New Britain herald., 1917-07-11
WAYS FOR SIXTEEN
 WARSHIPS AT ONCE
Facilities Soon to Accommodate
 Fleet of Sea Fighters

Washington. July 11.-Secretary Daniels announces that the ship building facilities of the country are being expended so that eventually 16 war vessels can be under construction on the ways at one time, while 32 could be under construction on the ways or alongside docks after being launched, exclusive of submarines and and submarine chasers Secretary Daniels said:
 With the shipyards now bein1 built or projected. United States navy yards will be able to have in course Of construction on the ways at one tune sixteen war vessels. in addition to submarines and submarine chasers seven Of the vessels could be battle ships, two auxiliaries such as trans ports, fuel ships, hospital ships, etc. and seven destroyers Should the needs of the nation reuuire battle cruisers instead of battle ships, it would be possible to substitute them on the longer slips for an equal num- Der of battleships.
 As much work must be done on vessels before the kee1s are laid and after launching, there could be under construction at one time in the yards at least double the number of vessels for which slips are available. This construction work Is in addition to the repair work and rebuilding of the fleet which must be carried on.
 There are now under construction in Government yards three battle ships, four destroyers, and a number of submarines and submarine chasers. In 1912 the shipbuilding facilities of the, navy yards consisted of one ways for battleships at New York and one ways at Mare Island for auxiliaries. At the beginning of the present year the facilities available were: Boston, 1 auxiliary; New York, 1 battleship; Philadelphia, 1 auxiliary; Norfolk. 1 destroyer: Charleston, 1 gunboat: Mare Island, l battelship and de- stroyer At Portsmouth, N. H. we now have four ways for submarines, which means that from six to eight will be under construction at one time. The navy yard at Boston has one ways for auxiiaries.
 The navy yard at New York now has a ways for large sized battleships, and a second is being built for battle ships. At Philadelphia there will be two ways, one for large battleships or battle cruisers and another for large battleships. A third, already built. is used for auxiliary vessels. "Norfolk has one ways for destroy ers and will have one for large bat tleships. Charleston will have five ways for destroyers. The navy yard at Puget Sound will provide slip for
 Ielo ways for large battleship and for a destroyer.
 "The new building plans involve not only the construction of ways, but also machine, electrical, structural forge and pattern shops. in addition to foundries, storehouses, railroad tracks and power plants. We must also secure electrical machinery and tools, as well as employ thousands of skilled and unskilled laborers.
 "The increase in building capacity also provides more repair resources, enabling the Government yards to handle all repair and rebuilding work for the fleet, as well as much for the new merchant marine. Owing to the fact that we had. only small mer- chant marine previous to the war, the drydock and repair facilities of a commercial character were restricted. We, had some small commercial docks but few large enough to care for the big ships in the ocean trades, ana none for ships such as the Lusitania, Vaterland and Olympic. Most of the large ships docked in England or Ger many and when docked here permis- sion had to be secured for the use of naval docks.
 There are now three naval docks under construction which will be cap- able of handling the largest ships and two similar private docks are being built, one at San Francisco and one at Boston, which Is being built by private company and the State of Massachusetts. These are being en- couraged by the Government by an- nua1 guarantees for dockage.
 All this work at the navy yards is being rushed. the men working over time and in shifts, and in most cases bonuses are offered for completion ahead of the schedule