Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-27
HOG ISLAND YARD
Is ABOUT FINISHED
One of Greatest Technical
and Engineering Feats
in History
MORASS 9 MONTHS AGO
Ship Plant Larger Than Any
Five Others in Amer.
lea Combined
MORASS 9 MONTHS AGO

The Hog Island shipyard is virtually
completed. The finishing touches will
be given in a <ew days and one of the
Breatest technical and engineering feats
of all time will have been accomplished.
Where nine months ago was a morass.
partly under water and covered with
weeds and brush is now a modern ship
building plant. larger than any five
others in America combined, plant
with fifty ways upon which fifty ships
can and will be built, simultaneously
Announcement that the tremendous
Hog Island project was virtually ac-
complished was made today by George
j. Baldwin. vice president of the Ameri-
can International Corporation. parent of
the American International Shipbuilding
Corporation, which has built the huge
plant and will build the ships.
The announcement was made coinci-
dent with the laying of the thirty-frst
keel at the plant-the keel of the 1900
ton cargo ship Skeeton.
Nine months ago Hog Islands 900
soft, muddy, sandy and brushy acres
had not even dependable road through
them. Now they are solid ground where
thirty thousand men have worked for
mine months to make a shipyard and
show that the United States has an
deficiency of its own when it gets started
and can do even the seemingly impos-
lsible when called upon.
Twenty Miles Of Roads
!, The island is two miles long and one
wide. 1t has more than twenty miles
,of good, serviceable roads. 1t has sew
,enty-f1ve miles of first-class railroad
'trackage and a railroad system of its
own, which includes 500 freight cars.
fifty passenger coaches and twenty five
.locomotives-all on an island one mile
by two.
The Emergency Fleet Corporation of
the United States shipping board under
took the production of more than 6,00O,-
200 tons deadweight of merchant ship
,ping to meet war needs in the autumn
iof 1917. Two and a quarter million
tons wee to be produced in the great
Delaware River shipbuilding section and
$4,000 tons were allotted to Hog Island
and the American International Ship
building Corporation. which at that time
was existent only on paper,
: The Hog Island contract called for
j, completion of 120 ships within twenty
{, two months after signing of the con-
tract last autumn-fifty to be of 1900
/, tons each and 400 feet long and sew
) enty to be of 5000 tons and $50 feet long.
The last of these ships will be launched
/ in July, next year.
} Water and Sewer Systems
: The plant has twenty acres Of build
ings-shops. warehouses and admins
/, tfation offices. The water supply sys-
: tenn, now complete. is equal to that of
! the city Of Minneapolis a city of 400. 900
! souls. The sewerage system is equal to
I the best in the best communities of
100000.
Electric power is furnished by the
+, Philadelphia Electric Company. which
/, in order to supply the plant. has denied
!. power to others. 1t has just borrowed
$l0,000.000 from the United States
Shipping Board to put up two special
plants to supply the Hog Island yard. 1t
, must provide current for the 900 motors.
. whose combined horsepower is $4,000.
, This is current that ordinarily supplies a
, city of quarter of a million popula-
! ton.
The compressed air plant-15 900
, horsepower--is exceeded only by that of
. the Rand Mines in South Africa. The
. capacity of the Hog Island air plant is
$4,000 feet of air minute.
The west basin. where the ships will
, be completed and outfitted twenty EIGHT
at time, has an eighteen-foot depth
which means dredging equal to that done
: on the Panama Canal. The berthing of
these ships calls for a dock 1900 feet
long and seven supplement<k piers
which are provided