stevedore. No precaution is too great to take to prevent the crashing of heavy packages against other cargo, or against the frames and plates of the ship. We all become so accustomed to speaking of thousands of tons in a matter-of-course way that our minds cease to grasp the terrific power of a 12,000-ton ship and cargo, wrenched, twisted, and driven like a cockleshell by thousands of tons of crashing water. It is amazing that anything made with human hands can hold together under such hammering. And the technical skill and marvelous horse sense that can pack therein 7,000 or 8,000 tons of every kind of merchandise, so that it will cross the North Atlantic without disaster, is worthy of high respect. All this is a commonplace, and yet we are mentally ignoring it every working day. But if we watch a two-ton steam hammer at work we are impressed. The human mind is a queer thing. PROPOSED LOADING REPORT Cargo to be loaded in and upon the S. S. Helen Angier. Date, Dec. 30th, 1919. Voyage No. 3. Sailing January 20, 1920, for Genoa, Italy. 1 Rate per foot. 2 Details immaterial in pro-forma. T CHAPTER XX GENERAL CARGO: PLANNING THE STOWAGE HE exact methods of keeping the records of cargo, as the planning, engaging, and loading progresses, is like the spelling of Mr. Weller's name, which depended on the taste and fancy of the speller. Upon a usual form of traffic record are stated the ship's name, destination, dead weight, and deductions, and the cubic (bale) capacity, from which last we deduct 10 per cent. for general cargo. (This is the usual allowance for breakage on "general" as compared with "bale.") Bale cubic is about 10 per cent. less than grain. Many like to figure general at 18 per cent. less than grain - but it is a pure guess within two or three per cent., or even more, until the final figures are made up. This form provides proper spaces for the following information in regard to each lot of freight engaged. (a) Name of shipper and broker; (b) commodity; (c) measurement; (d) total weight; (e) total cubic. In entering up these details, it should be remembered that breakage has already been allowed for in the 20 per cent. deduction from grain capacity. Under "measurement" what should be entered, therefore, is not the way the cargo stows on the ship, but the way it measures on the dock. For stowage is really measurement plus breakage. Thus one ton (5 barrels) of oil measures 59 feet 7 inches, but it stows in 65 feet. The difference, 5 feet, 5 inches, is "breakage." Now, if breakage is taken off en bloc in the beginning, it should not be allowed for again on each item. "Measurement " is therefore better than stowage in a blank like this. With the usual allowances, our ship now shows 6,000 tons weight and 297,000 feet cubic, of cargo engaged. If the traffic manager has been long in the business he has his own ready reference book, in which for years past he has entered data useful in just such a juncture. This he will have in pocket form, as he may need it on the dock and in the ship whenever he visits the wharf. From it, and from memory, he will be able to fill out most (perhaps all) of the detail required. The traffic man having engaged the ship full, let us consider how the cargo has been chosen. Some of the items are significant. 2 cars staves; 16,000 feet dunnage lumber; 3,700 cases condensed milk; 1,000 tons steel billets; and 500 tons sugar. This traffic manager not only knows his business, but he is playing in luck. Right at the start he has provided dunnage that is bought by the shipper and pays freight to the ship; steel for "stiffening," which will also be useful for trimming ship; about 100 tons of milk, which is excellent beam filling; and (say) 10,000 bags of sugar, which handles quickly and is fine for topping off and filling in. (Of course the sugar must be carefully stowed, so that the bags will not be cut against other cargo; nor their contents tainted by leakage, odors, or effluvia.) The traffic manager will have yielded something in rate to secure the above. Close, heavy cargo, beam fill |