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Shipping Costs Five Times Pre-War

DateC 1950

Object numberANMS1128[007]

NameNewspaper clipping

MediumPaper

DimensionsOverall: 195 x 45 mm

ClassificationsEphemera

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Margaret Royds

Terms

DescriptionA newspaper clipping titled 'Shipping costs FIVE TIMES PRE-WAR' and discusses 'INTRASTATE freight rises this week boosted the cost of shipping general cargo on the Queensland coast to more than five times the pre-war figure. Shipowners said yesterday that this increase had followed accumulated wage rises and increased costs. Shipowners had done everything possible to cut costs, but they either had to raise rates or go out of business.'HistoryThe Queensland Coast and Torres Strait Pilot Service originated in the 1890s as an association of pilots licensed by the Queensland Marine Board to pilot ships through the dangerous passages of the Queensland coast and the Torres Strait. Before 1884 individual pilots had offered their services, and shipping companies which regularly used the routes employed their own pilots. Licensing began in 1884 along with regulations as to how pilots should conduct their business. In 1893 a family firm of marine insurance brokers, Banks Bros of Sydney, became the secretariat of the pilots. The pilots themselves were self-employed, operating as a type of co-operative in which all the work and expenses were shared using a turn-by-turn system. At the end of WW1 there were 12 licensed pilots, at the beginning of WWII there were 15, by 1957 there were 31, by 1980 there were 40. In 1993 the Australian Maritime Safety Authority took over administration of the QCTSPS. The name was changed to Torres Pilots. With the diminishing number of ships on the Australian register, Australian mariners with the required expertise in the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait became harder to find. In 2006 there were 30 pilots in the service, and pilots from other countries were being sought and trained. Pilotage extends from the Queensland border at Danger Point to Booby Island, a distance of 1372 nautical miles, making it the longest single pilotage in the world. Pilots also extend their pilotage to New Guinea and Bougainville, or as far as Western Australia. Since 1991, pilotage has been compulsory for all ships longer than 100 m, all oil and chemical tankers and liquid gas carriers, to employ a pilot. Membership of the Torres Strait Pilots has always carried prestige. Licensed pilots have to be master mariners, and until recent years had to have extensive experience in the passages of the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait. Applicants to join the service were always well known to the pilots, because they had necessarily sailed through the region with them for many years. New pilots had to be acceptable to the existing ones. Licenses to join the pilot service were keenly sought after. Only two were accepted in 1942, the year Basil Helm joined. 'Shipping costs FIVE TIMES PRE-WAR INTRASTATE freight rises this week boosted the cost of shipping general cargo on the Queensland coast to more htan five times the pre-war figure. Shipowners said yesterday taht this increase had followed accumulated wage rises and increased costs. Shipowners had done everything possible to cut costs, but they either had to raise rates or go out of business. THE FIGURES These cost figures from the private records of a coastal shipping company were made available to the Couriou-Mail yesterday. A coastal freighter, about 3000 tons, traded between nine ports in 1939 and carried 45, 000 tons of cargo. Because of slower turn around, the same vessel traded between only five ports to-day, and was able to carry only 24, 000 tons. Major cause of the lag was a reduction in watersiders handling rates from more than a ton a man na hour to only .6 of a ton. MORE TO HANDLE The coastal freighter took 29 days for around trip in 1939. Now it took 51 days. Average cargo per ship was about the same. But the cost of handling cargo per ton had jumped from 9/8 in 1939 to 3/5/7 now. Ship wages incresead from 3/10 to 1/3/5, and the total cost per SignificanceThese notes are part of the Basil Helm collection which has considerable significance in the commercial area of Australian maritime history. Along with the Burns Philp shipping company, the Helm's collection contains a superb record of the celebrated Queensland Coast and Torres Strait Pilot Service. This important organisation was closely connected to Burns Philp, from which several of its pilots, including Helm, came.