The $14 million Caronia will have the new Cunard look: single funnel, single mast, sharp clipper bow and a cruiser stern. The Caronia will carry only two classes on its nine decks, on winter cruises and the dollar-rich transatlantic trade.

Gratifying Hum

To Britons, winning few victories in the factories and the mines, the battle of the shipyards was a triumph. Since the war British yards, still operated under private enterprise (they are not on the Labour Party's list for nationalisation), have turned out 1,959,000 gross tons of merchant shipping - more than the rest of the World combined.

They received $360 million in foreign orders, not counting orders from the Dominions. And the British merchant marine, which lost two-thirds of its tonnage in the war, was back up to 18,070,000 gross tons last September, only 387,000 gross tons short of December 1939. Still the yards hummed. By last month, 827 merchant ships (over 100 tons) had been launched since war's end. Another 483 are under construction, the most since 1922.

But the rebirth of Britain's merchant marine also involved a whopping financial gamble. Like many other British industries, British yards have become both slow and expensive. Timber and steel are short; delivery of generators and other suppliers’ parts is often as much as 18 months late. Labour productivity is down, wages are up.

A Terrifying Thought!

Some shippers argue that the new ships’ greater speed and better utilisation of space will make up part of the greater cost. Three new ships, they claim, do the work of four old ones. But many a British shipping man also agreed with I.C. Geddes, of the Orient Steam Navigation Co. Ltd., whose new $12m Orcades, a 31,000-ton passenger ship, was recently launched.

“In addition to running costs”, said Geddes, “these two ships [the Orcades and a sister ship to be built] will have to earn something in the neighbourhood of $2,400,000 a year to cover interest and depreciation. A terrifying thought.”