The Wilmington morning star., 1945-01-11
Halsev Statement On Shipyard Policy

Icruiters during February, March
and April.
Labor requirements n d tota
employment in h Steel trade:
continued to fall for two reasons
In the first place, because les:
men would be required for the c:
program, and in the second place
after launching the eleventh CO or
November 30, 1914, there was M
further available berthing space
because the first c. had not ye
left the Yard, due to lack of out
fitting material which, as mention
ed above, was from six to eigh1
weeks late and which delayed de-
livery from October is, 1943 te
December 3, 1913. It was, there
fore, necessary to slow up launch
ings, and this materially reduced
labor requirements in the Steel
trades. ia:. . =.
BY March of 1914, employment
in the Quitting trades was grad.
ually catching up with the labor
demand and we were beginning to
overcome the six : weeks delay
and to get back on schedule.
The foregoing method of acquir-
ing and maintaining a labor sup
ply has. been explained as part
of our policy to build good ships
quickly and econmically.
I'd Change over from CO to
AKA vessels.
1. The history Of; the change
over from the CO to the AKA pro
gram may be described as follows:
Late in the fall Of 1913 discus
sions were started with us by the
U. S. Maritime Commission and
the Navy Department relative to
building some of the. AKA type Of
ships for the Navy. This involved
drawing entirely new plans; only
the lines remained the same as
the C2s. On December 10, 194a
we received official confirmation
of the construction Of twenty-fouI
of these vessels. III ~.
First estimates indicated that to
accomplish the job would require
about $4,000 employees on a seven
day basis, or $4,000 on six-day
basis. 1t was apparent at that time
that our present plant was not OF
sufficient capacity to complete ali
twenty -four vessels, so it was
worked out with the Maritime Com.
mission anG the Navy to complete
twelve alternate vessels here and
tow away twelve vessels in. pre-
determined unfinished state, to be
finished in other Quitting yards.
On this basis it appeared that il
would require total of $4,000 en-
ployees Csc Form ES-270 dated
11-1-43) at the end of the next six
months.
2. 1t next developed that the Ma
Wy would require all of the unfin.
ished vessels to leave here by No
vember l, 1914. This had the effect
Of slightly modifying our labor re-
quirements, that is, it made little
earlier the peak for the Steel trades
and little later the peak for the
Quitting trades.
3. As the working plans were
developed, it became apparent that
the amount of work involved on
these vessels was considerably less
than first anticipated, particularly
in the Quitting trades. New esti-
mates of labor requirements, pre-
pared about March /, 1914, indi-
Gated that the total estimated num-
Der needed would be about 16, 500
at the end of the next four months,
with the greatest reduction in the
Quitting trades. This change is
reflected in ES-270 of April 2, 1944)
4. During March and April of
1914, several conferences were held
in Washington with the U. S. Mari
time Commission and Navy Off
Gals to settle on number of points
which had never been definitely
fixed, with the result that the labor
estimate was further dropped to
$1,000 at the end Of the next six
months (see ES-270 of 5-2e-44 :.