DEVELOPMENT OF SHIPYARDS IN THE UNITED STATES DURING 



THE GREAT WAR. 



By Captain R. E. Bakenhus, C. E. C, U. S. N., Member. 



[Read at the twenty-seventh general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held 



in New York, November 13 and 14, 1919.] 



It became a national policy to build an American merchant marine, in order 

 that the world's losses in tonnage from the operations of enemy submarines might 

 be replaced as soon as possible. The building resources of neutrals and countries 

 associated with the United States in the war were insufficient to meet the demand. 

 The United States possessed capital and resources in raw materials and a very ex- 

 cellent nucleus of shipbuilding plants, as well as a limited number of mechanics 

 skilled in shipbuilding, and was in favorable condition to assume this portion of the 

 world's burden. 



The problem of producing the ships consisted of four principal elements : the 

 financial, the developing of much additional shipbuilding labor, the supplying of 

 shipbuilding materials, and the providing of plants for ship construction. The ex- 

 pansion of the Navy to meet the urgent war needs had absorbed practically all of the 

 shipbuilding capacity of the country which was not in use for the construction of 

 merchantmen on foreign or domestic order. The Emergency Fleet Corporation 

 was, therefore, confronted at once with the problem of providing new plant facilities. 



Before the beginning of the great war — that is, in 1912-1913 — there were in 

 the United States 49 shipbuilding yards with an estimated number of 184 ways. 

 Of these yards, 25 were on the Atlantic coast, 8 on the Pacific coast, 16 on the Great 

 Lakes, and none on the Gulf. Early in 1917, before the United States declared 

 war on Germany, the number of shipyards had increased to 132, with approximately 

 419 ways. Of these yards, 66 were on the Atlantic coast, 32 on the Pacific coast, 

 27 on the Great Lakes, and 7 on the Gulf coast. By the fall of 19 18 — that is, before 

 the armistice was signed and before any of the war yards were dismantled — the 

 number had increased to a total of 243 yards, with approximately 1,202 ways, of 

 which yards 117 were on the Atlantic coast, 64 on the Pacific coast, 29 on the 

 Great Lakes, 32 on the Gulf coast, with one minor inland yard on the Cumberland 

 River in Tennessee, with two ways. These numbers include yards in which the 

 Emergency Fleet Corporation had no interests, as well as those in which the cor- 

 poration's vessels were built. For convenience this information is shown in tabular 

 form, as follows: — 



