The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-06-21
WILL PROVE
UL
"a. Maurice Low in New York SUM

man read in a newspaper of the sub
marining of 10000 ton cargo ship
He had long been trying to find a
means of combating the menace OF
the submarine and making it possible
for the allies to be kept supplied with
foodstuffs and munitions from the
United States, and if the stream was
shut off he knew that Germany would
win and the United States would be
in danger. His experiments had been
unsuccessful, but as he read of the
10000 ton ship being sent to the bot
tom an idea occurred to him. The
man was F. Huntington Clark, min
ing engineer, whose only knowledge
of shipping and naval architecture
was theoretical
England and her allies We're putting
too many eggs in one basket. 1t takes
one submarine to sink one ship, whe-
Their that ship be big or little, and it
thousand ton ship to the bottom as
leviahan Therefore, he said to HIM
self, if instead of one ship of 10000
tons there are six or seven ships of
the same aggregate tonnage the odds
are six or seven to one in favor of the
ships escaping, and if the submarine
should have extraordinary good luck
and get them all it would still cost
Germany six or seven times as much
in the shape of torpedoes, and torpe-
does are expensive. They cost $500
apiece, and owing to the scarcity of
materials and the long time required
to make them U-boat commanders
can not afford to fire torpedoes and
not score hits.
Ships Built From Pattern.
Until the submarine can be caught
and destroyed, saide Mr.. Clark. now
very much taken with his idea, the
thing to do is to build small ships,
ranging from about 1000 to 5000 tons
cargo capacity, built cheaply, and cut
to pattern, and built so fast that they
can be turned out quicker than the
submarines can sink them, In a
word, do. with ships precisely what
has been done with automobiles.
Ships are built automobiles eare
manufactured, which is the same diff
ference in cost and time as between
having a pair of boots made to meas
ure and turning them out in thous
ands by machinery. The reason why
the United States leads the world in
quantity, quality and low priced cars
is that they are standardized, and once
the model is adopted the process is
simple. The solution of the problem
was to manufacture and not build the
ships
Having convinced himself that the
scheme was feasible Mr.. Clark con-
suited shipping men and ship build
ers, only to discover that no large
number of iron or steel ships could be
built in the United States or any 9TH
er country. Mr.. Clark wanted at least
1000 vessels, but the American ship
ydIuS ali siuu lloiC THAN thCy
could do, the mills We're booked up
with orders year ahead, and with
yards and mills running to capacity
there was a scarcity of skilled labor.
SO at its very inception the scheme,
which practical men pronounced to be
feasible and admirable in every re-
spect appeared to be hopeless be-
cause of the physical difficulties.
Two men With One Idea.
But Mr.. Clark is a resourceful man,
as are all mining engineers, whose
profession compels them to meet UNI
expected situations not laid down in
and steel was hopeless, why not fall
back on wood? The American forest
could furnish inexhaustible supplies Of
the best timber in the world, the tim
Der could be cut to pattern in saw
mill a thousand miles from deep wa
ter as easily as lumber is manufacture
ed into doors and sashes and shipped
another thousand miles to be put in
to houses; ship carpenters, it is true,
are not to be found on every street
corner, but any house carpenter under
intelligent direction could be used for
the work.
Again Mr.. Clark saw the shipping
men and once more they told him his
idea was sound So Mr.. Clark, to get
his idea before, the public. outlined 1t
at club in New York in a speech,
which was reported in the papers,
About the time that Mr.. Clark was
trying to find way to circumvent the
U-boat, mining engineer sitting in
his Office in Boston was studying the
same problem Heredity and envir-
onment count, and when New Eng
land man thinks in terms of the sea
he thinks Of wooden ships, for it was
In Massachusetts that the schooner
was born, and it was those sturdy
captains of Newburyport and Salem
and the loyal artisans of New Eng
land who gave the glory to the AM
erican navy and made the American
clipper the envy and admiration Of the
world. The Massachusetts man turns
as naturally to the wooden ship as