New-York tribune., 1918-03-04
Hog Island
By THEODORE n. KNAPPEN
ARTICLE "
PHILADELPHIA, March 3,-On Sentemhox

ARTICLE w
DHILADELPHIA, March 3.-On Sentemh.r
Is the die was cast. On that day began
the great adventure. On that day A.
miral Capps committed the Shipping Board 70
the fabricated ship gamble. On that dav t,o
American international put its reputation int
the dlcebox That day history was made If
the gamble wins shipbuilding will be reyo,u.
ticnized. More than that, shipbuilding will ba
Americanized When Your American can %.
machine and quantity production he can corr.
pete with anybody. At the hand game anv.
tody can beat him. Heretofore, ships have
been hand made. Fabrication proposes to
make them in factories. That's the American
opportunity in ships.
have written of Hog Island as great
adventure. I have since learned that the
captains of finance and engineering who con.
ceived it used that word with all its romantic
meaning in their councils They actually saw
and talked about the project as q great ad
venture. 1t appealed to them as drama and
romance They were fascinated with the an
dacity of the project. They foresaw all of the
hardship and mol and turmoil, daubed repu-
tatons, prestige forever gone in the dire
event of failure, and they took the chance
took the chance, the only chance, of focusing
the steel working industries of America on
tie building Of ships 1t appealed to them
, as a magnificent enterprise of industrial
mobilization and diversion. They were to in
wade the industrial unknown.
Dispossesscd One Cow
On September Is the invasion began with
occupation of Hog Island, just below old Fort
Mifflin, on the Delaware. In doing so it dis
possessed one cow-thc only visible form OF
life the desolate island But the island
had been prospected beforehand. After can
vassing every available site for an extensive
shipyard from Boston to Norfolk, Hog Island
was chosen as the best taking all things into
consideration. The site is not ideal 1t has
some grave defects, as, for instance, INSULT
cient local transit facilities It is on dcen
water, it is safe from, enemy attack by sea,
it has plenty of roundabout nine hundred
acres. 1t has been described as swami. II
is not. The essential part Of it is well above
highwater and the rest is protected BY dike
that has kept it free from overflow for $50
years. The low part provides sufficient area
for the dumping of the material that must be
excavated from the wet basins where the
launched ships will lie while being outfItted
There wasn't lunch enough for the hungry
workers who tackled the brush cutting iot
that first day. That day is typical OF the
whole work. 1t is and must be done without
sufficient planning. Ordinarily, project Of
this magnitude would require one year for
planning and four years more for execution
At Hog Island they make pencil sketch on
a shingle and complete the blue print about
the time the thing is done. Then they alter
the blueprint to suit the accomplished fact
They forced to act first and think after
ward They cover acres with buildings faster
than craftsmen can cover paper with designs.
They build roads faster than engineers can
establish profiles. If building happens to
te in the wrong place they move it on the
ground instead Of on the plan. They throw
down railway tracks and jerk them UP like
jackstraws. They live and toll in hux and
change. They build ships while they arc
making the means OF building ships. The
piledrivcr is still pounding nightly az one
end of way as the first plates Of a keel 60
down on the other end Your office is here
to-day and there tomorrow. You have men
before you have q staff. Your industrial army
takes the trenches and does the Job before
YOU have worked out strategy or laid down
tactics. To-day you have a thousand NET
tomorrow you have ten thousand and the day
after twenty thousand. Everywhere action
cvcrtakcs reflection.
Where the Waste Was
Wasteful, yes; but the real waste was in
the long years of unpreparedness. Nothing
is done just the right way, yes; but it is done
Labor is terribly inefficient. Unfit mon
spond to the call for help by the thousands
and management is defective for lack of time
dodge; yes, but again they work like Ttrojans.
Perhaps they are not on the whole, 80 per
cent efficient, and at times they have not been
10 per cent efficient. Waste of labor, waste
of material, waste OF moncy-a of waste.
War is waste. The discharged she'll never
comes back. But through it all the great
project energies, energies as it was quickly
designed in the rough, energies, let US hope,
war that militant America has forged.
Right Thing: Wrong Place