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SCRAPPING THE SURPLUS WORLD WAR I LAKERS by Wayne Garrett A PROBLEM! “Oust the Shipping Board.” The Board is.. “Spending our money playing at ship Operation.” “Get busy and scrap the junk-sell the fleet and get out.” “There ships are not a reserve-they are junk.” These were some of the editorial “comments” found in the January through June issues of Marine Review for 1925. There were fleets of United States Shipping Board ocean cargo Carriers laid up-on the-East Coast rivers and Gulf ports no longer useful in the post-World War | period. The editorials contended that the laid up ships were wasting government money as a _ result of bureaucratic boondoggling by the Shipping Board and that the ships were rusting away to uselessness. Every month there was editorial vituperation concerning the U.S. Shipping Board and its seeming reluctance to act on disposing the surplus fleet. BACKGROUND During World War | a call was made for increased ship building to make up for tonnage lost in action by German U-Boats. The then existing shipyards on the coast could not keep up with the demand even working day and night. It became the U.S. Shipping Board's task to satisfy this demand. It created, under authorization of Congress, the U.S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation which was given the authority to purchase, construct, lease, charter, maintain and operate merchant vessels principally for the War effort. Since the demand could not be met by coastal shipbuilding facilities, the Shipping Board looked to the Lakes for help. Ocean shipbuilding programs already were in force mainly for foreign interests starting in earnest in 1914. The 251 foot, canal sized, three island ocean cargo ships were typical of the designs being produced for Great Britian’s war effort. England's “War” named vessels, such as WAR FOX and WAR HOUND, were well under construction when the United States entered the war. The Shipping Board, much to the dismay of the GBritish, immediately requisitioned all the ships not yet delivered overseas. Immediate action then was taken to sign contracts for similar merchant vessels to meet the demand. An executive order by President Wilson to initiate the building program was signed July, 1917, but by the time contracts were let, the shipyards did not get up to speed until well into 1918. By the time the shipyards were at full production, the War came to an abrupt end in November of that year. It would have been economic chaos to terminate suddenly the shipbuilding program, so agreements were negotiated to taper off production. The Shipping Board had awarded contracts to build 346 ships in the. Great Lakes yards, of this number, 331 were eventually built. The last of all contracted ships to slide down the ways occurred on June 30, 1922. Fully 60 percent of the Shipping Board merchant fleet was completed after the War ended; more than 50 percent of the lake-built ships were so completed. The shipyards on the Great Lakes that produced lakers were The Great Lakes Engineering Works at Ecorse and Ashtabula; The American Shipbuilding Co. at Superior, Cleveland, Chicago, Buffalo and Lorain; The Detroit Shipbuilding Co. at Wyandotte; The Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. at Manitowoc; The Saginaw Shipbuilding Co. at Saginaw; The Craig Shipbuilding Co. at Toledo; The Globe Shipbuilding Co. at Superior; F.W. Wheeler & Co. at Bay City; Riebolt, Wolter & Co. at Sturgeon Bay; McDougall - Duluth Co. at Duluth. For the detailed story on statistics and building of the lakers, see Fr. Edward J_. Dowling, S.J.’s book, 7he Lakers” of Worlog War |. 43-3-2