Popular Science Monthly 



All told about fifty separate operations 

 were necessary in putting these parts 

 together ; for each task there was a separate 

 gang of workmen who did nothing else. It 

 was not advisable to build a permanent 

 plant of this size equipped with cables and 

 roof pulleys. 

 Hence progres- 

 sive assembling 

 in the automo- 

 bile sense could 

 not be applied. 

 Au tomobile - 

 assembling 

 practice was re- 

 versed. The 

 boats remained 

 stationary 

 while the men 

 moved along. 

 Otherwise 

 there was no 

 essential diff- 

 erence. So rap- 

 idly were the 

 boats corn- 



Some of the chasers were launched from the shed but others 

 were made inshore and had to be brought to the ways by rail 



pleted by this method that the sheds were 

 soon crowded, and extra keels were laid 

 outside. Some of the boats were launched 

 directly from the shed while others were 

 placed on railroad trucks and carried to the 

 ways. Every vessel was thoroughly tested 

 by British Naval inspectors before it was 

 accepted. The boats were shipped to 

 England on the decks of ocean steamers, 



83 



four chasers being carried on one liner. 

 Since the war began, the production has 

 increased from three boats a year to three a 

 day. Five hundred and fifty submarine 

 chasers, eighty feet in length, were com- 

 pleted in less than five hundred and fifty 

 days from the time the con- 

 tract was signed. Perhaps 

 the most surprised wit- 

 ness of this accom- 

 plishment was the 

 British Admiralty 

 itself. And Eng- 

 land, as every- 

 one knows, is 

 the greatest 

 maritime na- 

 tion of the 

 world. 



An idea of 

 the tremen- 

 dous amount 

 of detail that 

 had to be 

 looked after 

 in this under- 

 taking may be gained from the following 

 brief list of figures: 550 gas stoves, 2,200 

 fire extinguishers, 2,200 sailing lights, 550 

 life boats, 550 searchlights, 25,000 incandes- 

 cent lamps, 974,504 bolts and nuts, 3,850 oil 

 lamps, 13,200 canvas covers, 22,000 storage 

 batteries, 109,450 ft. of brass pipe, 611,000 

 ft. of manila rope, 33,200 running yards of 

 deck canvas, 16,500 port lights, 1,650 sinks 



iP ljl !il,llllll!l 



When the sheds in which the boats were assembled were filled, additional keels were set up 

 outside. Here some of the boats are shown in an advanced stage, almost r^ady for launching 



