252 HOG ISLAND, THE GREATEST SHIPYARD IN THE WORLD. 



ears frozen. It took on an average an hour and a half to get to Hog Island, or 

 three hours each day was spent by most of the men on the cars during the short 

 winter days. The wonder is that during this cold weather any work was accom- 

 plished. 



The labor turn-over during these trying months was of course high, but, as 

 winter moderated and transportation improved, it decreased, so that at the present 

 time the turn-over is only about 35 per cent per month. This is of course decid- 

 edly higher than it shovtld be, but it is simply typical of what is going on all over 

 the country. Even tlie best of conditions do not prevent the laborers from mi- 

 grating. The executives, and in fact the entire office staff, worked with the great- 

 est enthusiasm for uncounted hours during the early days and until they were 

 branded as "thieves, profiteers and grafters," when the spirit broke down and the 

 morale of the organization came near going to pieces. 



Little by little, however, as the work progressed, as the yard neared comple- 

 tion and as ships began to take shape and finally the launchings began, criticism 

 has died away and now unbounded praise has taken its place. The esprit de corps 

 has come back and everyone is now doing his best. The organization is complete, 

 the entire enterprise is functioning properly and ships will be manufactured at 

 an unheard of rate — from two to three each week. This is the program which 

 was outlined at the start and it will be lived up to. Already three have been launched 

 and are lying at the outfitting piers, where they are fast nearing completion. There 

 are four 35-ton gantry cranes installed on each outfitting pier and a 100-ton bridge 

 crane has been installed, under which any of the ships can ride with masts in place. 

 The outfitting piers are 1,000 feet long and 100 feet wide and, by dredging out 

 some 6,000,000 cubic yards, a 23-foot depth of water is being secured. 



The plant is now in condition to turn out a million and a half deadweight tons 

 of ships per year and, as one of the engineers on the job has said, "It would be no 

 trick at all to get out two million deadweight tons if we could be assured of the 

 steel and the other supplies necessary." 



This million and a half tons of ships calls for half a million tons of steel, for 

 90,000,000 rivets, for 570 boilers, for 700,000 horse-power of steam turbines, and 

 this material must all come in regular order and in an established sequence. It 

 can't be done, our critics still say, but it is being done. The capacity of the yard at 

 the present time does not depend on the yard itself, but on the shops elsewhere from 

 which it draws its supplies. All the steel plants in the country are being taxed to 

 their utmost, but it is believed that American ingenuity, American enterprise and 

 American push, together with American loyalty, will solve all these difficulties, and 

 that this fleet of 180 ships will be completed and turned over to the Government 

 faster than a like number of ships has been built in the history of the world. 



