THE SEA JITNEY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3096, 29 May 1917, Page 6

THE SEA JITNEY

AMERICA'S WOODEN SHIPS

200 ALREADY ON THE WAY

The cheering news that the l-'ederal Shipping Board of the United States is making plans for the construction of 1000 iiuditiunal wooden sliiiw ,to meet the submarine menace had a good effect in shipping circles yesterday. Mr. J. W. islienvood, the inventor of the fanioiw Jsherwood system of ship construction, tiie possibilities of the plan with a ''Daily News" representative recently, ilr. Isherwood has recently returned from the United States, where he was in close touch with whab is going forward.

"Tho 'sea jitneys' some people speak oC are schooner-Tigged wooden sailing ships, fitted with what are known as semi-Diesel auxiliary engines capable- of driving them at seven or eight miles an hour when the wind drops. There are 200 of these vessels at present on the stocks, eacli with a carrying capacity of from 1000 to 3500 tons. The total tonnage of this kind in hand is 412,000 (actual carrying capacity), but a very large number more vessels are on order. Of course, the addition of another 1000 ships will present difficulties, but they can be overcome if the Government takes the matter in hand seriously, as there is every prospect that it will do. Suitable wood is plentiful. Yards are epringing -up everywhere, both on the Atlantic and Pacific eoaboards. There can be no doubt that the manufacture of engines will soon enleji up with the accelerated rato, of building,, for the resources of the States in this" direction are prodigious.

''Scarcity of suitable labour will be the chief trouble. Wooden shipbuilding was a dying industry when the shortage at steel suddenly revived it, and men with any knowledge of the art are.difficult to find. But the Americans are an adaptable people. Four or five months' trainin? ought to be sufficient for the lads who will form the crews, for'these sliiys aro easy to work. There is no 'going aloft/ , .each of the four or five masts having a sail worked from the deck. The engines are almost as easy to manage as those of a small motor-car. In control of these crews of lads there would have to be a certain •proportion of skilled seamen; in fact, .1 scientific system of labour would be adopted similar to that in munition factories." i

.Although the steel shortage is (he only reason why wooden "sea jitneys" are being built, Mr. Tshenvood regards them as being in some way? specially suited for carrying on a traffic threatened by {submarines. Half a dozen email vessels are more difficult to sink than one large one, and experience is proving that speed is not nearly so effective a safeguard as it wa.s formerly thought to be, No schooner of the new (Vpe has yet crossed' the ocean, but a number aTe nearly complete. They take about five months to build—a good deal longer in proportion to tonnage than steel shins—and it would not. of course, be possible to turn out anything like lOflfl extra ships this year.