The vital question of shipping was assigned early in the year to the
United States Shipping Board, now headed by E. N. Hurley, while the
Emergency Fleet Corporation, since made subordinate to the board, was
intrusted with the execution of the building program. Congress
appropriated $1,135,000,000 for this purpose, and on March 1, 1918,
$353,247,000 of this sum had been spent. Friction and consequent delay,
however, at the outset caused vital changes in the composition of the
Shipping Board. General Goethals, manager of the Emergency Fleet
Corporation, resigned after a controversy with Mr. Denman, the first
Chairman of the Shipping Board, over the comparative merits of wooden
and steel ships. There have been other causes--labor troubles, lack of
material, and of building facilities, of which America had few.
Meantime the seized German ships, with an aggregate of more than 700,000
tons dead weight to manage, have been put in service, vessels under
construction in private shipyards have been commandeered and completed,
and at least three new ships planned and constructed by the Shipping
Board have been finished and are now at sea. The seizure of 150,000 tons
of Dutch shipping in American ports has further added to the
Government's immediate resources, while an agreement with Japan has made
another 200,000 tons of shipping available.
America's shipping industry had run down, until in the year before war
was declared the total output of shipyards in the United States was only
250,000 tons. The Shipping Board drew up a program to construct
8,164,508 tons of steel ships, 1,145 ships in all, and 490 wooden ships,
with a total tonnage of 1,715,000. Only a small part of this enormous
total could be constructed in the first year of the war with the
shipyard facilities available, and it has been necessary to build new
shipyards on an enormous scale. Volunteer shipworkers have been enlisted
from all quarters, and in April, 1918, work was proceeding at 150
shipyards in various parts of the country.
The following figures show the actual number of ships put into the water
since the Shipping Board took control of the situation:
Steel ships requisitioned on ways, completed
by Emergency Fleet Corporation
and now in service 85
Steel ships requisitioned on ways, turned
back to former owners and now
completed and in service 15
Steel ships requisitioned on ways, hulls
of which have been launched 65
Steel ships contracted for by Emergency
Fleet Corporation which have
been completed and put into service 3
Steel ships contracted for by Emergency
Fleet Corporation, hulls of
which have been launched 9
Wooden ships contracted for by Emergency
Fleet Corporation, hulls of
which have been launched 11
---
Total 188
Steel ships requisitioned which are now
actually in service 100
Steel ships contracted for by Emergency
Fleet Corporation now actually
in service 3
---
Total 103
By April, 1918, the Government has been able to put 2,762,605 tons of
shipping into the transatlantic service to carry men and munitions to
France.