Scientific American Supplement, No. 1082, September 26, 1896 - Various

Burdensome as are the restrictions imposed upon shipowners by legislation, considerable justification is found for them when we compare the percentage of British vessels lost at sea with that of foreign-owned vessels. The great shipping countries, that is, those which have more than 1,000,000 tons afloat, are the United Kingdom, the British colonies, the United States of America, France, Germany and Norway. Of these six the United Kingdom suffered the least comparative loss in its mercantile fleet in 1895. Under all the heads of abandoned at sea, broken up or condemned, burnt, collision, foundered, lost, missing and wrecked, the total loss was 2.99 per cent. of the vessels owned and 2.36 per cent. of the tonnage owned. No other of the countries named has less than 3 per cent. of loss, while only the British colonies have less than 4, as the subjoined table shows.

TOTAL LOSSES OF STEAM AND SAILING VESSELS IN 1895.
Flag.	Vessels Owned.		Percentage Lost.
Flag.	No.	Tons.[1]	Vessels Owned.	Tonnage Owned.
United Kingdom.	9227	12,117,957	2.99	2.36
British Colonies.	2307	1,124,682	3.38	3.70
United States of America.	3220	2,164,753	4.72	4.06
French.	1164	1,094,752	6.01	4.02
German.	1730	1,886,812	6.76	4.38
Norwegian.	3041	1,659,012	7.43	6.46

When we turn from the contemplation of the complete fleets, and differentiate between steam and sail, we find that the United Kingdom no longer holds the premier position, being surpassed, as regards steam, both by the colonies and by the United States. Steam vessels are safer than sailing craft all over the world, partly, of course, because their average age is less. The losses they suffered last year are as follows:

TOTAL LOSSES OF STEAM VESSELS IN 1895.
Flag.	Vessels Owned.			Percentage Lost.
Flag.	No.	Net.	Gross.	Vessels Owned.	Tonnage Owned.
United Kingdom.	6446	5,993,666	9,695,976	3.33	2.13
British Colonies.	874	329,845	542,025	1.72	1.69
United States of America.	626	660,784	920,672	2.23	1.93
French.	571	467,553	903,105	4.20	3.42
German.	953	910,567	1,343,357	3.04	2.64
Norwegian.	586	285,349	446,384	2.56	2.87

The United Kingdom here stands third in the list, and curiously it only stands second under the head of number of sailing ships lost, while it is first as regards sailing tonnage lost. The sailing tonnage of the United Kingdom is only about 20 per cent. of the total, while in the colonies it is about 52 per cent. The following are the figures:

TOTAL LOSSES OF SAILING VESSELS IN 1895.
Flag.	Vessels Owned.		Percentage Lost.
Flag.	No.	Tons.	Vessels Owned.	Tonnage Owned.
United Kingdom.	2781	2,421,981	4.53	3.27
Colonies.	1435	582,657	4.39	5.56
United States of America.	2594	1,244,081	5.32	5.63
French.	593	191,647	7.76	6.83
German.	777	543,455	11.33	8.66
Norwegian.	2455	1,212,628	8.59	7.78

The losses of sailing vessels are very serious among the Continental nations, especially in Germany, where more than one in nine was lost or condemned last year. This is greatly due to the fact that our old ships are largely sold to the foreigner when they will no longer comply with legislative conditions of this country. We break up a few, but only 0.75 per cent., against 1.75 per cent. for Norway and 2.5 per cent. for France and Germany. We are more chary of breaking up our steamers; last year only 0.46 per cent. met this fate here, 0.34 per cent. in the colonies, 0.32 per cent. in the United States, 0.86 per cent. in France, 0.31 per cent. in Germany, while Norway did not lose a single steamer in this way.

Turning now to the present year we find that in the first quarter the vessels lost, condemned or reported missing before August 7 were, according to returns made out by Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping, 282 vessels, of an aggregate of 195,480 tons. These figures are respectively 23 per cent. and 24 per cent. of the total losses last year, thus showing a favorable beginning, for the winter losses are naturally the heaviest. The materials of the vessels lost were: Steel, 24 vessels of 40,474 tons; iron, 74 vessels of 78,314 tons; and wood and composite, 184 vessels of 76,692 tons. The United Kingdom shows best under the heads of total losses and losses of sailing vessels, but in steamers it actually comes last among the six nationalities we have selected for comparison. It must be remembered, however, that the British fleet is large enough for a very fair average to be attained in three months, while in all other fleets a single loss, more or less, makes a great difference to the figures of merit. The steam tonnage of the United Kingdom is more than seven times greater than that of Germany, which is our chief competitor. In sailing tonnage we do not hold this immense superiority, our amount being only about double that of the United States and of Norway respectively.

When we examine the various causes of loss of vessels at sea, we find nearly 43 per cent. of the tonnage under the head of "wrecked," which includes vessels lost through stranding, or through striking rocks, sunken wrecks, etc. Next come 22 per cent. broken up or condemned; 14 per cent. lost, missing; 8 per cent. lost by collision; 4.3 per cent. burnt; 5 per cent. abandoned at sea; and 3.6 per cent. foundered. The following table shows the mercantile marine of the world, according to Lloyd's Register, at the end of March, 1896:

Flag.		Steam and Sailing Vessels Owned.
Flag.		No.	Tons.
British.	United Kingdom.	9227	12,117,957
British.	Colonies.	2309	1,124,682
America, United States of.		3220	2,164,753
Austro-Hungarian.		309	304,970
Danish.		812	356,714
Dutch.		458	446,861
French.		1164	1,094,752
German.		1730	1,886,812
Italian.		1239	778,941
Norwegian.		3041	1,659,012
Russian.		1086	487,681
Spanish.		748	554,238
Swedish.		1432	497,877
Other European countries.		....	.........
Central and South America.		....	.........
Asia.		....	.........
Other countries.		....	.........