The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1918-05-24

steel shipways to the number OF SoS
are now being constructed-many OF
which are completed and IN tne nsw
n expanded steel yards tners LIZ
!wenty.six more than at presS.. anS
= all the steel shipyards OF Lnsa s..H.
from the beginning the tnlity-s .Se;n
olo steel yards began increasing .nv
capacity until they now have . WHys
as against 1872 eight months agoi WIZ
the financial assistance OF inc nsi.
gency Fleet corporation thirty ya aos
are being erected with a total u @oo
steel shipbuilding ways.
At present there are slxty-seven
steel shipyards, either wholly or part
~ engaged in fleet corporation wo Hac
These yards will have a total OF 5So
steel shipbuilding ways. Located on
the Atlantic coast and along the Gul1
are thirty-fve yards with 25S ways.
There are nineteen yards with sixty
six ways on the Pacific coast and thir-
teen yards with seventy-four ways on
the Great Lakes. The aggregate OF
our steel construction on May \, was
1O,632,324 lightweight tons. Ut this
total 7,219,351 lightweight tons were
under contract with the emergency
fleet corporation and the remainder
were requisitioned vessels.
"The war has also brought about
the renaissance of wooden shipbuild-
ing in this country. At the beginning
of the war there we're twe%nty-four
wooden shipyards with seventy-four
shipways; now eighty-one wooden
s~hipbuilding with 1922 ways are COM
pleted. Assuring that each one Of
these ways produce two standard
ships a year, the United States would
turn out about 0 900 lightweight
tons of wooden ships annually. Add
those 1872 wooden shipbuilding ways
to the country's 1893 steel shipbuilding
ways and q total of 73O berths upon
which to build ships is found avail
able. This total gives America 521
more berths than England has at the
present time according to figures e
Gently made public by the British ad-
miralty.
"At the outset the difficulties of en-
barking upon an extensive shipbuild-
ing program were ~quadrupled by the
struggle of the other branches Of the
government for materials and labor of
the same kind that are needed in ship
building. In spite of all difficulties
met by the Emergency Fleet corpor-
alton numerous world records in ship
building have already been made. The
Skinner & Eddy company of Seattle
launched an 8,800-ton vessel in sixty
four days. The Moore Shipbuilding
company of Oakland, Calf, launched
three 9,400-ton vessels in a single
afternoon, an accomplishment un-
rivaled in the annals of ship con-
struction.
cover a billion dollars a year is
being disbursed for ship construction
and over 300, 900 men are engaged in
shipbuilding as against 45, 900 in 1916
with a reserve army of 25O,0OO that
can be called upon. Progress in the
carrying on of shipbuilding will be
cumulative from now on and the most
difficult problem that faces US at the
present time is the completion of the
manufacture of turbines and engines
for the rapid expansion of the ship
building industry found the turbine
and engine manufacturers unpre-
pared.
"Of great popular interest r the
three huge plants at Hog island,
Newark bay, New Jersey and Bristol,
Pa, generally spoken of as fabricat-
ing plants. lney are really aSSemb-
ling yards, for the materials that &C.
tually go to make the completed ships
are being fabricated in scores of steel
plants throughout the country. In
some instances IS per cent Of the
work on these materials is being done
at points far remote from the ship
yards.
"Hog island with its fifty ways,
Newark bay with its twenty-e eight and
Bristol with it's twelve, when in full
operation, will produce in a single year
more ships than England has ever
been able to turn out in a like period.
At Newark bay twenty-nine keels
have already been laid and more are
to follow. 1t is expected that vessels