The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-09-22
MATERIALS FOR
ENGLISH BOATS
OF EASY ACCESS
'Shipbuilders Of Britain
Have Decided Advan-
tage Over y. S.

Glasgow Correspondence of The
Associated Press.)-The shipbuild-
ers of Great Britain. who soon gin
be turning out virtually nothing
else, but standard ships and war YES
sells, have one advantage over the
shipbuilders of the United States
| that will be hard to overcome. They
have nearly all their materials at
their back 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, shelters, fur
naces and rolling mills. Plates and
steel forms may be carried from the
mills to the ships under construction
in carts drawn by horses. A single
company extracts the ore, prepares
it with it's own fuel and sends 1t
away from its own plant as as fin-
ished ships ready for the sea. There
are many such examples here in the
north. The success of more than one
of the shipbuildihg concerns may be
partially traced to the proximity Of
materials used
So great is the supply at the dis
posaI of the shipbuilders that in
many cases they have entered into
the Manufacture of other things than
| ships. One yard, which owns a 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. An
other yard has turned over some of
| its buildings and sheds to the actual
making of projectiles from steel
taken from its own plant. Still an
| other is engaged almost solely upon
| the construction of standard ships
and thereby has released quantities
| of its equipment to making steel
for the Germans
Another had a large stretch Of land
in the rear of its place which be-
fore the war was used mostly as a
Stag dump and a storage yard for
steel. All this has been cleared away
and now thet site is covered by a big
airplane 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
intensely interested in what the
United States is going to do toward
increasing the shipping tonnage
of the world; and they are anxious
to do everything possible to assist
in the plans. Only one thing did they
have to suggest; they were unani-
mously agreed that under no consid-
Grafton should workers in the yards
be permitted to join the armed for
ces. When England went to war the
shipbuilding concerns encouraged
their employees to enlist, but now
and for some time past, with assist
ance of the government, former en-
ployes are being released from the
army and the navy to return to their
work. A shipbuilder or a man with
knowledge of shipbuilding is
worth ten times as much to his coun-
try in a 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 a
woman cannot handle an. automatic
riveter or swing a sledge.