The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1921-05-17

I-HERALD. TUESDAY, N
of the work required to build huge
camps like Great Lakes near Chicago.
Hampton Roads and others-to take
raw recruits, most of whom had never
seen the ocean, and in a few months
train them as seamen, gunners, signal
men, aviators, and for all the many du-
ties of naval service. And. remember
this was all done not in years, but in
is months.
The navy manned and operated over
1000 vessels, more than five times as
many as were in naval service previous
to the war. The larger number were
troopships, cargo Transports patrol yes
sells and district craft But the number
of naval vessels and auxiliaries in serv-
ice at the armlstice was IA. as compared
with 342 on April 6, 1917. Between jan
uary 1, 1917, and October /. 1919, 645
vessels were built Most of these were,
of course, submarine chasers and mine
sweepers, but the number included
three battloships, 139 destroyers. 81
submarines and 81 Eagle patrol boats.
BIG SHIP YARDS BUILT
! To build these vessels now facilities
| had to be created new ship yards. new
Z plants to build engines and forgings
and all the complicated machinery to
]
war we contracted for every destroyer
/ the yards could build. Then. in october,
/ 1917, we began charging old plants and
! building new ones, to produce $50 more
destroyers. BY that time we had con-
\ tracted for 20 of these swift and capa-
BILE vessels. the greatest enemy of the
submarines. At Squantum, Mass, we
built the largest destroyer plant in the
world. and in six months after ground
fE.a Jaa
4 witnessed the laying of the keels of five
destroyers there in one day. Before the
war, from 20 months to two years were
required to complete a destroyer. We
turned out some of them during the
war in fraction of that time. The
Ward. at Mare Island, was launched Ia
! 171s days after it's keel was laid, and
commissioned in II days. others were
completed in a few months. But we
were just reaching the peak of produc-
ton when hostilities ended
BUILD 400 "SUB" CHASERS
The navy built more than 400 sub
marine chasers, fifty of which were
turned over to the French govern
ment and fifty more built on its order
The navy converted 1897 merchant
vessels, yachts and other craft for
naval purposes. This work was con-
| tinuous all during the war. Navy yards
and plants were enlarged and turned
out an enormous amount of repair and
conversion work, as we'll as building
ships of all types. The number OF
navy yard employees was more than
doubled. running to nearly 10000.
The navy built up an aviation force
of more than $4,000, of whom 10000
served in Europe where we had fifty
seven bases and stations in opera
ton on the coasts of France, England,
Ireland and italy and in the Azores.
An aerial patrol of the United States
Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to the
gulf was maintained. The navy built
and operated its own aircraft factory
at Philadelphia. At the end of HOSTILE
ties our aviation equipment included
1885 flying boats, 424 land planes,
fifteen dirigibles, 205 kite balloons and
Ito free balloons. We had sent to
Europe $40 aircraft before the armis-
tice.
TOOK $1,000 TO EUROPE
The navy transported to Europe in
naval transports 1000 American
troops, and brought back from Europe
seine 100000. OF the 2,079,S80 Amer
lean troops sent to Europe 1,720,360-
S275 per cent-sailed under escort Of
UNITED States naval vessels
The navy built, transported and OPP
armies six naval railway batteries of
fourteen-inch guns. the most power
full artillery used by the allies on the
western front and the largest guns
that up to that time, had ever been
placed on mobilemounts.
The navy supplied $3.50 guns to 1853
vessels of which guns 2,502 were OF
three-inch caliber or larger. In addi-
ton it furnished S26 guns of various
lcalibers to the allies.
The navy organized and operated the
most extensive radio system in exist
ence, maintaining communication with
4 Europe to the east and Asia to the
west and extended north and south
from Panama to Alaska. High pow
cred stations were built at Annapolis,
San Diego, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and
Cavite, p l., and the navy erected in
France the most powerful wireless
station In the world. The naval com
munication service handled in a sin
gle year, by wire and radio. 71,S47,s6
words
GREAT LAKES WORLD BEATER
| The navy carried out shore CON
struction programme involving over
s346, 5000, including the building Of
a score of training camps. with tho
largest naval training station in the
world at Great Lakes, ILL.,, with a
capacity of $4,000 men; fleet operating
base at Hampton Roads Va; a vast
projectile and armor plate plant at
| Charleston, w. Va; the largest mine
loading stations at Yorktown; dry
docks at Norfolk. Philadelphia, Pearl
Harbor and other points, immense
machine shops and storage ware
houses, and the erection in Washing
ton of the largest of concrete office
structures, having a floor space of
| fcrty-one acres.
The appropriations for the navy
amounted to 1892, 354.324. of which
1s334,36o,446 was returned to the treas
1 ury. This vast sum was expended
with such economy, the navy securing
materials, fuel and supplies at so much
lower prices than generally prevailed
that there has been no charge what
ever of graft or wastefulness.
The organization fthe navy depart
ment and the fleet, put into effect in
1915, proved so efficient that 1t ex-
panded easily to meet all war require
ments and no basic change whatever
was found necessary during the entire
war period
These are only few OF the out