The cost of shipping cattle from New York to Liverpool is about half
a cent per pound, live weight. This includes the care and the feed
during the voyage. From ten to a dozen men are employed to look after
the cattle on the trip. Very low wages are paid these men, as there
are always a number of applications on hand from impecunious men who
are desirous of working their passage to Europe by taking care of the
cattle. A few men are regularly engaged in the business of taking care
of cattle at sea. They are known as “cowboys of the sea,” and are big
burly fellows who are used to rough living and to facing danger. The
work of feeding and watering the cattle is not an easy task in fair
weather, and with a rough sea on it is dangerous. When severe storms
are met, the cattle become panic-stricken, and the men are obliged to
go among them and quiet them. Sometimes the pens are broken down in a
gale, and there is pandemonium aboard. Cattle-ships have arrived in
port with only a small portion of the number of cattle taken on board,
but as the losses fall upon the shippers and the reputation of the
steamship line is to some extent at stake, they are, therefore, more
interested in the safety of cattle at sea than anyone else. The efforts
of Samuel Plimsoll, M.P., and the cattle inspectors of Great Britain
and the United States, have materially improved the methods of this
traffic.
Ocean freights are lower than those by rail. They fluctuate from day to
day, and are affected by the supply, and by the available tonnage in
port. Grain was carried from New York to Liverpool in 1890 for three
shillings a quarter; the increased shipments in 1891 advanced the price
to from four shillings to four shillings and ninepence a quarter,
an advance of fifty per cent. The increased rate on grain affects
all other rates, as the steamships vary their cargo according to the
demands of the trade.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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