The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-12

| Besides this work, the cross-channel l barge service from Peterborough, main tained by almost 300 steel barges eapa- | ble of carrying 200 deadweight tons each, and five steel barges capable of l 1000 tons each, has transported 1,257,- l 545 deadweight tons of material, in-
 cluding 7S4,741 tons of ordnance muni- i tions and stores, 70,S77 tons of army | service corps stores, 4,st9 tons of fly i ing corps materials, airplanes, etc, l and 17,S1S guns, limbers and carriages | Most of these barges were built in
 the new shipyards at Marlborough. The 1 barge fleet used to cause great con-
 cern to the war office in the early days
 of the war. The tremendously increas- i ing demands of the British army in | France had made the existing supply | of barges totally inadequate and as every shipyard was engaged on ad- 1 miralty work the war office had to
 make the best of bad situation. When 1 Marlborough was built, however 26 | barge building shops, with railway sidings, air compressor installations | and workshops were erected. This yard is one of the first in the construction | of fabricated ships. With the pres
 sure on shipyards, it was found much l quicker to give orders for steel plates, | angle irons, etc, to various bridge | builders and cranemakers, and to erect 1 | labor supervised by skilled officers. | Up to September 30 five barges had :, been built on these slips and 132 had 1 been re-erected and launched. It was | here that the experiment of construct l ing a steel barge by electric welding l was successfully done last summer In 1 addition to the barge work done here some 30 seaplane lighters have been l built for the admiralty
 | There is also a large mechanical enpi- | neerlng department here which makes
 R1chborough base repair depot for light | railway tractors and mechanical plant l returned from France, where such work 1 could not conveniently be undertaken. In | addition, propelers have been cast here
 or admiralty orders The plant is oper-
 ated by an army power house. Using l the sand dredged from the bay, pill-box 1 gun emplacements have been cast here l and shipped to France. Aerodromes.
 bomb depots and coastal defense works
 have all been built here Work has been
 done here for Cherbourg, Taranto, Corfu. Valona, Mesopotamia, East Africa, Sa-
 lonica, Murmansk and the Caspian
 SALVAGE OF WAR
 Among the other side shows" here is
 a great salvage dump, operated for the ministry of munitions by the inland waterways and docks department of the
 war office, which operates Richborough. l Here women workers and discharged sol d1ers are used Here spread over many acres are millions of shell cases, fuse caps shell containers, and all sorts of battlefield garbage which can be repaired or reutilized as required There are even stacks of charred rope, which can be torn to pieces and used for ships lenders Taking only four classes of material alone, it is estimated that over s15, ,OOO. 900 worth of salvaged material has been xtrit at l, 1917, to October l. 1918. So satisfactory has the work at the Peterborough dump proven that it has become a model for other salvage dumps. It is possible that electric furnaces will be installed to melt down brass shell cases into ingots, in or der to reduce the space required for rail- way transit
 | There has been a personal product also of which Marlborough is justly proud Mosts of the men in the labor battalions which have worked" the port, were be- | fore the war unskilled laborers They will leave the army when demobilization takes place as skilled men, thanks to the training their jobs at Marlborough have i given them. Many of them are expected
 to stay at Peterborough to become part
 of the ports civilian population in peace time.
 At present Peterborough is exclusively
 military port. Even the train ferry and
 barge crews are khaki clad. Every scrap
 of work in building and operating the port has been done by military labor At time when there was the utmost difi-
 culty in obtaining skilled labor, unskined and semi-skilled men were recruited for Rlchoorough andstrained in schools of in- struction by experienced officers and N- c. O.s. Men who were mobilized as unskilled will be demobilized at Rich
 borough as skilled motor launch drivers, | Jritr veyors' assistants, to cite only few Of the training classes which have been operated. Evening classes and university lecture courses are also available at Rich borough for soldiers One officer is de- tailed to look after the social welfare of the men. Boxing has been great fea- ture Intercamp football matches are ire quent and well known teams from other parts of the south of England have played with the Marlborough team Good movie halls, lecture hall, and Young Mems Christian association are well pat ronized. Care is taken with the feeding | of the men. One of the best known ca | terers in England has been charged with it. He was enlisted and given a commis- sion for the sole purpose of feeding Rich : borough As result, Peterborough claims to be the best-fed section of the British army.
 The fact must not be lost sight of. how
 ever, that the entire purpose of Richbor- ough was to hustle army materials across the channel It's cross channel barge serv- 1 ice and lately it's cross channel train ferry service-these constitute the reasons 5 fer Richboroughs existence | This morning l saw the ferry come in | from Calais. She came toward the wharf l at a slow speed and in the narrow space | available turned easily with her twin | screws and approached the stage stern | first. Her deck lay far out of sight down
 in her hull. Despite her novel build, she 4 was easily maneuvered to the wharf and a lifting bridge was lowered to her stern ! by electrical machinery Railway lines on the landing stage made an exact con- d nection with those on her deck, so there 4 was formed a continuous track. There
 was no delay for adjustments. The q bridge is fitted at the outer end witt q an iron loop; and when it is lowered, this - incloses a stout pin at the stern of the
 boat. which is thus fixed in exactly tht Fl right position. The advantage of an ad unstable bridge of this kind means O. III course, that the ferry can be loaded a II any stage of the tide On a siding clost II by were two trains laden with troop sup II plies and consisting of wagons which hat N come from all parts of the country. Tn II engines backed the trains across tn l bridge on to the deck rails. On deck, tn Il wagons were secured by means of chain II attached to ring bolts. The moment tn ' ts<x., .,.-<1 rr1ac rrrar