CARGO CARRIERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 187, 17 July 1940, Page 2

CARGO CARRIERS

MASS PRODUCTION

WHAT THE YARDS ARE DOING

A race to break all shipbuilding records and a plan to mass-produce cargo ships at a speed never before known were described by Mr William Westwood, general secretary of the Ship Constructors" and Shipwrights' Association in his annual report for last year. Mr Westwood, who is performing duties with the Merchant S'hipbuild ing and Repairs Department of the Admiralty, which is responsible for shipbuilding programme, said:— ' "Each yard will build one type 1 of ship only, and that type will be the one it can build fastest audi most economically. The ships will be called 'emergency' ships. Labour will be cut down to a minimum, but the ships will be built to last. They will not suffer the fate of the standard ships of the last war,, many of which had to be scrapped. "The vessels which have been under construction during the pasl months will soon be added to the launching output, and before 1940 is far advanced there will be an ex-: fitting-out basins. It can be assumed that some of the vessels under con-, struction will have only a short spell in the fitting-out basins as quite a large percentage of tlx? work is now completed before launch ing. "The backbone of present yard activity is, of course, the Goveniment's decision to order a huge tonnage of tramp vessels of simply type. These Government orders will enabl'e yards to build economically. Mr Westwood added a word of caution. "Ship owners are concerned whether after the war they will be in a position financially to equip their fleets to meet neutral com-> petition 'fattened on war profits.' ''We must be alert as to the future of the industry and plan ahead to avoid a repetition of tlie dark days with their staggering figures of unemployment through which we passed a few years ago.'*