AMERICA SPEEDING-UP

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14596, 4 May 1918, Page 10

AMERICA SPEEDING-UP

RAPID CONSTRUCTION OF ANTT-U-BOAT WEtAPONS. NEW YORK, Feb. 27. America is energetically constructing anti-submarine offensive weapons, as well as merchantmen which are describable as defensive weapons. The concentration of the activities of the Government on these complementary methods of securing the freedom of the seas for domo-

cracy continues my most vivid recollection when, m company with other foreign correspondents, I was the Government guest at an inspection of the Philadelphia and Boston shipyards, concluding with an authorisation to inspect the Brooklyn navy yard and the Newark yards m Neiw Jersey (writes ,T. W. T Mason). Nowhere are the difficulties underrated, especially m regard to the training of workmen belonging to other trades to becomfe shipbuilders, but the Americana are hard at work solving every problem.

Though precise figures cannot be given, the director of one of the most important yards informed me that his company had signed ship-construction contract* during the past twelve months equalling the total contracts of the company during its previous seventeen years of existence. Construction m some yards is only just ringinmng, but the American faculty of acquiring speed as they progress is rapidly demonstrating itself, and assurances are given that the launching* m the xrmous yards will increase from one weekly to one every two days, until the maximum is attained.

So*ne of the extraordinary difficulties which have had to be overcome are revealed by the remarkable work accomplished at Hog's Island, Philadelphia, and 0 ft. Boston, where respectively over 800 acres and 260 acres of .swamps with river frontages have been transformed into. Klnpyards. At Hog'a Island the plates ,'ire arriving ready punched and cut for the riveters, who join them into the completed ship. Eventually 35,000 men will be employed there. Every working man m the United States with any knowledge of shipbuilding is now working m the yards, and more men are constantly 'demanded, while schools are being opened m many yards for the intensive training of recruits.

The rapidity of the launching of deMxoyers is almost beyond belief. I was informed m one yard that the speed of conutruction had increased 600 per cent. compared with pre-war records. Emphasis is placed on the likelihood that this will be the most vital element m overcoming the submarine menace. It is well-known that the rapidity of American skyscraper construction is the ideal set for the shipyards, which themselves aro of skyscraper dimensions.