Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-12-11
Washington, d. c., Dec. II.

CONCRETE ships. Are they likely to
~ endure as a commercial proposition or
will they go out with the war? Captain
William s. Samuels, of Philadelphia, who
knows a good deal about ships, fatty de-
clares that as an ocean carrying propo-
sition the concrete steamship is doomed.
He declares that the shipping people are
not favorable to further construction of
concrete vessels and that Government ap-
preparations should stop. On the other
hand the concrete shipbuilders are very
insistent that their handiwork has come to
stay. They point to the successful opera
ton of Faith, built under Government d.
rection at San Francisco, and contend that
what she has done will be duplicated by
other concrete vessels.
Philadelphia has a peculiar interest in
this matter of concrete ship construction.
The Scofeld Engineering Company,
Philadelphia organization, headed by q.
NJ Scofield, now has a large concrete ship
operation under way at San Diego, Cal.
In consequence of the armistice this work
has been curtaied somewhat by the Emer-
gency Fleet Corporation. The general
manager of that Government institu-
ton is Charles Piez, who was formerly
at the head Of the Link Belt Engi-
neering Company, at Nicetown. Mr. Plez
tells us officially that the original program
of the shipping board contemplated the
construction of forty-two concrete vessels,
but that since the termination of Ahe war
| this program has been curtailed to fourteen
vessels-one of 3000-ton CARGO three 35oo'
ton cargo and ten 7500-ton tankers. Mr..
Piez says the boards experience with the
Faith has been entirely satisfactory.
HNHE dangers which surround Presl-
| l. dent at home or abroad are recalled by
| the story OF the Surratt trial. 1t is said
| there are only two survivors of that his
| toric event, and one of them, strangely
| enough, is Captain Eli D. Edmunds, Of
| Philadelphia and Cape May, brother of
| Charles II. Edmunds, of the Philadelphia
| bar Captain Edmunds was a witness be-
| fore the military commission in the peni-
| tentiary near the arsenal in Washington
| in May, 1865. Charley Edmunds tells the
| story in this entertaining way AT the
| time of the assassination Captain Ed
| munds was an acting master in the United
| States navy, and previous thereto, while
| connected with the Washington Navy
| Yard boarded just outside the navy gate
| with the Herold family. David Herold, of
| this family, was charged with being one
of the conspirators, it being alleged that on
| February 90, 1865, in Montreal, he was in
conspiracy with Booth, Surratt and others.
| This was not true, for on the preceding
night Captain Edmunds, then attached to
the flagship Don, of the Potomac fiotilla,
spent the evening at the HCrold home, re.
naming there until 10 o'clock. Herold was
then at home, making 1t a then physical
impossibility for him to be in Montreal at
the time alleged. Captain Edmunds ex-
perienced the anomaly of being a naval
officer of the United States and in uniform
appearing before the military commission
as a witness on behalf of one of the de-
PENDANTS. Herold was convicted as an ac-
cessory after the act and executed The
part he played in the dreadful tragedy was
In plotting Booth out of Washington
through Maryland to Port Tobacco and
across the Potomac River. then across the
peninsula to Port Conway and over the
Rappahannock to Port Royal, where both
were captured. Herold was an expert
gunner and fisherman, thoroughly ac.
y.