U-BOAT OUTPUT

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 98, 25 April 1917, Page 7

U-BOAT OUTPUT

GERMAN SHIPYARD FIGURES

Curious particulars have been printed in the Pesti Hirlap in an article by a German naval officer on the capacity of German shipbuilding yards to construct Germain submarines. The object of this article is to convince readers in the Aus-tro-Hnngarian. Empire of the fable that Germany was abla within the last year to raise the number of its submarines to the figure of 500 necessary to destroy all Entente and neutral shipping. The figures are interesting (writes Mr. A. Beaumont, from Jlilan, on 20th February to London Daily Telegraph), not on account of this extravagant claim, but because they give what seems to be fair statistics of the number of workmen and slips in the various establishments. I therefore scud you the particulars, which are as follow:—

Shipyard Wilhelmshaven Imperial Ai

Men Slips

senal Kiel Imperial Arsenal Blohm and ■ Voss (Hanv

..v 10,500 16 .. 10,500 16

burg) 10,000 15 Vulkenwks (Hamburg) ... 9,000 9 Viilkenwks (Stettin) 7,000 8 Vulkenwks (Vegesack) 4,000 6 Schichau (Elbing and Danzig) 9,000 37 Weser (Bremen) , 6,000 9 Germania Arsenals (Kiel) 6,000 17 Howaldt (Kiel) -. 4,000 10

Tecklenborg- (Geestemunde) 2,600 10 Flcnsburger (Flensburg) ... 3,000 8 Reiherstieg (Hamburg) .'.. 2,000 4 Neptun (Bostock) .".... 2,000 7 Seebeck (Geestemunde) .."; 1,500 14 Oderwirke (Stettin) .' 1,200 11 Frerichs (Einswarden) 1,000 11 Stulcken (Hamburg) 1,000 12 Koch (Lubeck) ' 1,000 7 Brandenburg (Hamburg)... 900 8 Klawither fDanzig) „- 800 7 Rickmers (Bremerhaven') ... ■■ %000 4 12 Smaller Yards „ 5,000 63

Austrian Yards (Fiume, Trieste, and Pola) 15,000 35

The 15,000 men employed by the Austrian works at Pola, Trieste, and. Fiume may be correct as to figures, but they certainly are not all employed exclusively in the construction of submarines. In fact, it is doubtful whether thoy build any submarines at all. Naval experts will easily conclude the capacity of construction from the figures given. Even assuming that all the men and most of the slips a-re used for submarine construction, the figures indicated might at most warrant the conclusion that Germany was able within the last nine months to build 300 submarines, which is far from the 500 of which the writers in Germany and Austria boast. The total of the men employed is 118,000, and to build, say, 450 submarines, even supposing that all are employed in submarine construction,' it would mean that about 200 men were able to build a submarine in nine months, which is absurd. From another source I "learn t-nat it is claimed that about thitty Merman firms- construct the Diesel motors originally used for submarines. The Diesel firm itself, it is said, can turn out ten complete motors per month. But this may have been true in August, 1914, when- the kind of engines remrired for submarines were not so complicated or powerful as they must be now. But naval engineers ivill smile at the assumption that the engines of any ship, whether submarine or, not, of 2000 or 3000 tons can be built in three days. Y,et this is the prodigy that the Diesel works would have to accomplish to bear out the boasts of the naval exports who write for the gullible and ignorant Hungarian public. *■

A special telegram from Zurich on the 17th February to the Paris Matin says that German papers have stated that the commerce submarine Deutschland has ceased its" functions as a commerce raider, but it would not be true ,to suppose that she is no longer useful. In reality she is being used to provision other submarines, and has been fitted to carry a very considerable quantity of petrol. German submarines are warned in good time of the locality where the Deutschland 'may be found. According to experts conversant with German maritime affairs, these submarines cannot remain at sea more than a fortnight without returning to their bases. They are sent out in squads, and the first left on sth February, and their return is expected towards, the 19th. After a fourteen days' cruise it is necessary that the submarines should be placed in dry dock in order that their engines may be thoroughly overhauled and made the object of minute examination. It is confirmed that tho number of existing submarines does not reach 200. It will take months to build submarines to make good the losses they sustain, and to carry out the constant trial runs necessary for the captains and crews to become accustomed fo the handling of their particular boat. :

Cap|ain Persius, writing in February in the" Berliner Tageblatt on "Great Britain's Fight Against the U-Boat Danger," declares that, with unrestricted U-boat warfare, the value of armament to" merchant ships is considerably lessened, but utters a warning against the belief that by means of a rufbless submarine' campaign Great Britain: will collapse in a short time. He says : "Who can predict how the British gift of organisation will develop in the future ? Who can doubt that the British possess energy and tenacity? If this fact is justly appreciated then we shall be able to conceive in all its extant the gigantic and heavy task which lies before our U-boats."