Smyrna times., 1912-01-03
SHIP BUILDING ON SMYRNA
RIVER FORTY YEARS AGO
JAMES B. SCOTT, FORMER SMYR-
MAN WRITES OF INDUSTRY
Twenty Vessels Were Built at Smyrna
Landing and a Quarter Million DOL
lars Spent in Construction Alone

GduOlIiS anu d GudTte'T MlillOH OOl-
lars Spent in Construction Alone
Mr.. Editor-It seems somewhat
like the irony of fate, now that
Smyrna's water outlet has been in
recent years so greatly improved.
the once fiOurishing industry of
shipbuilding depending entirely upon
this stream should no longer exist.
Taking the decade beginning with
1867, there were upwards of 20 ves-
sells built at Smyrna Landing, rang
ing from go to 600 tons burthen and
circulating in that vicinity more
than quarter of a million dollars
in construction money alone.
Literally, these vessels were walls
of oak and of such superior timber
as obtained nowhere else in the
broad domain of the North American
continent from sunrise to sunset,
and from where the water never
freezes, to where it never thaws.
The heritage that the State of Del
aware has lost in the almost wanton
destruction of her magnificent belt
of timber, stretching along the
divide, and whose tops were unseen
save by the stars, cannot and never
will be replaced. In no sense do
the stunted live oaks of Florida or
the soft-grained timber of the Ohio
reserves or the oak of the Virginia
forests compare with the Delaware
oak, for not only lasting qualities
but for the steely spring of, its
grain.
The conservation laws now
in force apply to the immense
pineries of the Northwest and find
no place in the denuded forests of
the Atlantic seaboard. But then
this loss is more real than apparent
since steel and concrete have fairly
displaced wood in extensive con-
struction. Imagine an immense
kettle. 882 feet long and displacing
a quantity of water equal to as, 900
tons and we have the latest wonder
that has run riot through the fertile
brains of marine architects-the
queenly White Star Liner Olympic.
AS her whirling screws drive her
with more than the speed of an ex-
press train across the lost cities of
Atlantic, tirelessIy for a stretch of
3, 600 miles in less than FIVE days,
one begins to think that the limit
of limitations has been reached.
Yes, they have been more than
reached in the complete obliteration
of the American merchant marine,
in the splendid clipper ships of the
early forties, and then when the
first gun of wayward brethren
splintered the masonery on the par
apet of Fort Sumpter until at Appo-
matix the once Incompatible in
fantry" of Lees Army laid down
their arms in lost cause, England
has held the Americans in a grip of
steel. We're the taxes of the colon
lists more onerous than is the
burthern of today, when upward of
half a billion dollars each year 90
into foreign Golfers to carry away
the products of land rich in every
resource.
The forest of masts at the great
seapOrts do not fy the bonnie blue
flag at their mizzen peaks. The
trim American clipper has disap-
peared from the seven seas and the
ugly uncouth foreign tramp steamer
has, like the lordly gobbler of the
barnyard, swallowed ali that is
worth carrying to sea. Now what
is the real cause. of much of it? 1t
is not because American capitalists
have not the means and are afraid
to invest. Nor is it the tax on ton
mage that the press of the country
rate so much about, or a high as
against a low tariff; but, it is
because of the failure to apply and
force to the utmost a principle that
holds good with nations no less than
with individuals. anG is an unalter-
able as the laws of the Medes and
Persians-"The adaptation of means
to an end.'' Now look, in Great
Britain on the Clyde the keel of
dreadnought battleship can be laid
on the first day of January and by
the first of the next January, the
ship is ready for launching-just
one year. Can we do it? No, no
| in three years. Here then is the
application of the principle above,
and with a tremendous sweep of
force it dominates the world and
plucks from the brow of the Amer
leans the laurels Of the sea, and
relegates to second or third or fourth
place maritime nations who fail to
practice it; hence our silent ship
building industry along tideswept
/ Oh CoOfk U;1