The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-10-17
SHIP AFTER SHIP
SLIDES DOWN WAYS
No Ceremony Marks the Completion OF
Vessels at Newport News, Va,
Where $4,000 Men Are
Working.

Newport News, Va, Oct. l8.New ship
ways, towering trestles, spreading shops,
fields of steel and the incessant clamor,
day and night, of automatic riveters,
great steam hammers and whirring ma
chinery are the symbols Of wartime
shipbuilding here where deep sea craft
have been turned out since the SOS.
In this great plant 10000 men and
women are working at top speed Slid
ing quietly from the ways, without a
semblance of ceremony that attended
launchings in the days of peace, ship
after ship has been built and foated only
to lose itself in the maze of commerce at
this gateway to the Atlantic and to the
fields OF France.
When the wartime history of the
Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock
company is written, it will be an inter.
esting chapter in the romance Of the de-
stroyer. 1t viii tell how farmer boys
from the rolling plains Of the West, who
had never seen ship, and women whose
only experience with metals had been in
the handling Of pots and pans answered
the call of their country TO build many
Of the destroyers which steadily are re-
moving the menace Of the submarine and
keeping open the lanes through which
the millions of American soldiers are go
ing to the western front.
How well these men and women have
done their work under the guidance Of
skilled workers, is demonstrated by the
fact that every destroyer turned out has
more than met the express train speed
required under the navy contract And
it is no secret, at least not here, that the
finished ships which have gone into the
war zone have given good account OF
themselves even as the Tanning and other
pre.war products Of this yard have added
new laurels to American naval records
While all possible energy is going into
the building of the bridge of ships" to
France and their guardians, the extension
of this plant into one of the worlds
greatest shipyards is planned for after
the-war needs as well as for those Of the
present. Shop after shop has been built
aud cranes and other labor saving de-
vices installed so that when peace comes
foreign yards may be met in the great
race that is inevitable for the restoration
OF destroyed tonnage,
Even now there are in the building two
of the largest shipways in America Here,
after the war, will be laid down two Of
the monster battle cruisers Congress au-
thorized in 1916, designed as the fastest
and most powerful ships of their type
, on the sea.
Nearby these new ways four emergen-
ey ways have been thrown up on ground
"made" within the year On these emer-
gency ways naval vessels are building
and more will follow when these are
launched. A few hundred yards away
more fighting ships are building, two and
three to one set Of ways. On still other
stocks, merchant ships and other craft
are being put together.
Turbines largely have supplanted the
old-style reciprocal drive engine and il is
on these that women have been pressed
into service, performing the delicate work
OF finishing the myriad brass paddles
against which the steam strikes to re-
yolve the turbine drum, much as water
runs mill wheel
In the yard dispensary, where men
who are injured are treated, nurses and
doctors are constantly on duty. A band
gives concerts in the yard each noon.
Housing has been the greatest problem.
Two miles beyond the city on high
bluff overlooking the river is rising new
city to be peopled exclusively by ship
yard workers. High wages are the rule
as at other yards, with riveters, many of
them negroes, making as high as S25 and
$50 day. Loyalty is preached in season
and out.
In peace times this yard completed
merchant ships in six months or less, but
it is lettering that now even, as it has
more than cut in half the time for turn
ing out destroyers. Officials and work
men alike have ever before them on a
bronze tablet set in the side Of stone
column the words of the founder of the
yard, the late Coils P Huntington, mas
ter railroad and ship builder in the ma
tion's pioneer days:
Here we will build good ships; at a
profit if we can, at loss if we must, but
always good ships"