Sea Communications
' Running the Ship-Tramps'
LESLIE RUNCIMAN
Last week Lord Essendon told listeners about the running of liners, and today Mr. Leslie Runciman is to tell them about the running of tramps. The main purpose of a tramp is to be chartered to merchants who wish to export large quantities of raw materials cheaply to a special port or ports. Though tramps are slower and less elaborately equipped than liners, the main difference between them is in the job they do ; and in his talk Mr. Runciman, a Director of the Walter Runciman Line, the Moor Line, and the Anchor Line, is to describe the typical chartering of a tramp-a haggling between brokers as to the rate of freight-an agreement in the first place by word of mouth and then embodied in a Charter Party. He will describe how the old crew is paid off and a new one signed on ; how the ship is stored, bunkered, and loaded; how she sails, reaches the port of destination, and is discharged. And, finally, what the tramp owners get out of it all which, in face of economic difficulties, is precious little.