War Contracts Of £5,000,000 Gave Tremendous Boost To Dominions Ship-Building Industry

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 200, 24 August 1945, Page 4

War Contracts Of £5,000,000 Gave Tremendous Boost To Dominions Ship-Building Industry

By B. G. R

AXfAR contracts of,a value ' * £5,000,000 gave New Zealand's' shipbuilding industry the greatest speed-up of its normally placid existence. In a matter of months it became a co-operative, high-pressure organisation massing 4000 workers and regularly sending down the ways vessels of a size and type the construction of which before the war had been considered out of the question in this country.

Biggest problem facing the industry to-day is its immediate future— what to do with the accumulation of labour in the construction and assembly yards; how to turn to peacetime use the extensive modern plant imported for wartime construction and repair? Prospects are uncertain, but representatives of the industry are not pessimistic.

Peacetime building of commercial vessels—Fishing boats, small colliers, passenger steamers, ferry boats— will, they believe, provide work for those hundreds of men for whom the end of the wartime programme will otherwise mean unemployment. Even though locally-built craft may average slightly higher in cost than those constructed in overseas yards, shipbuilding firms are of the opinion that the steady employment provided by a stepped-up peacetime industry would, in the long run, more than offset that factor.

Indication of the rapid development of ship construction in New Zealand is the fact that steel shipbuilding, before the war almost unknown in the Dominion, 'has to-day become one of the most important phases of the industry—remember the nine steel Castle type minesweepers built, during 1941-43 for the Royal New Zealand Navy and the 30 steel tugs ordered for the United States Army and Navy, nine of them yet undelivered.

Seventy-five feet overall, these tugs have a beam of 18ft with p moulded depth of 10ft. The displaced tonnage is 10S. and each is powered by a 400 h.p. Diesel engine. Five are at present in various stages of completion, either afloat or on the ways, and four others have not yet been started, although some of the materials for construction have already been prefabricated. Came Throngh Storm Test Proof of the quality of workmanship in their construction was given recently when two of the 75-footers went through a 60-mile-an-hour gale. The captain of a larger accompanying vessel saw the mast of one disappear into a sea on one side, reappear, and swing wildly to the other side, but the little ships came through with 'flying colours, undamaged.

Other Auckland firms have on hand drawings of steel fishing craft and larger vessels, in preparation

for peacetime construction. Introduced by war, steel shipbuilding in the Dominion appears to have come to stay.

The war programme had begun in earnest when the last of four composite wood-steel mine-sweepers for the Royal New Zealand Navy slid down the ways in 1941, and a start was made with the nine steel sweepers ordered at a total cost of £200,000. Followed 12 Fairmiles at £420,000, a steel oil barge at £50,000 and small craft for the R.N.Z.A.F., with a total value of £20,000. New Zealand shipyards, it was considered, were working at peak pressure. But there was more to follow.

When, in 1942, United States bases were established in New Zealand, the Dominion's shipbuilding industry was called upon to supply small craft for various tasks all over the South-west and South Pacific.

Prefabrication of component parts and assembly at"a central point was the essence of the system worked out, and so complete was its success that at one stage eight 45ft motor tow boats were being launched every five weeks from the yards of United Ship and Boatbuilders, Ltd., a company comprising many Auckland shipbuilding interests, and formed for the sole wartime purpose of assembling parts manufactured in yards all over Auckland.

The United States contract, with approximate values, was:—Thirty 75ft steeL tugs at £1,050,000: 50 wooden 45ft tow boats at £275,000; 22 114 ft powered cargo lighters at £880,000; 40 prefabricated barges of 50ft at £40.000; 100 50ft barges at £120,000; 150 plywood 50ft barges at £180,000; 100 steel amphibian trailers at £27,000. Many Kinds of Cargoes Of the 22 powered lighters ordered, 15 were completed and delivered before the end of the war, and operated in the south-west, west, and central Pacific. Some were engaged in the Iwo .lima operations and in the invasion of Leyte. They carried every type of cargo except that which requires refrigeration. Five of the remaining lighters are on the ways at Auckland in various stages of construction, and two more are building at Dunedin.

With an overall length of 114 ft, the lighters are 102 ft on the waterline with a 23ft beam and a moulded depth of lift. They are twin-screw motor-vessels, their two 200 h.p. Diesels giving them a service speed of nine knots. In trials, -speed has exceeded 10 knots. Hold space measures 10.003 cubic feet, enabling them to carry 230 tons of cargo. Loaded displacement is 494 tons.

In design, the 111-footcrs are not pretty. From a slightly raking stem, the topsides have very little, if anv, flare for'ard, and run off "slab-

.sided" to a tuck stern, the appearance of which is a standing joke among shipyard employees. The designers were concerned with producing, not a yacht, but a strictly utility craft, providing maximum space in minimum length. A nicelyrounded stern would have greatly improved the appearance, but would have sacrificed too much space.

Maids-of-all-work from New Guinea and New Caledonia to the Marianasthe Philippines and Guam are the 50 little 45ft motor towboats, built in New Zealand for the United States Forces. With a beam of 14ft and a moulded depth of 7ft, these heavy duty craft are powered with 200 h.p. Diesel engines. Two of them, in moderately " calm weather, can manoeuvre a vessel of almost any size. Their numbers are divided equally between the south-west and south and central Pacific areas. So successful have they been that the Eastern Supply Group placed an order for 24 more of these craft. Six are already in the course of building. U.S. Officer's Tribute Organisation of New Zealand shipbuilding resources ■to meet the requirements of the United States Forces has since May, 1942, been in the hands of Lieutenant-Commander A. C. Bushey, jun., liaison officer for the United States Joint Purchasing Board. He believes that the construction of new ships could have been even faster than it has been but for the enormous amount of ship repair work handled in Auckland, which took first priority for labour and materials. Commander Bushey pays high tribute to the shipbuilding firms in Auckland, who at all times co-operated wholeheartedly with him, and to the men who built the ships, every one of which came up to standard. Not a single complaint regarding the construction of the vessels, he says, was ever received.

The immediate future of Auckland's shipyards appeared to be uncertain, said Commander Bushev. in an interview. The question of completion of contracts and the use of vessels now completed was something which would have to be worked out between the New Zealand Government and Washington.

Tentative inquiries have been received by Auckland shipbuilding firms from Unrra regarding the replacement of vessels lost in the Pacific and along the China coast during the war—vessels' on which the peoples of those parts depended for their livelihood. Thus it is possible that Auckland shipyards may 3 r et turn out a Chinese junk.