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I pm rans sessvesesonssnvessenseyesauasgsurdQEASs seve ocean OI Hays UU SHH 2 = ESE =S= >= => ——3 = = >= >= =: =S = = = — == — >= => = => = == >= SS ES == — => S> >= == = => = > "Millions Being Spen yard extensions, training sta- tions, submarine bases, storage warehouses for navy use, etc., is being carried forward at top speed. The immensity of the navy program of upbuilding can be gathered from the size of proposed expenditures, $80,000,- Sh REMENDOUS building of navy 000. This work is being done under the direction of the bureau of yards and docks, of which Rear Admiral F. R. Harris is chief, assisted by a corps of civil engineers of the navy, a spe- cial staff corps trained in this work. Under them is a large force of trained civilian engineers, designers, inspect- ors and experts. Practically Rebuilding Yards “The improvement program,’ Ad- miral Harris said recently, “amounts to the practical rebuilding of some of our navy yards and stations. This undertaking which is well under way, and in’ some cases nearing comple- tion, provides building ways, shaps, tools, cranes and all of the requisite appurtenances for building destroyers, submarines, scout cruisers, gunboats ~and auxiliaries. Besides this, by indi- rect supervision and assistance the warship building facilities of the large private plants have been increased, ini some cases such assistance extending to the enlargement of shops and an increase in production facilities at some of the large electric, steel and ordnance plants of the country. “Remodeling and enlargement of all the power plants at the stations are well in hand and in nearly all cases under contract, and arrangements made for carrying out the plans long ago perfected so as to ‘tie in’ these various important government plants with industrial sources of power in their vicinity. “As an example of the scope of the work more than $10,000,000 is involved in providing immediately storage space for provisions, supplies and am- munition. In many cases such storage will be permanent anid at the New York navy yard, for instance, we are building a storehouse which will be A Snappy Summary of the Beading Events of the Month in the Vessel Construction Field t on the largest single building of the kind in the United States. This is now under way and will be completed within five months. This storage pro- gram for supplies and munitions in- volves the construction of magazines, shell-houses, torpedo storage, mine storage, nitrate storage, in all requir- ing over 200 buildings. World’s Biggest Gun Shop “The shore work of the navy under way involves the building of the larg- est and heaviest gun shop in the world and of shops for the complete pro- duction of torpedoes, mines and opti- cal instruments, besides projectiles and powder. “Phe shipbuilding facilities under way contemplate provision for the construction of the largest warships ever built. This involves the pro- vision of structural shops, machine shops and foundries of the most mod- ern type, some of them heretofore unlprecedented in size. The machinery for these buildings is most unusual in character. The crane. service is a large step in advance of anything heretofore contemplated. Traveling cranes having a ‘capacity as high as 300 tons are being built, while fitting out cranes with a capacity of nearly Women in Shipyards F. Kellaway, a member of the British parliament and parliament- ary secretary of the ministry of munitions, recently stated that he did not think he exaggereted in. saying that but for the work that women had done in the munition shops of Great Britain the Germans by now would have won the war. Women were doing important work in marine-engine building, including turning and connecting rods, pro- peller shaft liners, and most of the drilling. So wide was the scope of women's labor that a prominent British engineer expressed his firm conviction that given two more years of war, he would undertake to build a battleship from keel to aerial in all its complex detail en- tirely by women’s labor. 250 i 4 @ © © €O ca _ S Fa ea = D o)) A Navy Yards 400 tons are planned. The _ largest cranes of such character ever before built, and these for England and Ger- many, are only 300 tons. “The program includes the construc- tion of two dry docks capable of tak- ing the very largest vessels. Both of these are well under way. Arrange- ments have been! perfected for expe- diting their construction so that it is hoped they may be completed and ready for use in about one-quarter of the time that has heretofore been taken for the construction of smaller docks. Activities are Varied “Training and concentration camps for nearly 50,000 niaval militia and reservists are being provided and will all be completed by the first of July, small villages in themselves contain- ing several hundred buildings, with lighting, heating, plumbing and drain- ing, undertaken and finished in the brief space of one month. “For the purpose of communication new radio stations have been built along the coast all the way to Alaska and also in our island possessions. “Fuel storage depots for the stor- age of oil, so essential to the fleet, have been planned and in many cases are under construction. “Supply depots, magazines, gun shops, powder and projectile plants, barracks, training schools and camps, marine corps depots, fuel stations for coal anid oil, rifle ranges for target practice, hospital pavilions and medi- cal supply stations are among the large variety of new buildings pro- vided. “Long before the break with Ger- many, the navy department had taken steps looking to the practical rebuild- ing ona large scale through a period of years of three of the most impor- tant Atlantic coast navy yards and a natural expansion and development of the other yards and stations. The declaration of a state of war changed this condition and required that all this improvement, and more than had been originally planned, should be put