Page 9: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 1969)

Some of our nation's newest ships are 20 years old. If you think the warships in our moth-ball fleet are somewhat past their prime, consider our merchant marine: Only one in five of the nation's mer-chant ships is under 10 years old. Two-thirds of them are too old, too small, too slow, too costly to operate to com-pete effectively with newer foreign ves-sels. At the present rate of replacement, and retirement of tonnage older than 25 years, our present dry cargo mer-chant fleet of 663 ships could be down to 260 vessels in 4 years. That's a dangerous situation. For our country is far from self-sufficient. Of 77 strategic materials needed to turn the wheels of American industry, we must import 66 ?and already we're relying on foreign shipping for nearly 95% of our imports and exports. Mean-while other nations are building more ships than we are, Russia by 8 to 1. Russia and 13 others are outbuilding us in terms of tonnage. We must rebuild our merchant fleet now. No business is more urgent. Not even outer space. And unless we build the ships we need in U.S. yards, we can't be sure of getting either ships or shipping at a time when we might need them even more than now. With mod-ern yards on every U.S. coast, Todd is ready to do its share... in shipbuilding, repairs, and conversion. Executive offices: One Broadway, New York, New York 10004. TODD SHIPYARDS CORPORATION SHIPYARDS: Brooklyn . New Orleans . Galveston Houston . Los Angeles ? San Francisco ? Seattle This is one of a series of advertisements appearing in a selected list of national magazines reaching leaders of industry, finance, the defense department, and the government. April 1 / 1969 11