" MAKING THE FIR FLY " 



265 



Committee of Public Information 



SPEEDING UP THE SHIPS 



This shows the way in which they are rushing the work along in Texas on the vessels which are to 

 carry to Europe the supplies needed for the American army and this country's allies. Everything possible 

 is being done to turn the lumber into ships as fast as men and machinery can do the work. Rapid 

 progress is being made in the fight to beat the submarine and America's shipbuilders are proving their 

 prowess. 



With the American ship yards speeding up on produc- 

 tion and now going ahead on full time and capacity, the 

 demands for timber to enter into 

 this vast and growing work of 

 construction continue to increase. 

 Enormous quantities of material 

 for all parts of the wooden ves- 

 sels are required ; and great as 

 the amount consumed in the past 

 has been, the supply that will be 

 called for during the next few 

 months by the government to 

 carry on its shipbuilding pro- 

 gram, will be the heaviest ever 

 known in the history of the 

 country. 



This increase which will be 

 made upon the forest resources 

 of the United States, which 

 fortunately will be ample to meet 

 the emergency needs, is due 

 both to the fact that greater fa- 

 cilities have been furnished for 



* The 4,SG0 ton wooden ship now under 

 construction near Orange, Texas, will 

 hereafter be the standard wooden vessel. 

 This ship will be equipped with the same 

 engines and boilers ?.s the former 3,C00 ton 

 vessel. This can be accomplished, it is 

 stated, without sacrificing more than a 

 fraction in speed. The new type of wooden 

 ship will not require the larger timbers 

 specified in the original Ferris type of 3,500 

 ton vessel. This will, to a large degree, 

 solve the lumber difficulties encountered 

 in the South, and will make rapid progress 

 in the wooden programme possible. 



the construction of ships and to 

 the decision to add 200 wooden 

 vessels of 4,500 or 4,700 dead 

 weight tons to those previously 

 provided for in the Emergency 

 Fleet Corporation's program, 

 thus increasing to 580 the num- 

 ber of wooden ships completed, 

 building or planned by the gov- 

 ernment for the fleet which is to 

 help carry this country's men 

 and supplies to Europe. The 

 shipyards already established 

 and now equipped to handle an 

 immense construction tonnage, 

 will be fully able to take care of 

 the added vessels. The timber 

 will be forthcoming as it is 

 needed. 



The "forest primeval" whose 

 deep silences have seldom been 

 broken since the white man came 

 to America, is now resounding 

 with the swing of the busy ax, 

 the crash of falling monarchs 

 and the healthy laugh of the 

 happy lumberjacks. The work- 

 ers who are getting out the logs 

 and the timbers for the ship- 

 builders know that they, too, are soldiers and are helping 

 their brothers in France to win the war. 



Committee of Public Information 



SHAPING INTO SHU'S 



It will not be long before the row of frameworks seen here in the Tacoma yard of the Foundation Ship 

 Building Company will be completed and ready to take their initial dip into the water. The great forests 

 which are not far away make it an easy matter to furnish in a short time the big timbers which are 

 needed for the construction of these vessels. Record time is being made in the Northwest in completing 

 the large wooden vessels which are being added rapidly to the fast growing fleet of the United States. 



