U.S. SHIP-BUILDING

Southland Times, Issue 24860, 28 September 1942, Page 5

U.S. SHIP-BUILDING

President’s Goal In Sight (Rec. 7.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Sept. 26. Tomorrow has been designated “Victory Fleet Day.” “It marks the end of a year’s unprecedented achievement by American ship-builders,” said the Maritime Commission, when announcing that President Roosevelt’s goal of 8,000,000 tons of new merchant ships in 1942 and 16,000,000 tons in 1943 was likely to be achieved. The commission said that by Sunday 466 ships would have been delivered into service since the first liberty ship •was launched on September 27, 1941, and “Victory Fleet Day” found the United States nearing the peak of its production in the greatest merchant shipbuilding programme in world history. American yards had a production far greater than the rest of the world combined. In September 92 ships were delivered. Of 446 delivered this year 312 were Liberty ships and the rest standard cargo ships. MILITARY - HIGHWAY Canadian-Alaskan Route (8.0.W.) RUGBY, September 26. The progress of the Canadian-Alas-kan highway which will connect with the railway and highway systems in the United States and serve to carry supplies to several important military airfields has been watched with great interest in Britain and that interest has been heightened by the recent statement by the Secretary of War, Mr H. L. Stimson, that traffic will start moving over the highway’s 1600 miles by December 1 next, several months ahead of schedule. The completion of 1600 miles of road between last March and December 1 will imply progress at an approximate rate of six miles daily.