-------------------------+-----------------+-------------------+ | Vessels Owned. | Percentage Lost. | +-----------------+---------+---------+ Flag. | | | Vessels | Tonnage | | No. | Tons. | Owned. | 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.