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Steel oil tanker, W. L. Steed, built by New England yard and fitted out in less than nine days. SSC Kastern Yard Sets Fitting-Out hk HE unprecedented demand for deep-water tonnage has brought about records in building and fitting out ships- that are little short of marvelous. The latest yard to come toethe front with a speed' record is the Fore River plant of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Quincy, Mass. This yard recently succeeded in completely fitting out a vessel of 9000 deadweight tons in 8 days, 9 hours and 45 minutes from the time of launching. The vessel is the W. L. Steep, the fourth ship to be delivered to the Emergency Fleet corporation by the Fore River, yard since the first of the year and the twenty-sixth vessel to be com- pleted by the cor- poration's Quincy plant during 1918. 'Lhe STEED isa single-screw bulk oil carrier built on the -Isher- wood system. She 433 feet long, 56 feet beam and 33 feet deep, and carries 3500 <callons in her tanks when is pacity. From the time she was launched until she left the yard for her trial ttip, the. work progressed with remarkable rapid- ity. On Sept. 2 she was. launched at OAS a.' mand towed over to the wet slip and work progressed: con- W. H. BENSON tinuously on her until she was completed. The first day saw the installation of much material. The star- board, center and port boilers were installed and installation begun on the main and auxiliary steam pipes. The after crossbeam was put in place and stop and safety valves were fitted in position on the boilers. The casing around the boiler room was erected and two sections of the air duct installed next to the screen bulkhead. The escape pipe from the SS loaded to full ca-~° 556 rp KS ecord center boiler was fitted and the inspection tank installed. On the second day, Sept. 3, work was done on the steain piping, main and auxiliary feed check valves and _ water column valves. The furnace fronts were put on all boilers, the starboard, port and center smoke boxes were installed. The center, starboard and port uptakes were placed in posi- tion. The following work was done on the third day, Sept. 4: Forward crossbeam installed, inner stack foundation placed' in position, deck plates fitted and work on the smoke boxes completed. Thus three days saw the work well along. On the fourth day, Sept. 5, the smokestack was installed, all grat- ings finished and work was begun on oil piping to the boiler fronts. The. 'ith. day, Sept, 6 saw. the complete installa- tion of the floor plates, air ducts and steam pip- ing: On this day the boilers were also tested by twee: "locales in- spector. On sixth day, Sept. 4 all the piping. and the three boilers wete lagged. This completed the work of installa- tion. On the seventh day, Sept. 8, the vessel was given a dock. trial at noon, and on the following day she left the yard for her trial trip in just 7 days, 2 hours and 35 minutes from the time she was launched. The trial trip was completed at 7:30 p. m. on the next day, 8 days, 9 hours and 45 minutes from the time she was launched. One reason why the trial trip was not complete until 7:30 Pp. m. was because it was necessary to take the vessel out into deep water to load her for trial purposes as the water the H. E. D. GOULD