The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1920-11-19
ship BOARD BLAMED
FOR ENORMOUS Loss
Property Worth Millions
Left Unprotected To
Deteriorate.

and shipbuilding equipment, valued
at millions of dollars, was left out
in the open to deteriorate in value
months after plants were closed down
with the ending of the war, Paul H.
! MacNeil, a former resident engineer
of the shipping board in the South
Atlantic district, testified today be-
fore the Walsh committee, investigat-
ing shipping board affairs. MacNeil
said he was Stationed at Savannah and
had five yards under his supervision,
his immediate chief being R. H. Dill
bingham, at Jacksonville, the district
plant engineer. Just what his own
authority was, he did not know, he
testified, but he said he assumed a
great deal in the endeavor to straight
en- out tangles."
He said the yards were well organ
lied "better, perhaps, than was the
emergency fleet forces, for they gen
rally could get the better of the gov
eminent organization" He brought
into his testimony the name of the
Terry Ship Yards and the National
Shipbuilding Company, and a marine
railway organization, over which he
had supervision He said that the
Terry people had a trust loan from
the fleet corporation to be used in
ship construction, and that over his
protest money in this fund was used
10 finance a subsidiary organization
engaged in dry-dock work, when their
contracts were only about one-third
complete. Thru his efforts $4,000
of this fund was held up, but he add
ed that he had ascertained that part
of the money was again diverted.
Finds Vouchers Missing.
Speaking for the National Ship
Building Company, the witness said
that work had shut down previous to
his arrival on the scene.
81 found nothing had been done to
take care of the properties and valu-
able machinery was left uncovered to
the weather." he said. On his own
responsibility he took steps to save
as much of it as was possible. He in
voiced the properties as to quantity
and percentage depreciation, but not
as to value. His "guess" at its value
was between 81 100000 and $4,000
900. He also asserted that in the
auditing of the affairs of the plant
101 numbered vouchers could not be
accounted for.
Another point he made was that
equipment, ordered previous to the
closing of the plant, was still coming
to the yard. He tried TO have it
stopped and suggested it was new and
could be returned to the vendors by
payment of the freight only.
"They told me to keep my hands
off and let the machinery come Mac
Neil declared
The Terry Yard, he testified, had
complete equipment and contracts
for several tankers and composite
Shipments, none of which was COM
pleted. He valued the equipment of
this yard at about $1,500,000 and
added that while there was suffi-
cient lumber on hand to build sheds
to protect the exposed machinery, it
was not done. The Marine railway,
he testified, was built on land owned
by a private individual, who had an
agreement for rental of his property,
with no specific amount named. The
railway was built with emergency
fleet funds amounting to about $780,
900 with an additional $4,000 worth
of filling supplied by the government
for another operating. This prop
erty, he said, was in controversy, and
1t was his opinion that under the
laws of Georgia, 1t was owned by
the man who had title to the land.
The rental asked, he understood,
amounted to about ten times the ap-
praised value of the plant.
The witness said he had no criti-
cism of the manner in which the
yards under his jurisdiction were
handled while they were active. but
he did eriticise the manner In which
the financing was taken care Of
The stewart service of the board
was gone into by Sidney l. Alderman,
recently on the steamship South
Pole. He told of alleged unsatisfsc-
tory methods of marking purchases
of supplies for shipping board vessels
in foreign ports. particularly at New
Castle, England. He said that the