The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-09-22
SEPTEMBER %
r, HAROLD f. NARROW. G. h f

RN HAROLD f. YARROW. G. r. f.
Member of the famous British ship
building house of Yarrow e. Com
pany, who has just returned from
the United States.)
London. Sept 20.--Tf1e average
Briton is, I fear, rather indifrerently
informed on the subject of American
shipbuilding. Americans can't build
ships" he says; they have not the
. necessary experience"
The truth Is that the Americans
are building ships not less efficiently
than we are. and that their costs OF
construction are slowly but surely
approaching our own. I draw these
conclusions not from things which I
have heard but from things which I
have seem
visited the United States. and
through the courtesy of the pres
idents. vice-presidents and managers
was able to see a great deal of the
shipbuilding industry there. / land
ed at Portland, Me, and worked down
the Atlantic coast as far as Newport
News Inland centers, such as Chi
cago, Milwaukee and Detroit, were
su bsequently visited. and then / went
up the Pacific coast from Los Angeles
to Seattle. Victoria and Vancouver
British DeInde Themselves,
] had every opportunity to judge
for myself as to the capacity of the
North American continents ship
illusions is that the British worker is
dangerously deluding himself in
imaging that United States compe-
tition Is more or less negligible.
If this country does not look out
1t will wake up one morning and and
we. are no longer the leading mari
time nation, and It will then be too
late TO regain our position.
found practically everywhere well
equipped shipyards which had obvi
ously profited by the American in
dustrys experience during the war.
Lay-outs arc generally excellent
| from the point of view of efficiency,
the cost of handling materials has
been greatly reduced by the tnsta LA
ton of good lifting appliances. with
no resistance to the employment OF
pneumatic riveting. Powerful up-to-
! date air compressing plants are tho
rule. electric welding is not regarded
unsym pathetically by trade unionists,
and the supply of men is adequate,
Il. S. steel Works Excel.
American shipbuilders and steel
, makers have made a lot OF money
during the war. Apd part OF the pro-
fits earned have been used to bring
, other plants into n state of high
efficiency. Their steel works are /
imagine, better on the average than
ours; Judging from the prices now
quoted here for their products. their
costs of production appear TO be less
There is not the least doubt IN my
mind that on these facts alone the
American shiphuiiding industry Is a
very formidable rival.
At Boston | viewed a yard which Is
exactly the same size as Yarrow's on
the Clyde and has been laid out since
America came into the war. The
whole of IT is covered by glass roof.
and its equipment includes roughly
sixty or seventy overhead electric
cranes. Only destroyers are built in
ly and economically.
Building $50 Vessels
Another shipyard which impressed
/ me was that of the Submarine Boat
corporation. at Newark, \ J. II has
twenty eight siipwavs and It's work
in progress and in hand when ! was
there consisted of so 320-foot vessels,
Its speciality was fabricated vessels.
and no fewer than sixty Tvs works
| are engaged in the fabrication OF
| parts which ii assemblies 1t employs
| 900 men, but including the per-
sonnet of the fabricsting works the
total number Of employees il 100 900.
When | was there about 10000