Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-17
GREATEST NAVY
/ YARD ON FLATS
Plan to Establish Base in New
Jersey Calls for Big
Plant.
COULD DOCK ENTIRE
FLEET AT ONE TIME
Coaling Station, Dry Docks and
Steel Works Talked of as
Parts of Project.
Star Bureau.
metropolitan National Bank Bldg.
WASHINGTON, sent, IT

WASHINGTON, sept. IT
If the plans for New Jersey navy
yard, the proposed site of which will
be inspected tomorrow by Josephus
Daniels secretary of the navy, are ever
carried out, the present mud flats on
the Bayonne side of New York bay
will become the greatest and most
complete naval base in the world.
As prepared by Captain Van Duzer,
naval officer who has worked out the
plans, the projected yard on the Bay
onne mud flats would provide accom-
modations for the simultaneous con-
struction of several large battleships
and the docking, for repairs or coal
ing, of at least forty ships of all sizes.
In a general way the Van Duzer
plans propose that the government
shall acquire mile or more of the
bay front at Bayonne, and shall build
out from the shore to the channel in
the bay mole or quay mile long
and half mile wide. Alongside this
mole. on both sides, the mud and stone
of the harbor bottom would be dug
out and the material excavated be
used for filing in the mole.
Great Dry Docks Planned.
Great dry docks, capable of docking
the largest vessels afloat, would be
constructed alongside this mole, and
from either side long piers would
project, alongside which all sorts OF
craft could be tied up for repairs,
equipment, provisioning or coaling.
On the mole itself would be built
big machine shops, possibly an armoI
plate factory, warehouses and store
houses, a big repair shop, and a com
plete plant for shipbuilding, outf1ttine
and repairing.
Railroad tracks would be laid con-
Meeting all the shops and factories on
the mole, with sidings and spurs run
ming to the piers. This trackage
would be directly connected with al
the railroads terminating on the jer-
sey side of the Hudson, so that ma
terials, stores, coal, equipment and
supplies from every part of the coun-
try could be landed directly onto the
mole and unloaded at the shops and
storehouses, or on board ship, without
rehandling.
Would BE Big Advantage.
This single consideration, naval men
say, would make the big naval base
of tremendous advantage and inn
portance. All materials taken to the
brooklyn navy yard have to be trans
ferred across the bay on floats, or re-
handled, which adds largely to the
cost of snipbuilding and repairing.
Coal for ships in the Brooklyn yard
has to be unloaded from the cars and
transferred in barges. whereas at the
projected Jersey yard coal would be
dumped direct from the cars loaded
at the mines into the ships.
Naval authorities are agreed that a
naval base must be retained at New
York, as the largest and most inn
portant seaport on the Atlantic coast.
They are also generally agreed that
the present navy yard at Brooklyn
has been outgrown, and, because OF
its location, the scarcity of adjacent
land and for other reasons, cannot be
expanded to provide a maximum OF
efficiency in shipbuilding or repairing.
Brooklyn Yards Capacity
A naval board which recently in
gpected the Brooklyn yard reported
that under present conditions, because
of the channels and tides, 1t is i'm
possible to dock more than two ships
there in any one day. Even by the
expenditure of large sums for Deepen
ing channels and increasing the area
of the yard this number could not be
more than doubled
At the proposed Bayonne yard ships
could steer course direct from the
ocean 10 the plS IlOlt, anu III Ease VI
urgency an entire fleet could be
locked at one time and QUILTED and
coaled simultaneously, going to sea
again within few hours.
While only a part of the naval YES
sells built by the government are con-
structed in navy yards, it is the policy
of the department at all times to build
some ships, in order to control costs.
Contract prices on shipbuilding for the
navy have been materially reduced
because of the work done at the navy
yards
The mere suggestion recently by the
secretary of the navy that the gov
eminent should build it's own arnor
plant resulted in a reduction of one
third of former prices on the next
bids received for armor plate. Prices
charged the navy for powder and pro-
jectiles generally, 1t has been shown,
are usually from three to four times
as great as the cost at which these
commodities can be made by the gov
eminent in its own plants.
Would Control Costs.
A completely equipped shipbuilding
plant and naval base, with the facili-
ties proposed for securing high ef-
ficiency in methods, 1t is believed
would not only reduce the cost to the
government of the work now done in
navy yards, but would effectively
lower the contract prices demanded by