New Britain herald., 1917-06-27

view to their quick construction.
 Yet they were good for speed of s1Ok knots and they were seaworthy as their approval for insurance
 showed. Their peculiar dedgn had
 the distinct advantage of making 1t
 possible to build thsm with the use
 of ordinary carpenters and bridge
 builders, and only minimum num-
 Der of skilled ship carpenters. Also
 | very large proportion of the total
 cut of lumber could be used in their construction.
 Definite information had been
 sought as to the number of ships of these designs that could be built in this service. It was the Idea of the shipping board not only to cell upon
 the services of the ship builders. but
 upon those of general contractors as ytell-firms with enormous or4aniSa-
 taona who could undertake this emer-
 9ency work on . vast scale. Writ
 ten offers were received from ten
 contractors alone. offering to build
 496 ships of these designs in twelve
 months, and 7sS of them In eighteen
 months. Other well known contract
 ors had previously offered to build
 ships of one or the other of these de-
 signs.
 Major General aoethals was un-
 willing to accept either the Hough or
 Donnelly type. He was reluctant to
 depart from the conventional lines of
 ship design. and shortly after he as-
 sumed oflice as head of tho Elmer
 gency Fleet Corporation. which is the
 subsidiary corporation of the ship-
 ping board charged with the con-
 struction of the merchant ships. tel
 eSrams were sent to all of the build CTS and contractors telling them to
 stop the building of ways and other
 prepArations they were making to
 get ready for the construction of the Hough or Donnelly type of wooden ship. Naturally this raised . storm Of protest: from those firms for their
 mon were thrown out of work and they suffered heavy financial loss by this disruption of the business they were entering for the government. No attention was paid these protests and everything was suspended pend ing the completion of new conven- tional design of wooden ship.
 It was at this time that tho project for the construction for the govern ment of steel ships was developed. The steel companies were enabled by government action to put aside exist ing private contracts and to offer steel for the building of the govern ment ships. Plans were developed to standardixe this construction and to fabricate parts of ships in bridge shops. This development undoubt- ed1y promises to increase construc- ton Of steel ships. But In the exist ing grave emergency this cannot pos sibly be offered as . reason for aban- 1 doning the construction of wooden ships nor even of curtailing tho number of wooden ships that could. by resort to eveSy means, be built The offers on wooden ships as l have stated above. were for the de- | livery, of i've hundred of them within twelve months and deliveries would comme ence next November. Deliveries on the steel ships practically would not commence until April 1, 1918. It l is m axiom amongst hremen that 1 the drst i've minutes at ire are worth the next i've hours. And % 1t is with regard to the submarine menace. The members of tho Brit ish War Mission told the Council of l the National Defense that one ship 1 before January 1, 1913 was worth six ships the following spring. They 1 said that If they could be assured of adequate tonnage through the winter ]! they felt that they could weather the storm. However. few steel ships can
 bs produced h tims. >1ost of the U ; 7 :