NATIONAT. FOREIGN TRADE COUNCIL. 151 



struction. From all this it is apparent that witli construction costs of over $200 a ton and 

 with appropriations for construction greater than $2,000,000,000 the resulting fleet will be 

 materially more than 10,000,000 gross tons. 



In a recent statement covering its work, the Shipping Board announced that its pro- 

 gram included 2,249 contract ships, totaling 13,212,712 deadweight tons; 42 concrete ships, 

 totaling 301,600 deadweight tons', and 402 requisitioned ships, totaling 2,790,792 deadweight 

 tons, an aggregate of 2,693 vessels of 16,30'5,004 deadweight tons. This provides a fleet of 

 approximately 11,000,000 gross tons, and does not include 100 seized enemy vessels of an 

 aggregate gross tonnage of more than 425,000 tons additional. 



On September 1st there were 2,185 vessels within the jurisdiction of the United States 

 Shipping Board, aggregating more than 6,000,000 gross tons. Of these, 449 were requisi- 

 tioned American merchant ships, 100 were enemy vessels seized during the war, 256 were 

 new vessels owned by the Shipping Board, 31 were old lake steamers transferred to the Ship- 

 ping Board, 377 were American merchant ships not yet requisitioned, 81 were Dutch ships 

 requisitioned by the United States Government, and 891 were foreign ships chartered either 

 to the Shipping Board or to American citizens. It will be observed that only a comparatively 

 small part of this tonnage was provided by the Shipping Board program. Nearly half of it 

 consists of foreign ships requisitioned or chartered, which may or may not remain in Ameri- 

 can service after the war. But 1,294 of these vessels of more than 4,000,000 gross tons in 

 the aggregate fly the American flag and it is evident that the completion of the present 

 program of the Shipping Board will add approximately 10,000,000 gross tons to the Ameri- 

 can merchant fleet. We shall have, therefore, a fleet roughly estimated at 14,000,000 tons 

 at least, ample, on the basis of the British precedent, to meet the needs of our foreign trade. 



There must be pointed out, however, the probability, if not the practical certainty, that a 

 considerable proportion of this to^nnage will be unavailable for off-shore service, especially 

 under the conditions of competition which the new American fleet must meet. This refers 

 particularly to the wooden ships which constitute so large a part of the Shipping Board 

 construction program. It is, of course, well recognized that speed in construction has been 

 a vital element in our provision of ships. This has tended inevitably to the increase O'f cost 

 and, to a certain extent, to the decrease of efficiency. The expansion of shipyards, both in 

 number and size, has been very great and very rapid. The supply of labor for these 

 yards has unavoidably brought into service many thousands of men inexperienced in ship- 

 building. Schools has been maintained for the instruction and training of workmen, and 

 great effort has been made to increase the efficiency of the yards, but the best possible attain- 

 ment has naturally been short of the standard of quality produced by experienced workmen 

 in old-established yards and under more favorable conditions. 



Every bit of service that such vessels can render now is, of course, highly helpful in the 

 prosecution of the war, but the war itself operates to suspend conditions of competition 

 which necessarily must be met by American merchant ships after the restoration of peace, 

 and we must look forward to a certain reduction of the tonnage now included in the Shipping 

 Board program, when peace conditions again become operative. 



In view of these facts, your Committee suggests the advisability of curtailing the pro- 

 gram of wooden construction at the earliest feasible date, and of the preparation to trans- 

 form into barges the surplus of the wooden steamers over those which can be employed 

 economically. The machinery thus made available could be used with advantage in steel hulls. 



In August, 1917, there were only 61 shipyards in the United States. Of these, V? , with 



