THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



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under charter to the Shipping Board and 

 to American citzens, have added two and 

 three-quarter million tons. 



These accretions, together with new 

 ships delivered, American ships requisi- 

 tioned, lake steamers converted into sea- 

 going craft, and American merchant ves- 

 sels not yet requisitioned but at its dis- 

 posal, comprise a fleet of 2,185 vessels 

 over which the United States Shipping 

 Board has or may exercise jurisdiction — 

 a total of more than nine and a half mil- 

 lion deadweight tons. 



It must be borne in mind, however, that 

 this does not represent the tonnage which 

 we can utilize for the support of our 

 armies in France. For these ships there 

 are many needs, some of which vitally, 

 even if indirectly, affect the maintenance 

 of our troops abroad 



We are still far short of the tonnage 

 required, and in meeting that shortage 

 the details of our magically revived ship- 

 building industry come into view. 



In the yards devoted exclusively to the 

 construction of merchant ships there is 

 employed today an army of riveters, 

 erectors, reamers, heaters, calkers, paint- 

 ers, designers, machinists, pile-drivers, 

 carpenters, shipwrights, riggers, copper- 

 smiths, plumbers — in all the representa- 

 tives of 30 trades. It is an army num- 

 bering as many souls as there are men, 

 women, and children in war-time Wash- 

 ington — 400,000 And the weekly pay- 

 roll of that army is nearly $11,000,000. 

 At that rate, in one year our shipyards 

 will pay out in salaries and wages alone 

 a sum exceeding by $100,000,000 the total 

 annual gross revenue of every State in 

 the Union. 



But the game is worth the candle ! We 

 pour millions into the shipyard hoppers, 

 and cargo-carriers glide down the ways 

 with a rapidity which would have been 

 pronounced wholly beyond the realm of 

 possibility eighteen months ago. 



the; story of the: tuckahoe; 



Take the case of the 5,500-ton freighter 

 Tuckahoe. Just 37 calendar days from 

 the hour when its keel was laid it was 

 declared ready for service. Launched at 

 Camden, N. J., in 27 days, fitted out in 

 10, it was loaded with 5,000 tons of coal 

 in Baltimore on the 40th day after its 

 keel-laying, and began its amazing career 



