The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-06-13
GREAT LAKES
LEADS Them ALL
Nine and Three TenthS Miles of
Ships Produced in District
in Year.
HIGH SPEED FROM START
One Hundred and Twenty-Five More
Cargo Ships Delivered Than From
All Other American Ways in
the Same Time.

y miles OF cleau-cut cargo Ships Tha
@ is the latest official report on the con
y tribution of the Great Lakes distric
n yards to the American merchant ma
t rine. Held by canal restrictions to
r lighter type of vessel than that made
4 on the coasts, the district did not pro
duce so many net tons as certain other
l sections. But it built more ships thar
any other district in the United
: States.
On September 1, 1917, the Great
Lakes started to build for the govern
'ment. The first ship turned over to
the United States shipping board
came from a Great Lakes yard. She
was the Limoges, a 2,930-ton cargo
carrier, under construction for French
operators by the Toledo Shipbuilding
company. On August "a, 1917 the
Ninth district was created. 1t turned
the Limoges over to the shipping
board on August 80.
They had not permitted the grass
to grow under their feet for some de-
cades in that region of busy commerce.
Now they saw to it that the ice did
not grow under their ships. To beat
not only the Hun but also the winter
season was the first big task which
the Ninth district faced. BY almost
superhuman effort the yards finished
81 vessels and got them to sea before
the canals froze in 1917.
Production Rose Steadily.
another fleet of 20 ships slipped newly
built from the yards and went through
the canals to the sea. From that date
the Great Lakes production rose
steadily until month after month the
district turned out half the steel ships
built in the United States, and some
times more than half. Efficiency and
energy combined in veritable cru
SADIE of endeavor, and in November,
1918, the district touched the high
point of its capacity. In that one
month it built a fleet of % ships
nearly ship day.
This astounding output brought the
total for the year up to 1853 cargo YES
sells, one of them wood and the rest
steel In - months the Ninth dis
trict had produced just 125 more
ships than all the American yards de-
livered in the year before America
went to war.
Any narrative of the Great Lakes
work is Il progress from one shining
triumph of this sort to another. The
smallest yard of all, fitted with only
three berths. actually delivered 10 !
ships in 1918 and finished fourteenth |
only little too late to get it out be-
vember and the end of March it |
launched six ships more. Four of |
these are now completed and fifth
is almost ready for service. They are
all of the 4200-ton type.
Another yard built a 3,500-ton ship
in "a days Another launched 2,4OO-
ton ship in % days And fourth
yard broke the worlds record when it
launched a 3,500-ton ship In II days
after the laying of the keel and de-
livered it completed to the shipping
board in IA days after the lauD chins
"Team Work" the Secret.
The ingenuity and cooperation
which made such accomplishment pos
sible were also what made the yards
expand rapidly enough to meet war.
time emergency and peace time heces
sity. There are 112 berths in the dis
'or tugs The American Shipbuildng
company has a yard of ten ways at
Detroit, Mich; of five at Supt riOr.
Wis; of three at Buffalo, N. Y; of
Xix at Chicago. H.; of three at Cleve
and, o.; of eight at Lorain, o.; the
treat Lakes Engineering works has
ard of four ways at Ashtabula O.,
md another of eight ways at Ecorse,
iich.: the McDougall-Duluth com
ANY has yard of nine ways at Du-
nth, MINI. the Manitowoc Shipbuld-
ng company has yard of six ways
t Saginaw, Mich. the Toledo Ship
uilding company has a yard Of six
1ays at Toledo, O., and the Globe
company has yard Of
We ways at Superior, Wis.
At all these yards the records for
veting ,fabrcating, tonnage per min,
land out like mountain peaks. For
the average total number of
vet gangs in the district is about 10
er cent of the entire country, yet
district Manager Benton points out
,yously that the average output of
lese gangs enabled the lakes to de
var 20 nqr cent of the cOuntry'S |
tai ship tonnage.
''Team work" is the secret, accord
e to the district executive, the
lilders, and the men. The district
Is been untroubled by strikes or
her labor disturbances, or by dis
ties with builders.
Starved to Death.
st. Louis.-"Died of lack of