THE SEA JITNEY.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 37, 15 May 1917, Page 8

THE SEA JITNEY.

J AMERICA'S WOODEN SHIPS TO FOIL U-BOATS. t: 200 ALREADY BUILDING. The cheering news that the Federal Shipping Board of the United States was making plans for the construction of 1000 additions,! wooden ships to meet the submarine menace had a good effect in shipping circles in London (reports the “Daily News”). One of the men in this country who knows most about American shipbuilding—Mr J. W. Isherwood, the inventor of the famous Isherwood system of ship construction —discussed the possibilities of the plan with a “Daily News” representative recently. Mr Isherwood has recently returned from the United States, where he was in close touch with what is going forward.

“ i'he ‘sea jitneys’ spoken of,” he said, “are schoner-rigged 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, each 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. \ards are springing up everywhere, both on the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. There can be no doubt that the manufacture of engines will soon catch up with the accelerated rate 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 of 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' training ought to be sufficient for the lads who will form the crews, for these ships are 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, a scientific system of labour would be adopted similar to that in munition factories.”

Although the steel shortage is the only reason why wooden “sea jitneys” are being built, Mr Isherwood regards them as being built in some ways specially suited for carrying on a traffic threatened by submarines. Half a dozen small 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 was formerly thought to be. No schooner of the new type has yet crossed the ocean, but a number are nearly complete. They take about live months to build—a good deal longer in proportion to tonnage than steel ships —and it would not, of course, be possible; to turn out anything like 1000 extra ships this year.