Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1918-05-26
excellent Record Made on
Tuckahoe Because She Was
a Hand-Me-Down Vessel.
WE'RE RlvALING ROMANS
They Built a Fleet in Forty
days That Overwhelmed
the Carthagenians.
Worlds Washington Bureau,
2O2 Riggs Dldr

WV Y HEN the 6,500-ton steel
M freight steamer Tuckahoe
w was put into governmcn,
service the other day, 81
days after the first plate Of her keel
was put In position, she not only
broke all records that had been
standing since the Romans, in the
first Punic war. built a fleet In forty
days which inflicted an overwhelm-
Ing defeat upon the Carthaginians,
but she demonstrated one aspect OF
the so-called fabricated ship pro-
gram that has been pretty generally
overlooked. but which none the less
forms one OF the principal elements
In the success OF Americas ship
building effort.
The popular idea has been that
the essential difference between the
fabricated ship and the ship CON
structed according to the old meth
DDS, was that the parts of the old
fashioned ship was constructed right
In the shipyard, whereas those OF
the fabricated ship were turned out
Wholesale in steel mills all over the
country. shipped to the yard by
rail, and assembled there. This idea
Is Just near enough right to be
wrong, but It was because of this
that illusions have, been made 10
the Tuckahoe as a ship OF the old
type, and people have wondered
how the marvellous speed OF her con-
a. struction had any relation to the
hopes which are entertained, at Hog
Island and Port Newark. where
they are beginning to talk OF n
ship q day at each yard.
It's like Tailoring.
The essential difference between
the fabricated ship and the old
fashioned one is not the distance
from rolling-mili or plate and angle
shop to ways. but In the treatment
of the material before and after 1t
gets TO the ways, II IN essentially
the difference between tailor made
and a ready-made suit OF clothes.
The old type OF ship was built TO
plans, but while those plans were
"faired" beforehand, they only gave
General idea Of the kind 'of ship
she was going TO be. The actual
building and the form OF the ship
were determined on tho ways them
selves.
The steel plates and frames and
beams were shaped roughly to the
form the shipbuilder proposed to ut
NhNfh w. anu thth tahNii uVWH tHV
ways and tried on the unfinished d
ship. II they didn't ut exactly, they
were taken back to the bending
floor and bent little further this
way or that or perhaps straightened
out trlfle and tried on again. II
they fitted this time. they were riv-
eted In place, and then the next
piece in turn fitted to them--and sc
the ship grew, SO It was that many
ahips. great liners. battleships, OF
big freighters. constructed TO iden.
ticai plans, none the less differed
when complete. ny few feet here
or there In their final measure
ments
The idea OF "Fabrlcating."
The I,usitania and Mauretania
for instance. were built to identi-
cal plans, but when complete dlf-
fered In length. slightly In beam
and In other particulars, The same
thing was true OF the Olympic and
Titanic, OF the Imperator and the
Vaterland. now the LeviathaD.
But American shipyards began
gradually, even before the war. tc