THE PRESIDENT                 -2-            April 17, 1942
 
     New construction for the first quarter amounted to
1,020,000 tons, leaving a net loss of 1,345,000 tons.
 
     The loss figures refer to losses by sinking and capture,
of which notification was received by the United States and British
governments during the quarter. They do not refer precisely to
the date on which the actual sindking or loss occured.
 
     The picture for the quarter is presented in the table below:
 
                        GAINS AND LOSSES
             NEW CONSTRUCTION- SINKINGS & CAPTURES
                       U.S., U.K., CANADA
                JANUARY 1, 1942- MARCH 31, 1942
          
                         January   February  March          Total
 
Sinkings & Captures           612,092   731,075   1,022,678 2,365,845
 
New Construction              308,378   361,449   350,232   1,020,059
 
NET DECREASE             303,714   369,626   672,446   1,345,786
 
 
 
     A more detailed breakdown of the shipping situation for
the first quarter of 1942 is shown in Table No. 2. The bottom of
this table shows that 83 tankers of 921,800 DWT tons were lost in
 the quarter as compared with 15 new tankers of 222,195 tons which
were put into operation during the period. For cargo ships, the
losses for the quarter were 212, of 1,444,000 DWT tons. New con-
struction of cargo ships for the quarter was 82 ships, of 797,864
tons.
 
     In addition to these losses, it is estimated that the
 sinkings and captures of neutral vessels, not under the control
 of either the United States or the United Kingdom, aggregated
310,000 DWT tons during the quarter. This brings the total U.S.,
U.K., and neutral vessel gross losses up to 2,675,000 tons.