The Nenana daily news. (Nenana, Alaska) 1918-1921, 1919-05-19
LAKE BUILDERS
HAVE HONOR Of
RECORD OUTPUT

WASHINGTON, D. C.-First hon
ors in the building of ships during
the war has been awarded by the
Shipping Board to the Ninth or
Great Lakes district. Held by canal
restrictions to a lighter type of yes
sci than was built on the seaboard.
the district did not produce so many
net tons as other sections, but out
stripped all other districts in the
number of ships In one year It
put into service 125 more vessels
than were delivered from all Ameri-
can yards in the year before the
United States entered the war.
At the outbreak of the war, Great
Lakes yards, which had developed
a highly efficient type of cargo car
rier, were at work on 100 bottoms
for foreign account. All were re-
Questioned by the Shipping Board,
and the first ship turned over to
the board under its war program
was the Limoges, a 2,930-ton freight
er, built at Toledo Twenty-seven
ships were finished and put to sea
before the canals froze in 1917.
While winter grirped the lakes
new work was continued and the
existing fleet, even old boats which
had been laid up, were overhauled
Summer saw every available craft
worked and overworked as never be-
fore. keeping the stream Of grain,
iron ore, coal and manufacture
moving toward the east, for ship
ment to the men in Europe. At the
opening of navigation, 20 ships
slipped from the ways, and worl.
was carried forward at increased
speed. In November a total Of %
ships-nearly one a day-was put
into service by Great Lakes yards.
The total for 1918 was 1853 new
freight carriers, all of them steel
except one. The smallest yard on
the Lakes, having only three ways,
delivered 13 ships, and finished d
fourteenth only a little late for de-
livery before the ice closed naviga-
ton. Between the end of Novem-
Der and the end of March, six more
were launched. All were 4,200-ton
boats.
One yard built 3,5OO-ton ship
in S4 days. Another launched a
3.400-ton hull in % days, a record
which was clipped to "a days b.
another plant soon after. That rec
ord stood but a little while, for
still another yard launched $500
ton ship in II days after the laying
of the keel, and delivered il COM
plete IA days later.
Expansion of the yards TO meet
the wars demands gave the Lakes
total of lip berths, 70 for cargo
ships and SO for tugs. While the
average total number of rivet gangs
in the Great Lakes district is only
ten per cent of the nations total,
they point proudly to the record OF
delivering 80 per cent of the coun-
try's total ship tonnage.
Additional contracts for 346 ships
of 4,200 tons each have been placed
in the district since the last requi-
sitioned ship was finished in Oc-
tober, the program to be completed
by the close of navigation this year.
Since the signing of the armistice,
100000 tons of shipping have been
delivered Orders also have been
placed in the district for 25 steel
seagoing tugs, Is wood seagoing
tugs, two steel harbor tugs, and SO
wood harbor tugs.
Completion of the building pro-
gram, according to officials, will give
the Lakes district a record of 447
cargo ships and 70 tugs delivered
to the government, the largest num-
Der of ships and the largest ton
mage built in any district.