The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-08-01

wooden freighters eacn Of 400 tons lightweight
capacity.
A year ago had in this country only hand
full of qualified shipwFights, and the yards en-
gagged in the building OF wooden vessels were few
and far between, of modest equipment and any
thing but up to date compared with their steel
competitors. How, then, has it been possible TO
undertake so imposing a program and to prom
Use deliveries within periods unprecedentedly
brief? The story is to make every American
feel proud, for it is record OF Yankee ingenu-
ity and native adaptabflity at their best
1t plain TO the concerned in direct
ing the Emergency Fleet corporation that it
would be quite out of the question to recruit
shipwrights to train in the art with
in the time available. The shipwrfght in his fin
ished form is the evolution long years of prac-
teal application and this means an acquired cum
ming In the of a very few hand tools.
Just the launching timber
sells after very short building periods, and these
undeniable results the consequence of skill
fully directed efforts following lines. The
Emergency Fleet corporation first set about
recruiting labor from wide range Of wood work
ing trades. and they showed how these men could
be employed, by reason of already existing me-
chanica1 aids and others developing, do virtu-i
ally what had previously been done only by the
expert ship carpenter.
We turning out by the method ocean
going timber cargo carriers to which the under
writer's do not hesitate to give Al rating. This
achievement is the outcome of q studied effort to
cut lost motion all the way from the forest
to the building plant and thence upon the finished
product.
Where the shipwright used to hew and cut and
patiently carve the various curiously formed
structural units out of relatively raw material
his less expert brothers, the house carpenter the
joiner. the wooden bridge builder and the like
accomplish astonishing things through the
agency of the sawmilI. The sawmiIl in fact rep
resents today to the wooden ship what the steel
mill stands for in the of the fabricated
freghter.
By of planners that can be set at any
angle and saws that will operate when tilted to
different degrees, 1t is possible for the present
day substitutes Of the master wood worker, the
shipwrfght, to shape and to bevel pieces of all
sizes and thicknesses and, besides, to do this in
few minutes, where the ship carpenter re-
quired probably many hours.
The pneumatic drill commonly used in struc-
turaI steel work has been modified so that it
will answer for the boring of holes in the tim
bers OF a wooden ship; pneumatic hammers.
bolts treenaiIs, plugs. etc, that bind a timber
craft together; and portable planners and kindred
air electrically operated tools finish on sur
faces and smooth joints that the adze and the
other tools of the shipwright welInigh dis
pensed with. Further, these portable power
driven aids doing their work at a speed ut
terIy unattainabIe by the traditional ship car
penter and his fellows.
As yet the concrete ship is too much of nov
city for predictions to be made the ultimate
maximum of practicable tonnage nor are we
yet sure that the big concrete -freighter of 1000
tons and more is going TO prove enduring and
economical However, concrete craft of more
modest proportions have already established
their durability, their technical correctness and
the feasibility of constructing them rapidly
The Emergency Fleet corporation. bearing these
facts In mind. is going right ahead to supple
ment our mercantile squadrons by substantially
encouraging the building of some scores of freight
ers and other granOIithIc boats.