The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1917-09-21
BRITAIN AND HER
SHIP BUILDERS
Striving Night and Day to Counter
act the Havoc Made by
the Submarine

Glasgow Correspondence of the
Associated Press ).-The shipbuilders
OF Great Britain, who soon will be
turning out virtually nothing else but
standard ships and war vessels, have
one advantage over the shipbuilders
of the United States that will be hard
to overcome. They have nearly all
their materials at their dock doors.
From the decks of ships in one of
the yards in the north of England,
for instance, everything used in the
construction of vessels is within
sight. Iron is extracted from hills
that look to be almost across the
street. Coal comes from The same
place. On the other side of the yard
are great coke ovens, smelters, fur
naces and rolling mills. Plates and
steel forms may be carried from thk
mills to the ships under construction
in carts drawn by horses. A single
company extracts the ore, prepares it
with its own fuel and sends it away
from its own plant as finished ships
ready for the sea. There are many
such examples here in the north.
The success of more than one of the
shlpbuilding concerns may be partial
ly traced to the proximity of mater
ials used.
So great is the supply at the dis
posal of the shipbuilders that in many
cases they have entered into the
manufacture of other things than
ships. One yard, which ownsia great
rolling mill turns out, in addition to
steel for its own tremendous needs,
something over 1000 tons weekly Of
great steel forms which are shipped
away to be made into projectiles.
Another yard has turned over some
of its buildings and sheds to the
actual making of projectiles from
steel taken from it's own plant Still
another is engaged almost solely
upon the construction of standard
ships and thereby has released guam
titles of its equipment to making
"steel for the Germans"
Another had large stretch of land
in the rear of it's place which was
used before the war mostly as a Stag
dump and a storage yard for steel.
All this has been cleared away and
now the site is covered by big air
plane factory. Needless to say, this
plant is so isolated that the Germans
never could locate it, and if they did
know where it was they never could
damage it.
The shipbuilders of Britain are in
tensely interested in what the United
States is going to do toward increas-
ing the shipping tonnage of the
world; and they are anxious to do ev-
erything possible to assist in the
plans. Only one thing did they have
to suggest; they were unanimously
agreed that under no consideration
should workers in, the yards be per-
mitted to join the armed forces.
When England went to war the ship
fuilding concerns encouraged their
employees to enlist, but now and for
some time past, with assistance OF
the the government, former employees
are being released from the army and
the navy to return to their work. A
shipbuilder or a man with a knowl-
edge of shipbuilding is worth ten
times as much to his country in
shipyard, company officials say, as he
is in the armed forces.
The builders of ships for Britain
have all the material they need and
gradually they are getting a suffi-
cient number of men to do the work
that only men can do. Female work
ers are all very well, they say, but
woman cannot handle an automati
riveter or swing sledge.