The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-10-02
Metropolis and Hamlet Both
Building Ships for
Uncle Sam
MANY NEW YARDS
AS RESULT OF WAR
Some Will Be Junked at the Close of
Hostilities While Others Will Con.
tinue to Turn Out vessels-Revival
of Mighty Industry.

tinue to Turn Out vessels-Revival |
of Mighty Industry.
NEW YORK. Oct New York and |
Noank. the world s metropolis and |
Connecticut hamlet, are building ships |
for the American merchant marine |
Their methods of tackling the job are |
as unlike as the two communities. New
York s ship construction activities are
conferred at Shooter s Island in the low
err bay, where 7,50oton steel freighters
are erected at a plant created out of |
the stress of war and equipped with
mechanical devices of the latest word |
in modernity.
At Noank. in yard made famous
by deacon Robert Palmer 80 years
ago. wooden bulls are being built by
artisans who have more use for the adze
and the caulking mallet than for
forces and cranes.
Nearly all the shipyards on the North
Atlantic coast have come into being
since the American declaration of war
! Many are temporary to be scrapped
when peace is proclaimed. But where
the Mystic River flows into Long Island
Sound at Noank, Deacon Palmer built
Yachts. sehooners, barges and lighters
| for half a century Around the plant
grew up a community of ship carpenters
whose sons became ship carpenters and
! the second and third generations of these
| Yankee craftsmen, readily ADAPTING
| their calling to the needs of the nation
! j. war time are turning out 3.500tor
| freighters of the Ferris type generally
built in the Emergency Fleet Corpora
ton s wooden wards.
New York. the nations greatest port
thronged with the picturesque shipping
Of world at war, is a powerful fac
tor in the Emergency Fleet program
vet it's largest yards are in the terri
tory of New Jersey. Within the Empire
state is a single group of shin produc
ton plants, on Staten Island and its
tiny neighbor, Shooter s Island, in al
4 ton TO yards Mt Ncwburgh on the Hud
son Port Jefferson on Long Island
Sound and Buffalo on Lake Erie.
The Standard shipbuilding Corpora
ton, at Shooters Island operates ?
plant with six WAYS Seven Thousand
mon are employed some departments
working day and night. and 800 tor
steel freights. eight of which have beer
loanehed. are turned out ready for sea
Here. on the doorsfeps tof the metrop-
oils. the labor problem is acute. Skilled
-shipftters engine and boiler
n 1kcrs-arc Mt a premium The labor
turnover is per cent and abscnteeisT
1'eragcs II 70 IS Ter cent day, Sc
riously retarding production.
Nearby on Staten Island the Downev
wards. with four ways have launched
n steel freighter OF the type produced
II the STANDARD rlant and four others
hive been hid down. Two thousand
-~on arc EMPLOYED The Staten Island
Shipbuilding COMPANY has com0leted
sour 3.j00-ton steel ships and has
launched a fifth cargo vessel With
! 500 workers, a ship every two months
: thr prgram Wooden ships Of $500
Tors are bcinc constructed al tho John
~on wards on the same waterfront. with
! 500 mo,l work on thren ways. One
vessel has been launched
For the first time in history ocean
~o'ng s+enmships are being brilt or
II Hudson river at Ncwburgh. A
o.G0O-ton steel cargo carrier was
NJ the Standard plant. and four other
"re under construction. Fmployinp
. coo men, the Newbureh Shipvards
Corporation has hid out its yards
"rhocled unframed workers in the ship
holding craft and started production
I'll IN nine months.
A. Port jefferson the Bavles shin
ward with 700 men. is al work on two
7,000-ton freinhters a~d two ocean 20
inp tugs Difficulty in obtaining adc-
ouate labor will be overcome it was
stGtnd bv immediate erection of houses
cN1 dormitorcs.
Nearlv 800 miles from the coast the
American Shirbuilding COMPANY with
= history dating back to 1912 is build
g Mt Buffalo steel freiohters for ocean
raffic. With $500 workers, the yards
have launched vessel Of 1850 tons
nd forr others ara or the ways. but
Tho 4.000-ton tyne has been adopted as
he standard Here also Great Lakes
eleamers ordered to the Atlantic to help
mcat the wars demand for tonnage, are
being prepared for floating to sea Al
~erdy sixty vessels have been towed to
-idowater, several of them necessarily
cut in two to make possible their pas
cage through the canal locks leading
from Lake Erie to the ST. Lawrence.
Nicinq in age with the Buffalo plant
he Gildersleeve Construction Co.. estab
lish 81 years ago on the Connecticut
Fiver, is buifding wooden bulls, with :
force of 500 men. On the same type OF
construction are engaged the Housa
ionic Shipbuildino Company at STRAIT
ford, owned by Simon Lake, inventor
Of the Lake American navS submarine
fand the Shin Construction and Tradin;
Company at Stonington. The Stratfort
yards employ 1900 men, those at Ston
in2ton, 700.
Along with several of the oldest
Connecticut has one of the newest ward
IN the east, at Groton. The Groton 1rol
Works, controlled with the wooden ship
ways at Noank, by the Charles W. Mors
interests has built thoroughly moder