The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-02-23
AMERICA ACROSS
THE ATLANTIC
French Seaport Has Been Virtually
Made Over for the Use of
Our Forces

A Port in France Correspond
ence of the Associated Press) "A lit
tie more than six months have
wrought mighty change in the base
at which. last June, the first division
of American troops landed to go into
training for their fight with the Ger
mans.
The docks have been and are being
enlarged, storage warehouses have
been and are being built, the harbor
has been dredged out to accommodate
more and larger ships, and the rail-
road facilities have been nearly dou-
bled and are being increased day by
day.
The enlargement of the port has
created somewhat anomalous situ-
alton. For whereas up to about the
end of last year troops landed more
regularly and quickly than supplies,
so that it was sometimes feared it
would be necessary to draw tempor-
arily on the French for their support,
the base is now in the position of
being able to handle more tonnage
than is at present coming to it, either
in the form of supply or troop ships.
The capacity of the port would,
however, be almost reached with the
completion of the docks and store
houses now under construction if it
were not for far-reaching engineer
ing plans that are under way.
The American authorities early
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enlargements would inevitably result
inA congestion and confusion if some
outlet were not arranged for the in
creasing supplies expected to arrive
when they are needed, and which even
increased storage space could not be
expected to accommodate. The prob
lem resolved itself into one of trans
portation.
Therefore, while the railroad tracks
at the port itself are vastly more
numerous than they were six months
ago, the American engineers have
conceived a plan whereby vast tract
of land three or four miles back of
the port has been taken over, and is
being developed coincidently with the
pUTL 1tSSl1.
On either side of huge basin into
which ships can if necessary be towed
and unloaded, dozens of parallel spur
tracks are being laid They will serve
a dual purpose, for cars either can
be filled from barges and vessels
brought into the basin, or cars loaded
at the port itself can quickly and cas-
L. III - vn1
made up into trains.
The Americans already have taken
over on lease from the French certain
lines of railroad which will be fed
from the yards of the port and of its
complementary station in the rear.
They are increasing constantly the
efficiency and capacity of the port it
self by helping the French to econo-
mize in dock and transportation space.
The American plan which envisages
caring for vastly more volume than
the port would normally accommo-
date, even with the enlargement of
docks and store houses, is not original
with them but is more or less a copy
of what the English have done at an
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the daily output of merchandise from
about 200 cars or less to more than
700. This they have been able to do
by laying out huge yards to the rear
of the actual port to avoid congestion
and to facilitate making up trains.
The steady development of the
American port has made it necessary
to rearrange the manner in which the
work is done. Last July a compara-
lively small branch of the quarter
masters department was amply able
to superintend and manage the un-
loading and distribution of supplies.
Today the work has grown SO that it
has had to be entrusted to railway
transportation department that is
growing in size every week and which
now merely turns over to the quarter
master, as it does to the engineering,
the aviation and all the other depart