SOME UNPUBLISHED FACTS ABOUT THEIR CONSTRUCTION. 155 



It is part of my duty at the present time, when at the end of any month the vessels under 

 construction have not made the progress expected, to make a report to the Department and 

 to assign reasons for the delay, and I assure you that it is sometimes difficult to assign a 

 reason satisfactory to myself, satisfactory to the builder, and satisfactory to the Department. 

 My inventive ingenuity has frequently been taxed along that line, but on page 142, I note 

 reasons that have never occurred to me and have never been embodied in one of my reports, 

 namely, that the timber had to be cut and the flax had to be grown. 



The Chairman: — Any further discussion? If not, in accordance with the suggestion 

 of Admiral Capps, the Society will tender its thanks to Secretary Roosevelt for his valu- 

 able and interesting addition to our Transactions. 



We will now have the moving pictures showing the launching of the Oklahoma. 



The moving pictures were thrown on the screen, after which the meeting adjourned until 

 two o'clock. 



