Page 2 THE NORTH CAROLINA SHIPBUILDER May 1, 1944 Published by the North Caro lina Shipbuilding Company, Wil mington, North Carolina, in the interest of the employees. Editor S. P. WARE Assistant Editors AL. G. DICKSON C. T. LEWIS MRS. C. K. MARSHALL Sports Editor TOMMY DAVIS Vol. 2 MAY 1, 1944 No. 9 ROLL OF HONOR PFC. DOUGLAS FAIR BANKS POTTER, formerly of the Warehouse and Store Room, killed in an airplane accident near Pratt, Kansas, on Oct. 4, 1943 while a mem ber of the United States Army Air Forces. FRANK L. JOHNSON, JR., formerly of the Employ ment department, reported missing and presumed to be lost following the sinking of the U. S. ship on which he was serving as a member of the Merchant Marine early in the spring of 1943. How About Our Post-War Ships? By Rear Admiral Emory S. Land, U. S. N. (Retired), Chairman United States Maritime com mission and War Shipping Ad ministrator. No one knows how many ships we can maintain in profitable post-war service. Two obvious post-war economic phases are involved: one, the period of transition from war to peace two, the era of resumption of normal world trade conditions. In the transition we will be called upon to play a leading part in the rehabilitation and restoration of much of the rest of the world. This will mean more ships than our Merchant Marine has ever required in peacetime. The Merchant Marine act of 1936 isn't my Bible; but it does provide me and my associates with a working theology and a directive to do specific things. This world-wide war has served to accelerate the tempo of a big job and it is bringing us closer to ,a goal that should benefit every man, woman and child in the United States. This is a war of transporta tion. It -has established us as one of the world's strongest maritime powers. Our Merchant Marine, now the largest in its history and rivaling any other for size and quality, is pnmar ily a war-created resource. We have, however, at the same time amplified the long-range ship construction program, inaugurat ed in 1938, so that when the war is over we should have a fleet of merchant vessels composed of the best-equipped, safest and most suitable types of cargo vessels for our commercial needs. Our problem, now that our shipbuilding industry has reached its production peak and is fully capable of meeting its goals, is to continue our Mer chant Marine in the post-war future as a basic resource. If we are to keep our merchant fleet up to full efficiency we must make normal replace ments each year. We must not repeat mistakes made in the wake of the last war. We of the Merchant Marine have often stated that our ob jective should be to have mer chant ships to carry a substan tial portion of our nation's for eign commerce, both import and export a greater portion than ships under the American flag have carried for many years. Since 1900 there have been times when they have car ried as little as eight per cent, and seldom have they exceeded the 30 per cent mark. The Merchant Marine act of 1936 says specifically: "It is necessary for the na tional defense and the develop ment of the foreign and domes tic commerce that the United States shall have a Merchant Marine sufficient to carry its own domestic water-borne com merce and a substantial portion of the water-borne export and import foreign commerce of the United States." What is a "substantial" por tion ? Webster defines the word as meaning "of real worth, of considerable amount." All I can say is, that if a man promised me a "substantial" piece of an tpple, and then gave me the core and a bit of the skin, I would consider myself cheated. The suggestion has been made that a sound Merchant Marine of from 15 to 20 million dead weight tons would fully meet with our mounting economic and security demands. Oppo nents of a strong and unswerv ing Merchant Marine policy have countered with a state ment that a merchant fleet of the proposed strength would be entirely out of line and would be responsible for the creation of mucra international jealousy and discord. The critics, with the best of intention have failed, however, properly to appraise the arith metic and the denominators in volved. These must be clearly defined, otherwise, a distorted viewpoint is inevitable. Not all of the proposed mer chant marine fleet would be en gaged in foreign service. Nor mal peacetime requirements in cident to domestic transporta tion necessities alone would ab sorb no inconsiderable volume of the proposed tonnage. Ships in this category are always the first to be utilized in case of na tional emergency. Great Lakes shipping would have a peacetime requirement of approximately 3,500,000 dead weight tons; our Great Rivers now have about 6,000 miles of navigable water and would need about 2,500,000 tons of ship ping, while 3,800,000 deadweight tons of shipping could be used in coastal and intercoastal transportation, leaving about 7,500,000 tons more or less to be used in foreign shipping, cer tainly not an alarming propor tion. During a normal peace time year, less than 4 million deadweight tons of American shipping were engaged in for eign trade. Is it impractical to say this would be increased ap proximately 50 per cent in the postwar years? Our own do mestic shipping requirements will never impinge upon our re lations with other nations. The future of the Merchant Marine will be subject to inter national policies and adjust ments. Ships which go abroad are instruments of foreign pol icy and must be treated as such. The United States has no desire to thwart the legitimate opera - j i A, . . uons oi ouier nations at sea. Shipping is more important to some nations than to others. We, for example, have learned by ex perience that a sizeable mer chant marine, backed by a healthy and virile shipbuilding industry, is essential to our eco nomic life and national security. We try to understand the neces sities and urgent needs of our friends in other lands and I think we have earned the right to expect that they will do the same for us. There should be a mutual ap preciation for each other's needs and some frank and friendly col laboration. This happens to be one of those things which every one favors in principle, but few support in peacetime. In other words, everybody wants to cut the pie but no one wants to take a small piece. There are only so many pieces in the pie. The only alternative to taking smaller pieces than we would Letter To The Editor APPRECIATES SHIPBUILDER To the Editor: Received the February issue of The North Carolina Ship builder from my wife, Grace Bradshaw, formerly employed in the Employment Office. , I would like to tell you and your staff what a grand paper you have. Being from Wilmington makes it more so, especially when I see photos and names of old friends. If possible, I wish you would extend my re gards to old friends. Keep up the good work. We depend on your ships over here. Sincerely, E. F. Bradshaw, A.C.M.M. North Africa, March 27, 1944. like to have is to increase the size of the pie. We have not scratched the surface of our for eign trade potential. I recom mend that we bake a bigger pie. American industry has a great productive capacity for making things the world will need; it can provide much that should be in strong demand for many years by other nations. Our schedule for 1944 calls for approximately 1700 mer chant ships, at least half of which will be fast ships that can serve most effectively and eco nomically in the postwar world. We will need more of these ships if we subscribe to the practical theory that this nation cannot survive and prosper without an adequate Merchant Marine and the facilities and personnel to build and repair our ships. We cannot meet our world-wide obli gations, particularly those we are incurring during this war, without sufficient ships fast, efficient, modern ships in operation under our flag, and under private ownership and operation. In resuming normal trade re lations with other nations, we may well profit by the example set by our great merchandising establishments in expanding and developing their trade. The progressive grocer, baker and brewer have proved an efficient delivery system of their own an adequate fleet of trucks to be a prime essential in building their business and expanding it. If we, as a great industrial and agricultural nation, support a merchant marine which can ren der that type of service to other nations, it stands to reason we can profit from the service we render. The Clipper ships of a century ago proved that to be true; the trade and prestige resulting made a great contribution to the rapid and healthy growth of a young nation where free com petitive enterprise was proving to be a dominant and construc tive force. The expansion and stability of our Merchant Marine and the maintenance of a substantial share of our vast and highly ef ficient shipbuilding industry will be, in part, dependent upon our international trade agreements. It would not be amiss, however, to point out that it will be equal ly dependent upon the measure of support given by the Ameri can people themselves. It is re grettable that for many years neither the Government nor the shipping industry made any in telligent, intensified effort to win support for our ships. It is time we did so. It took the tragedy of a glo bal war to bring home to Amer ica the importance of ships and a shipbuilding industry in be ing, ready to produce snips in a hurry and when an emergency exists. We must not forget this lesson. " We need a broader and more sympathetic public under standing that ships and ship building have strong and essen tial importance in peacetime. I want America to be deeply and acutely conscious of these things. AMMUNITION FOR THE FUTURE SS Polk Salvaged After Sub Attack Steel And Fittings Oi Torpedoed Ship Will Be Used Again Two Liberty ships one built here and the other at Baltimore which were torpedoed the same day more than a year ago are giving up their "lives" for the war effort as scrap metal and salvaged equipment. That the . steel of which they were built will return to war, instead of rusting away on the ocean's floor, is credited to- their sturdy construction. The freighters about to be scrapped are the S. S. James K. Polk, our hull No. 17, and the S. S. Thomas Ruffin, built at the Bethlehem-Fairfield yard, and named for a native North Carolinian who was Chief Jus? tice of the State Supreme court in 1829-52 and 1856-58. According to word received from the War Shipping adminis tration, they were part of a con voy attacked off Paramaribo, 0eWiW& fcfeWfcX" S ! J iJ&Vfr s ' O - r CARICATURE Who is he? Maybe he's you. If you recog nize the man in the sketch as yourself, call at the Editor's office in the Administration building and if you are the subject you can have the original drawing. . 'j .-.J! aft jrr WV.y ir tr j-1 J.&y. SsPn -Jt- rr r Surinam, on March 9, 1943. All undamaged equipment and fit tings and metal worth thousands of dollars will be saved and re turned to service on other ships. The torpedo which disabled the James K. Polk hurled a life boat over the flying bridge, kill ing a iNavy gunner at his sta tion. The ship settled slowly and Captain H. V. Olsen, of New York, and seven crewmen re mained aboard after abandon ship was sounded. In addition to surviving gunners and the merchant crew, three passengers reached Trinidad. Later the freighter was towed there. The S. S. James K. Polk was launched here on August 2, 1942, under the sponsorship of Miss Jane Blewett. It was delivered on the 21st of that-month. It was operated for the WS A by the American-South African Line, Inc., of New York. WATER From 90,000 to 120,000 gal lons of water must be distilled every day on a modern battle ship. This allows approximate ly 20 gallons of potable water per day for every man aboard, in addition to the water re quired for boilers and engines.