followed up with a little eno:urage j ment, which need only be temporary, j to enable us to repossess ourselves j of our old position as mistress of the j seas. Personally, I favor a policy of jsmall discriminating duties in fav:r of ! cargoes brought in American bottoms. IBut better than that, thousrh less nrae- tica', would be a widespread sentiment on the part of the American people in favor of American shipping and a determination to buy only such goods as were brought in under the Ameri can flag. If foreigners won't give our (Continued on Page 12.) m