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.