The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-01-13
LAKE GO. BUSY
 PREP AIRING FOR
 US. CONTRACTS
Nearly Two Million Dollars Worth of Work Comes
 To Local Plant.
FACTORIES SOON TO
 BE MUCH ENLARGED
Chief Difficulty of Company Is Finding Skilled and Re-
 liable Mechanics.

Tn the award by the navy depant-
 ment yesterday the Lake Torpedo Boat Coqnpaa1y of Bridgeport will receive contracts for the construction of four harbor defense submarine craft, to be 155 feet dn length, using Diesel engines of 500 horsepower capable of driving the boats on the surface at a rate of 12 1-z knots per hour.
 The contracts which will total $1s- 7O8, 900, will mean large additions to the present plant, which already are
 under eonstrl1ction of local architects. neither one large building or several smaller ones will be built Is not yet fully decided, but ways for the srecep- tion of at least one of the new vessels are already laid. and partial provision hes been made for this work.
 Besides new buildings itsswas said at the offices of the plant today that it will mean an increase in the; force of a9ehween go and 50 per cent. Several hundred expert ship builders and me chanics of the highest type will be employed and properly broken into the technical work they will have to dos It is confidently predicted in sub- marine circles t1a0 additional beats will be connapted for in this city with in the course of a year, and that the local plant is destined to becosne the submarine center of this country If not the world. Where the contracts may be expected to come from is not avail able today for officials decline to dis cliss the possibiltty, although they point to the fact that while the Ela- ropean war will not close this winter. ffrnns are still able to contract to build
 boats Tor South American and other neutral coaIntuaes
 With one large torpedo boat partially Ecompletsd here now. another well u1l- der way, two being built here and put together on the Pacific coast and the four additional boats to be built with in two years. the local office Of the
 Lake plant vas busy today. The big lofts Of the many buildings, which had recently been equipped in expectancy of these orders were being. cleared of the accuTnu lation Of odds and ends
 which Uttered them, and lists of me- chantcs and others were being perused to locate those most fxted flor subrna- rine work.
 lprobably could not furnish enough ex- ! pert shdp,- p,-yvorkens to flll the required
 force and that the company would have tp look elsewhere for these men,
 it. was the plan Of General Manager
 Robinson to utilize the best Bridge would have to be ,bn noro1gEly iTlstTeact- ed in the work before they, could be I fully entrusted with the work
 Confiaznirlz tllds statement F. B. I Whitney Of t1ae executive staff of the
 coalpaaay said ssThat: Is our greatest
 diffsclzlty in expandines our business, We arc unabde to get the technically leQuipped men that we need We are l in a position today to get many sub marine orders which we have 4o pass lour doors simply because the risk of
 human life Is too great to entrist to ln1echan1cs, even though they are skill led in their work. The submarine con-
 struction is ddfrerent frsoTn anything teIse know, and one little mistake or
 piece Of caretessness may cost many
 Hives and lose millions of dollars to the leoncern. We cannot afrord to expert tnnent with men and there is not a suf-
 hcient supply of skilled submarine me lcha1rtcs in this or any other country. 1 We shall have to educate them slowly land when we have a. force we can de- pend upon, Bridgeport may look for an enormous plant in the Lake Torpedo Boat vgorl1s 2
 The submarines contracted for yes tterday are to be 10 feet shorter than l previous boats this ping, 1t is said lbecause the government has decided to make two distinct classes, one for sea- @going purposes and the other for de-
 structions are naturally kept secret Il though it is known that those made here are to be equipped with four tor Epedo tubes and to carry all of Simon Lakes improvements.
 Another large sea-going craft is to be made by the Electric Boat Com Epany of Quincy Mass, at a cost o1 I $1. .3500Oo and a Seattle firm will build Ethree coast defense submarines at a Icost of s450, GOO each. The loss Of these other contracts is not keenly felt here ldor the reasons which have been given fpany.