Victory worker. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1942-1943, 1943-02-01

100000 and 100000 tons, con-
servatively estimated on the basis
of announced losses and the num-
Der of known losses not announced.
Long Way To Go Yet
Simple arithmetic shows that
while we may be near scale of
production matching losses, we
have a long way to go before we
can replace bottoms already lost.
We would have been in desper-
ate circumstances today if the
government had not started its
merchant marine replacement pro-
gram in 1887. Even with the adj
vantage this program afforded in
1889, after a year Of war we ac-
tually possessed fewer ships. And
at the end of 1910 Great Britain,
despite losses, had more tonnage
than she had started with. Our
fleet had dwindled through trans
ferrals to foreign flags, under our
aid schedule.
We entered the war with only
1,179 vessels of 1000 gross tons
or more, aggregating $500 1913
tons. They were manned by about
$4,000 men.
But we were infinitely better
prepared than we had been in the
last war, when we had lin June,
1910 only 345 vessels of 1,457, 900
gross tons. And the quality of the
ships gave us further advantage.
Superior Ships Ordered
After passage of the Merchant
Marine Act of 1886, the Maritime
Commission had embarked on a
long range program calling for
fifty ships a year for ten years.
Those ordered were and are the
envy of the entire shipping world.
They were chiefly trim and ca
pable CTS, CPS, and C3's, as well
as tankers of first-class, modern
design. Ship operating companies
were improving their fleets, their
routes and their operating staffs;
nd the shipbuilding industry,
which had been doing, was stir
ring everywhere.
Contracts were available. There
were jobs to be had There was
talk of our determination to make
this country again a shipbuilding
nation, and one without a peer as
maritime nation trading along
| the roadsteads of a thousand sep
arated harbors of the world.
In 1888 the program was barely
under way. In 1889 contracts for
100 ships had been given, and in
that year twenty-eight vessels of
241, 052 gross tons were completed.
Their machinery represented 49,
1852 horsepower. Three were pas
senger liners; fourteen were cargo
ships and eleven were tankers.
200 Ordered by End of 40
BY the end of 1910 nearly 200
ships had been ordered in the gov
eminent program, apart from pri-
vate orders tn a t the Maritime
Commission orders stimulated.
During the year fifty-three sea-
going ships of 444,727 gross tons
| 1884, 234) deadweight) were COM
pleted.
The collapse of France and the
frightening turn of the war
through 1910 minimized our ship
building program, disclosing it to
be dangerously inadequate. The
pyramiding began. In February,
1941, the 200 so-called ugly duck
lings, an appellation decried by the
President and later dropped, were
adde at cost of more than $780,
100000. More contracts for stan
dard ships were given and the
small 1000 ton coaster tankers
were added, along with tugs, bar
ges, coastal freighters, and a few
concrete vessels. The expansion in
shipyards was also begun.
By the end of 1941 the commits
sion had on order within its stand
ard program, $50 sea-going ves-
sells, including sixty = six coaster
types as large as $500, ordered
from small yards ont equipped for
big ships. In addition, contracts
had been drawn for the emergency
ships, known now as the Liberty.
The grand total on the program
at the end of the year including
10000 tons of small stuff, was
96s vessels of 6,640,777 gross tons,
propelled by a total of 6,1S5, 040
horsepower.
| Score When Our War Started
AS war famed in the Orient,
our 308th ship had been laid down.
Ninety-six emergency ships were
already on the ways. Twenty-three
Libertys had been launched, and
two, the Patrick Henry on the
East Coast and the Star of Ore
gon on the West Coast, had been
delivered and were in service!
But the insufficiency of the pro-