Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1917-04-12
WILL BUILD BOATS
FASTER THAN THEY
CAN Be TORPEDOED
Plan to Launch Three a Day
of 5000 Tons Each After
November
GENERAL COCKTAILS to-
SUPERINTEND THE WORK
Seven Hundred Of st
Thousand To Be b. ~
Pacific Coast ~"
BY Robert ]. Bender

(United Press staff correspondent
Washington, April 12.-To smash
Germany U-boat blockade the Unit
ed States will virtually bridge the At
lantic
Plans for the construction of three
thousand small wooden boats-the most
tremendous merchant shipbuilding pro-
gram ever undertaken-haveb been COM
pleted and approved by the president.
The boats will be used TO transport
food and supplies to entente ports.
This is America S answer to LLOYD
Georges appeal:
The ultimate success Of the allied
cause depends, in my Judgment, on
our solving the. tonnage difficulties
with which we are confronted" /"
The government shipping board has
sent out call for 10000 mmbermen
and wood workers to begin the task at
once.
Congress has authorized $50, 100000
ito start the program and will be asked
for 5000, 900, 900 more.
The first thousand ships are to be
lcompleted within eighteen months and
Immediately thereafter two thousand
more will be ordered. Each vessel will
be Of three thousand tons with a speed
Of ten knots,
To Pontoon Atlantic
1t is the purpose to run them in such
fashion that they will constitute YER
Iitable pontoon bridge across the sea-
one boat every three miles. The tremen-
dous number is expected to exhaust
the most valiant efforts of U.boat com
manders to cut off supplies from Eng
land and France.
Work on ways for the ships has al
lready begun at Jacksonville, Fla,
Beaumont, Texas, and a half dozen
| other points.
| President Gompers of the American
Federation of Labor has promised all
cooperation in supplying labor Com
lplete mobilization of industry in put
ting the scheme through has been an
nouneed.
Each ship is to be manned by q
trained gun crew and equipped with
anti-submarine guns and wireless.
! Commencing November |, three ships
a day win sail into service.
The plan which President Wilson
land the shipping board believe will
Ioverwhelm Prussia S scavengef busi-
mess and break the back of the block
ade provides the following:
1000 DIN First Year
One thousand 5000 ton wooden ships
to be turned out within one year be-
lginning November /, 1911,
Standardization of design so far as
practicable, to expedite construction.
Construction of two thousand more
in the second year Of the war, if the
submarine blockade still remains eff
fective This would place a ship ev-
Iery mile from the United States to
England.
The ships to cost about 100000 each
complete-one half the cost Of steel
ship Of The same tonnage.
Ships to have normal speed of ten
knots, with extra size engines to de-
velop sixteen knots on emergency ia
escape attack.
The board may then either resell the
iships, charter them, or operate them.
At least seventy per cent OF the
first years program to be built on the
; Pacific coast. The new vessels will be
then brought through canal with lum-
Der cargoes, for which service al pres
lent freight rates, they will earn $40.'
; 1000 apiece-more than enough to pay
, for the trip.
General Gocthals, who directed the
construction of the Panama canal, will
superintende the construction Of the
I /" iitney fleet, it was stated today.