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LOPS Mp TERT re Fore River Plant Sold The Bethlehem Steel Corporation Buys the Plant Outright--No Changes in Personnel Contemplated HE Fore River Shipbuilding Co., Quincy, Mass., has been pur- chased by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Inability to complete with- out further financing existing contracts which called for the construction in whole or in part of twenty-three ves- sels, most of them warships, involving an expenditure of about $10,000,000, is given as the reason for the sale. The transaction is a direct purchase of the physical property of the Fore River Company. The Company will 'be liqui- had been living a somewhat precarious existence. The new company was or- ganized with a capital stock of $2,400,- 000 6 per cent preferred and $2,500,000 common. The sum of $1,250,000 was paid in in cash, of which $600,000 was used to discharge demand notes issued by the old company. Since 1904, under the direction of President F. T. Bowles, formerly chief constructor of the United States Navy with rank of real admiral, the company has lived a very busy existence, and has been successful in GENERAL VIEW OF THE FORE RIVER YARD dated and the stockholders will receive the proceeds. The price paid was in the neighborhood of $1,250,000, which will work out about $40 per share for the preferred stock. Inasmuch as the preferred is entitled to $100 per share in liquidation, the common stockholders will receive nothing. Relative to the purchase, the Fore River Company makes the following announcement: "The Bethlehem Company pays $600,- 000 in first lien and refunding 5 per cent mortgage bonds, due May 1, 1942, of the Bethlehem Steel Company. The committee is to purchase and arrange for the sale of $750,000 of first mort- gage 20-year 5 per cent bonds, a lien on the present property, when and as issued by a new Massachusetts corpora- tion, said bonds being guaranteed, prin- cipal and interest, by the Bethlehem Steel Company." The Fore River Shipbuilding Co. was organized in 1904 to take over the old Fore River Ship & Engine Co., which obtaining warship contracts in competi- tion. with Great Britain, notably the battleship Rivadavia, which it is now building for the Argentine Republic. The Fore River Company has at pres- ent twenty-three vessels in course of construction at the yard, the majority of them being warships, including one battleship, nine submarines, two torpedo boat destroyers and a tender for the United States Navy. The merchant work includes a bulk freighter for the sulphur trade, an oil tanker for the Standard Oil Co. and a few small steel trawlers for the fishing trade. It is understood to be the intention of the new owners to add a large dry dock to the equipment of the Fore River yard. The purchase of the, Fore River yard is not the first venture of Mr. Charles M. Schwab into the shipbuilding busi- ness. He organized in 1902 the United States Ship Building Co. which ac- quired all the stock of the old Bethle- hem Steel Co., as well as the plants of the Harlan & Hollingsworth Co., Wil- mington, Del., the Union Iron Works at San. Francisco, and the Samuel L. Moore & Sons Co. at Elizabethport, N. J. The United States Ship Building Co. was not a success and was reorganized: in 1904 by Mr. Schwab under the title of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, taking over at the same time the prop- erties of the Bath Iron Works and the Hyde Windlass Co. at Bath, Me. the Crescent Ship Yard at Elizabethport, N. J., the Carteret Improvement Co. at Camden, N. J., and the Eastern Ship Building Co. at New London, Conn. The properties of the Bath Iron Works. and the Hyde Windlass Co. were soom sold. The plant of the Eastern Ship Building Co. was practically dismantled, and the Crescent Ship Yard and Car- teret Improvement Co. were merged into the Samuel L. Moore & Sons Co. The only subsidiaries that remained in working form were the Harlan & Hol- lingsworth Co., the Union Iron Works and Samuel L. Moore & Sons Co. In 1908 the Union Iron Works took over the plant of the San Francisco Dry Dock Co. and has operated it since. The authorized capital stock of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation is $30,000,- 000, equally. divided between preferred! and common. The preferred stock is: 7 per cent non-accumulative and has: a preference as to assets. Since 1907,. however, no dividends have been paidi on the stock. In this' connection it is interesting to note that the Bethlehem Steel Corporation contemplates building - ten ore carriers to carry ore from new mines in Chile which are owned by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. It also owns iron mines in Cuba, all of which calls for the employment of ves- sels. The Bethlehem Steel Corporation is at present furnishing the Fore River plant with the armor and armament of the Argentine battleship Rivadavia, and it would seem as though the acquisition of this yard would put it into a favor- able position to build warships complete for any world power. Mr. Schwab has announced his inten- tion of retaining Admiral F. T. Bowles as president of the yard, together with his present staff. Lt. Col. M. Eveleth Winslow, govern- ment engineer at Norfolk, Va., will open bids June 2 for the construction of three motor survey cruisers.