The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-04-07

est labor centers of our live war actiyi-
ties -Four months ago 1T was impoSst-
Bile to get to it in motor car without
being stuck in the mud. Today there is
a good auto road, an electric trolley and
stean, railways that connect it with
trv There are ferry boats which can
% there every few hours and motor
buses by which you can reach it within
half an hour. That part of the island
which skirts the Delaware river, not far
from, where the Schuylkill flows in, has
been almost lifted out of the swamp. 1t
is cut up by wide roads of thick planks.
hundreds of two-story buildings have
gone up, and from 1900 to $500 men
are employed there building ships. The
shipyards cover hundreds of acres. The
tract which the government has leased
is equal to nine 100-acre farms, and tnis
has been surrounded by tight fence
of pine boards about eight feet in height.
The boards run UP and down and 4
framework of barbed wires slopes IN
front of the top. Barbed wires are also
nailed along the outside of the fence
making it impossible to climb
My first visit to Hog Island was In
the heart of the winter. The country
had Just had a great blizzard. Ihefe
was q inches of snow on the ground, ana
in front of the shipyards the ice reacheo
far out into the Delaware Near the
island it was four or five feet In tnlck-
ness. Nevertheless the work was going
on everywhere. There were more than
1000 men on the job. Motor trucks OF
five tone and upward were hauling great
loads of lumber, huge iron pipes and ma
chinery of one kind or another. Men
clad in rubber boots which reached 10
their waists were digging the trenches;
some were cutting holes in the ice on
the edge OF the Delaware and driving
piles through into the bed of the stream
In the snow on the edge of the river they
wede saving the piles to the right
lengths with cross-cur saws, and little
further over were laying the keel blocks
of the WAYS Hundreds of carpenters
were working, a large gang on each
building, and the two-story structures
were rising like magic. The same con-
ditions prevail today, although the work
IS much farther advanced. Everything
is being pushed to the utmost; the Off
Gals tell me they are up to date with
their programme and that they will COM
plete their big order on time
Before | describe our visit to the ship
yards / want to give you some idea OF
the job that Uncle Sam has here under
way. 1t was something of chore to
build Noah's ark, but more than half OIL
| the vessels to be constructed at HOG
| Island are of just the same length and
almost the same depth, although not SO
| wide Taking the cubit of the Bib1e as
! foot and a half, the usual estimate. il
was just just $50 feet long, Is feet wide
and As feet Deep The order of ships
for the Hog Island yards includes 40 stee
steamers, each of which is to be $50 feet
/ long, IS feet wide and about 40 feet deep
In addition to this, so more steamers
are to be made, each of which is q
1 shorter. The big ships have just about
half the tonnage that has usually beer
estimated for the leviathan of the flood
| its greater capacity coming from its in
creased width and depth. Noah's arl
was a three decker with many rooms il
it 1t was made of gopher wood ane
! pitched without and within. Gopher
| wood has often been compared to our cy
| press which is to be largely used IL
emergency ships of the emergency flee
programme.
! The Hog Island vessels are to be o
steel throughout. and the parts of Which
they are made are more in number thai
the animals Noah was able to crowd int
the ark Each vessel will have abou
10000 parts and these are to be made il
1000 different factories throughout thu
United States and sent here to be as
sembled. each part being fitted into JUS
the right place in the ship.
4 Much OF the work of fabricating .
making the parts will be done by tn
large bridge making companies AM
structural steel plants. They will max