"When the twin-screw propeller made its appearance it brought with it greater speed and there was a revival of the old racing spirit. Between the various shipping lines of all nations the contest for size and swiftness has raged ever since. Before the Great War, Germany had a very extensive collection of large and rapid liners, many of them built on the Clyde, that fought to surpass the Cunard ships. The White Star Line also took a hand in the game and built others. In the contest, alas, America has been far behind until gradually she has let other countries slip in and usurp the major proportion of ocean commerce. It is a pitiful thing that we should not have applied our skill and wealth of material to building fine American steamship lines of our own instead of letting so many of our tourists turn their patronage to ships of foreign nations. Perhaps if the public were not so eager for novelty, and so constantly in search for the newest, the largest and the fastest boats, we should be content to make our crossings in the older and less gaudy ships, which after all are quite as seaworthy. But we Americans must always have the superlative, and therefore many a steamer has had to be scrapped simply because it had no palm gardens, no swimming pools, no shore luxuries. We have not, however, wholly neglected naval construction for we have many fine steamships, a praiseworthy lot of battleships and cruisers and some very fine submarines. I hope and believe that the time will come when our merchant marine will once again stand at the front as it did in the days of the clipper ships. Our commerce reaches out to every corner of the earth and why should we rely on other countries to transport our goods?" "I suppose there are no pirates now, are there, Mr. Ackerman?" asked Dick, raising his eyes expectantly to the capitalist's face.