Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-07-24
Circulation Every 1000
Evening Yesterday i OOOL
The Passing of Hog Island.

The launching of seven steamships at
Hog Island within period OF less than
two hours on Wednesday afternoon was
memorable event, unmatched IN the
history of shipbuilding the world over.
The ward and it's achievements perhaps
more accurately typify the energy and
enterprise of the American captains OF
industry than almost any other feature
of our participation of the war. When
General Pershing sent his memorable call
for ships enough to bridge the Atlantic
in order to fill the big gaps made by the
German U-boats, Hog Island was but a
bog. In response TO the alarm she sprang
into activity, and despite the most severe
weather conditions of the intensely cold
winter Of 1917 tho plant was started, and
when finished became the greatest ship
ward the world had ever dreamed OF.
With ffty WAYS she operated every hour
II the night and day, and her output OF
vessels would have reached 60 or 20
yearhad not tho call 90 slackcn operations
come after the armisticc
The first Keel vas laid in FIVE months
after thu work had started 70 salvage the
island fnr industrial uses. and five months
later the first launch occurred. From
hat time until after the end Of the war
vessels were tsrned out almost with the
Speee that the tailor constructs sult,
q
In addition 70 her tremendous capacity
for construction the psychological value
a ,hc plant was inestlmable. Its magni-
tidc and tho speed of operationgaveEng-
land the assurance that her American
aIlN could not be separated from her need
D, the German undcrsea craft. 1t meant
e. England and France that neither our
snpplics of foods and munitions, nor our
streams of trained soldiers could be halted
or checked to Germany II meant, alas,
that is campaign Of terror and frightful-
ness failed and that her trump card had
been PLAYED and She had lost the war.
Perhaps no other industry Of the war
period contributed so much in material
and morale To the Allies success, unless
Il be the powderirom du Pont plants that
went in streams uninterrupted across the
Atlantic with the regularity that gave
our Allies the assurance that the vital
substance Of war would not fail so long
as there was a need for it. And il didn t.
The Hog Island shipyard was the
largest by long odds Of any similar plants
in the world 1t was, in fact, almost in
comprehensive as an industry. II cost a
vast sum of money, but it was worth the
price and an hundred fold more 1t was
planned and built under the stress of
great, immediate need at the time when
Haig was fighting with his back TO the
wall and the French were battling as men
never fought before TO keep The foe from
Paris. 1t enabled the United States to
keep up its stream of men and supplies,
to the battle front across the seas and TO
bring the war to an end months, perhaps,
earlier than would have been possible
without it's. tremendous capacity.
Surely Hog Island has had a career most
glorious, even if it were brief 1t stood
between the Allies and defeat and showed
Berlin that while this country was un-
prepared when we were forced to strike
she had made the crushing mistake of the
bloody war of compelling our nation TO
JOIN issue against.
Even though with the Hog Island plant
dismantled, as it will be at once, the
Delaware river will still stand pre-eminent
as the center of American -shipbuilding
and even surprising the Clyde in the
tonnage launched in its waters.