The Washington herald., 1918-03-27

gency Fleet Corporation. Thirty ad-
ditional new steel shipyards are thus
being erected. with a total of a3
J shipbuilding ways. Thus we now have
in the aggregate sixty-seven steel
shipyardS either wholly or partly en-
gagged in fleet corporation work.
These yards will have a total of 3SS
steel building ways. OF these. thirty
FIVE yards with 25S ways, are on the
Atlantic and Gulf Coast; nineteen
yards with sixty-six ways are on the
Pacific, while thirteen yards with
seventy-four ways are on the Great
Lakes.
Our program for building wood
en- ships has been beset with many
difficulties and handicaps which
could not well be foreseen. 4 year
ago. wooden shipbuilding in the
United States was almost lost art.
We found twenty-four old wooden
shipyaTds. with seventy three ship
ways. The capacity for wooden
shipbuilding has been increased un-
til we now have eighty-on wood
en- shipbuildmg yards, with S32
ways completed or nearing compile
ton.
Assuming that these ways will
each produce two standard ships
per year we should turn out about
2, 10000 deadweight tons OF wood
en- ships annually. These 332 wood
en- shipbuilding ways, now nearing
completion. added to our 3sS steel
building ways. will give us a total
Of 730 berths upon which to build
steel and wooden vessels. When
you consider that we had only 162
steel building ways a few months
ago and seventy-three wooden ship
building ways-a total of 235-an
increase is shown of 495 wooden
and steel berths on which we can
build ships.
with our total of 100 wood and
steel ways, we will have 521 more
berths than Sir Eric Geddes in his
recent speech stated England has
at the present time.
Delay Caused by Embargo.
Our program on woc5cn ships was
delayed by the fact that we were
unable to provide the necessary big
timber in sufficient quantities from
River. We found ourselves obliged to
River. We found ourselves abliged to
go to the West Coast and arrange
for the transportation of hundreds
of carloads of Douglas fir which 1t
was necessary to substitute for the
long-leaf pine for keels and other
heavy timber. Here, again. we en-
countered a serious phase of the
Transportation problem. Our ship
ments were held up for weeks By
the railroads embargo. The scarcity
Of ocean tonnage prevented the use
of water transportation in moving
our ship timbers to any great extent,
and we were obliged to depend on
the railroads to move fully 95 per
cent of these materials. The extra
ordinary burden placed upon the rail-
road carriers by the war situation
thus had a very serious effect upon
the movement of ship timbers to the
wooden shipyards.
Since the spring Of 1917 the car
riers have found 1t necessary to place
embargoes on the movements of
various kinds of freight. owing to
accumulation, These have had the
natural effect of slowing up the move
ment of materials for the Shipping
Board.
The Railroad Administration has
lust passed through the most Sc
we're winter in railroad history and
we are all hopeful that the coming
of warmer weather will result in
speeding up Of the deliteries of ma
terial so urgently required at our
yards.
Substantial assistance has been
rendered the carriers by the Shipping
Board by reason Of our ability to
concentrate the ship timbers from
the Pacific Northwest in trainloads
at central points near the sawmills.
Sixteen solid trains of Douglas FIR are
now en- route to North Atlantic wood
en- shipyards. Similar arrangements
have been made for the movement of
steel wherever it is practical to do
so. During the railroad embargo.
however, there was a period of many
weeks when there were actually near
ly 5000 cars of steel and wood ship
building material. loaded and waiting
on sidings, to be transported to our
shipyards. This situation which has
been a serious handicap, am happy
to say, is steadily improving.
Our figures indicate that the ship
building program at its height will
require approximately 5000 separate
shipments of material daily. Many of
these, however, will be small lots to
concentrating points, which are be-
ing established throughout the coun-
try for the purpose of combining the
| fittings for a complete ship into car.
loads; in this way saving the expense
and effort in transportation, as well
as reducing the labor Of assembling
in the yards.
From the transportation standpoint,
we must expect absolute freedom in
the movement of our materials; other
wise the speeding up of manufacture
Is wasted, and consequent delays in
finished ships will result. We look to
the Railroad Administration with full
confidence that they will supply our
needs in this respect.
The situation giving US the most
concern is the completion Of turbines
and engines. The very rapid expsn-