The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1918-10-09
The Whole Atlantic Coast
Alive With Ship Yards
and Ways
PATRIOTISM PLAYS
AN IMPORTANT PART
Men of All Trades and Pro.
fessiOns Helping Win
the War

Butchers have dropped their cleav-
ers and are swinging the adj in the
shipyards of New England. BARRIERS
have learned to use the calker's
maui instead of the razor, so that
Uncle Sam can have the ships he
needs. Clergymen, lawyers, doctors
and college professors have been
taught to use the plane, the hammer
or the chiscl that democracy may be
triumphant. One poet daily pays a
hammer with treenailing gang in a
Maine yard. The clergyman who Of
'fered prayer at "a launching Of ship
at Portsmouth, N. H., was a ship
wright.
Men of all trades and professions
have responded to the nations appeal
for shipbuilders to meet the emergen-
cy of war. After few months work
many are listed in the skilled class.
The aptitude they have shown has
gone far to solve one of the Emer-
gcncy Fleet Corporations most diff
cult problems in this district
At two yards in Portland, Me-, it is
estimated that less than ; per cent of
the employees, who now number 1000,
knew anything about ship constlucA
ton when they began work there.
But the training they received was
intensive and these yards are stead
lily turning out vessels. There is still
a demand for labor, notably in the
rapidly growing steel yards at Bath
and Portsmouth, but the situation in
this respect has improved in recent
weeks.
Patriotic cooperation of the work
mon has played an important part in
the smooth running of the yards.
There has been a marked absence of
serious strikes To the brawny "na-
tive sons" who make up the crews the
thought that every hammer blow will
leave its mark on Prussian militarism
is no idle fancy. Under the speeding
up system applied by the production
exports, the New England district has
already. launched more than twenty
wooden and steel steamships and has
double that number on the way Ad-
ditional facilities for building are un-
der consideration, and contracts al
ready existing call for an expenditure
of above $50,OO0,000, for wooder
ships alone.
The Atlantic Corporation at Ports
mouth is to build ten steel cargo
ships of $500 tons each. 1t now has
five ships on the stocks, with 2,6O(
men on day and night shifts.
The Texas Steamship Company:
plant at Bath, Me, has delivered foul
cargo carriers of 10000 tons each anC
four more ships are on the stocks.
The Fore River plant of the Beth
lchem Shipbuilding Corporation, al
though largely employed in govern
ment work of another type, has fou1
of it's twenty ways devoted to th'
building of ships of more than 10,0OO
tons each for the merchant marine.
Virtually all the wooden ships un
der construction in New England ar
to be steam ffeighters Of $500 ton
deadwcight carrying capacity, bull
after the Ferris pattern. Yards TO
their construction and equipment do
the coast from Penobscot Bay. t.
southern Massachusetts.
The construction, equipment AM
delivery of wooden vessels is unde
the direction of District Supervise
John f. Vaughan of the Division o
Wood Ship Construction. From tn
time the big sticks of Oregon fir o
southern pine are cut in the forest
of the Northwest or the Gulf Coast
until they are shaped, assembled an
fashioned into the completed shir
Fleet Corporation agents have dlrec
oversight of every stage of the pro
cess. One small feature of the wor
involves the predicting, schedulin
and following through production
shipment and receipt of some $50
different items that go to make u
the mechanical equipment of one G
the 3,500-tonners. Each of thes
items must be produced, ordered
shipped and received, to meet dc
finite time schedule, which is prediC
ted months in advance.
The farthest eastern yard in th
wood ship district, that of the Sand
Point Shipbuilding Co, at Sears
port, Me, is named almost exclusive
ly by farmers and fishermen, many c
them descendants of race of shi
builders. The Sandy Point Yard hs
two ways in operation and two MOI
to be built.
At Thomaston, George H. Gi
crest is constructing Ferris woode
hull. Three more of the same kin
are on the ways of the Freepol
Shipbuilding Company of South Fre'
port, Me. One wooden steamship II
Gently was launched from the yard {
the KelleySpcar Company in Bat
Ne.