The New York herald., 1921-12-24
John Roach's Downfall.
Effect Of the Dolphin's Rejection on
the Shipbuilder's Fortunes.

To THE NEW YORK HERALD: 1t was
but a one line announcement, very mod
est, shrinking almost, unnoticed per-
haps by the vast majority OF readers
yet it was enough to revive an ancient
falsehood of vitality that Is truly
amazing; / mean the story of the
u. S. S. Dolphin. The announcement CT
her disappearance from the Navy Regis
ter was the melting cause of the new life
of the old tale, namely, that the Navy
Department under Grover Cleveland and
William C. Whitney had deliberately
sought to ruin John Roach on this con-
tract. Now. once more. let me state
the facts.
The first ships Of our new navy were
the Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Dolphin
and Yorktown. Bids on the Atlanta,
which take as sample, were put
ir by a number Of builders, among them
Harlan & Hollingsworth of Wilmington
Del, and the Cramps of Philadelphia.
They were almost exactly the same
81, 100, 900, not counting few odds and
ends Of hundreds; John Roach bid $685.
600 and of course got the contracts.
Now 1t happened that / was in q
shipyard at the time and in close touch
with one Of the best known and most
reliable OF the directing heads cf these
Industries, IL not the best advertised
the late William G. Gibbons, president
of the Pusey & Jones Company of Viii
mington. "Uncle john" as he always
called Roach, "is in for a big loss.''
said he, and so 1t proved. Had we bid,'
he added, "our bid would have been even
higher than that of the Cramps or of
Harlan & Hollingsworth."
The ships were built, four of theta.
as recall, by Roach, and all the money
for them was paid except only 10 per
cent, the last payment on the Dolphin,
which, according to the contract, was
due when the ship had been tried out
and accepted. / do not remember the
exact sum in dollars, but 1t must have
been less than one-fortieth Of the en-
tire sum earned by Roach in the aggre-
gate. Four ships were built by him and
he had received all but one-tenth OF
the cost of the least costly OF them
namely, the Dolphin.
She was duly launched, fitted and had
her trial run. It was declared that ar
inexperienced engineer was In chargs
and that in carrying out the order to
reverse he threw her over--that IS, re-
versed from ahead to astern--too quickly
and without shutting Off the steam, with
the result that she twisted off her shaft.
II must be admitted too that the art
of welding large masses of iron had
not made the progress since achieved
especially with the hydraulic force
welding or drawing out the immense
masses now In use. 1t was still the
day OF iron shafting and Of steam ham,
mers and of shafts full OF pipes oil
holes, flaws which did not appear or
the surface but lurked ready to break
when force was suddenly applied, as In
the case at hand.
John Roach was a ruined man lone
before this accident; but II was the last
straw and II broke him. The Govern
ment simply stood to It's contract, ask
ing ship that was ready for the bat
tie line and not one that was as usn.
less as so much scrap iron practically
and John Roach could not give II; hence
the result SO often told and falsifed.
Suppose, for arguments sake, that the
Government had accepted broken shir
for the navy: would the critics hav,
been any better satisfied would moi
the torrent of foolish abuse and igno-
rant malice have been worse by FAR