Evening star., 1918-01-27
CONCRETE SHIPS ADVOCATED
TO MEET WARS DEMANDS
Lower Cost, Quick Construction. Abundant
Material, Cited Before Senate Com I
mittee-lO,OOO,OO Tons Year.

Concrete ships, 1o,ooo.ooo tons Of them
In . year. n . measure to make safe
the shipping situation Of the United
States and tho allies, was . sug4estion
to the Senate commerce committee yes
terday by Roy n. Robinson. = concrete
construction expert from Chicago.
Mr.. Robinson urged the establish
ment Of = concrete ship division in the
Emergency Fleet Corporation within
seven days" bringing together twenty
five or thirty concrete construction en-
gineers and flve or ten marine engi-
neers to work out Immediately plans
for concrete ship. He would then
have the government start five or more
shipyards for the construction Of these
ships at once.
Urges Liberty Motor Methods.
apply liberty motor methods to this
proposition" said Mr.. Robinson. ''The
production of tho liberty motor in a
few days by the engineers of the coun-
try is the one great achievement Of the
war so far"
Members Of the committee manifested
the keenest interest In the proposal of
Mr.. Robinson. Several of the members
should be tried out.
Even IL it were only a ffty-fifty
cnance, and I think it a much better
chance than that" said Senator john
son OF California, 7 believe it would
be good plan to put $50.000,000 into
1t and try 1t out without delay"
Must Take Chances,
Mr.. Robinson told the committee that
the United States now is engaged In
the greatest venture in the world. ave
are gambling with from O.000, 600, 900
to $4,000: 100000 Of treasure and mil
lions Of lives" he said. There 10 an
element OF risk In what propose. But
we must take chances II we are to win
this war. Put $50, ,OOO, 900 into the ex-
pertinent. or $3.50 100000. II it does
not work out we lose this money. But
will work. Don't let's lose time ex-
perimenting. Let's get to work i'm
mediately. One ship this year is worth
ten ships next year."
Mr.. Robinson told the committee that
the shipping board last July had esti-
mated the transatlantic shipping at
10000. 900 gross tons; that there had
been destroyed about 100000 tons dur
ing the last year by submarines and
mines, and that the construction Of
100000 tons. At this rate. he said.
the transatlantic shipping would be
wiped out entirely in three years.
What Is Needed for Soldiers.
He said that it was estimated it re-
ouired five to seven tons Of shipping
to maintain a soldier abroad '1f we
put an army Of a million men in France
1t will require 100000 tons of ship
ping to keep it supplied, and IL we
put 100000 men abroad. the smallest
number to be effective in this war. we
will need 10000, 600 tons" he said.
MT. Robinson estimated the amount
Of new shipping for the year 1918 as
5000. 600 tons. He said he believed that If
the concrete ship proposition was tack
led in the right way, 100000 more
tons of shipping could be turned out
this year.
Successful North Sea Trip.
Concrete ships of small size and
barges already have proved a success,
ne said. and he referred to a two-thou-
sand mile trip in the North sea recent
iy made by such ship built in Nor
way. He told the committee there is at
present a 5,000-ton concrete ship build
ing for the San Francisco Ship Build
ing Company, which the government is
watching closely.
If the smaller ships are a success
there is no reason why the large ships
should not be equally successful"
He testified that he had attempted
to get the shipping board interested in
concrete ships ever since Gen. Goethals
was In Office, and that while the board
admitted it was an interesting matter,
it had held on because large concrete
ships had never been tried out. =
what we want are ships now said
Mr.. Robinson. mot after three or four
months experimenting to start pro-