The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1916-09-13
Near Crisis in
Ship Building

railroad strike would not come off,
but it is very doubtful says state
ment issued by the National Rivers
and Harbors Congress, whether
anybody drew a deeper breath of re-
lief than certain people in the Navy
Department-and no one who knows
what the navy people were up against
will wonder that this is so.
"The work of building and re-
pairing battleships and other naval
craft must, of course, be done in
shipyards located on the coast, but
practically all the material used both
for construction and repair comes
from the interior, much Of it from
points hundreds of miles from tide
water. For instance, armor plate
comes from Bethlehem, Pa, and
steel, in many shapes for many uses,
from Pittsburgh.
''It is vitality important that this
material shall be moved regularly
and continuously from the points
where it is made to the places where
it is to be used, and this movement
has been entirely by rail. Just as
soon, therefore, as it was seen that q
general strike on the railroads Of
the country was actually impending,
an investigation was started to see
if there were any routes available
for its movement by water. For in
stance, if work was to be continued
on the battleship New Mexico" it
would be necessary to move $500
tons of steel within six weeks from
the mills at Pittsburgh to the navy
yard at Brooklyn. Could it be done
at all? Was there more than one
route. that could be- used? If so,
what route was the best, the shortest,
and especially, the quickest
"The first thing discovered was
that there is no map or document,
official or otherwise, that shows or
describes all the waterways in the
United States. The reports of the
Chief of Engineers give the fullest
possible information as to the rivers
and harbors under control of the
War Department, but not word
about state-owned or private canals.
The General Staff and the War Col
lege have maps showing all lines of
transportation in certain areas, spe-
cial studies of which have been made
in working out problems of defense,
but no maps or data covering the
country as a whole or any consider
able portions thereof. Commercial
maps and aliases were found to be
worse than use1ess,> since most of
them do not even pretend to show
any waterways except the principal
rivers, and of the rest no two agree
in what they show.
'It is only little way from Pitts
burgh to Lake Erie and a canal
across this short cut has been both
proposed and opposed for many
years. So far the opposers have won,
but if the Navy Department could
have got hold of Aladdin's lamp two
weeks ago, that canal would have
been built quicker than a wink. With
a sigh for what might have been, and
ought to be, but isn't, the naval in
vestigators turned hopefully to the
three canals across the state Of Ohio,
only to find after strenuous search
that the best of the lot has sections
twenty miles long which have no
water in them, and rslat the only way
to get from Pittsburgh to the Lakes
by water is to go down the Ohio, up
the Mississippi and the Illinois and
through sixty miles or more of the
out-of-date Illinois and Michigan
canal to Chicago. Another possible
route from Pittsburgh to Brooklyn
was down the Ohio and Mississippi
and then by ocean steamer from New
Orleans.
"a little farther search revealed
the fact that no dependence could be
placed on the Ohio, because this is
the season of low water and not one
third of the dams needed to insure
a nine foot channel have yet been
completed. Material started down
the Ohio might get through, but all
the probabilities were that it would
get Stuck on a sandbar-and stay
there until the November rains
should bring a rise in the river.
Sometimes it happens, too, that the
November rains do not come until
January. Almost in desperation at
the situation with which they were
confronted the navy men were try
ing to arrange to ship by trolley cars
from Pittsburgh to Cleveland, and
thence by lake to Buffalo and Erie
canal and Hudson river to Brooklyn,
when the emergency legislation pass
ed by Congress caused the strike to
be called off.
eff the word desperation seems
too strong, it must be remembered
that, besides the New Mexico there
were under construction five other
battleships, ten destroyers, four
auxiliary vessels and 80 submarines.
Work on every one of these would
have to stop if a strike should last
two weeks. More than that, Congress
had just appropriated nearly $685.
900, 700 with which to build some
thing like sixty additional vessels for
the navy, and not one Of these could
be begun. And in addition to all the
rest, when the threat of strike be-
came acute the navy had only a
two weeks supply Of coal on hand.
BY buying everything within reach,
a sufficient supply was secured tor
ron davs or two weeks more, But