The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-03-18
little French Seaport Now Prosper
Gus City and Changed Almost Over
night as Though a Witch With
Her Magic Wand Had Touched
the Shaky Docks and Shan
ties Making Them Larger
and Better

| Ties waking inem Larger
and Better
A Port in France, March IS A lit
| tie more than six months have
wrought mighty change in the base
at which, last June, the first division
of American troops landed to 60 into
training for their fight with the Ger
mans.
The docks have been and are being
enlarged, storage warehouses have
been and are being built, the harbor
has been dredged out to accommodate
more and larger ships, and the rail
road facilities have been nearly dou-
bled and are being increased day by
day.
The enlargement of the port has
created a somewhat anomalous situa-
ton. For whereas up to about the
end of last year troops landed more
regularly and quickly than supplies,
so that it was sometimes feared it
would be necessary to draw temper
arily on the French for their support,
the base is now in now in the posi-
ton of being able to handle more
tonnage than is at present coming to
it. either in the form of supply or
troop ships.
The capacity of the port would,
however, be almost reached, with the
completion of the docks and store
houses now under construction if it
were not for far-reaching engineering
plans that are underway.
Docks Are Enlarged
The American authorities early
foresaw that even comprehensive
dock engagements would inevitably
result in congestion and confusion if
some outlet were not arranped for
the increasing supplies expected to
arrive when they are needed, and
which even increased storage space
could not be expected to accommo-
date The problem resolved itself
into one of transportation.
Therefore, while the railroad tracks
at the port itself are vastly more
numerous than they were six months
ago, the American engineers have
conceived plan whereby vast tract
of land three or four miles back of
he port has been taken over, and is
being developed coincidently with the
port itself.
] On either side of huge basin into
which ships can, if necessary, be
towed and unloaded, dozens of par
lallel spur tracks are being laid They
will serve a dual purpose, for cars
either can be filled from barges and
vessels brought into the basin, or cars
loaded at the port itself can quickly
and easily be hauled to the spurs anG
there made up into trains.
Railroads Increase
The Americans already have taker
over on lease from the French certain
lines of railroad which will be fec
from the yards of the port and Of
its complementary station in the rear
They are increasing constantly the
efficiency and capacity of the port it
self by helping the French to econ
omize in dock transportation space.
The American plan which envis
ages caring for vastly more volume
than the port would normally accom-.
modate, even with the enlargement Of
docks and store houses, is not origi
nal with them but is more or less 6
copy of what the English have done
at another port, where they have in
creased the daily output of merchan
disc from about 200 cars or less tt
more than 700. This they have beer
: able to do by laying out huge yard
to the rear of the actual port to facil
itate making up trains.
|. The steady development of tn
American port has made it necessar,
to rearrange the manner in which tn
work is done. Last July compare
lively small branch of the quarter
masters department was amply abb
to superintend and manage the ur
loading and distributions of supple.
l Today the work has grown so tina
1 1t has had to be entrusted to a rail
way transportation department tina
1 is growing in size every week an
I which now merely turns over to tn
quartermaster, as it does to the en-
gineering, the aviation and all tn
{ other departments such material a
belongs to each
Huge Force of Men
III To keep pace with the increasin
volume of supplies that arrive