Evening star., 1940-09-12
Launching Is but q
Prelude to Quitting
And Rigorous Tests

appointed places.
Under the current speed-up pro-
gram, when the ship arrives at the
fltting-out basin, the refabrication
of deckhouses, bulkheads, and fight
ing equipment will be done to such
point that the cranes seem to lift
whole ships through the air as these
parts are on the way to being welded
into place. All over the yards in
dividual shops are busy finishing
their work on the delicate entrails of
the engines and on the tough hide
of the turret armor.
From Many Sources.
Far away in the optical shops of
inland cities, men with skill gained,
not through years, but through gen.
erations of devotion to ten-thou-
sandths of an inch, are gently rub
bing slices of glass; bringing them
to the focus that will aim the guns.
In other places. dark men wade
through fields of cotton, picking the
bolls that will eventually become
powder guards, awnings, and mat
tresSes. Down the Nations COM
munication lines roll these tons Of
material, each arriving on time to
be picked up by the cranes and
dropped into place.
A year passes. Finally the cranes
pick up the great naval guns. These
may be as big as the battleship's
l6-lnch guns, with each tube go feet
long and as big around as -four
barrel, ready to be dropped into
place in the steel turrets. Lighter
guns, the 8-inchers and the 5-inch-
ers, are fitted into their places on
the decks. The anti-aircraft guns
and the Chicago pianos" are put
into place. The latter are groups of
20 machine guns mounted on single
pivot which can fill the air with fly
ing metal.
When the men have finished their
work. the builders trials begins. The
ship is run forward and backward,
tested for speed, fuel consumption,
tability-everythin the imagina-
ton of the Navy inspectors can
suggest.
If 100000 men down the Nations
production line have done their job,
If the designers slide rules told the
truth, if the men who placed the
parts have don their job, the ship
does better than the minimum pre-
dictions made for it by the Navy
Board and chief of naval operations,
when they first made up the speci-
ficationS.
Further Tests Necessary.
Then the ship will be tried out
under the Navy's guidance, over the
deep water mile in the cool, clear
waters of the Gulf of Maine. If
it makes the grade here, it Is a
full-fedged ship-of -the-line in the
Navy. But it is not yet a unit of
the fleet. 1t must go through a
six months shakedown cruise. The
guns must be fired in every con-
ceivable position. 1t must worm
its way in and out of tight places
until every last man from the cap
tain on the bridge to the pharma
cist's mate knows what it can 40. |
When it is finished with thX. it |
becomes a living ship, in way |
that Kipling makes clear h THE
Ship That Found Herself.F
But ship, even in commission,
is never free of the shore. 1t must |
have bases handy-bsses where it |
can refuel, get fresh food, fresh |
ammunition and jfepairs. There
can be no blue wzter navy without |
these bases, for the maximum
range of a modern fleet is about |
$500 miles. Even that short dis
tance carries it dangerously far
from fortified yards and fuel sta
tions
To supply the ship when the fleet
is in blue water, the Navy has. 10
outlying bases. These are spread
around the world from Cavite, OlonL
gapo, Philippine Islands, stretch
ing across the Pacific to Guam to
Pearl Harbor, to Pago-Pag9, to
Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to the/ Aleu-
tan Island Archipelago, south again
to the great Coco-Solo base at Pa
mama and to our eastern outposts
at Guantanamo, Cuba and the Vir-
gin Islands. At these bases, aside
from the relaxation to sailormen
home from the wars, there are fuel
stations, repair bases, and, at some
of them, there are drydocks. Most
of them are defended by shore forti-
fications and most have air bases
where the Navy's long-range flying
boats can come home to roost and
drink up the thousands Of gallons
of fuel that will enable them to
range again across the ocean and
keep their eyes on what is going on.
The Essential Auxiliaries.
Prime essential of a base is an
adequate anchorage for the fleet
and it's auxiliaries, for based on
these far-fung home plates Is the
Navy's train-the transports, re-
pair ships, the tankers, the mine
layers and mine sweepers, the sub
marines, tenders, the ammunition
ships and cargo ships, the hospital
ships and storage ships; all these
are vital to the Navy in time Of
war. In time of peace, many OF
these auxiliaries are not necessary
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