Motor Ship "Parkeston", built 1925 by the Elsinore Ironship and Engineering Works for the United Steamship Company; 2,762 G.R.T., 1,572 N.R.T., 3,800 I.H.P. monopoly in this traffic, and English companies were especially active in disputing the position of the Danes, but agreements with these opponents soon created favourable conditions. Right up to the close of the 'seventies Konigsberg was undoubtedly the great outlet and receiving port for the trade of Russia, but in the 'eighties this was changed, partly as a result of the great harbour works built by the town of Libau and a railway policy that gave to this town the whole of little Russia as a Hinterland, partly owing to the difference in the gauges of the German and Russian railways, which necessitated a laborious transshipment on the Konigsberg route, and finally the fall in the rate of exchange for the rouble which, owing to the fact that even on the Russian lines the railways charges via Konigsberg were calculated according to a fixed ratio between marks and roubles, favoured export via Russian ports. The Company was, however, ready to seize its opportunities: it offered to establish regular services to England and Antwerp if given a monopoly on the direct sea conveyance of goods brought from these countries for further transit by the Russian railways to Moscow, and a contract was signed on this basis. Later on (in 1885) this monopoly was withdrawn, but the Company had been first in the field and this fact continued to exert its influence. Certainly the Libau route in course of time lost some of its importance, but this merely led the Company to seek new outlet-ports for the trade from the great Czarist Empire, either Riga, in the Gulf of Finland or in the Black Sea. During the years just prior to the war there was a very considerable development, and even if there were great difficulties to contend with, of which competition was not the least, judicious negotiations led to a quiet working atmosphere under which the United Steamship Company was able to become one of the greatest carriers of the general cargo exported from Russia. In 1914 came the Great War, and at one blow the extensive route services with Russia were broken off, and after the cessation of hostilities no possibility has arisen of resuming the old connection to anything like the extent of pre-war days. Naturally, this is due to the revolution in Russia, both economic and political, but the circumstance that the Company's former great customer in the east is still displaying little activity has also had the effect that many of the Company's other European services have had to be reorganised since the war. Under an agreement with the Sovjet authorities, however, a service between Leningrad and Copenhagen was commenced in the summer of 1925, and this service, as the Company put it in its last annual report, has »come up to such anticipations of a resumption of the Company's former important traffic in this direction as could be entertained under the present circumstances, and a further satisfactory development may be expected.<< After 1864 active endeavours were made for the purpose of establishing a direct connection between Denmark and England, particularly as England at that time was already one of Europe's best markets for cattle and provisions. It was, however, not the United Steamship Company that took the lead in this respect, for it already had sufficient to do at that time in its North Sea-Baltic services, and the Company left the other sphere of operations to various smaller Danish companies and one or two English lines. Not until 1875 and 1876 did the Company start its Esbjerg lines, and here it was soon faced with competition but easily managed to overcome it. It was not long, however, before the competition of other England services became unpleasant. An abnormal system of rebates was commenced, but the effect of this was naturally felt most by the smaller companies, which could not, like the United, cover themselves on many other services. An amalgamation therefore became necessary, and the result was that five of the smaller shipping concerns were absorbed by the United, which thus at the beginning of the 'eighties had most of the England trade in its hands and lived to witness the change-over from the export of cattle to that of provisions and butter, and subsequently the great development of the latter. The war made it a very difficult matter to maintain these services, but happily matters went better than might at first have been expected, and since the war the Company has exerted all its energies in the making of these lines as effective and up-todate as possible. The Company has succeeded gradually in replacing all the old export boats with new, modern vessels, and now it has in this trade a fleet that is in every respect in keeping with the times. During the course of 1925 the new motorship >>Parkeston<< was put into the Esbjerg-Harwich service and proved to come up to expectations in every respect. By the introduction of the >>Parkeston< on this route the Company found itself able to commence a daily service (Sundays excepted) and thus to offer agricultural export a further improved connection with the English market. In the summer of 1926 the newly-built motor ship »Jylland«, a sister-vessel to the »Parkeston«, was also put into the same route. The reorganisation of agriculture in the 'eighties involved not only different export commodities but also quite a new import. The import of foreign feeding stuffs had been already commenced, especially from Russia, and in the 'nineties America also became a large exporter of cottonseed cake and maize to Denmark. Nothing was more natural than that Danish farmers should turn their attention westwards, and nothing more understandable than that the United Steamship Company should seize the chance at once. Further, the Free Port at Copenhagen had just been opened, and it was of importance that new, overseas lines should be created to operate on it. As an experiment therefore the first cargo line was opened from New Orleans to Denmark in 1895, and it proved successful. Certainly Copenhagen had had the Thingvalla Company's America route line since 1880, but that was essentially an emigrant line and its experience had been anything but encouraging. The great transatlantic shipping companies had waged the keenest competition against each other for years, and the Thingvalla Company had by no means had easy conditions to operate under. There was thus good reason for the greatest caution. The next few years, however, witnessed a splendid improvement in the American traffic as a consequence of the great American harvests, and this afforded the United Steamship Company the incentive not only to increase and extend its freight lines but also to start upon the pessenger traffic. In 1898 the Thingvalla Company sold its vessels to the United Steamship Company, which then started its Scandinavia-America Line. It was soon decided not to rest content with the old material; a 10,000 gross ton steamer was ordered and since 1902 this vessel has sailed in the Company's service under the name of >>Oscar II«. Already in the first year the number of passengers exceeded even the most optimistic expectations, and two new steamers of the same type were therefore ordered and proved to be exceedingly useful immediately they were put into activity. Although during the succeeding years the Company was, to a certain extent involuntarily, involved in costly competition, which, however, was later on succeeded by years of undisturbed peace, the America Line before the war turned out to be an extremely valuable asset to the United Steamship Company, a fact which was evidenced by the company shortly before the war putting a new and still larger vessel into the service, the >>Frederik VIII«. What was true of the passenger line also applied to the freight services which the Company had established to North America, and it was in one of these latter that the Company placed its first motor ship. The years of the war naturally brought about a great deal of disturbance in the transatlantic traffic, and even after the war was over the old tracks were not reopened, for a new American law restricting immigration came into force in the summer of 1921, and even in its first year involved a heavy falling off in the number of passengers, particularly those westward bound. In 1924 additional restrictions regarding immigration reduced the number of emigrants to America still further, and the Company had the greatest difficulty in providing sufficient employment for its passenger boats. But in 1925 circumstances fortunately turned |