.36 



REVIVAL OF WOODEN SHlPBllILiDlNG AS A WAR INDUSTRY. 



The following table of construction of wooden ships is of particular interest 

 for comparison with the present day program : — 



World's Construction Wooden Vessels. 



There has been much speculation as to the value of wooden ships to-day — as 

 to whether or not they would last, particularly because constructed of so-called 

 "Green Timber." Gentlemen, the Battle of Lake Erie was won with green timber and 

 what mattered it afterward whether the ships kept or not ? The world war to-day 

 will be won with green timber ; and after it is won we can replace these ships with 

 steel, if need be, though it is my personal opinion that it will be many decades 

 before the last of the present-day wooden ships has passed away. 



The sudden revival of wooden shipbuilding as a war industry has necessitated 

 a revival of old shipyards, their enlargement and modernization. It has meant the 

 return to shipbuilding of many who, through its decadence as an industry, had 

 sought a livelihood in other directions. It has caused the construction of new ship- 

 yards from new materials and under the guidance of new minds, and, strange as it 

 may seem at first, some of the most successful of the new enterprises have been 

 under the jurisdiction of the "landlubber," the construction and the civil engineer. 



I want to call your attention particularly to two west coast yards, conceded to 

 be the finest yards in the world for the construction of wooden ships. One is at 

 Tacoma and the other at Portland, each constructed to handle one-half of a con- 

 tract of 40 steam auxiliary wooden schooners of 3,000 tons deadweight each, for 

 the French merchant marine, and awarded to The Foundation Company. 



Plate 12 shows the yard site of the Tacoma plant as it appeared in the early 

 part of August, 191 7, a 46-acre mud shoal lying from 7 to 12 feet under water 

 between two bulkheads. At low tide the mud flats were clearly seen outside the 

 bulkheads. In order to provide a launching basin and a fitting-out basin, it was 



