Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-05-18

total OF $500 900 dotlaweight tons. And
we would have been called unon to
man hundreds more, had the war con-
tinued another year.
600,000 Men In Navy.
The navy had grown. by the time of
the armistice. to force of over 100000.
including marines. Beginning with
a,a76 officers and 6a,667 men in the
regular navy when war was declared,
and $4,000 reserves and naval militia,
the total increased TO 532,ssI, including
the 5000 of the coast guard
The marine corps grew from l5,f2s
to a total force of $4,000.
Recruiting and training this immense
personnel, the largest by many thou
sands ever possessed by any navy,
was a tremendous task, carried out
with a success that surprised even our
allies. 1t we'll merited the tribute of
Sir Eric Geddes, first lord OF the
British admiralty, who said
"The dauntless determination which
the United States has displayed IN
creating a huge. trained body of seamen
out of landsmen is one -of the most
striking accomplishments of the war.
Had il not been effectively done, one
would have thought IL impossible.
Great w NOFk at &bHps.
But only those who did 1t can know
of the work required to build huge
camps like Great Lakes, near Chlcasoi
Hampton Roads. and others-to take
raw recruits, most of whom had never
seen the ocean, and in few months
train them as seamen, gunners. slEhai-
men. aviators, and for all the many
duties of naval service. And, remember
this was all done not in years put III
eighteen months.
The navy manned and operated over
. 600 vessels. more than five times as
many as were in naval service previous
to the war. The larger number We're
troopships. cargo transports, patroi Nes-
sells and district craft. But the number
of naval vessels and auxiliaries in SER
vice at the armistice was ia. as COM
pared with S42 on April 6, 1917. Between
Jan. /, 1917, and Oct. /, 1919. o4o YES
sells were built Most of these were Oh
course submarine chasers ana mine
sweepers, but the number included three
battleships, 13e destroyers. 81 sub
marines and 50 Eagle patrol boats.
Big Ship Yards Built.
To build these vessels new faclilties
had to be created-new ship yards, new
plants TO build engines and forgings
and all the complicated machinery 70
nropel and operate vessels. Early In tht
war we contracted for every destroyer
the wards could build. Then. in October
, 1917, we began enlarging old plants ane
| building new ones, to produce 100 more
/ destroyers. BY that time we had con
! tracted for 270 OF these swift and cap
/ able vessels, the greatest enemy or th'
4 submarines. AT Squantum, Mass, W.
/ built the largest destroyer plant IN th'
world. and in six months after GROUND
I was broken in that swampy location
! witnessed the laying of the keels OF hv'
destroyers there in one day. Before th'
war from twenty months to two years
were required 10 complete destroyer
We turned out some of them during tn
war in a fraction of that time Th'
j Ward. at Mare Island, was launched II
seventeen and one-half days after 1T
keel was laid, and commissioned II
i seventy-one days. Others were com
4 pleted in few months. But we wer'
+ just reaching the peak OF producuor
when hostilities ended.
Build 400 sub Chasers.
The navy built more than 400 subma
/ rine chasers, fifty OF which We're turned
over TO the French government and nifty
more built on its order.
The navy converted 1897 merchant
vessels. yachts and other craft for nava
purposes. This work was continuous al
during the war. Navy yards and plant:
/ were enlarged and turned out an enor-
NOUS amount of repair and conversion
! work. as we'll as building ships of al
i types. The number of navy yard en-
ployes was more than doubled, running
TO nearly $4,000.
The navy built up an aviation force O
I more than 45 600 of whom 10000 servet
! in Europe, where we had fifty-one avia
( ton units. including twenty seven base
and stations, in operation. on the coasts
( of France. England, Ireland and Italy
and in the Azores. An aerial patrol o
the United States Atlantic coast from