The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1945-06-08

ever closer and a full-spee5-
head order wss given for chip
construction. Additional ways
gcre built end land was filed
in at the mouth of the river fof
the construction Of a number o.
vet docks where the ships could
be berthed and fitted following
their launching.
ingalls, management and work
crs poured on the steam with
Increasing tempo until the huge
hips began to splash into tha
! liver with such regularity that
even the seagulls seemed to grow
accustomed TO the sight: and in
deed they began to swarm reg
tuarly for the dock trials when
ships were lighted Off while
still moored in their berths ard
the giant propellers thundefci
through the water for the first
Test sucking a huge volume Of
the river into their stream and
killing thousands OF small fish
The Yard At Nirhi
The scene along the mouth o.
the river on the western shore
became one Of giant and complex
Industry, with graceful steel
| blows OF the vessels towering
high into the sky, and men re-
euced to Lilliputian dimensions
swarming over the decks and in
the rigging and scaffolding.
working with welding whips ard
burning torches that seemed like
microscopic toys against the vast
dimensions of the ships. Giant
gantries, which laymen invaria-
bly, called "cranes," swung pre-
fabricated sections weighing ten
and fifteen tons high into the
air and set them in place while
the workmen fastened them with
clamps and tack-welds and then
sealed them into the body of the
ship with clean seam Yields. AT
night the lights and bright blue
arc YIELDS lit up the marshy coas-
tai plane for miles. around. On
the highway far across the river
the eastbound motorist came up
on a scene of breath-taking beau
ty, as the lights of the shipyard
sparkled white and blue like
diamonds in the velvet blackness
OF night.
Most Of the workers came from
farming sections in the central
belt OF cotton lands and pine
woods of Mississippi. MANY came
from neighboring states, too
from Arkansas, and Alabama,
from the Texas oilfields and the
Louisiana farms and trappeis'
swamps. Some came down from
the Tennessee mountains about
Knoxville. And many of them,
after learning their trade as
welders and pipefitters, burners
and clippers and mechanics,
still remembered their lives as
farmers, and one could frequent
" hear arguments about the best
breed OF pigs or the best type
OF corn or clover above the
pounding pandemonium of the
hulls, while the most modern
air-driven tools Of the Machine
Age Numbered on the steel decks
and bulkheads.
Gulf Losses Heavy
During the peak months of the
war when American productive
capacity was staging a life-and-
death struggle with the German
U-boats the yards produced at
full speed "a hours a dav, seven
days a week. The employment
figure reached 10000 and the
Eastlawn housing project and the
trailer parks of the Federal Pub
lie Housing Authority were
crowded to capacity. Later, as
the United Nations gradually
won the battle with submarines
and the crisis of shipbuilding re-
coded, the tempo was relaxed a
little: many seasonal workers
drifted back to their farms in
the delta or the hills and employ
ment settled back to approx
mately 5000.
The effect of the production Of
ships by ingalls, and other yards
throughout the nations in over
coming losses was highlighted
this week by a report on U-boat
warfare in the gulf. released by
navy officials Of the Gulf Sea
Frontier, with headquarters at
Miami. The report stated a total
of Ill ships were sunk by subs
in the entire Gulf area from Feb
ruary 1912. through the end of
l943. Over 25 of these were sunk
directly off the mouth of the Mis-
sissippi river. The seventy ships
constructed by the ingalls, yards
alone more than half replace the
number sunk in the Gulf, and
probably equals or exceeds the
tof11 NAAHaua