The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-04-09


Some remarkable figures are now
available of war work in the British
shipbuilding yards. No records are
broken in regard to shipbuilding as
a whole. In that respect the COM
prehensive statistics given only con-
firm knowledge of the slow progress
which is being made in replacing the
losses of the war period.
The total output of the United
Kingdom during 191S-naval as well
as mercantile-is given as 1,245 YES
sells of 1,S76, All tons and 4,349,26O i.
h. D. The tonnage is disappointingly
low after all that had been heard of
speeding up processes, the Inaugural
ton and organization of government
programs of construction, arrange
ments for supplying materials for the
yards and for obtaining skilled arti-
sans from the fighting services, and
all of the advantages int way of
expediting output which were to fol-
low the introduction of standardized
and fabricated and assembled ships.
The fact is, of course, that no Of
fetal programs can be carried out
without man-pOwer, and the man.
power of the shipyards of the United
Kingdom is not capable of maintaining
and increasing the effective strength of
the British nayy-as it had to be main
tanned so long as Germany was Il
naval power which had to be reckOncd
with-and at the same time of in
creasing mercantile output at the ex-
ceptional rate which would have been
necessary to cope with the German
submarine menace in its work in it's
most virulent form. =
Far Behind 1875 Record.
The figures now published show that
| the work of the United Kingdom
shipyards in 1913 was far behind that
of 1913, which was the record year
and also the last complete pre-war
year. In those twelve months the
total consisted of 1,474 vessels, OF
2,263, 1888 tons and 2,661 ,26O 1. h. p,
so that while there was the extraerdi-
| nary increase over the previous United
| Kingdoms best of some 1,600, 900 horse
power, there were decreases of 229
| In number of vessels and of 367, 522
| tons i'm measurement of vessels
| launched.
The increase in horse power is ex-
| planned, of course, by the relatively
higher power of the machinery in.
stalled in war vessels, especially in
destrOyers, as compared with merchant
| vessels, and by the fact that a very
large number of destrOyers were built
| but the explanation of the lower ton
| mage is. to be found in another direc-
| ton altOgether-in the fact that ii
| has not been found possible to divert
| from naval work, and especially from
naval overhauling and repairing, and
from the reconstruction of those yes.
| sells which were salved after being tor
| pedoed or mined, sufficient number
of men and a sufficient amount of ma.
terials to enable work on new mer-
| chant vessels to make satisfactory
| progress.
| For it is merchant veSSels-really
tramp steamers-which make up in
normal times the great bulk of the
new British tonnage each year, and
| although there were built i'm 1913 many
war" steamers of standard types to
the order of the shipping controller
comparison with that of merchant YES
sells in good years before the war.
| Few Liners Launched.
/ Practically no large first class liners
were launched. This work was al
most wholly confined to the Belfast
| and Clyde yards of Messrs. Harland
and Wolff, where five such vessels
| were turned out. But of these the
largest were only of IL, POI tons, which
is not large when il is. compared with
the big Cunard, White Star, Hamburg
| American, and other vessels which fig
ured in shipbuilding records i'm pre-
| war years. The contribution of liner
tonnage to the 1918 total was, indeed
almost, negligible, while, of cOasting
vessels and other special service mer
| chant steamers there were remarkably
i few.
The hopes of large output rested
solely on the standard shipbuilding
program, and the war did not last
long enough to give it the chance for
which Lord Pirrie was preparing-the
chance of proving that British ship
building could and would rise to the
! height of the great occasion. Whether
| 1t would ultimately have done so is
now only a matter of academic dis
| cusSion. Certainly, so far as avail
able figures show, IL did not seem
when the armistice was signed, that
| 1t was likely to do so in the then near
future.
The wonder work of the war period
IS TO be found not m mercantile ship
/ building. but in naval; and above all
I things in naval engineering. Taking
the record of the Clyde alone, we find
that during the war 4SI vessels OF
] ,Y70 247 TONS and 0Qo goo n N u-.-o