Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-10-22
ORANGE TEXAS IS NOW SR|Pbu|LD|NC
 CENTER OF GULF
16 Ships Launched and 24 Others are Under Course
 Of Construction.
By Associated Press.


 Orange, Texas, Oct. 19.-- Sixteen vessels aready have been sent down the ways at Orange. twenty -four others will be ready for launching be- fore Christmas, and contracts have been placed for construction of six ty-one more at the earliest possible date. Tine tonnage of vessels launch ed, building and contracted for here totals 317, ,000.
 Before the program is completed here more than half q million acres of yellow pine forest will have been laid bare.
 The shipbuildine program brought prosperity to this little town, whose population has nearly doubled since America entered the war Fifteen months ago the industry was little known or understood here. One or two small yards, located along the banks of the sluggish Sabine river, were devoted to repair work on tugs and small launches
 Then came the call for a bridge for the Atlantic" Almost over night the river banks sprang into life. The ring of axes revibrated through the forests nearby. The hum of industry banished the festive alligator from his old haunts and the steel-ribbed skeletons of ships began rising al most in the midst of wilderness.
 The shipyards now employ approx limately 1000 men who draw wages totailina $225,000 weekly. Notwith- standing more than a thousand homes have been built in eleven months, workmen still are forced to live in improvised shanties and tents while housing facilities are being in creased with all possible speed.
 The National Shipbuilding Company of Texas has launched six ships, has eight on the way and contracts for except two of those already launch- ed which went to the British Cunard Hines. The Southern Dry Dock & |Shipbuilding Company has launched one ship, has six on the way and contracts for five more. all for gov jernment account; the International Shipbuilding company has launched eight, has ten on the ways and con- tracts for thirty-eight more, all for the Italian government. and Edw, Weaver & Sons has built one and has one on the way.
 The National yard is building the new type of vessel of 4.490 tons each. The first two of these ships, which are chased by authorities as among the innovations of the war, are now on their maiden voyages. Approximately 1,5O0 dead weight tons larger than a Ferris type vessel, the new ship requires nearly 5O0,0OO fewer feet of timber to build and fewer steel bolts. It was designed by A. A. Daugharty, an engineer who at the outbreak of the war was building an oil refinery here His employers crude oil from Mexico, and Daugh- were in need of tankers to transport arty designed tanker 3l5 feet long, with 48-foot beam and 26 feet depth of hold. His design was radically different from the common type, hav- ing the boilers and engines in the tern, and his propeller drive. shaft was only 19 feet. as against a drive of 119 feet in the Ferris-type vessel. A fore peak tank balances the weight. The emergency fleet corporation off, cials were impressed with the ,Daugh- arty idea and awarded the company a contract for twenty-slx of the ves- sels.
 Workmen at the National yards claim worlds record of setting up the seventy-nine frames for Daughar- ty ship Mo- PAP in thirty hours and thirty-five minutes and have chal- lenged other yards to equal the rec ord. A Pacific coast company. held the: previous record of forty-four hours for framing a ship.
 One of the greatest problems con- fronting directors of the shipyards here has been protection against Ger man agents. On Independence Day, the torch was put to the shipyard of the Orange Maritime Corporation by an enemy agent, resulting in the yard and three large vessels being de-