Page 167 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

Breaking a Shipping Ring.

29th day of March " (wrote George Hines in the Co-operative News),
" and I have every reason to beheve we got back again,
. . . .
that is about as much as I should be able to tell my grandson
about it." However, some of his fellow-committee-men probably
denied themselves the pleasures of the trip, for the entire
directorate (including Mr. Hines) attended the subsequent dimier,
when J. T. W. Mitchell looked forward to whole fleets " going
to and fro between the co-operative peoples of all countries."
The Pioneer was immediately employed to open a new service
from Garston, near Liverpool, to Rouen. At Goole a forwarding
department was established, but the Plover being sold for some
£3,000 early in 1880. the service had to depend upon chartered
vessels, which either failed to realise what was expected of them
or were withdi'awn by their owners just when conditions became
sufficiently profitable for the latter themselves to use the boats.
However, appealing to the Quarterly Meetings for support in not
taking a backward step, the Shipping Committee, which bj'^ now had
emerged as distinct from the Grocery Committee, persevered through
hard winters, when the Ouse was frozen, and through strikes, ^ which
deprived them of outward freight. Losses were incmred, but the
delegates were too busy with the Bugle Horn Colhery to worry about
them. In 1881 the s.s. Cambrian was bought for £7,500, new from
the stocks, and the Goole line began to show profits. This improved
state continued into 1883. In that year the rapidly increasing
volume of imports via Hamburg demanded special attention, and
a Goole and Hamburg line was commenced. The step was
immediately resented by those shipowners interested in this traffic.
Rates were cut against the C.W.S. boats. As a " measure of
defence " a 600 ton boat, the s.s. Marianne Briggs, which previously
had been chartered by the Society, was bought outright. The
purchase, for £8.125, was discussed at the Quarterly Meetings of
September, 1883. To say it was debated at length is needless, for
all the unportant matters of business in those days were deliberately
and closely weighed. The main point made in favoiu" of OAvning
instead of chartering the vessel was that on the terms of the past
quarter there would ha\e been a saving of £808, which would have
left a loss of £19 only mstead of £827. It was objected that the boat
was nine years old, having been built at Shields in 1874; but against

' The strikes and labour disputes to which casual reference is made here and on a
foilowinfr page were, of course, general industrial troubles, having only this indirect
connection with C.W.S. history.
K 129