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ARE BEING DISMANTLED EACH November, 1923 ships at a time are towed up the James and Potomac rivers by tugs to the Alexandria plant, which is just large enough to accommodate 10 of the wooden vessels at a time. It takes a crew of 100 men to demolish the vessel and to save all available parts and equipment. The magnitude of this extensive sh’p dismantling enterprise is reflected in the amounts of salvaged material that the wreckers hope to rescue. It in- cludes 200,000 tons of scrap iron and steel, 12,000,000 feet of cable wire, 100 000,000 feet of southern pine and western fir lumber, 64,500 feet of steamship smoke-stack, 5000 tons of brass and copper, 2500 miles of gal- vanized pipe, 2260 steam pumps, 9000 tons of water tanks, 5000 drill. presses, anvils and vises, 1800 steam winches, 12,000 steam and air gages, 5500 tons of anchor chain, 600 tons of rope, 162 eng’nes of 1400 horsepower each, 6 turbine engines, 226 brass condensors, 4°2 watertube boilers, 17,000,000 bolts and washers of all knids and _ sizes, 430 propellers, 226 bronze-mounted cannon for shooting life lines, 1140 miles of electric wire, 522 bronze gongs, 1500 oak desks, 226 large galley ranges (with all the complement ‘of cooking utensils, dishes, silverware and similar supplies) as well as 20,000 oars, 600 lifeboats, 20 carloads of can- vas and 8000 life preservers. All of this equipment is among the best that the country could produce. Among the most useful agencies of destruction that are used is the acety- lene torch, which is used in cutting through metal columns and supporting braces in order that the iron and steel work may be removed from the decks and hulls. After the metal appliances WARINE REVIEW 419 DECK VIEW OF TYPICAL FERRIS TYPE WOODEN FREIGHTER AWAITING THE WRECKING CREW and machinery are loosened from their anchorages by use of the acetylene torches, they are hauled from ship to shore. All portable equipment and ac- cessories are hauled to satisfactory storage places in the old shipbuilding plant. Then gasoline drag saws are used to cut away the decks and all other removable wooden sections. Finally, all that remains is the wood- en hull with such a network of bolts and nuts, spikes and tie rods, that it can not be sawed to peces. The hull is then ready to be hauled ashore and burned in order that all metal used in its construction: may be sal- vaged from the ashes by powerful WEEK AND EVERY WORTH WHILE ITEM SALVAGED swinging magnets of large capac ty. The hulls of the ships that have been dismantled are now being towed down the Potomac river to an anchor- age below Mount Vernon to await burning. The hulls as they stand to- day make excellent scows and barges, and efforts are being made to market them for such purposes. Another pos- sible disposition of the hulls will be as bulwarks along the waterfront of river reclamation projects. They would fur- nish a continuous frontage about ten miles long and could be sunk by weigh- ing them with sand and thus used as the basis for filling in new land. Many of the country’s leading in-