The Washington herald., 1918-03-27


building Company. OF Oakland; Cal.
announcing the successful launch
ing of one of their large vessels.
Twenty minutes later we received
another telegram from the same
company announcing the launching
OF q second ship of the same type,
and forty minutes afterward a'third
telegram saying that a third vessel
Of similar character had gone over
board. This was the record of one
American shipyard. The launching
Of three e.400-ton vessels in a sin
gle afternoon-an accomplishment
which l believe is unriValed in the
worlds annals of shipbuilding.
There are two methods for COM
putting the construction of tonnage
to show what is accomplished. One
Is by showing the tonnage in the
water. The other is by showing
the tonnage under construction. But
when a great many ships are put
under construction at the same time.
the question to be asked is. how
are they all progressing; how near
to completion is the vast program.
Here Is the answer:
The total amount OF our steel
construction on March 1 was s.205,-
70S deadweight tons. This is made
up of $3.50, 300 deadweight tons un-
der contract with the Emergency
Fleet Corporation, and 3,045.40S
desdweight tons of requisition YES
sells.
Fifty Per Cent Increase.
OF this total steel construction.
..l21,56S deadweight tons, or ap-
proximately IS per cent has been
completed. That means that in ad-
dition to the building of our new
yards we have also been building
ships. That is, the program for steel
ships has advanced IS per cent to-
ward completion. OF the amount
OF steel ships under contract and
under requisition, 655,456 dead
weight tons. or approximately
per cent. were actually completed
year, nearly a month ago. This
amount OF floating tonnage exceeds
our total output in 1916, including
by approximately so per cent
In the yards which we have al
ready completed and those which
al Ills SOAAlpAEllOh
Will be cumulative from this time
on.
Thus while we have been building
the yards and training the new
forces necessary to construction,
we have also been building the
ships.
Notwithstanding the difficulties of
organization, of the handicaps of
bad weather conditions. of trans
portation embargoes and railroad
congestion. nearly as much tonnage
has been constructed in American
waters in the past three months as
by all the other maritime nations
of the world combined.
We have had to build up a tre-
mendous administrative organiza-
ton, with expert ship architects,
expert traffic and operating heads,
and at a time when the demand for
such talent greatly exceeded the
supply. We have had to negotiate
for neutral tonnage. We have had
to requisition and provide for the
operation of the entire existing
American merchant marine; we
have had also to provide skilled
supervision for the repairs of in
termed German ships which were
seized.
Germany's Contribution to shipping.
The Germans thought that by
crippling their own vessels in Amer
iGan waters they would be able to
prevent US from using them. Ameri-
can ingenuity and resourcefulness
gave the answer by restoring these
vessels to efficiency. With the ex-
penditure of a little less than $780,
900 we have succeeded in placing in
our war service and in the service Of
the allies liz first-class German and
Austrian vessels representing a carry
ing capacity of nearly 10000 dead
weight tons.
have referred to the necessity of
providing additional facilities for the
building Of ships. That is, for the
creation Of new shipyards, for en-
larging old ones, for the education of
new shipbuilders, and may now add.
the necessity of providing increased
means for obtaining engines, boilers,
turbines and other equipment. At
the outset the thirty-seven old steel
yards began increasing their capacity
until they now, have 1876 ways as
against 162 eight months ago. Other
parts of their plants have increased
proportionately. We then made pro-
vision for additional new steel yards,
some of which have been given
dnapofaI assistance bv tho E-..x