THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



179 



found toiling with the manual laborers, 

 too, just as are the women of Great 

 Britain. 



It is at oakum spinning, preparing the 

 material used by the calkers in sealing 

 the ship's seams to prevent leaks, that 

 feminine hands are most frequently em- 

 ployed. In a Gildersleeve, Conn., ship- 

 yard there is Miss Anna Lackman, who 

 after a few weeks' practice was spinning 

 half a bale more oakum a day than any 

 man in that yard had ever spun. Down 

 in Houston, Texas, there is one of 40 

 women oakum spinners who, in order to 

 begin her nine-hour task in the shipyard 

 by seven o'clock, has to get up at 4.30 

 every morning and travel 15 miles to her 

 job. Her cheerfulness in the face of 

 hardship is an inspiration to all the men 

 in the plant. At the other end of the 

 country, out in Vancouver, Wash., Mrs. 

 G. R. Underwood is leader of a gang of 

 calkers. She explains her enthusiasm for 

 her work by the fact that she has given 

 her two sons to her country, both being 

 in France fighting for the sanctity and 

 safety of her home. 



A few days ago the president of the 

 shipyard in which she was employed ob- 

 served that Mrs. Underwood looked tired 

 and fagged. 



"It has been a rather hard day," she 

 admitted, "but I am all right and there 

 is enough oakum on hand to keep the 

 calkers busy." 



Upon investigation it was found that 

 her four assistants had failed to report 

 for work that morning ; so she, single- 

 handed, had manned the machines all day 

 and kept the supply of oakum strand run- 

 ning steadily out to the men in the yards. 



Such is the spirit of the women work- 

 ers of America in our shipyards ! 



THE SHIP NEEDS OF PEACE 



In order to understand and appreciate 

 the task which lies before the American 

 shipbuilder, it is first necessary to know 

 the amount of merchant shipping which 

 was employed in meeting the ordinary 

 demands of peace, the amount which has 

 been destroyed since the beginning of 

 hostilities, and the rate at which ship- 

 yards have been launching sea-going craft 

 during the last four years. 



In the year 1914, before the Hun ran 

 amuck, the world's water-borne trade was 

 carried in 30,500 vessels of more than 

 70,000,000 deadweight tonnage.* Of that 

 international fleet more than one-third 

 sailed under the British flag. The United 

 States stood second among maritime na- 

 tions, with something less than one-eighth 

 of the total tonnage, while Germany 

 ranked third, with a little more than one- 

 tenth of the total. But while most of 

 Great Britain's and of Germany's ships 

 were engaged in foreign and colonial 

 trade, only one-fifth of America's ships 

 belonged to that class. Vessels that flew 

 the Stars and Stripes in foreign ports be- 

 fore the war totaled less than one-fortieth 

 of the world's tonnage. 



Since August, 1914, the world of com- 

 merce has lost 21,500,000 tons of Allied 

 and neutral shipping — more than cne- 

 third of the sea-going tonnage existing at 

 the outbreak of the war. The major por- 

 tion of this loss is directly attributable to 

 the German submarine, the remainder to 

 normal depreciation, storm, fire, collision, 

 and wreckage. 



During these four years the Entente 

 nations, the United States, and neutral 



* While it is the custom in official reports 

 of maritime nations to employ the term "ton- 

 nage" as meaning gross tons, unless otherwise 

 specified, the former chairman of the United 

 States Shipping Board in his public announce- 

 ments employed deadweight tonnage as the 

 standard. To avoid double confusion, the 

 deadweight-tonnage standard has been adhered 

 to by the present officials of the Board, and in 

 this article the deadweight standard of meas- 

 urement is meant. While there are many kinds 

 of tonnage, the three principal standards are 

 the gross, the net, and the deadweight. Gross 

 tonnage expresses in units of 100 cubic feet 

 the entire cubical capacity of a ship, including 

 spaces occupied by cabins, engines, boilers, 

 and coal bunkers. Net tonnage expresses in 

 units of 100 cubic feet a ship's capacity after 

 deductions have been made for cabins, ma- 

 chinery, etc. Deadweight tonnage is the maxi- 

 mum weight of cargo, bunkers, consumable 

 stores, passengers, and crew — a ship's weight- 

 sustaining capacity. For all practical purposes, 

 the deadweight of a ship may be derived from 

 the gross tonnage by adding 50 per cent to the 

 latter — that is, a vessel of 1,000 gross tonnage 

 is reckoned as having a deadweight tonnage of 

 1,500. The net tonnage is dependent upon 

 many factors and cannot be so readily deter- 

 mined either from the gross or deadweight 

 tonnage. 



