'V, 
 
June, 19iO 
 
 ^^ rn • Q "" ' VouHLNo. 1 
 
 -• . i 
 
 Bulletin 
 
 OF 
 
 American International Corporation 
 
 History and Development 
 
 of 
 
 New York Shipbuilding- 
 Corporation 
 
 120 BROADWAY • NEW YORK 
 
I 
 
Bulletin of American I?iter7tati(mal Corporation 
 
 History and Dcve/opmer/t 
 
 of 
 
 New York Shipbuilding 
 Corporation 
 
 
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 120 BROADWAY • NEW YORK 
 
 Copyright 1920 Amerii-an International Corporation 
 
American International Corporation 
 
 George J. Baldwin 
 Charles A. Coffin 
 William E. Corey 
 Robert Dollar 
 Pierre S. du Pont 
 Philip A. S. Franklin 
 Joseph P. Grace 
 Robert F. Herrick 
 Otto H. Kahn 
 Henry S. Pritchett 
 
 'Boiif'J of T)i7'ecfo7's 
 
 Frank A. Vanderlip, Chairman 
 Charles A. Stone, President 
 
 Percy A. Rockefeller 
 
 John D. Ryan 
 William L. Saunders 
 James A. Stillman 
 Guy E. Tripp 
 Edwin S. Webster 
 Albert H. Wiggin 
 Daniel G. Wing 
 Beekman Winthrop 
 William Woodward 
 
 Officers 
 
 Charles A. Stone, President 
 
 George J. Baldwin, Senior Vice-President 
 
 Matthew C. Brush, 
 
 Vice-President 
 
 Philip W. Henry, 
 
 Vice-President 
 
 Richard B. Sheridan, 
 
 Vice-President 
 
 Thomas W. Streeter, 
 
 Vice-President 
 
 Richard P. Tif^stEY, Vice-President 
 
 Joseph S. Lovering, Treasurer 
 Cecil Page, Secretary 
 

 American International Corporation, organized 
 by bankers, business men and engineers of the 
 l-nited States, aims 
 
 First — To establisli friendly commercial relations with 
 all countries of the world ; 
 
 Second — To participate in the development of such 
 enterprises — domestic or foreign — as will broaden 
 the scope of American activities and lead to a 
 better understanding of international relations; 
 
 Third — To promote the organization of corporations 
 or associations to bring together foreign and 
 American bankers, business men and engineers, 
 for the transaction of business and the develop- 
 ment of undertakings which will be mutually 
 advantageous. 
 
 417951 
 
Underwood & Underwood 
 
 GEORGE J. BALDWIN 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 AMERICAN International Corporation can best serve the three 
 ^^ purposes which inspired its organization by assisting the mer- 
 chants, bankers and engineers of the United States to meet their 
 competitors of other nations in the marlcets of the world on an 
 independent and competitive basis and thus to develop our country 
 as an active partner in the world's affairs through the operation 
 and ownership of our own ocean transportation facilities. The suc- 
 cessful world trader is usually the one who is best equipped to deliver 
 his products cheaply and quickly at his customer's door. 
 
 Intensified war production of cargo vessels has placed the United 
 States in a favorable position in the freight-carrying trade of the 
 world, yet along with this development our present ocean transporta- 
 tion lines must be strengthened and more fully equipped by the con- 
 struction of those classes of passenger liners best suited to each of 
 our various trade requirements. New passenger routes must be 
 inaugurated, supplied with suitable vessels and operated in a world 
 service in which both the freighters we have built and the passenger 
 liners we are now building and shall build in the future will play 
 their proportionate parts. 
 
 Such a passenger service will provide direct interchange of 
 passengers, fast freight and mails with those foreign countries with 
 which we trade and thus tend to overcome the obstacles placed in 
 the way of free trading when negotiations are conducted through 
 the ports and firms of a third country. If we are to hold and increase 
 our foreign commerce, it is essential that our customers be enabled 
 to travel in American steamships operated by us for our mutual 
 benefit and sailing directly to our shores, instead of being compelled 
 to reach our markets through competitive countries. 
 
 The position which our shipping now holds in the maritime 
 world by reason of the shipbuilding and ship operating facilities 
 created by the war's demands for tonnage marks a new era for the 
 United States on the seas — marks an upturn from the ruinous depres- 
 sion into which our merchant marine declined after the Civil War 
 and during which the foreign commerce of the United States was 
 almost entirely dependent upon the foreign shipbuilder and operator 
 whose first object is always to benefit the trade of his own country. 
 This position is now being subjected to the test of competitive condi- 
 
tions of peai[:G.-time workl.tiiade. We can maintain it by constructing 
 and opemtH^g: in: vYOpljci C(?n3petkion those classes of ships which will 
 contribute *m*ds<il;tjr*the*prap(?r 'founding out of our merchant fleet. 
 
 The first-class passenger steamship is the nerve force of a mer- 
 chant marine. Foreign trade of any magnitude depends primarily 
 upon, and is built up by, the establishment and maintenance of 
 regular sailings on fixed dates of first-class steamships with the best 
 passenger accommodations, each boat designed for its particular 
 service. Supplementing them, we must have cargo liners of from 
 10,000 to 15,000 tons deadweight and fitted with limited passenger 
 accommodations. With such regular service radiating from the 
 various ports of the United States to the other ports of the world, 
 the two problems of finding markets for our normal excess of produc- 
 tion and of cargoes for the great fleet of freighters built during the 
 war, can be solved. 
 
 Alive to the merchant marine problem as it existed during the 
 first three years of the world war, American International Corpora- 
 tion has followed the situation carefully through its many and rapid 
 changes in the last three years. Soon after its formation in 191 5, 
 the Corporation cooperated in the purchase of the Pacific Mail 
 Steamship Company which has since greatly strengthened its service 
 to and in the Orient as far west as India, has re-entered the Atlantic 
 with regular sailings from Baltimore through the Panama Canal, 
 and has established the first around-the-world service with regular 
 sailings ever undertaken under the flag of the United States. 
 
 In 1916 the Corporation made important investments in the 
 United Fruit Company whose fleet is the basis of a growing trade 
 with Central America and the West Indies, and in International 
 Mercantile Marine Company whose great strength in the trans- 
 atlantic trade is now being developed by new services to the German 
 ports and into the Mediterranean. 
 
 As the carrying trade outlined rests primarily upon the ability 
 to construct economically the required types of ships for these trades 
 and secondarily upon their successful competitive operation, Ameri- 
 can International Corporation supplemented its ship operating in- 
 terests in the fall of 1916 by taking an important part in the purchase 
 and expansion of New York Shipbuilding Corporation which now 
 owns the largest and best equipped yard in this country for the con- 
 struction of the specialized types of ships essential to the growth of 
 the American merchant marine — a yard whose reputation for such 
 construction was already well established. 
 
 Soon after the entry of the United States into the war, American 
 International Corporation, through the formation of a subsidiary 
 
company, undertook the construction and operation of the great 
 ship assembUng plant at Hog Island for quantity production of 
 freighters, and is now carrying this work through t(j a successful 
 conclusion. 
 
 The most vital problem now before this country in connection 
 with its foreign trade is the construction and operation of American 
 ships on a competitive basis with those of other countries. This is 
 fully understood by our Congress and legislation of a most construc- 
 tive character is now pending in that body, which promises a sound 
 basis upon which can be built an efficient and adequate American 
 merchant marine. 
 
 At the end of the war, New York Shipbuilding Corporation found 
 itself with a complete, well-balanced plant approximately three times 
 as large as in 1916 and with a competent organization under the 
 leadership of President M. A. Neeland and his experienced and 
 capable staff of executives, which, having effected this expansion 
 under war conditions, has now established this development as an 
 efficient working unit for peace-time competition, possessing facilities 
 for the construction of the largest modern passenger liners and war- 
 ships. It is now engaged in the construction of forty-three vessels of 
 various classes for the Government and for private interests, among 
 which are three of the largest battleships for the United States Navy 
 and, for the Emergency Fleet Corporation, the most important 
 addition now being made to the passenger fleet of the United States. 
 
 Its complete facilities and its experience of twenty years in the 
 construction of naval vessels, passenger-and-cargo liners and such 
 specialized types as oil tankers and colliers, have placed the Corpora- 
 tion in a foremost position among shipbuilders and assure to the 
 American merchant marine a strong support in its competition for 
 an adequate share in the carrying trade of the world. 
 
 George J. Baldwin 
 
 Senior Vice-President 
 American International Corporation 
 
 Chairman of the Board 
 
 New York Shipbuilding Corporation 
 May 15, 1920. 
 
Pach Bros 
 
 MARVIN A. NE ELAND 
 
NEW YORK SHIPBUILDING 
 CORPORATION 
 
 OPERATING today the largest self-contained plant of its kind 
 in the world, New York Shipbuilding Corporation is equipped 
 to build entirely within its own yard from raw materials any 
 type of ship from collier to passenger liner and from destroyer to 
 superdreadnought. Designed primarily for the construction of large 
 passenger-carrying vessels, the expanded facilities of the yard are 
 contributing to the American merchant marine the most important 
 group of these ocean liners now being built for our merchant fleet; 
 and at the same time the yard is adding more naval vessels to that 
 splendid list whose service records have made renowned the name 
 of New York Shipbuilding Corporation. The plant consists of five 
 double and eight large single shipways and ten smaller ways, served 
 by the most comprehensive shop facilities, wherein are built modern 
 vessels in all their complexity of structure and equipment. 
 
 The attainment of this plant capacity could hardly have been 
 possible without the tremendous impetus given to American ship- 
 building by the war; but the fact that "New York Ship" and not 
 some other yard has established America's primacy in ship con- 
 struction, is due solely to the inherent strength of the plant's original 
 layout and to the steady development of its organization during the 
 past two decades. 
 
 The plant of the present New York Shipbuilding Corporation 
 was started in 1899 as the New York Shipbuilding Company by the 
 late Mr. Henry G. Morse, an experienced builder of bridges and 
 ships, who decided to break away from the old, accepted traditions 
 of shipbuilding practice and establish his own yard in which he 
 could apply to this industry the most up-to-date labor-saving ma- 
 chinery and tested methods of structural steel construction. Just 
 at that time the perennial question of Governmental assistance to 
 the development of American shipping by means of subsidies for pas- 
 senger liners was more than usually to the fore, and the Industry 
 looked forward to a period of extensive business. The original plan 
 was to build the new plant on Staten Island and the company which 
 was formed was therefore called New York Shipbuilding Company. 
 It was found impossible, however, to acquire the contemplated site 
 and investigation was made of locations down the coast from New 
 York as far as Virginia, special attention being paid to the Delaware 
 River District. The result of investigations by several inspection 
 parties was the purchase of a tract of about 160 acres on the east side 
 
 9 
 
LAYOUT OF S H I P W A Y S 
 
 Stretching along the Delaware are the various groups of shipways comprising the 
 present yard of New York Shipbuilding Corporation. To the original covered 
 ways shown on the left, up-stream, have been added Ways T and U, show- 
 ing white superstructure; four open and six covered destroyer ways, and, across 
 Newton Creek, the four ways of the new South Yard. 
 
 of the Delaware river in the southern part of the city of Camden 
 New Jersey, across the river from Philadelphia. The ground condi- 
 tions were especially suited to the building of shipway foundations 
 and railway facilities were adequate. 
 
 It must be remembered that in starting this shipyard Mr. Morse 
 had an entirely clean slate on which to write. He was able to free 
 himself from many of the traditional shipbuilding practices that 
 were out of tune with the advancing mechanical technique of the 
 twentieth century; whereas many of the old yards, then and still 
 in existence, were the result of gradual growth over many years, 
 some of them even from the days of the wooden ship, and were there- 
 fore handicapped in the proper installation and application of the 
 improved labor-saving machinery. The yard of New York Ship- 
 building Company was designed for the use of just this machinery. 
 
 FOUR fundamental principles were laid down in the design and 
 construction of this yard; then considered more or less radical 
 departures, they made possible the new war-time yards and have 
 been generally adopted by the older plants. These were: First, the 
 
 lo 
 
general application to shipbuilding of the bridge-builder's practice 
 of fabricating steel from templets; second, the routing of material 
 through the yard in an uninterrupted course without back-hauling 
 from the time of its receipt in a raw state to its erection or assembly 
 in finished shape on the ship; third, the installation of an overhead 
 crane system of the traveling type, that would effectively serve 
 every part of the yard and ways where material was to be stored or 
 handled; fourth, the housing of the principal shops and the ways 
 under a continuous roof structure so that all parts of the work could 
 be carried on regardless of weather conditions. This last point does 
 not apply merely to rain and cold, for a mid-summer sun can make a 
 steel ship on an uncovered way so hot that it is practically impossible 
 to continue work on either the outside or the inside of the hull. 
 
 In particular the first two principles outlined above brought with 
 them the necessity for other innovations in the details of ship planning 
 and construction. In the first place the templet system introduced 
 the principle of specialization which was becoming an increasingly 
 important factor in American industrial development. Permitting 
 complete fabrication of steel even before the keel of a ship was laid, 
 the templet system necessitated a drafting-room organization which 
 
 
 ^'-^ 
 
 PLANT LAYOUT 
 
 Between the rear of the ways and B roadway stretch the shops and storage facili- 
 ties'of the yard. In the foreground, just beyond the railroad tracks, are some of 
 the storage sheds and the original plate and angle shop. Immediately behind the 
 original covered ways is the machine shop and back of this the power house. 
 Beyond this original yard layout are the shops and storage spaces serving the 
 newer groups of ways. To the left of Broadway are the administration buildings 
 
 and supplementary storage yards. 
 
 II 
 
THE ORIGINAL COVERED WAYS AND SHOPS 
 
 could provide the complete information from which a more extensive 
 mold loft could make its templets. This in turn did away with the 
 old-fashioned method of "lifting" templets from W'Ork in place 
 before the shop could function, and enabled material to proceed 
 directly to its destination. 
 
 With the plant so laid out that material would move steadily 
 forward from the storage yards to the shipways and outfitting basins, 
 a system had to be devised wdiereby each piece of material would 
 indicate the course it was to follow through the plant and the work 
 to be done on it in the shops through which it was to pass. This 
 problem was solved by the development of a system of letters and 
 numbers painted on each piece of material, which both indicated 
 the routing and identified the detailed blue prints w^hich had been 
 distributed to the shops as working instructions. Closely allied with 
 this was a cost system involving a classification of material and an 
 allocation of expense items which has proven most satisfactory. 
 
 The introduction of revolutionary methods in any industry is 
 inevitably accompanied by cries from the "old school" that it cannot 
 be done. Such was the experience of New York Shipbuilding Com- 
 pany. It had to meet opposition not only from the established 
 yards but even from some of the men gathered together to put these 
 plans into operation ; many were doubtful as to the possibility of suc- 
 cess, some w^ere even more skeptical and a few were obstinate to the 
 point of insubordination in refusing to carry out the new ideas. These 
 few had to be eliminated and the others won over to cooperation in 
 applying these novel methods to so old and conservative a trade as 
 shipbuilding. 
 
 The particular point of contention, since it was the idea most at 
 variance with established custom, was the extensive application of 
 the templet system. A templet is a wooden or paper pattern in 
 accordance with which the steel plates or beams or other fabricated 
 parts are worked up. Under the old practice it w^as customary to 
 develop only the frame-work and a very small part of the ship's 
 
 12 
 
THE MOLD LOFT WHERE THE TEMPLETS ARE MADE 
 
 In the upper picture are some of the wooden templets or patterns, and in the lower 
 view templets of paper are being made. The steel for the ships is shaped and 
 punched in accordance with these patterns which are laid out with the greatest 
 
 accuracy and completeness of detail. 
 
 13 
 
PLATE BENDING FLOOR 
 A section of one of the shops where steel plates are heated and shaped. 
 
 structure. After the frames had been erected and elaborately trued 
 into place, the balance of the work was done by shipfitters who con- 
 structed wooden templets at the ship's side and took them to the 
 shops as patterns for fabricating the parts. The new methods 
 afforded much greater accuracy of construction than was obtained 
 in the old way. 
 
 Introduction of the templet system carried this same degree of 
 exactitude in the erection of the frames to the construction of the 
 entire ship. The men in the mold loft became specialists in working 
 up these templets from drawings with mathematical precision. It 
 was soon found that the templets could be made of paper in most 
 cases, thus materially reducing their cost. These light paper patterns 
 were easily carried to the shops where the steel was fabricated to 
 conform with them exactly. Then the steel parts were transported 
 to the ships where they fitted into place, thus eliminating a large 
 amount of the work formerly done by the shipfitters. So exact has 
 the w^ork become from the introduction of templets that the rivet 
 holes in two or even three thicknesses of plates and angles match 
 perfectly when these parts are assembled. 
 
 The advantages of this system are obvious. There is no need for 
 waiting until a certain portion of a ship has been built before the 
 
 14 
 
rest of the parts can be constructed, for the shops can go ahead with 
 their work from templets for any part of a ship at any time, knowing 
 that when that particular part is wanted by the ship erectors it will 
 fit its appointed place because it is just the right size and because 
 every other part of the ship that has been erected has fitted with 
 equal nicety and has left that place the size anticipated from the 
 beginning. This being the case, templets for an entire ship can be 
 made before any of the raw material for the construction of that ship 
 has been delivered at the yard, and one such set of templets can be 
 used for the building of as many ships of the same design as may be 
 wanted. It was the templet system that made possible the large 
 output of standardized ships from Hog Island and from the other 
 ship assembling yards built as a war measure; but the system had 
 spread from New York Ship to other yards long before the entrance 
 of the United States into the war. 
 
 That these four principles embodied in this new yard were sound 
 both in conception and in execution, is proven on two counts: first, 
 that they have endured successfully over a period of twenty years, 
 during which the plant has trebled in size; and second, that they 
 have been adopted and copied by other shipbuilders throughout the 
 country. That their introduction abroad has not been more exten- 
 sive is due more to the opposition of labor to the introduction of 
 labor-saving methods and to the Old World's disinclination to scrap 
 
 RADIAL DRILL CUTTING RIVET HOLES IN CURVED PLATE 
 
 15 
 
existing equipment and organization, than to any deficiency in their 
 practical working. This difference between European and American 
 methods of ship construction is an important factor in our abiHty 
 to build ships successfully in competition with the Old World yards. 
 
 PLATE AND ANGLE SLAB 
 
 The angles are heated in the furnaces behind the "slab" and are then bent to the 
 
 desired shape. 
 (Below) A closer view of the furnaces. 
 
 i6 
 
EARLY ORGANIZATION 
 
 THE organization which was built up in the early days of the 
 company for the construction and operation of the yard, was 
 such as might be gathered together at any time where speed of 
 execution was a necessity and where a new and unusual under- 
 taking w^as to be put through. There were some skilled ship- 
 builders, of course; there were men experienced in the structural 
 steel industry; there were some who were familiar with the increas- 
 ing tendency toward the use of labor-saving machinery — a some- 
 what diversified group assembled by a man who had a vision which 
 he wanted to make live. For the manning of the plant, gangs 
 were recruited with their leaders from structural steel shops and men 
 from other trades were taught to handle the pneumatic rivet "gun. " 
 
 As was inevitable, there was some working at cross purposes in 
 the early days of the plant, some shifting of blame; but as the men 
 came to know each other and as the plan on which they were working 
 began to take visible form, the spirit of team-play and of cooperation 
 asserted itself and welded the organization into an efficient group 
 which was later to prove capable of the same effectiveness under the 
 stress of rapid expansion. Old timers at the yard still reminisce 
 about Contract No. i, launched as the freighter M. S. Dollar, but 
 later changed to an oil tanker and renamed the /. M. Guffey. This 
 was the first ship that many of the men in the yard had ever seen 
 in the process of building, and every noon hour she was the center 
 of an interested group. She was launched with her funnel in place, 
 and some wags took advantage of that fact: at the right moment 
 they touched a match to a pile 
 of oil-soaked waste under the 
 stack, and as the good ship slid 
 down the ways she belched forth 
 clouds of black smoke. In short, 
 this new yard was started in a 
 spirit of high adventure and that 
 spirit, expressed in such typically 
 American exaggeration as at- 
 tended the launching of the 
 M. S. Dollar, overcame the skep- 
 ticism and opposition of the old- 
 line ship-builders and brought 
 the yard successfully into life. 
 
 Parenthetically, it may be 
 noted that what was exaggeration 
 less than twenty years ago is a 
 fact now. New York Ship's ioo-ton flange press 
 
 
 17 
 
overhead crane system is so strong and complete that any ship of 
 ordinary size can be equipped with boilers and engines while on the 
 ways and can be launched with steam up. 
 
 The emphasis that was laid from the very start upon the necessity 
 for adapting and developing every efficient labor-saving mechanism, 
 must not be forgotten ; because in this very factor of modern equip- 
 
 DESTROYERS BEING COMPLETED ON THE WAYS 
 
 The crane, which is arranged to serve the four open ways of the new destroyer 
 yard, is swinging one of the main boilers into place. 
 
 ment properly assembled for the entire process of building a ship, 
 lies the greatest strength of the yard as it stands today. The organ- 
 ization was not content merely with what was already available in 
 labor-saving machinery; it experimented unceasingly to save time 
 and labor in ship construction, in the fabrication of the steel for the 
 ships and in the handling of the material. As a result, not a few 
 machines have been invented and new methods of work developed 
 right in the plant. Of the machines, probably the most widely 
 known is the Lysholm plate punching table, of which the first one 
 was designed and built at the yard, to permit the easy and rapid 
 shifting of a heavy plate under a rivet punch. 
 
 The yard was designed primarily for the building of large pas- 
 senger liners in view of what then seemed the probability of Govern- 
 
 i8 
 
LYSHOLM PLATE PUNCHING TABLE 
 
 The plates rest on the wheels which are part of a movable platform. By the manip- 
 ulation of control levers, the operator can bring the marks for the rivet holes exactly 
 
 under the punch. 
 
 RADIAL DRILL USED FOR REAMING RIVET HOLES 
 
 mental assistance in the operation of these ships, and such splendid 
 examples of this class of vessel as S. S. Mongolia and Manchuria, 
 contracts 5 and 6, were among the very first ships built at the yard. 
 The expected subsidies did not materialize, however, and the antici- 
 
 19 
 
pated expansion of shipbuilding in the United States was suddenly 
 checked within a few years after the completion of the yard. There 
 then ensued a period, which lasted until 1915, during which the yards 
 of this country were forced to seek and accept the construction of 
 any type of vessel that would keep their ways in use and their 
 organization intact. Even though a newly established yard, New 
 York Ship was able to obtain its proper proportion of business in 
 competition with the other yards of the country, and in 1912 It was 
 fourth among the shipyards of the world in point of tonnage pro- 
 duced in that year. Although its output consisted of many types 
 
 ONE SECTION OF THE BOILER SHOP 
 
 of craft, the quality and efficiency and speed of the work did not lag. 
 In fact, the diversified experience may be considered to have been of 
 the greatest value in rounding out the ability and capacity of the 
 organization and in establishing its reputation for the construction 
 of ships well designed and skillfully built. 
 
 An interesting contract during this "lean" period in ship- 
 building was that in connection with the building of the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad Tubes under the East River, New York City. A British 
 engineering firm had the contract for the tunnel construction and 
 invited bids from New York Ship for the building of the huge steel 
 shield, hydraulic jacks and air locks which were necessary for cutting 
 the tunnel through the river bottom. During the ensuing negotia- 
 
 20 
 
TWO VIEWS OF THE MACHINE SHOP 
 
 21 
 
tions a representative of the firm visited the shipyard at Camden 
 and inspected the boiler and machine shops. New York Ship was 
 given the full order for the shields, jacks and air locks, and the 
 British engineer expressed his surprise that any American plant was 
 so well equipped for the prompt handling of such an order. 
 
 , ; Xi 
 
 " IDAHO" BOILER ROOM 
 
 PLATE JOGGLING MACHINE 
 
 HANNA YOKE RIVETER 
 
 22 
 
FIRST NAVAL CONSTRUCTION 
 
 IN 1903 there came the first opportunity to bid upon and under- 
 take naval construction — the fore-runner of a great line of fighting 
 ships for our own and foreign governments, for which the yard has 
 become famous. Two armored cruisers were to be built, the Wash- 
 in gto7t and Tennessee. When the bids were opened it was found that 
 New Yorlc Shipbuilding Company had submitted the lowest esti- 
 mates, but its competitors, bringing pressure to bear and arguing 
 that New York Ship was a new and untried company, were awarded 
 
 THE FORGE SHOP 
 Showing the section where the hghter, or blacksmithing, work is done. Compare 
 these small steam hammers with the 1200-ton hydraulic press, pictured on page 37. 
 
 both contracts. Under protest a compromise was eventually reached 
 whereby New York Ship was awarded the Washington and a yard then 
 better known the Tennessee. Despite many expressions of doubt 
 in the ability of New York Ship to do this work properly and 
 promptly, her cruiser was delivered to the League Island Navy 
 Yard on July 30, 1906, ten days in advance of contract time. The 
 Tennessee was delivered on July 11, but it is interesting to note that 
 these were the first two ships which had ever been delivered to the 
 Navy Department within contract time, a result which was generally 
 credited to the competition of New York Ship. 
 
 23 
 
In submitting its bid, this plant had written a letter pointing out 
 to the Navy Department that the horse-power provided for in its 
 specifications could not produce the specified speed of twenty-two 
 knots. This proved true in the case of both cruisers ; but because 
 of this reservation the competing yard, as well as New York Ship, was 
 permitted to increase the boiler pressure from 250 to 265 pounds. On 
 their speed trials the Tennessee made 22.16 knots and the Washington 
 22.27 knots, giving the latter the title of the fastest ship then in 
 the United States Navy, a fact which her trial crew duly celebrated 
 by lashing a broom to her masthead as she returned up the Delaware 
 to the yard of New York Ship. 
 
 Construction of this armored cruiser reopened the question of 
 the worth of the templet system. Even some of those within the 
 organization itself doubted the practicability of applying this system 
 to such large and complicated work as was called for in building this 
 cruiser. However, templets were used and proved even more effi- 
 cient on such work than on the usual work of merchant ship construc- 
 tion. Undoubtedly the system was largely responsible for the speed 
 with which the cruiser was turned out despite the yard's lack of 
 experience in building naval vessels. 
 
 A few months after obtaining the contract for the Washington, 
 Mr. Morse died suddenly. The next day bids were opened for three 
 warships of the Kansas type and New York Ship was awarded the 
 
 ENGINE ROOM OF THE CRUISER ''fEI HUNG,'' 
 SHOWING HER MAIN TURBINES 
 
 24 
 
MACHINING A PROPELLER BLADE 
 
 Kansas which was rated at the 
 time as a first class battleship. 
 Soon after her delivery to the 
 Navy she gave a particularly 
 good account ol herself on the 
 historic 'round-the-world voyage 
 of the American fleet. 
 
 Since then, not a single year 
 has passed when there has not 
 been some ship for the United 
 States Navy in the process of 
 construction at the plant, and 
 naval officers assigned to New 
 York Ship for supervision of 
 naval construction there, now 
 occupy an office building con- 
 siderably larger than the first 
 administration building for the 
 entire plant. 
 
 "1X7 HEN it is said that New York Shipbuilding Corporation com- 
 '' prises a completely self-contained yard, it is meant that the 
 facilities are provided for developing through every step of the process 
 to the finished ship the many different kinds of raw, crude or semi- 
 conditioned material which are used in modern ship construction. 
 The only exception to this statement is in the case of the castings 
 which are purchased from foundries but which are machined at the 
 plant. Among the more important kinds of material that are brought 
 into the yard, worked up and assembled in the ship, steel plates 
 and sheets form the bulk of the crude material. From these are made 
 the bottom, sides, decks and bulkheads of the ship, as well as the 
 boilers. Next in importance are the bars, angles and shapes which 
 give the ship structural strength. Iron and copper piping and lumber 
 are required by the millions of feet to equip a ship and provide the 
 interior furnishings. Tons of castings and of forgings of steel ingots 
 are used in building the ship's engines and shafting. In addition to 
 this heavy material there are thousands of items of minor equip- 
 ment including wire, hemp and manila rope, electrical installations 
 and auxiliary machinery. Metals used range from iron to platinum. 
 In the construction of naval vessels the extremely varied require- 
 ments of armament necessitate an additional complexity of material ; 
 a modern battleship alone calls for approximately one hundred miles 
 of electrical wiring. 
 
 Under the layout for the original yard, which is still in effect, 
 this raw material is brought in and stored at the north end of the 
 
 25 
 
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 SHADED PORTION SHOWS SIZE OF PLANT PRIOR TO 
 DECEMBER, 19U). 
 
yard whence it moves steadily forward toward the ships on the 
 ways and in the outfitting basins. Plates pass through the plate 
 shop where they are straightened, marked off according to templet, 
 punched, sheared, planed and forwarded to the storage section at 
 the head of the ways. A series of traveling cranes handles them 
 throughout the entire process. Similarly, the angles come in from 
 the steel storage shed, work down through the angle shop in the 
 course of their fabrication, are bent, cut, punched and riveted to 
 plates or other angles, and are finally assembled with the plates in 
 the storage base at the head of the ways in proper sequence for their 
 use on the growing ships. From this base another series of traveling 
 cranes picks up the material as needed and takes it to its proper 
 position on the ships under construction. While this work is in 
 process, the raw material of tubes 
 and boiler plates is being trans- 
 formed into boilers in the boiler 
 shop, and in the machine shop 
 immediately back of the ways 
 are being built the engines, tur- 
 bine or reciprocating, which will 
 furnish the propelling and aux- 
 iliary machinery for these ves- 
 sels. A 1 00-ton crane on a spec- 
 ial system of overhead tracks 
 can pick up this heavy equip- pipe storage racks 
 
 ment in the machine shops and carry it either to a ship in the wet 
 slip or to a hull on any one of the ways in the original yard. 
 
 LUMBER YARD AT NORTH END OF PLANT 
 
 28 
 
THE LUXURIOUSLY APPOINTED ADMIRAL S RECEPTION 
 ROOM ABOARD THE ''mORENO'' 
 
 Also at the north end of the yard, toward the waterfront, there is 
 space for the receipt and storage of the vast amount of himber that 
 is needed on the ships, a dry kiln for curing it, and the joiner and 
 paint shops. In the joiner shop, lumber is worked up for the crew 
 and passenger accommodations, and other fittings. This shop makes 
 even the desks, chairs and other furnishings as well as the most 
 detailed grille and panel work. The paint shop gives many of these 
 wood products their finish before they are installed, and it also has 
 charge of the vast amount of painting and varnishing from keel to 
 wireless mast before a ship is ready for delivery. In a well equipped 
 pattern shop are made the patterns from which are cast many parts 
 of the ship's machinery and such special pieces of hull construction 
 as hawse pipes, stern posts and stems. 
 
 The original plan of the yard provided that these shops should 
 serve three double, covered shipways called ways J, K and L. Each 
 of these ways is 120 feet wide and 604 feet long; and under the same 
 roof with them is the wet slip, "H ", for the outfitting of vessels after 
 launching. Sufficient property was bought to the south of these 
 ways to provide for the doubling of the shipbuilding capacity of the 
 yard by making the south side of the third way, Way L, the center 
 line of such an expanded plant. The first step toward such a growth 
 
 29 
 
THE PLANT IN 1916 
 
 This airplane photograph was taken shortly before the company came under its 
 present ownership. Ways M and O had not then been covered over. 
 
 was the building of two additional double shipways, called Ways M 
 and O, which were completed in 1912 and 1915. The first of these 
 ways is 122 by 694 feet and the second 124 by 784 feet, making them 
 the largest ways in any American shipyard at the time of their com- 
 pletion. With the further expansion of the yard during the war, 
 additional series of shops and storage bases were required to serve 
 the new shipways, but in each case the layout of the original yard 
 was used as a model. 
 
 ONE or THE STORAGE YARDS 
 
 Since this photograph was taken the R «& S Plate and Angle Shop has been built 
 at the further end of the 70-ton crane runway. (See page 32.) 
 
 30 
 
THE NEW CORPORATION 
 
 IN THE first half of the last century when American clipper ships 
 dominated the seas, sailors turned their hand to shipbuilding 
 during the time between voyages, and the captain-trader designed 
 and directed the building of the ship in which he sailed to the ports 
 of the world. There was, therefore, a direct interest of the builder 
 in his boat. Nowadays shipbuilding and ship operating are distinct 
 and highly specialized industries, with the result that there is danger 
 of one or the other overlooking the community of interest existing 
 between them. This interest between shipyard and ship operator 
 is secure in the case of New York Ship; but in place of the old-time 
 captain-trader putting his own experience on the seas and in the 
 ports of the world into the building and equipping of his ships, the 
 present Corporation has as part owners a group of ship operators 
 who between them have ships sailing the seven seas in many kinds of 
 work from scheduled passenger and freight liners to tramp ships and 
 tankers. The wide experience which they gain under these diverse 
 conditions and the knowledge which American International Corpora- 
 tion has acquired through its world-wide trading interests, are 
 available to the shipyard. Such close contact wath operating 
 problems coupled with the extensive facilities and the wide experi- 
 ence of the yard itself, gives assurance that vessels built by New 
 York Ship will meet the requirements of both operators and shippers. 
 
 In the purchase of the yard in November, 191 6, American Inter- 
 national Corporation was fortunate in having associated with it 
 three such ship operating companies — Messrs. W. R. Grace & Co., 
 Pacific Mail Steamship Company and International Mercantile 
 Marine Company. The purchase was made upon the recommenda- 
 tion of a commission of engineers and naval architects who were 
 engaged to make a careful survey of the shipyards along the x^tlantic 
 seaboard. The commission reported that New York Ship was the 
 plant best organized and equipped and most efficiently operated, and 
 that it was capable of considerable expansion. And an important 
 consideration was that the quality of its products had earned for 
 New York Ship a sterling reputation as the builder of many of our 
 finest naval and merchant vessels. 
 
 At the time of its acquisition by the present owners, the yard of 
 New York Shipbuilding Company comprised five large double ways 
 and one wet slip, all under one roof, and behind these ways all the 
 required shops. With the reorganization of the company in 1 9 1 6 under 
 the title of New York Shipbuilding Corporation and the attendant 
 provision of additional funds, a policy of expansion was inaugurated, 
 of which the first step was the construction of four large single ways 
 arranged in pairs "T" and "U," now 600 feet long. The ground work 
 
 31 
 
NEW PLATE AND ANGLE SHOP 
 
 This shop was built to serve Ways T and U, the rear of which can be seen at 
 
 the right of the picture. In the foreground is a section of a storage yard, showing 
 
 the tract: layout and a 70-ton traveling and a 30-ton gantry crane. In the distance 
 
 are the destroyer and South Yard shops. 
 
 for these ways is designed for their ready extension to two double 
 ways of 1,000 feet. Their potential capacity is evident when it is 
 remembered that S. S. Leviathaii, the largest passenger liner in commis- 
 sion, is only 907 feet long. Back of these ways were built a large 
 plate and angle shop, steel storage shed and mold loft of the most mod- 
 
 INTERIOR OF NORTH YARD POWER HOUSE 
 
 32 
 
ern design and equipment. The capacity of the power plant was 
 doubled and the machine shop, which had extended along the rear 
 of the three original shipways, was lengthened 124 feet. 
 
 Before this expansion was completed the United States entered 
 the World War and there came the demands of the Navy for a large 
 number of torpedo boat destroyers and of the United States Shipping 
 Board Emergency Fleet Corporation for cargo and troop ships. 
 These departments of the Government urgently desired to make the 
 greatest possible use of Xew York Ship's organization and experience 
 by an extension of its shipbuilding capacity. Sufficient land was 
 already owned or was available to the south of the existing plant to 
 provide for two separate additions to the yard, either one of which 
 would before the war have been considered a large yard in itself. 
 
 The first of these additions, which was constructed for the account 
 of the Navy Department, was a unit of ten destroyer ways of which 
 six are covered. This unit was built in the southern part of the 
 original tract of land bought by the company. Behind these ways 
 was built a large plate and angle shop for the fabrication of the steel 
 for the thirty destroyers which the Navy ordered, and the machine 
 shop was again extended 124 feet. For the outfitting of these de- 
 stroyers the wet basin between the original unit of covered ways and 
 Ways T and U was available. 
 
 The second addition to the yard, built through cooperation with 
 the Emergency Fleet Corporation, comprises what is known as the 
 South Yard. This yard, which has been operated on behalf of the 
 Fleet Corporation, is entirely separate from the North Yard except 
 for executive control and the use of certain facilities of the older 
 plant. There are four large shipways, each 103 by 750 feet, designed 
 for the construction of large passenger vessels. The shops, which 
 are modern in e\'ery respect, include a machine shop, blacksmith's 
 
 SOUTH YARD SHOP A X D WAYS 
 
 33 
 
J 
 
 {upper) a recent view of the north end or THE YARD 
 
 The two succeeding additions to the machine shop which, with the boiler shop, 
 extends along the head of the ways, and the new power house unit, are evident. 
 At the left is the traveUng crane shown in the picture on page 30, and beyond it is 
 
 the cafeteria. 
 
(lower) rear view of the destroyer yard 
 
 Destroyers are under construction in all of the six covered and four open ways. 
 
 The shops in the foreground, replacing those which were destroyed by fire on 
 
 September ii, 191 8, had been rebuilt by October 30, 1918. On the right is a part 
 
 of the superstructure of Ways T and U. 
 
THE FOUR SOUTH YARD WAYS AS SEEN FROM THE RIVER 
 
 shop and the necessary power station. The tract of land comprising 
 the South Yard proper is of thirty-eight acres situated in the city of 
 Gloucester, across what is known as Newton Creek. Essential stor- 
 age facilities were provided on an additional thirty acres of adjacent 
 property. 
 
 All of this increase in plant equipment and shipbuilding capacity 
 has meant, of course, corresponding increases in the administration 
 buildings and in the main ofhce building. Yard administration is kept 
 entirely separate from the general executive ofiftces which are located 
 on the opposite side of the street which forms the inland boundary 
 of the yard itself. 
 
 The shipway capacity of the entire plant of New York Ship- 
 building Corporation now comprises five large double ways, eight 
 large single ways and ten smaller shipways for the construction of 
 destroyers and other small craft, giving a total shipway capacity for 
 twenty-eight vessels of ordinary size, in addition to the ships that 
 can at the same time be in process of completion and outfitting in 
 the wet basins. With the exception of the Government's ship 
 assembling plant at Hog Island, the shipway capacity of New York 
 Ship is the largest of any single yard either in this country or abroad. 
 When we consider, however, that behind these shipways there is a 
 shop organization for the complete fabrication of practically all of a 
 ship's parts, and for the manufacture of boilers, engines, lifeboats 
 and a large amount of miscellaneous equipment, the assertion is 
 fully justified that New York Ship is the largest completely equipped 
 shipyard in the world. 
 
 The facilities of the forge shop, particularly for the shaping of 
 such heavy pieces as rudder stocks, shafting and so forth, are ex- 
 ceptional. They include a 1,200-ton hydraulic press, the most power- 
 ful in any American shipyard, which is used in forging the propeller 
 shaftings and in other heavy work. The plate and angle shops have 
 a combined capacity on a single shift basis of handling 7,500 tons of 
 
 36 
 
A I200-T0N HYDRAULIC PRESS 
 The forging of a rudder stock for a transport is shown in this picture 
 
PART OP THE OUTPUT OF THE BOILER SHOP 
 
 S M A L L - B O A T SHOP 
 38 
 
steel each month. The machine shop has an engine building capac- 
 ity equivalent to about 75,000 H. P, a year. The work of the boiler 
 shop is equivalent to the production of four Scotch marine boilers of 
 average size each month ; and the capacity of each of the other shops 
 is nicely proportioned to this scale of output. When there has been 
 surplus capacity, orders from other plants have been filled. On such 
 an order the boiler shop recently delivered thirty-three boilers, and the 
 products of the small-boat shop are often in demand by other yards. 
 Yet apart from this capacity for ship construction, apart from 
 the great bulk of equipment with which to fashion the parts that go 
 into a ship, there stands out preeminently the quality of the ships 
 themselves. Their superior performance under the conditions of 
 peace was emphasized under the stress of war-time service in which 
 so many of them were engaged. 
 
 THE SHIPS 
 
 DURING the twenty years through 1919 since the yard was built, 
 there were delivered 215 vessels, comprising 29 warships of 
 236,146 displacement tons; 67 merchantmen of 503,418 deadweight 
 tons; and 119 miscellaneous craft of 170,334 displacement tons. At 
 the end of this same period, thirteen additional vessels had been 
 launched but not completed and twenty-three ships were in the 
 course of construction on the ways. 
 
 The number of ships built and the variety of types represented 
 are notable evidence of the wide range of shipbuilding experience 
 which the yard has developed. The naval vessels include eight battle- 
 ships, the latest of them the United States Superdreadnought Idaho, 
 the most powerful type in operation by the United States Navy 
 and the fastest battleship of the fleet, which was delivered in March, 
 1 919; one armored cruiser, one protected cruiser and nineteen torpedo 
 boat destroyers. Of these naval vessels, two were built for foreign 
 governments, the battleship Moreno, of 27,566 tons displacement, for 
 the Argentine Navy, and the protected cruiser Elli of the Greek Navy, 
 originally the Fei Hung for the Chinese Navy. 
 
 What the warships are capable of is shown by the performance of 
 the Idaho in the recent maneuvers of the Pacific Fleet. In a letter 
 to the Chief of the Engine Installation Department at New York 
 Shipbuilding Corporation, a junior engineer officer of the Idaho, 
 writing on March i, 1920, says: 
 
 "Upon our departure this a.m. from Santa Barbara for San 
 Pedro, the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet, Admiral 
 Hugh Rodman, while not actually ordering a race between the Texas, 
 New Mexico, Mississippi and Idaho, were phrased in such a manner 
 that the race was inevitable. 
 
 39 
 
© E. Muller, Jr. 
 
 U . S . S U P E RD R E A D N O U GH T ''iDAHO'' 
 
 This vessel, of the most powerful type in commission in the United States Navy, 
 was built by New York Shipbuilding Corporation, and put into commission at 
 
 the plant on April 20, 1919. 
 
"These four vessels were maneuvering at eighteen knots, speed 
 when the order was flashed from the flagship New Mexico for each 
 vessel to proceed to the base at the discretion of her commanding 
 oflicer. This order was received with great enthusiasm, as It meant 
 that the long-looked-for day In the Pacific Fleet had arrived when the 
 much discussed question could be settled as to what ship could show 
 her heels to the rest of the fleet. 
 
 "The concluding maneuvers of the day brought three of the 
 ships in line abreast of one another— the Texas, New Mexico and Idaho— 
 all awaiting the signal that would let them go, but still obliged to 
 run together and not exceed eighteen knots, speed until the signal 
 concluding the maneuver was hauled down. 
 
 "The wily Mississippi had dropped back out of position and 
 came up Into line again at full speed, and the signal was hauled down 
 just as she got abreast. But as she was at full speed, she gained a 
 decided advantage over the rest of us who still had to work up to 
 full headway. She gained a full ship's length on us, but did not get 
 a chance to put clear water between her stern and our bow. 
 
 "Captain Vogelgesang, of the Idaho, called for more speed from 
 his engine room. Never will I forget that scene, when an excited 
 messenger reported to Commander Bonvilllan that the 'Missy was a 
 full ship's length ahead. Cool and passive, never Impulsive, nor 
 betraying the slightest emotion, his order came in a quiet, clear tone 
 of voice: 'Open her up gradually; don't pull the steam down in 
 doing so, but bring her up to top speed ! ' I watched his face, looking 
 for sign of anxiety or emotion, but could find none. With just the 
 faintest smile, barely noticeable, he turned and said: 'That will get 
 them.' And it did. In five minutes we were abreast of her; the New 
 Mexico and the Texas had dropped astern. In another five minutes 
 we were showing her open water, and in two hours and a halt, with 
 Point Firmin Light abeam, we were, by stadlmeter, about 6,000 
 yards ahead of the Mississippi. The New Mexico was barely In sight, 
 and the Texas was not to be seen. The average speed made by the 
 Idaho was 21.6 knots per hour. 
 
 "The race was concluded, the mastery of the Idaho was firmly 
 established, and with 'Gunnery and Engineering Supremacy' we 
 hoisted the brooms to the masthead, indicating a clean sweep, and 
 dropped our anchor amid the cheers of the auxiliary fleet, as all the 
 world loves a winner." 
 
 In a letter written to Mr. Marvin A. Neeland, President of the 
 Corporation, during the first voyage of the Idaho in commission, 
 Captain C. T, Vogelgesang, U. S. N., said: 
 
 " I am very happy to state that the run down the river was very 
 successfully accomplished without any dlfiicultles and everything 
 has responded perfectly to whatever test was put upon it. T feel 
 
 41 
 
TYPICAL NAVAL VESSELSl 
 

 leship 
 
 ass battleship 
 :leship 
 
 type destroyer 
 ught 
 
 f type destroyer 
 liser 
 s battleship wtien built 
 
 ILT BY NEW YORK SHIP 
 
that we have a magnificent ship and I think great credit is due to the 
 corporation of which you are President for the splendid execution 
 of this work. 
 
 "I beg leave further to express my appreciation of the uniformly 
 generous and considerate treatment that the officers and the men of 
 the Idaho always received during the time that they were associated 
 with the Idaho at the Works of New York Shipbuilding Corporation." 
 
 OF THE merchant ships there had been built before the war nine 
 combination passenger-and-cargo vessels aggregating 47,000 
 deadweight tons. Heading this list are such splendid additions to the 
 American merchant marine as S. S. Mongolia and Manchuria, sister 
 ships formerly in the Far Eastern service of Pacific Mail Steamship 
 Company and now on the transatlantic schedule of the American Line. 
 To this class of passenger-and-cargo vessels have been added the 
 two transports Santa Elisa and Santa Luisa, delivered during 1919, 
 which have been converted to commercial use and have been put in 
 the South American West Coast Service. Twelve freighters totaling 
 99,996 deadweight tons have been turned out by New York Ship, of 
 which the Texan, Nevadan and Nebraskan, built for the American 
 Hawaiian Line, were the second, third and fourth vessels, respec- 
 tively, to be built at the yard. The most recent type of large freighter 
 to be built there is that of S. S. Champion, Defender and Scottsburg, 
 delivered during 1919. Each of these ships is of 12,179 deadweight 
 tons, and eleven knot speed. They are oil burners with a steaming 
 radius of 9,700 miles. 
 
 Quantity production of specialized types of merchant ships is 
 indicated by the two groups, oil tankers and colliers. In each group 
 twenty-two ships have been placed in service from this yard, the oil 
 tankers aggregating 183,561 deadweight tons and the colliers 60,928 
 tons. Many of these tankers traversed the dangerous areas of the 
 North Atlantic during the war, and it will be remembered that one 
 of them,. S. S. Gulflight, was one of the first American ships to be 
 torpedoed before the entrance of the United States into the war. 
 Attacked without warning in heavy weather off Bishop Rock on 
 May I, 1 91 5, she was able to proceed under her own steam to a safe 
 harbor in the Scilly Islands, despite a huge hole cut through her bow 
 just abaft of the fore-peak. She was fully repaired and again in 
 service by the following August. Of the colliers the best known, by 
 virtue of the remarkable speed of thirty-seven days in which she was 
 completed from the date her keel was laid, is the 5500-ton Tuckahoe 
 which on the fortieth day following the laying of her keel was carry- 
 ing coal between Atlantic coast ports. Her service record during 
 the last two years shows that she was as staunchly constructed and 
 as carefully fitted out as if she had been built at a more leisurely pace. 
 
 44 
 
''tuckahoe'' 
 
 THE 5500-TON COLLIER 
 
 This ship was launched in twenty-seven days and completed in thirty-seven days 
 
 from the laying of its keel. Note that it was built on half of a double shipway with 
 
 another ship in process of construction alongside of it. 
 
 The other craft produced by New York Ship, though large in 
 number, are comparatively small in aggregate tonnage. To a con- 
 siderable extent they represent the "lean" years through which the 
 American shipbuilding industry passed, particularly the ten years 
 preceding the destructive U-boat warfare. This miscellaneous fleet 
 
 45 
 
includes naval tugs and tenders, fireboats, revenue cutters, vessels 
 for the lighthouse service, and Army Mine Planters, as well as dredges, 
 oil and coal barges, carfloats and ferryboats. Five "knocked down" 
 boats were built, two of them ferryboats which were loaded on flat 
 cars and transported to San Francisco where they were assembled 
 and are now operating in the harbor there. It is worthy of note 
 that the two large, side-wheel vessels of the Hudson River Day Line, 
 the Robert Fulton and Washington Irving, which are famous for the 
 beauty of their decorations and appointments, were built at this plant. 
 
 ''gulflight'' 
 
 THE TANKER 
 
 Though seriously damaged, as this picture shows, by submarine attack off the 
 Scilly Islands, she proceeded to port under her own power. 
 
 46 
 
WARTIME EXPANSION AND ACTIVITY 
 
 THE further expansion of the yard by the construction of the 
 destroyer ways and of the South Yard, was essentially a war 
 measure, the former to supply additional destroyer strength to the 
 Navy in its operations in the War Zone and the latter to gain vitally 
 needed troop transport capacity for army purposes. Six months 
 after our declaration of war, or in October, 1917, the Corporation was 
 ordered to build ten destroyers, a type of vessel in the construction 
 of which it had already gained valuable experience. This order was 
 increased three months later to a total of thirty destroyers, necessi- 
 tating the construction of the new unit of ten destroyer ways. 
 
 The South Yard, with its four large shipways, was planned and 
 its construction supervised by New York Ship as agents for the 
 Emergency Fleet Corporation. The work of building this plant was 
 started in May, 1918, and the first keels laid in May, 1919. Though 
 the immediate war-time demand for transports had ceased before 
 any of this type of ship had been launched, the necessary modifica- 
 tions were made in their design to convert them into passenger-and- 
 cargo vessels. Thus, this addition to the shipbuilding facilities of the 
 Corporation is serving the greatest usefulness in producing the type 
 of tonnage which is so essential to the proper development of the 
 American merchant marine. The present order for sixteen pas- 
 senger-and-cargo boats, together with a few more being built at other 
 yards, comprises the only important addition which is now being 
 made to the fleet of American passenger ships. 
 
 It is important to note that the destroyer and South Yard units 
 were constructed for the Government by New York Ship at actual 
 
 THE FIRST KEELS BEING LAID ON THE SOUTH 
 
 YARD WAYS 
 
 47 
 
cost, no profit being made on this essential development work. 
 Recently the company took over the way and shop equipment com- 
 prising the South Yard on a profit-sharing basis, payment to be made 
 to the Emergency Fleet Corporation out of earnings. 
 
 That two such important additions, together with the necessary 
 developments of many of the auxiliary units of the yard, were built 
 and put into operation at the same time that work on many ships 
 in the original yard was being pushed forward with such speed under 
 the stress and difficulties of war-time conditions, proved the engi- 
 neering and executive capacity of this organization of shipbuilders. 
 During the highest pitch of war activity the new plate and angle 
 shop, which had been built to serve the destroyer unit, caught fire 
 the night of September ii, 1918, and burned to the ground. The 
 
 PLATE AND ANGLE SHOP BEHIND DESTROYER WAYS, 
 BURNED SEPTEMBER II, I918 
 
 next morning, while the ashes were still hot, a large gang of men 
 were at work clearing away the debris. Three days later one of 
 the original machines was again in operation; two weeks after the 
 fire the roof of a new plate and angle shop was up, and a week later 
 90 per cent, of the machinery had resumed operation. But it was the 
 steady strain of the heavily expanded load on New York Ship's 
 productive capacity rather than such a temporary crisis, that gave 
 the true test of the organization's merit. 
 
 To direct this huge plant working at high pressure day and night, 
 was no mean test of administrative skill and leadership. There was 
 not an executive from the President and his staff in the main office 
 building through the Works Manager in the yard administration 
 
 48 
 
A GROUP OF DESTROYERS BEING OUTFITTED 
 IN ONE OF THE WET BASINS 
 
 building to the sliop superintendents and foremen, who was not 
 shouldering a load which it seemed impossible for him to carry. Yet 
 the load was carried not merely for days or weeks but for months 
 that slowly ticked off into the years 1917, 1918 and 1919. At the same 
 time it is no discredit to the men to point out that they never could 
 have accomplished such remarkable results in the face of manifold 
 handicaps had not the yard been laid out scientifically and an effi- 
 cient organization developed. Many of the men who bore the greatest 
 strain had had an important share in shaping that development over 
 the previous two decades. 
 
 To keep the shops supplied with their never-ending demand for 
 raw materials at a time when the nation's ability to produce and 
 transport these materials was strained to the breaking point, was an 
 achievement of which the Purchasing Department may well be proud. 
 Some idea of the scale on which it worked may be gained from the 
 following figures for 1919: During that year 55,000 invoices repre- 
 senting an aggregate bill of $35,000,000 for materials, were checked 
 and paid, and 12,000 carloads of freight, representing transportation 
 charges of $1,350,000, were received in the storage yards. 
 
 During 1917 and 1918, the years of our active participation 
 in the war, New York Shipbuilding Corporation delivered twenty 
 merchant vessels, totalling 175,965 tons deadweight, and the United 
 
 49 
 

 
 iip(«i 
 
 
 it att 
 
 I 
 
 ^..•,77. .-■•:<•■• -»-^''X^ 
 
 I S.S. 
 
 Defender, freighter 
 
 
 2 S.S. Manchuria, pa 
 
 3 S.S. 
 
 San/a £/»5a, passenge 
 
 
 4 S.S. Washington It 
 
 5 S.S. 
 
 Somerset (now Ci<y of 
 
 
 6 S.S. i^o'a/ .Irrozii, 
 
 7 S.S. 
 
 Plymouth, collier 
 
 
 8 S.S. Tuikahoe, coll 
 
 TYPICAL MERCHANT VESSE 
 
r-and-cargo liner 
 
 argo liner 
 
 xcursion steamer 
 
 ), coastwise passenger liner 
 
 cer 
 
 BUILT BY NEW YORK SHIP 
 
States Army Mine Planter General William M. Graham. The list 
 included seven tankers of 78,231 tons deadweight, ten colliers, of 
 81,227 tons,\nc\ud\ngtheTuckahoe ; and three freightersof 16,507 tons. 
 
 LAUNCHING OF S 
 
 ''tuckahoe'' 
 
 But an account of New York Ship's activity during the war is not 
 complete without some mention of its contribution to the work of three 
 other yards. Mr. Morse took the initial step toward the fabrication 
 of ships in quantity by the extended use of the templet system in 
 shipbuilding. Under the stress of a war-time demand for tonnage, 
 Mr. George J. Baldwin, Chairman of the Board, took the second and 
 last step when he suggested that the structural shops of the country 
 could fabricate ships' parts from templets just as exactly and effi- 
 ciently as could the shops within a shipyard, and that these parts 
 could then be transported to the seaboard for assembling into ships. 
 
 It is a matter of common knowledge now how the Government 
 finally decided to put this plan into operation in three great ship 
 assembling plants specially built for the purpose. It is not as well 
 known, however, that American International Corporation undertook 
 the construction and operation of Hog Island, the most stupendous 
 undertaking in the history of shipbuilding, largely because the 
 
 52 
 
Corporation had available the experience and skill of so competent 
 a corps of shipbuilders as constitute the staff of New York Ship. 
 These men gave invaluable counsel when the Hog Island plant was 
 being laid out, produced the original set of templets from which 
 was fabricated the steel for the cargo ships l)uilt at Hog Island, and 
 assisted in the development of the templets for other vessels assembled 
 elsewere. 
 
 And it is to be remembered that this great contribution to the 
 success of the fabricated ship idea was made by a group of executives, 
 engineers, shop superintendents and foremen who at the same time 
 were trebling New York Ship's productive capacity. 
 
 As fast as ways are released from the war-time construction for 
 Government account, keels are laid for contracts which are being 
 placed by private interests. The present construction program 
 of New York Shipbuilding Corporation comprises forty-three ships of 
 which all but eight were actually under construction on May 15, 1920. 
 This list includes the battleships Colorado and Washington, for 
 the United States Navy, of 32,600 tons displacement, which are 
 to be propelled by electricity; the battle cruiser Saratoga of 43,5(xj 
 tons displacement, which will be the largest type of vessel in the 
 United States Navy; seventeen destroyers, of which nine have been 
 launched and part are practically ready for delivery, eight still being 
 on the ways; four passenger-and-cargo ships originally designed as 
 transports, S. S Wenatchee, Sea Girt, American Legion Sind Keystone 
 State, 535 feet long and of 13,340 gross tons, which have been 
 launched ; five additional passenger-and-cargo ships of the same 
 
 MODEL OF THE SHIPS OF THE ''wENATCHEE'' TYPE 
 
 Nine of these large passenger-and-cargo liners are being built by New York Shipbuilding 
 
 Corporation for the U. S. Shipping Board. They are 535 feet long, have a gross tonnage 
 
 of approximately 13,340 tons and a displacement tonnage of 21,000, and will have 
 
 accommodations for 550 passengers. Their speed will he 17^2 knots. 
 
 53 
 
type as these, four of which are under construction on the ways; 
 seven passenger-and-cargo ships, 522 feet long, but of the same 
 displacement, of which three are launched and four are under con- 
 struction on the ways; and six oil tankers of which four are of 12,500 
 deadweight tons and two of 10,000 tons. The nine passenger-and- 
 cargo ships of the type of S. S. Wenatchee are among the largest 
 passenger liners at present being built in the United States. With their 
 length of 535 feet they have a displacement of 21,000 tons and 
 accommodations for 550 passengers, and have been designed for a 
 speed of seventeen and a half knots. The seven other passenger- 
 carrying ships will have a loaded speed of fourteen knots and will 
 carry seventy-eight passengers. These sixteen vessels are for the 
 United States Shipping Board. An additional passenger liner, for 
 private interests, is included among the present contracts. 
 
 TYPE OF RECIPROCATING 
 
 ENGINE BEING BUILT FOR 
 
 PASSENGER LINERS 
 
 54 
 
THE MEN 
 
 LAND, buildings, machines and all manner of necessary equip- 
 ment do not alone make a shipyard. It is the skill and loyalty of 
 the great body of men who work together in using this equipment, 
 that make renowned the plant and its products. 
 
 Shortly after Mr. Morse's sudden death in June, 1903, Mr. 
 De Courcy May, who had been General Manager, was elected 
 President. Mr. May faced the difficult task of having to continue 
 the development of the organization at a time when the situation 
 in the shipbuilding industry was such as to make it hard for even a 
 well established yard to keep its organization intact. Mr. May met 
 the problem successfully, leaving to Mr. Samuel M. Knox, who 
 succeeded him as President in 191 1, a well organized personnel and 
 a shipyard with a reputation for Iniilding good ships. Mr. Knox 
 held this position until the middle of 191 7 when he resigned, continu- 
 ing his connection with the reorganized company, however, as a 
 Director. He was succeeded in the presidency by Mr. Marvin A. 
 Neeland who had been Assistant Vice-President and Chief Engineer 
 of the United States Steel Corporation for several years before 1916, 
 when he became associated with American International Corporation 
 as Consulting Engineer. 
 
 Mr. Neeland assumed his new duties just at the time when the 
 ship tonnage requirements of the Allies and of the neutral European 
 countries was filling American shipyards to capacity. He found a 
 group of executives and men loyal to New York Ship, jealous of the 
 established reputation of the yard and proud of their connection 
 with the plant in many instances since its earliest days. Head- 
 ing this organization, as Senior Vice-President, was Mr. H. A. 
 Magoun who came to New York Ship in 1907, after having had many 
 years of practical experience not only as a shipbuilder, but also as a 
 constructor of auxiliary machinery for ships and as a ship operator. 
 
 The strain which was put upon Mr. Neeland and his associates 
 soon after he assumed direction of the plant, may be appreciated 
 from a study of the following figures: At the beginning of 191 7 
 there were 4,500 men employed in the yard; by the end of that year 
 the number had grown to 7,500; by the end of 1918 it had increased 
 to 12,000, and last year, 1919, closed with more than 17,500 on the 
 payroll. This period of unprecedented expansion paralleled the 
 period in which the whole country suffered from a shortage of labor 
 and a decrease in the productive efficiency of the labor available. The 
 net result was that the price of this huge increase in personnel was 
 a large labor turnover; in other words, many more thousands of 
 men passed through the plant in those three years than were 
 permanently added to the working force. 
 
 55 
 
If the new workingmen had been recruited from the ranks of 
 skilled shipbuilders, one-half of the battle would never have had to 
 be fought; but the fact is that practically none of them had ever 
 seen a shipyard before, and a large proportion of them had had no 
 experience in the fabrication and erection of structural steel. 
 Every category of unskilled and skilled man, except the experienced 
 shipbuilder, was attracted to America's shipyards by the high wages, 
 remained varying lengths of time and then drifted on. In the war- 
 
 REPRESENTATIVES OF FORTY-ONE NATIONALITIES 
 AMONG THE WORKMEN AT THE PLANT 
 
 time race to produce ships, labor, before it could be assimilated by 
 the ninety-six skilled trades represented at the plant, had to go 
 through as many processes of "fabrication" as did a steel ingot or 
 the roughest piece of lumber before it was ready to take its 
 appointed place in the structure of a ship. The only illustration 
 paralleling this strain upon the veteran staff is that of a skeleton 
 regiment that must absorb a lot of raw recruits in the middle of a 
 battle and still carry on. 
 
 New York Ship went into the war with a tradition of accomplish- 
 ment behind it. Thanks to the loyal veterans in every part of the 
 organization the new men caught the spirit of this tradition. The 
 ships that have been launched during the past three years are as 
 well designed, as staunchly built and as perfectly equipped as those 
 of a decade before. And the whole organization is continuing with a 
 spirit of team-play which has gained rather than lost from the 
 heavy strain of the war period. 
 
 TO DEVELOP the efficiency of the men on the job and to build 
 up this splendid spirit of team-play, the Corporation has gone 
 to the very bottom in formulating its plans for meeting and handling 
 the human equation. There is little that is novel in the general 
 
 56 
 
basis of this program. Most of it is, in one form or another, common 
 to the organization of many large industrial units in this country. 
 It is, however, carried out with a whole-hearted sincerity that makes 
 it a strong factor in building up a permanent personnel which will 
 take an active and intelligent interest in the construction of good 
 ships. The first essential is to attract men from whom to select the 
 most efficient working force. The second essential is to continue this 
 attraction in a way that will hold this force together. 
 
 The fundamental attraction, of course, is pay which, in a highly 
 competitive industry, cannot be appreciably higher per unit of pro- 
 duction than obtains in other plants. In order to afford the men an 
 opportunity for advancement, a series of classes in some of the 
 principal trades is given under the supervision of the Works Man- 
 ager's office. These classes include ship-fitting and riveting schools, 
 evening blue-print reading classes, a rate-setting course, an appren- 
 tice school and special courses, in addition to a cooperative plan 
 carried out with the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia. During the 
 rapid expansion of the plant, the ship-fitting school had a capacity 
 for 250 men, and at one time the blue-print classes took care of 200 
 men. At the present time there are 225 men in the apprentice school. 
 
 But wages are only a part of the appeal that will attract and 
 hold the class of men necessary to build ships in the way they must 
 
 ONE OF THE PATRIOTIC MASS MEETINGS HELD 
 
 DURING THE WAR 
 
 57 
 
be built at New York Ship, The conditions under which the men 
 work must be right; the men must feel that they are a part of a 
 great shipbuilding team rather than isolated units in the scheme of 
 production. This fact was fully realized in all branches of industry 
 during the war and the Government led in the campaign to develop 
 each man's interest in his job by relating that job to the whole task 
 of winning the war. It is even more difficult, but equally necessary, 
 to arouse and hold the interest of the men in the daily grind of peace- 
 time industry. 
 
 The cooperation of New York Ship with the men in its employ 
 may be divided roughly into two classifications: matters affecting 
 the men during working hours and thus directly related to the opera- 
 tion of the plant, and cooperation with the men in developing any 
 organization which will bring them together during their leisure 
 hours in a community of interest and thus aid in establishing a belter 
 spirit of team-play. 
 
 All of the more important shops representing the great bulk of 
 the working force, have shop committees, the organization of which 
 is left entirely with the men. Their chairmen meet with the Works 
 Manager twice a month to discuss questions relating to the working 
 interests of the men; and at other times, when problems local to 
 some one shop are to be talked over, the Manager meets with the 
 whole committee of that shop. At all times, however, the Manager's 
 
 O N_E OF^THE ROOMS 
 
 IN THE YARD HOSPITAL 
 
 58 
 
office is open to individuals who wish to take up their requests or 
 complaints directly rather than through their shop committee. 
 
 Supplementing the preventive work of a "Safety First" organiza- 
 tion among the men themselves, is the complete machinery of modern 
 surgical and medical care provided by the Corporation. A fully 
 equipped dressing station is located near the center of the yard, with 
 a branch in the South Yard, and doctors and nurses with necessary 
 ambulance service are in attendance at all times that the men are at 
 work. Men with minor injuries not requiring care in the public 
 hospitals report daily at the company hospital for redressings or are 
 visited in their own homes. The hospital also cooperates with the 
 employment department in 
 physically examining all accept- 
 ed applicants for jobs with the 
 view to seeing that they are fitted 
 for their proposed work. Em- 
 ployees of the commissary are 
 examined periodically to prevent 
 the spread of communicable 
 diseases. 
 
 As in the case of most indus- 
 ries located on the outskirts of a 
 city, there are few suitable eating 
 facilities within easy access of the 
 plant during the lunch hour. To 
 meet this need a noonday lunch- 
 eon service operated through a 
 concessionaire has been built up 
 to include a comprehensive system of cafeterias and lunch counters. 
 The main yard restaurant occupies the entire second floor of a large 
 locker and shower building in the center of the yard, has eight lines 
 of self-service and can accommodate i ,400 men at one time. Food 
 for the whole system, which also includes a dining-room for the execu- 
 tive officers, is cooked in central kitchens and distributed to the vari- 
 ous restaurants and cafeterias, thus giving uniformity to the quality 
 of food served to all who want to buy, from president to day laborer. 
 A store has been started within the yard to sell groceries and other 
 supplies to the men at cost prices. 
 
 In addition to the workmen's accident compensation required 
 by State law there was inaugurated at New York Ship, effective 
 September 28, 191 7, a plan of insurance under which a man on com- 
 pleting his first year of service becomes entitled to a life insurance 
 policy for $500. The amount of this policy is increased $100 each 
 year during his continued service with the plant until a maximum of 
 $2,500 is reached. The insurance plan was made retroactive for all 
 
 ■ S E L F - S E R V I C E 1 JSl Til ]•; 
 MAIN CAFETERIA 
 
 59 
 
employees, including, therefore, those whose services dated back to 
 the old New York Shipbuilding Company before its reorganization. 
 The insurance scheme went into effect with a total of 2,153 i^ieri 
 insured for $2,118,200. By April i, 1920, this had increased to 9,043 
 employees insured for $6,230,100 and a total of $93,500 had been 
 paid to 119 beneficiaries. That the plan is popular with the men 
 and that it has been a factor in holding those who might otherwise 
 have accepted offers from other plants, have been attested by many 
 statements made to the company. 
 
 The rapid increase during the war period in the number of men 
 employed, brought about the serious problem of providing additional 
 housing facilities and the requisite transportation of this great body 
 of men to and from the plant. To relieve the transportation situation 
 a large number of additional street cars were purchased for the 
 Public Service Corporation by the Emergency Fleet Corporation 
 for the operation of a special service to handle the peak load morning 
 and evening. Additional trains were put into service on the branch 
 of the Pennsylvania Railroad running back of the plant, which carries 
 large numbers of men into Camden and to the Philadelphia ferries; 
 and on the branch of the Philadelphia & Reading, which serves some 
 of the Camden suburbs. There is also river boat service from the 
 plant to Camden and Philadelphia. 
 
 The greatest factor in the relief of the housing situation was the 
 construction by New York Ship on behalf of the Emergency Fleet 
 Corporation of an extensive housing project embracing what are 
 known as Morgan Village and Yorkship Village, having a total of 
 sixteen hundred homes within easy walking distance of the yard. 
 Morgan Village, the smaller part of this development, consists of 
 two hundred brick houses built in rows wherever vacant lots could 
 be obtained along the streets back of the plant. They are unpre- 
 tentious in design but are new and comfortable and have been filled 
 from the time they were first ready for occupancy. 
 
 Yorkship Village is designed to provide something more than 
 mere living accommodations — modern homes in permanently attrac- 
 tive surroundings. A 250-acre farm within the city limits of Camden 
 was bought and developed into a self contained "garden city" with a 
 pleasing variety of brick, frame and stucco houses of Colonial design. 
 They form a village of 1,386 houses, fifty-six apartments and a dozen 
 stores. The ground plan of the village comprises a central square 
 from which a long rectangular common and broad avenues radiate 
 with smaller squares and ovals between them. Paved streets and 
 sidewalks and extensive plantations of shade trees, formal evergreens, 
 box and shrubs already give a sense of completeness to the develop- 
 ment. The houses themselves are equipped with hot-air furnaces, 
 electric lights and gas ranges. The water system is connected with 
 
 60 
 
FAIRVIEW, FORMERLY CALLED YORKSHIP VILLAGE 
 
 A part of the war-time housing development undertaken in cooperation with the 
 
 Emergency Fleet Corporation. 
 
 the artesian wells of Camden, and the sewerage system, built sepa- 
 rately with its own disposal plant, has now been joined with the 
 city's. The municipal authorities have cooperated by building a 
 $50,000 fire-house and a school which will cost $300,000 when com- 
 plete. Sites have been reserved for churches of the major denomina- 
 tions. Adjoining one side of the Village is an eighteen-acre athletic 
 field with gymnasium, clubhouse, running track and grandstands. 
 New York Shipbuilding Corporation has lately released its direct 
 interest in these two housing projects, content that, having done its 
 part in carrying these developments to completion, the operation 
 should be in the hands of those whose business it is to conduct such 
 real estate activity. Since this change, Yorkship Village has been 
 renamed Fairview. 
 
 THE various activities mentioned above, such as hospital care, 
 commissary, housing and group insurance, which tend directly 
 to increase the efficiency of the men on the job, are handled and 
 supervised by the Industrial Service Manager. His department 
 
 61 
 
performs equally important work in another field, that of cooperat- 
 ing with the men in their off-hour interests to the end that a greater 
 spirit of team-play and of interest in the plant is built up among 
 them. Activity in this field is restricted to assisting the men in con- 
 ducting the organizations which they have started on their own 
 initiative, by handling the inevitable details which arise in the con- 
 duct of any group interest and which so often stifle the enthusiasm of 
 such an interest. With this help in attending to details the men of 
 New York Ship have organized an athletic association which has 
 already established itself as an important influence in the develop- 
 ment of an even better morale. Not content with a successful year 
 in promoting company and departmental teams in a variety of 
 sports, New York Ship Athletic Association has purchased one of 
 the finest clubhouses in Camden and is continually extending its 
 interests and activities among the men of the plant. With similar 
 assistance from the Industrial Service Department, the men have 
 further perfected their band and organized other musical societies, 
 and have maintained the New York Ship War Savings Society in the 
 front rank of such societies in the industrial plants of the country. 
 
 CLUBHOUSE Of NEW YORK SHIP ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION 
 
 62 
 
WAR SAVINGS SOCIETY BULLETIN BOARD 
 
 Placed near the main entrance to the plant, this board reflected the keen inter- 
 departmental rivalry in the war-time savings campaign. 
 
 Organized by the men in March, 191 8, this society invested more 
 than $600,000 in War Savings stamps before the end of that year, 
 and added another $210,000 during 1919. At the present time 
 more than 2,000 men are subscribing for $5,000 a week in War Savings 
 Stamps, by deductions which they have requested to be made from 
 their pay envelopes. The subscriptions vary from $1 to as high as 
 I40 in one case, with an important number at $15 and $25. In ad- 
 dition to this regular subscription, an average of $1,500 is being 
 invested each week by men who prefer to make cash payments. 
 
 The War Savings Society was the medium through which the 
 men subscribed to the Fourth Liberty Loan and to the Victory Loan, 
 these investments amounting to $238,000 and $799,950. respectively. 
 These figures compare with $76,000, $50,000 and $280,000, respec- 
 tively, which the men subscribed in the first three loans prior to the 
 organization of the Society. It was also the agency through which 
 the men expressed their interest in the Red Cross, Salvation Army 
 and Roosevelt Memorial Drives. 
 
 The Industrial Service Department has recently been asked by 
 the men to cooperate with them in the conduct of the Shipbuilders' 
 Home Building and Loan Association which was started in February, 
 1904, with an original issue of 632 shares. The last issue, February 
 20, 1920, amounted to approximately 2,350 shares of which 1,445 
 were subscribed at the office of the Industrial Service Department. 
 
 Facilities have also been provided by the Department for classes 
 in English for foreign-born workers, and for helping those who desire 
 to take out their citizenship papers. 
 
 Unifying all these activities is Yorkship News, an illustrated 
 monthly publication devoted to the interests of the personnel, the 
 
 63 
 
shipyard and shipbuilding in general. Started as a sixteen-page 
 paper in the spring of 191 9, it already has grown to twenty-eight 
 pages in size and expects soon to add another four pages in order 
 more adequately to cover the news in and about the shipyard. An 
 interesting feature is the publishing of the photographs of all em- 
 ployees who during the month of issue celebrate their tenth anniver- 
 sary with New York Ship. 
 
 A CONCERT BY TilE PLANT BAND 
 
 This picture was taken from the steps of the office administration building, across 
 Broadway from the main entrance to the yard. 
 
 64 
 
SUCH are the ships produced and the equipment and capacity of 
 the plant itself, such the interests of the men who build these 
 ships, who are coming ever closer together in a spirit of team-play 
 and of common interest not only in the tradition of the yard's accom- 
 plishments, but also in its potentialities. 
 
 In the upbuilding of our merchant marine for foreign trade, this 
 country must supplement its ordinary cargo ships with the fast 
 passenger-express steamers and passenger-and-cargo liners which, by 
 providing direct communication with the ports of the world for 
 merchants and mail, form the backbone of a nation's commercial 
 expansion. European yards will be engaged for many years in the 
 rehabilitation of their own merchant fleets; of the American yards 
 New York Ship stands in the first rank in ability to produce these 
 specialized types capable of successful competition with the fleets of 
 other countries. Among the shipyards of the world. New York Ship 
 
 PASSENGER LINERS OUTFITTING IN THE WET SLIP 
 
 65 
 
is preeminent, not only in the number of shipways and their size, 
 but in the fundamental strength of its shop system as well. 
 
 Attesting this ability to build large ships well is the record of the 
 fleet turned out by New York Ship and now being rapidly augmented 
 as the facilities, trebled and improved to meet war demands, are 
 applied to peace-time requirements. Many of these ships have made 
 conspicuous contributions to America's achievements in the war. 
 Among them may be named S. S. Mongolia and Manchuria which, 
 converted into transports in their fourteenth year, rendered im- 
 portant service in the carrying of troops and supplies; the tanker 
 Gulflighl which proved her staunch construction by her performance 
 after being torpedoed, and the collier Tuckahoe, delivered during the 
 war in record-breaking time. 
 
 And the performance of New York Ship's naval fleet has matched 
 that of her merchant ships, the latest brilliant example being that of 
 U. S. S. Idaho, a vessel of the largest type now in commission in the 
 United States Navy, which so recently established a triple record for 
 speed, gunnery and engineering efiiciency. The officers and men of 
 the Idaho generously share with her builders the credit of her hne 
 performance, and the men at New York Ship realize in turn that it 
 would be almost impossible for them steadily to produce war vessels 
 and merchantmen which establish high performance records if they 
 did not have shop and way facilities designed for the efficient applica- 
 tion of good workmanship. 
 
 But after all is said and done, it is the gun-pointer and not the 
 gun, the workman and not his tools, who makes the records; it is this 
 skill of a great body of shipbuilders who have been trained to the 
 most exacting tasks of intricate ship construction, this loyalty to the 
 organization with which so many of the men have served for the 
 best part of its twenty years' existence and of which so many more 
 became a part during the stress of war-time work, that are the 
 intangible yet powerful forces that make of New York Shipbuilding 
 Corporation the world's premier shipyard. 
 
 1. I . mjm I . . i :U)t i i;...ji.4g^^'MWi<M ' PWliltojllilW 
 
 66 
 
 ~ «--A 
 
Photographs by New York Shipbuilding Corporation 
 Staff Photographers, unless otherwise credited. 
 
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