The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1918-04-03

has been undertaken by the Emer-
gency Fleet Corporation. -rt
1T has been an uphill struggle. /
am willing to confess there have been
times when we have been discouraged,
not at the magnitude of the task, but
through doubt of human ability to
accomplish the stupendous work in
the short time allowed.
There are two methods for COM
putting the construction of tonnage to
show what is accomplished. One is by
showing the tonnage in the water; the
other is by showing the tonnage under
construction. But when great many
ships are put under construction at
the same time, the question that
should be asked is how are they all
progressing; how near to completion
Is the vast program. Here is the an
swer:
THE total amount of our steel con-
struction program on March / was g.
2O5,7OS deadweight tons. This is made
up of 5,16O.300 deadweight tons under
contract with the Emergency Fleet
Corporation and 3,045,4OS dead
weight tons of requisition vessels.
"Of this total steel construction,
2,121, ,56S deadweight tons, or approx
mately 2S per cent. has been complet-
ed. That means that i'm addition to
the building of our big new yards, we
have also been building ships. That
is the program for steel ships has ad-
vanced 2S per cent. toward compile
tion. or the amount of steel ships un-
der contract and under requisition,
G55,456 deadweight tons, or approx
mately per cent. were actually com
pleted and in service on March OF
this year, nearly a month ago. This
amount of floating tonnage exceeds
our total output in 1916, including
steel, wooden and sailing vessels, but
approximately so per cent.
I'm the yards which we have al
ready completed and those which are
nearing completion the progress will
be cumulative from this time on.
Thus, while we have been building
the yards and training the new forces
necessary to construction, we have
also been building the ships.
Notwithstanding the difficulties of
organization, the handicaps Of bad
weather conditions, transportation
cmbargoes and railroad congestion
nearly as much tonnage has been con
structed in American shipyards in the
past three months as by all the other
maritime nations of the world com
bined.
II have referred to the necessity
OF providing additional facilities for
the building of ships. At the outset
the 81 old steel yards began increas-
ing their capacity until they now have
1876 ways as against 1862 eight months
ago. Other parts of their plants
have increased in proportion. We
then made provision for additional
steel yards, some of which have been
given financial assistance. Thirty ad-
ditionnl new steel shipyards are thu
being erected with a total of 2O3 ship
building ways. Thus we now have in
the aggregate 81 steel shipyards
either wholly or partly engaged in
Fleet Corporation work. These wards
will have n total of 39S steel building
ways. OF thesei 80 yards with 25S
ways. are on the Atlantic and Guls
Coast. Nineteen yards with 66 ways
are on the Pacific, while 13 yards.
with "A ways, are on the Great Lakes.
our program, for building wooden
ships has been beset with manv DIFF
ficulties and handicaps which could
not well be foreseen. A year ago.
wooden shipbuilding in the United
o'ateS was almost q lost art. We found
~ Old wooden shipyards with 73 ship
ways. The capacity for wooden shin
building has been increased until wc
now have 81 wooden shipbuilding
yards with 322 ways completed or
nearing completion.
Assuming that these ways will
each produce two standard ships per
year, we should turn out about 2.
100000 deadweight tons of wooden
shipping annually. These 1922 wood
en- shipbuilding ways. now nearing
completion, added to our 39S steel
building ways. will give us a total of
7SO berths upon which to build steel
and wooden vessels. When YOU con.
slider that we had only 1862 steel build
ing ways q few months ago and 73