BUILDING, GREAT MERCHANT MARINE
Building, Great Merchant Marine Chairman of Shipping Board Reviews Naval Program; Figures Reveal the Remarkable Progress That Has Been Made ¥ N AN address at the Commencement exer-* cises of the...
...We had very few ships going to England, France or Germany...
...This tonnage together with the vessels which we have been obliged to leave in the coastwise and Great Lakes trade, gives us a total of more than 1400 ships with an approximate total deadweight tonnage of 7,000,000 tons now under the control of the United States Shipping Board...
...5,000,000,000 will be required to finish our program for 1918, 1919 and 1920, but the expenditure of this enormous sum will give to the American people the greatest merchant fleet ever assembled in the history of the world—a fleet which I predict will serve all humanity loyally and unselfishly upon the same principles of liberty and justice which brought about the establishment of this free republic...
...Since January of the present year, when our new quantity production of ships may well be said to have just begun, we have steadily risen in our monthly output until in the month of May we turned out a total of 260,000 tons for that one month alone, making a total for the first five months of this year of 118 steel ships, aggregating 805,000 deadweight tons...
...With a tonnage for the first five months of this year of 805,000 tons, we^delivered in five months 336,900 tons of shipping more than was built in American shipyards in the years 1915 and 1916...
...We have established a shipbuilding industry that will make us a great maritime nation...
...one line crossing the Pacific and a few lines to Central America and to the Caribbean countries...
...On July 1, 1917, there were in the United States not quite 45,000 men engaged in the shipbuilding yards...
...There were American tourists everywhere...
...Schwab, the Director General of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, has told me that he is going to prove that both of these good friends of his are somewhat conservative...
...Ferguson...
...Homer Ferguson, of Newport News, predicted before the Senate Committee in January that our tonnage for this year would be 3,000,000 tons in the United States alone...
...none to India...
...It is true that we had under the American flag a total deadweight tonnage on that date 0f 2,-412,381 tons but approximately eighty per cent of this tonnage was engaged fh coastwise and Great Lakes trade...
...During the year ending July 1, 1916, 281,400 deadweight tons of steel vessels were delivered...
...Today we have a force of 300,000 men in the yards, and 250,000 men in allied trades...
...It has taken us some time to apply to the shipbuilding industry of this country the principles of organization and progressive manufacturing which have made our big institutions the marvel of the world...
...This makes a total of 2101 vessels exclusive of tugs and barges which are being built and will be put on the seas by the Emergency Fleet Corporation in the course of carrying out the present program, with an aggregate deadweight tonnage of 14,715,000...
...One of the ablest shipbuilders in the United States, Mr...
...Praises American Labor...
...Our program calls for the building of 1856 passenger, cargo, refrigerator ships and tankers, ranging from 5000 to 12,000 tons each with an aggregate deadweight tonnage of 13,000,000...
...We have requisitioned from the Dutch under the order of the President, 86 vessels with a total deadweight tonnage of 526,532...
...There were also American products ready to go anywhere, but American ships nowhere...
...In the early part of May the members of the Shipping Board appeared before the Appropriation Committee of Congress with a request for-additional funds for our extended program...
...Therefore the vast supplies which we were sending abroad were shipped under terms and conditions laid down by other nations, because the great bulk of our exports was carried in ships flying foreign flags...
...In 1919 the average tonnage of steel, wood and concrete ships continuously building on each way should be about 6000 tons...
...We are also contracting for 200 wooden barges, 50 concrete barges, 100 concrete oil carrying barges, and 150 steel, wood and concrete tugs of 1000 horse-power for ocean and harbor service, which aggregate a total deadweight tonnage of 850,000...
...none to the east coast of South America...
...Powell, vice-president of the Bethlehem Steel Shipbuilding Company agreed with Mr...
...none to our cousins in Australia...
...In addition we have chartered from neutral countries 215 vessels with an aggregate deadweight tonnage of 953,661...
...We could not serve the world as wi should have served it, because we did not hav the vehicles of trade...
...In short, the Shipping Board has added approximately ly 1,000,000 tons of new construction to American Shipping in the last ten months, for it was not until August 3d of last year that our commandeering order went into effect...
...This force will be continuously increased...
...I do not believe I am over optimistic in saying that our tonnage output will continue to increase until before this year closes we will be turning out a half million tons each month...
...We were a great tourist nation, but Americans travelled in foreign ships...
...He believes that the expert prediction of 3,000,000 tons can be exceeded, and I agree with him...
...On July 1, 191G, we had no merchant marine worthy of the name engaged in overseas trade...
...Great Maritime Nation...
...From all present expectations it is likely that by 1920 we shall have close to a million men working on American ships and their equipment...
...Adding the 1915 tonnage with the 1916 tonnage gives a total of 468,100 tons...
...We are adding to this tonnage rapidly and will continue to do so...
...These will average 7,000 tons each and aggregate a total deadweight tonnage of 1,715,000...
...HOW we are b«gik.-iing to fulfill our destiny...
...none to the west coast of South America...
...Of these 819, a total of 751, all of which except 90 are completed, are being utilized by the Emergency Fleet Corporation for the building of American merchant ships...
...Now in the year ending July 1, 1915, the shipyards in this country built 186,700 deadweight tons of steel vessels of over 1500 deadweight tons...
...Figures Reveal the Remarkable Progress That Has Been Made ¥ N AN address at the Commencement exer-* cises of the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, Edward N. Hurley, Chairman of the United States Shipping Board presented some interesting data with respect to the progress being made in building up an American Merchant Marine...
...Our program for the future should appeal to the pride of all loyal and patriotic Americans...
...We have today under contract and construction 819 shipbuilding ways including wood, steel and concrete, which is twice as many shipbuilding ways as there are in all the rest of the shipyards of the world combined...
...We had still fewer going to Russia, Japan and China.' Tnere was just one line of old and com-.ly slow ships crossing the Atlantic...
...The most liberal estimate of this year's output of shipping from all countries, except America, does not exceed 4,000,000 tons...
...American workmen have made the expansion of recent months possible and they will make possible the successful conclusion of the whole program...
...In round numbers, and from all sources, we have added to the American flag since our war against Germany began, nearly 4,500,000 tons'of shipping...
...Now this gigantic merchant fleet which we are turning out is to be controlled by one central body by the greatest corporation in the Western World—the United States of America...
...The expenditure of the enormous sum will give America a merchant fleet aggregating 25,000,000 tons of shipping...
...We have also added 118 German and Austrian vessels, with a total deadweight tonnage of 730,176...
...Thus in the month of May we produced 53,000 tons more than were produced in the entire year 1915...
...As I have said, we have a total of 819 shipways in the United States...
...In the eleven months from July 1, 1917, to June 1. 1918, we constructed in American shipyards a tonnage equal to the total output of American yards during the entire previous four years...
...If we are using 751 ways on cargo ships, and can average three ships a year per way we should turn out in one year 13,518,000 tons, which is more than has been turned out by Great Britain in any five years of her history...
...and none to Africa...
...Exclusive of the above, we have 245 commandeered vessels, taken over from foreign and domestic owners, which are being completed by the Emergency Fleet Corporation...
...He said in part: "Before the war ocean commerce traveled in bottoms owned and operated by private capital...
...We have gradually reached the point where we have the facilities for constantly increasing our output...
...On the 1st of June, of this year, we had increased the American-built tonnage to over 3,500,000 deadweight tons of shipping...
Vol. 10 • July 1918 • No. 7
