Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-09-25
SHlPBUnDlNC
BRINGS FAME TO
PHILADELPHIA
Before Ice Chokes Lakes 100
More Ships are Expected
to be Delivered.

Philadelphia, Sept. 25.-shipbuild-
ing, under the spur Of the German
submarine menace, has made Phila-
delphia, for the second time in Ameri-
can history. q cradle Of liberty"
Fostered by the natural advantages Of
the Delaware river, together with
proximity to the nations steel pro-
duction centers, the country's largest
group Of shipyards, including the
world record making Hog Island plant
has grown up in h home district Of
the Pennsylvania metropolis.
In this district are employed more
than 100000 shipWorkers, one-fourth
out the United States, whose outtdrn
to date is fifty vessels, >t~wenty-seven
of them ready for service. Vessels of
all types, from %3.500-ton wooden
steamers to huge steel freighters of
$4,000 tons are produced. The influx
of workers has oyerrun a score of
communities, enforcing the building
m IRE men and more men. Given a
sufficiency of materials and the work.
ers. to handle them, the philadelphia
phenomenon in ship construction
promises to become another worlds
wonder.
In this region the Emergency Fleet
corporation, through the, companies
carrying on JUS WORK, mas uH~ueTtakeA
an extensive housing project. AT Bris-
toll, Chester, Cornwells and Hog Island
in Pennsylvania, at Camden and Glou-
cester on the New Jersey side and at
Wilmington in Delaware, homes, bach
elor apartments, barracks. boarding
houses and even a hotel have been
erected, with the hope of solving the
problem of inadequate labor growing
out of poor accommodations.
How the yards on the Delaware
have expanded in the past eleven
months and what this influx Of labor
means to the communities along the
river is indicated by comparison with
the census Of last October, when the
than $4,000. Excluding Cramps and
the New York Shipbuilding corpora
tion, which were then working as
completed yards, the nine other plants
on the Delaware then reported $4,000
workers.
More than half Of the present force
from outside the district, so that the
population growth from this source
alone has been double that of any
normal year. At Bristol, rs miles
above Philadelphia and beyond the
confines of the previously accepted
shipbuilding zone, workers at the
Merchant plant now exceed the entire
pSHNA1SASA VI Ian OOlouSA lA 4O4V
Chester, where john B. Roach built
American warships fifty years ago,
has trebled in a year it's population
gain between 1900 and 1910.
One Of Largest Plants.
Except the great Hog Island plant,
Of the New York S%hipbuilding cor
poration. employing 1850 men, is
the largest in the Philadelphia dis
trict/ When work under way Is com.
jpleted there will be 20 shipways,, most
Of them able to accommodate at one
time two ships of ordinary size. The
yard set a new worlds record wher
81 days from the time the keel wa.
laid. Ten days later the vessel wal
completed, a feat which has not beer
equalled for a ship Of this. type
Transportation has been a problem
with the majority of workers forced
to travel long distances to and from
the plant. To overcome this difficult!
the company is erecting the town O
Yorkship a mile from the works, will
a connecting trolley line. The com
munity, which will be without sa
looms, will be made a part of Camden
Neighboring Gloucester is anothe
shipbuilding center. When the elor!
der the ban of New Jersey legislativ,
enactment, the town went TO sleep. I
has been awakened. Tho Pussy 4
Jones company operates two yards
The Pennsylvania" plant, two year
old, has launched seven ships Of as
sorted types within a year, and tn,
newly completed New Jersey shop
have-four vessels on the ways. Launch
ing here are made sidewise into
basin, a process said to be mucl
simpler than the sternforerrost slid
which has been practiced through
centuries Of shipbuildinE. The com
pany 10 erecting $50 homes for 1t
workers near the two yards.
Recently both the Gloucester an,
Wilmington yards of the Pussy 4
Jones company have been combines
under the Emergency Fleet manage
ment and a standard type Of IL, 900
ton steel vessels will be built.
Creation in less than a year Of
great fabricated steel shipyard, wit
lone vessel launched and three other
ready to take the water, is the fea
accomplished by the Merchant Ship
building corporation, whose 12-wa,
plant 10 situated on the west bank O
the Delaware ~ Bristol. The compan,
4 and III 1900 employees have pledges
themselves to deliver sixteen cOmplet
u eds8 ,8O0-ton cargo carriers by the emf
nf 101A1GnntEacta 1a< Aixtx 49,