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284 center, which is designed to teach the skilled mechanics how to instruct. The mechanic is given an idea of instructional ‘management, and how to get the instruc- tions across effectively. The differenc> between a yard instructor so trained and a production foreman is that the former knows how to go about the job of teaching; whereas, the latter does not have that knowledge. Training the Instructors The first training center was estab- lished at Newport News, Va. To it were sent skilled mechanics, selected from the yards. They were given a six weeks course of training, eight hours a day. During the last part of this course they were obliged to spend 40 hours in the actual handling of gangs of green men. Yard instructors are drawn from a variety of trades, such as riveters, ship fitters, ship carpenters, caulkers, etc. While each one teaches a different line, the instructor training which they get is essentially the same. Twenty-two plants have sent men for training as yard instructors. Two hun- dred and sixteen of these men have completed their training and 74 are now in training. In addition to the training center established in Newport News, there are now several others established; namely, at Hog island, at Chester, Pa. at the Submarine Boat yard at Newark, N. J., and two special centers for the training of electrical welders at Schenectady, N. Y., in the General Electric Co., and at New York in the Quasi Arc-Weltrode Co. The training departments in the yards which are responsible for the training of new men, are established as separate departments under the director of yard training. He has under his direction a staff of yard instructors. So far, 13 yards have put in training departments. One yard instructor can train about 150 men per year. The period of training for a green man varies from two to eight weeks. One yard has already trained enough yard instructors in the training centers to turn out weekly 300 skilled mechanics within the yard. In addition to* the training of green men, there exists the problem of taking men who are already skilled in allied trades, but have never worked in ship- yards, and making them into shipbuild- ers. This is called’ a trade conversion course and consists essentially of de- termining what supplementary work a skilled mechanic from the allied trades must have in order to give him the necessary knowledge to do shipbuilding work. Careful studies of this con- version process and the instruction nec- essary have been made and special trade conversion instructors are employed in a number of plants to meet this situa- THE MARINE REVIEW tion. If wecould do this in the shipbuild- ing industry, if we could develop in a year the building of wooden ships which has been a long lost art, if our workmen in many yards have increased in efficiency more than 25 per cent through this method in the past few months, it can be done in other indus- tries. We did it by improving the management. Where we have efficient management we have efficient workers. You can’t expect to have efficient work- men in an inefficiently managed ship- yard nor can you expect good results. Our shipyard workers generally are as fine a body of men as is engaged in any industry in this country. They are a patriotic, industrious group, and while in many yards they are not as efficient as we would like to have them they are learning daily and are increasing their output. When the history of our ship- building program is written, the Amer- ican workmen, the men who really build the ships, will be the men deserving of any credit that may be due. To Build Torpedo - Proof Ships at New Orleans The Foundation Co., New York, will establish a shipyard on the new indus- trial canal, New Orleans, and will con- struct five steel cargo steamers for the French government, according to J. W. Billingsley, New Orleans representative. The vessels are to be virtually torpedo- proof, of a type never before built in the United States. Tests of an experi- mental boat of this type, Mr. Billingsley states, have led experts to believe that the weapon of the submarine will be practically wasted on these boats. Each of the five will be of 4200-ton capacity, and the hull will consist of two parallel cylindrical hulls, joined throughout their lengths by a series of heavily-braced ‘diaphragms. The space between these hulls not only will be divided into water-tight compartments by transverse bulkheads, but will form a completely sealed air chamber, running around the sides, ends and bottom of the hull, only the deck being free of this protection. The greatest damage a tor- pedo could. do to this ship, according to the experts who have seen the work- ing of the models, would be to puncture one of the bulkheads between the hulls, but the remaining air spaces wculd be sufficient to carry the ship along even though driven at top speed. The vessels are to be powered with twin steam engines, either one of which will be able to bring the vessel into port, should the other be disabled. The ships will ride low in the water, offering poor visibility, and both will carry guns for defense. : Announcement is made at New Or- July, 1918 leans that the first of the new ships will be launched early in 1919 and will start on her first voyage in April, 1919. This is the first notification that the Foundation company : will establish a shipyard in New Orleans. Concrete Tug Boats Now Being Built The first concrete tug boats to be built in this country are now under construction at the newly purchased yard of the Fougner Concrete Ship- building Co., North Beach, L. I. The vessels, two in number, are being built for the Standard Oil Co. The com- pany is also working on a concrete barge, 112 feet long and 30 feet wide, for the Standard Oil Co. The yard at North Beach was recently pur- chased from Ray Bros. and comprises about four acres. It has a frontage on Bowery bay, a cove in the East river, of 400 feet. Ten barges can be under construction at one time. As yet no government work has been started, but arrangements for the con- struction of concrete boats for the Emergency Fleet corporation are now being made. The company is con- trolled by the Fougner Brothers, Nor- wegians, who had a wide experience in the construction of concrete. ships before coming to this country. Orange, Tex., is making big gains as a shipbuilding center, an@ has nearly doubled in population and wealth dur- ing the past five or six years as a resuli of the establishment of shipyards there. Thirty-two wooden ships were on the ways there at the end of April, while more were being contracted for to take their places as soon as those now build- ing are launched. There are five ship- building plants, with direct deep water to the Gulf of Mexico. The big industrial canal at New Or- leans will be ready to receive ships from launching ways along its banks in seven or eight months, according to announce- ment by W. B. Thompson, president of the board of commissioners of the port of New Orleans, which is in charge of the construction of the canal. Plans have been completed recently by the Liberty Shipbuilding Corp., com- posed of eastern capitalists, to erect a large shipbuilding plant at Biloxi, Miss. The plant when completed will give employment to. 4000 men. The Aberdeen Shipbuilding Co., Aber- deen, Wash., is working night and day with a large force of men and more workers are being constantly added to the payroll. The company is at present constructing four federal vessels.