The sun., 1918-08-04
BRITAIN'S BIG
SHIP REPAIRING
PLANT ACTIVE
Dreadnoughts, Submarines
and All Other Kinds Of
Craft in Docks.
10000 WORKERS ARE BUSY
Sixty American Destroyers
Have Been Restored to Sea
Shape at the Yards.
so,cia, Correspondence to The Sun.

LONDON, July 2o.-Certainly the largest
ehip repairing centre In Great Britain.
po~ibly in the world. Cammell Laird's
wards are one Of the wonders Of tke war
Nv that Il must not be understood that
they are the outcome Of the war, for
their history and development date back
almost a hundred years You may order
a forty knot destroyer tters as you or
might pair OF boots
A ship with half her stern blown out.
or her sides cracked and lined like q
crumpled egg shell, or her bows stove
into matchwood, Is q casual repair. One
morning q 10000 ton cruiser will come
lurcf ing up tho river. holed and SCARED
from the battle. and DO locked high and
dry in the 1000 foot siipway for over
haulage: the next It will Be q $4,000 ton
liner, with her bottom gashed BY an ex-
plodlng mine.
No repair is too great. none too small
for Il csc great shipyards.
EARLY in tho war British dread
nought-one OF tho finest units OF the
line-steamed in at twenty-four hours
notice She had been In collision. Down
the wide expanse Of Ter gray hull ran
Jagged cracks to the breadth of a mans
fist Back there in the North Sea was
a bad gap In the line of the Grand Fleet.
II was essential that 81 should be re-
turned TO duty as soon as was humanity
possible.
Working night and day the repairs
we're effected within fourteen days.
Then she steamed away with what was
almost brand new tull. Rightly
enough the yards point to this as their
greatest achievement of the war.
Foster Mother of the seven Seas.
They claim also. what Is almost an
International prerogat!ve, the foster
mott er ship OF the Seven Seas Wher-
over the British white ensign floats,
away out into the Atlantic. patrolling
the Right OF Helgoland: securing for
submarines. down south In the Mediter-
ranean. cruising along the at ores of the
Pacific and Indian oceans. will be found
a ship-destroyer. cruiser. dreadnought
or submarine-with the name Cammell
Laird stamped on her plates. 1t IS
synonymous with sea power and COM
nlerce.
But first let US dip into some OF the
details that go to make w this great
enterprise There Is an old Spanish prov
erb that claims some cannot run a sill
yer mine unless one has a gold mine at
the back Of It." No less can n nation
send a mayor, for that matter. san
army-to fight, unless she has the men.
hundreds and thousands OF them, to de-
liver the fighting goods; 20 build the
ships; to repair them when need be; TO
turn out the guns. the ammunition. the
IA mil
boilers and the thousand and one other
oddments for the chip OF and at war.
Here are 10000 men working in in
Vulnerable shops equipped by the most
mp TO date methods, and with the most
up 10 date machinery: over los acres
In extent. There is frontage TO the
adjoining river of 800 feet. The long
est slip for building vessels Ia more
than 1000 feet in length. There are
seven craving docks; one OF $50 feet;
all pneumatically and automatically
ter and space for launching war or
merchant vessels of the greatest size
likely to be required.
Capacity of Yard~ Tremendous.
one hundred thousand gross tonnage
OF shipping can be produced at one time.
also 100000 indicated horse power.
There are thoroughly equipped, we'll
lighted and up to date machine sheds,
built of steel and covering an area of
more than three acres. Close TO the
slpways is a large shallow basin. es-
peciaily designed for building the largest
floating docks. In this basin a floating
dock more than 700 feet in length and
40 feet in breadth, capable of lifting
about 10000 tons. was recently built for
The British Admiralty. And also close
at hand are the mold. loft, joiners' shop,
boiler shop and engine shops
Il was this firm that, In 1853, built
he steel paddle steamer Ma Robert. In
which David Livingstone crused the
Iambesi. The firm has built. also.
wooden ships. sailing barks. frigates and
cruisers. And here. in this yard. was
laid down the first iron ship Of the
world
Thus no greater contrast can be i'm
agned than to see the long. rusty.
whale-like submarines lying along the
slips. There appeared to be no end
70 them; old type, new type; building,
repairing: one Just come In from the
ssa. with the salt water still cleaning
along her sides: another spick and
Epan. fresh from the repairers hands.
waiting as the muddy water slowly
trickled into the dock. to go slithering
out into the river for the open sea.
You can locate the submarine slips
from the unusual noise, and the hol-
low, ringing echo OF the innumerable
hammers. They seem to play a chorus
up and down the yard from the for
fss!no OF the rlveters working on the
keel to the pianissimo OF the workmen
crowding the turret.
Busy ms n Dee Hive.
The whole place huns with life like
n hive OF bees. with men swarming
over the hull: clammering and hammer
ing at the keel plates with a thousand
foid variety of intonations floating UP
from the hollow depths below deck. And
a submarine ION the beach" Is surely the
!amest, most pitiable object in the
world. She lies propped. and strapped
ana roped In the waterIess dock, like
a helpless baby In a cart.
The yard offlciais pay the highest
compliment to the construction OF the
american vessels. In all they have
erected some sixty repairs on Uncle
SANS destroyers. However. this num-
be' mast not bs taken TO represent the
aggregate of these craft In European
waters, Many have come in for re-
pairs on at least two or three occasions
And' incidentally. they include ships of
'As very latest type.