The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-10
HARTFORD SEEKS TO BUILD BOATS
 FOR U. s. NAVY
Connecticut River Yards Active in Bygone Wars
 Could Be. Resurrected :.

coast patrol-swift and staunch. motor
 craft capable of moving quickly from
 place to place, the smaller boats to
 engage in scouting and dispatch bear
 ing and the larger to be utilized as
 submarine chasers. In the establish
 ment of such 8 fleet Connecticut ought
 to play prominent part. Connec-
 ticut river towns, especially, should figure largely in it, not only because
 they now have the boats and men,
 but for historical and sentimental req sons.
 There was a time when the build ing of vessels, large and small, was a leading industry on the river be- tween Hartford and Long Island couple of shipyards and a few small
 boat shops left, but for the most part the glory of Connecticut river shipbuildfng departed some years ago with the coming of iron and steel and gasoline. However, there are any number of shop carpenters and boat-builders, experts in the use of the broad axe, the adze. the draw shave, augur and hammer, whose hands have not forgotten their cun- ming and who could be enlisted in the wo4k of quick building of a motor boat fleet to help protect our coast.
 It would be no new thing, the building of war craft on Connecticut river ways. During the Revolution ary war period several ships were turned out at the Bush yard in Port land for the infant republic, among them the Trumbull, 700 tons, thirty six guns; and the Bourbon, 900 tons, forty guns. In 1798 the frigate Con- necticut, 514 tons, twenty guns, was launched from the Gildersleeve yard in the\same town. Portland, too, built vessels which figured in the war of 1912. Two bearing the name of Hol- ker were lost within a couple of years of each other. One was of $50 tons, eighteen guns, the other 400 tons, 20 guns. In years immediately follow ing other ships of about the same size were built for the government at Portland, which had several yards.
 But earlier than any of these Port land craft was the Oliver Cromwell, twenty-four guns, built at Essex in 1775 for the colony of Connecticut by Captain Uriah Hayden, one of the most prominent ship builders of his day. The Cromwell was afterwards trans ferred to the United States govern ment and Essex tradition says she Cor he) did valiant service. sf
 Even nearer home, at what was then Stepney parish in 4Wethersf1eld, now Rocky Hill, craft intended for fighting and trading purposes-a pri- vateersman-was built as early as CS1-- n D@s bas Deane master, carrying eight guns and a crew of sixty-four. She was supposed to have been destroyed by the British in Penobscot bay in 1779. Several other privateers were built at Stepney in the half dozen or more years following.
 Privateers, too, were built at Mid de Haddam and Haddam during the war of 1872.
 During Civil war times there was some activity in Connecticut river on government contracts. The Gildersleeves at Portland built the steamboat Cayuga, 500 tons, in 1861 receiving $125,OoO for her.
 A gunboat, the Kanawaha, was built at Goodspeeds Landing in East Haddam in 1861. by William H. Good-i speed, who was engaged in the ship building industry there for twenty years The Kanawaha was a mine ty-day" boat, in other words, when placing the contract the government specified that she must be completed in three months. East Haddam was a mighty busy place during that time, of 400 men being employed in and about the yard most of the time in order to put the contract 
 The shipyard at Goodspeed's hasn't been in operation for years; nor have any of the very numerous ones which once lined the coves and channels of Essex.
 Across the Connecticut river from the Hartford steamboat dock, how ever, is the yard of the Hartford and New York Transportation company where one barge is usually built ev- cry year. The yard at Gi1dersleeve is also actively worked throughout the year, although its output is con- fined mostly to coal "boxes". These are the only working yards on the river. Both are roomy and have ample facilities for turning out craft which might be desired for the coast patrol fleet. That 100-foot chaser, which it is said Charles A. Goodwin of Hartford ex- poets to build and for which he al- ready has 5000 in hand, could easily be laid down on either of these ways.
 Boat shops are a bit more numer- ous There is one of excellent repu- tation in Middletown, and others in Chester and Essex, with doubtless more of an inconspicuous characterf scattered in between and as far south as the Sound. There is also an an- cient but active marine railway in Essex conducted by a man who is also a boat builder. Essex is particular ly well situated and equipped for the building of these small craft; the town has been the home of some mas ter boat makers in the past and not all have yet passed on. Essex fish ing boats, in the days of sail, had a for speed and seaworthi- ness extending from New York to Nantucket.
 Craft built anywhere along the riv- CT could also be fitted with Connecti- cut-Valley-made motors. Hartford and Middletown have makers of them.