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American Ship Yards Shipyard managers on the coast will undoubtedly read with a great deal of interest the following article from Fairplay, London, on the ship- building industry in America, be- cause the author has gone about his work very intelligently. He says: The shipbuilding industry in Amer- ica does not occupy the position it holds in this country in point of mag- nitude and national importance, but it is one, nevertheless, which engages to a remarkable degree the sympa- thetic attention and concern of all Americans. The relative insignificance of their oversea merchant marine is a fact everywhere deplored in the United States and is considered as a species of national humiliation. A New York politician, at a. public dinner recently given in that city, stated he had just returned from a tour round the world, and that in all the harbors he had entered he saw but one vessel flying the starry flag, and that ex- ception was the yacht of J. Gordon Bennett. No one who heard his speech could fail to note the deep im- pression a fact like that makes upon an audience of American citizens, or how sincere is the desire of. per- meating the mass of the community to place their merchant marine in the position it once occupied, to rehabil- itate the national prestige by building American ships in American ship yards. We in England, secure in a long and scarcely challenged supremacy, have come to look upon the shipbuilding of our Transatlantic cousins with a certain amount of pardonable com- placency. Even at the present time the total merchant tonnage building in all the coast shipyards of America compares very unfavorably with any of the principal British shipbuilding districts. But it would be foolish to base. conclusions on a fact like that alone. To any one who will examine personally the men and methods to be found in American yards, there is ample evidence that here is an indus- try in which there unquestionably ex- ist the potentialities for great expan- sion in the future--a future, it may be, not far distant. of hull construction--materials and wages--especially in those localities where a plentiful supply of colored labor is available, approximates more closely to the English level than ever before. Recent legislative enactments have in some ways cheapened the cost of construction, and, in short, Ameri- can competition may soon be a reality to be reckoned with. In these circum- stances the transcription, in this place, Already the- cost: THE MARINE REVIEW of a few personal impressions of the yards and their staff may not be de- yoid of interest. First, as to the shipyards them- selves. They labor under one disabil- ity from which British yards are free. A paternal government insists that in the case of state contracts a day of eight hours shall be the rule. This means not only a 48-hour,,.week, but also that each day eight: hours shall be worked. The men _ themselves would prefer a rearrangement of their time, which, while securing a 48-hour week, would permit of a short Satur- day, but this, for some occult reason, is not permitted by the government authorities. The inconvenience and expense involved by this regulation, by which the yard is kept open, the staff employed and machinery kept running longer than is necessary in respect of a part of the work in hand, need not be insisted on. The plants are. for the most part well laid out, and a great deal of thought and in- genuity have been expended in stop- ping possible sources of waste. The arrangements for the reception of the structural material and its rapid and economical distribution to the various yard centers are good and compare favorably with those on this side. A large proportion of the preparatory constructional work is done from the mold loft with, in general, excellent results. In this connection it will not perhaps be invidious to mention a spe- cific instance--the New York Ship- building Co. of Camden, N. -J.° The founder of this establishment was a distinguished civil engineer, and when the work of shipbuilding was com- menced much of the method and prac- tice of the bridge-builder were im- ported into the new industry. At one time it was the practice to make a separate drawing for every individual shell plate. That time has long passed away, but today the yard practice at Camden may be regarded as the very apex of mold loft work. The molds are made of special paper, and, thanks to ability and constant vigilance, the results are such as fully to justify the methods employed. The yard appli- ances are of the kind we are accus- tomed to here, and are of an up-to- date character with possibly one ex- ception. We refer to their flanging machines, which are neither so numer- cus nor of such great capacity as are to be found in Great Britain. As against. this the capacity of their lifts is distinctly ahove the average. It may be possible to refer later to the product of some of these American yards, but, as an illustration of the above, it may perhaps suffice to cite the case of two oil steamers recently August, 1914 completed by the Newport News Ship- building Co. for the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey. These are modern tankers with a deadweight Capacity of approximately 10,000 tons. The bulkheads for these vessels were com- pleted, riveted and caulked on the skids, and were then lifted into place in one piece on each side of the center line. ane... riveting «and caulking throughout is done by pneumatic tools at an average working pressure in the compressors of about 90 pounds per square inch. The next matter that engages our attention is the personnel of American shipyards. "There is ab- solutely . no,--question. that the of ficials to be found directing the tech- nical operations in these works have nothing to fear from a comparison with their professional brethren else- where. They are thoroughly well- trained men. One can state with cer- tainty that in all the large American yards there are to be found officials engaged in some, directive capacity, who are able to discuss the principles or details of construction on terms of absolute equality with any well-quali- fied naval architect or engineer. Many of them are men who have received a sound technical training in ship- building and engineering. They have a capacity for bold initiation and en- terprise which yet is tempered by cau- tion. They welcome any. reasonable opportunity which offers of subject- ing their scientific theories to the test of actual practice. They are not averse to discussion which is conducted in a fair and enlightened manner, and when they are convinced of the neces- sity of making a change in practice or design they are not, as a general rule, prevented from effecting it by con- siderations of economy. In this connection one is interested to note that in technical discussions in America one does not often hear what we designate as "the appeal to experience'. The reason is obvious. Very rarely does one find a sequence of similar vessels being built in an American shipyard, and therefore pre- cedent does not bulk so largely in the decision of technical questions as it Goes elsewhere. This, it must be ad- mitted, is not without its compensa- tions. Experience, in shipbuilding, is an invaluable servant but a bad mas- ter, and the -result of appeal' to alone, in matters that admit of ration- al treatment, is often wrong and mis- leading. For example, one may argue strongly that some change or other is desirable, that some method of con- struction is faulty, and one is imme- diately met by the remark that the arrangement criticized has been satis- factorily fitted in ten similar ships. | ? :