The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-07
THE BLOODMOUNDS OF THE ATLANTIC Frank

llSA0N U U@S fleet of these vessels 10 combat the sub marines. He wanted 10 pepper the ocean with this deadly mosquito. and the ships had to be built right away The sub marines were destroying our merchant vessels; they were lowering about the transports hoping to blot out the armies We were shipping to Europe. The navy department decided upon large number "f destroyers, and it directed that the best shipyards of the country should be mobi,ized for the purpose. The heads or the great shpbuilding establishments were called to Washington and asked what they could do. All but one gave their best estimate as to the possibilities of their plants, and the figures alto sether euualed only two-fifths of the number of such vessels needed There upon, Mir H. w. Powell, who represent cd the Bethlehem Sh;pbuilding corpora ton, the only man who had not spoken, said that his company would take the remainder, and that within the space of week it could supply the plans for the construction of the destroyers as required by the navy.
 This was agreed to by Secretary Dan
  They provided that one-half of the ships should be built at the Union Ircn Works. San Francisco. and the other part a the Fore River yards, which were to be enlarged by a great destroyer plant to be built at Sqnantum, six miles away For one month the plans were in the hands of the navy depa rtment, and then a telegram to go ahead was received here at Fore River That was on the 9th of last October. and on the 7th began what is perhaps the most marvellous feat of quick building construction in these days when vast structures so up almost in night.
 I have described the work at Hog Island. There a great fabrcatng yard has risen out of a marsh. It consists of the assembling of parts made in oth- CT plants There the work is rough and much of it goes on our under the sky The situation at Squantum present. ed greater physical difficulties. It's work includes the making of the parts and put ting them together This all goes on un- der roof. requiring many acres of great buildings of iron and glass. which will probably be government shipyards for generations to come At Hog Island the land slopes back from the Delaware riv- CT, and it has been necessary to drive tens of thousands of piles as a founda- ton for the ways where they are build ing fabricated ships. At Squantum the land is almost dead level and it is only a trifle above the ocean outside. At the time the order was received the whole ROO acres forming the site was a swamp so boggy that one could not wade through it without rubber boots to his thighs. Today the land all about is a swamp, with the grass growing out of the water, and it is only the 40 acres which have been taken for the site of the buildings that is high and dry above ground. The first part. of the job was to lift this 4o-acre field to the height of man. head and put firm foundation beneath it. The material for this purpose was brought in by motor trucks and by rail road and dumped into the swamp. Plank roads had to be built for the motor cars, and railway foundations constructed for the trains. A bridge costing S200,000 was then built to connect with the railway system, and long lines of motor trucks and trains of cars were soon dropping | earth into the swamp. So much of the | fill was brought in by truck that if it were all loaded at once the train re- qured to haul it would reach from New York to Washington and leave some to spare. It was carried at five tons to the truck, and full half of the dry fill was
 
 carried in one month by truck and car was greater than the biggest month 8 | excavation work at the Panama canal. l At the same time 90.000000 gallons of I mud was pumped in from the depths of the sea. Great pumps were installed, | and the earth was sucked and forced in | through pipes so big around that a 30O- pound how could crawl through them. | The work went on so rapidly that with n nru1 a | 10 large city blocks had risen to height Of six feet over the swamp. All this was done in the heart of the winter and a part of the time the thermometer wal far below zero.
 During the erection of this founda- ton the buildings were growing up in the midst of the mud and the dirt. Vic tory village was built for housing the workmen, and thousands of piles were driven down to make the foundation of the heavier structures Restaurants were established and an industrial city with it's telephone telegraph, postoffice and modern sanitary improvements sprang into being. The main office building, three-story structure, which covers about onc-fourth of an acre, was put up within 16 days, and the great fabricating plant for the destroyers, which includes the ways for 10 of these ships, sprang into being.
 The latter is the largest steel struc- ture I have ever seen under one roof It covers more than r acres, and it is 90 feet high. Nevertheless, the whole is bu. one story and there are no platforms between the ground and the roof. It gives ,ome idea of the immensty of this build ing to know that there is so much glass in it that if the panes were fitted closely together they would make a solid sheet covering eight acres and also that it took 120 tons of putty to fasten that glass to the steel frames. Load the putty on tw wo-horse wagons, and at 40 feet to the team the train required to haul it would be almost mile long.
 In this great building you may follow tn" making of destroyer from begin ming to end. I started in with the mold-loft where the patterns of the ship are cut out of great boards. just you cut the pattern of a dress out ef the pasteboard or paper. Each pattern is cut to the exact size and shape of the part of the vessel it represents and upon
 it is marked every notch and angle and every rivet and joint. The wooden pat terms go into the fabricatng shops. and from them are made the steel plates, ribs and other parts which form the great vessels, This is done by gigantic machinery. by great furnaces and steel rollers, and by Careful handwork on the part of expert mechanics.
 Some of the parts require a great deal of welding and cutting, and the cutting is done with acetylene flame so bright that it would blind the eyes of the work men did they not wear masks of blue glass between their eyes and the flame. The welding is done by electricity; it takes several thousand ribbed parts to