Salt Lake Telegram | 1943-09-28 | Page 8 | Ship Construction Miracle

Ship Skip Construction Miracle TWO TWO years ago this week the first Liberty A ship christened the Patrick Henr Henry slid down the theaS ways aS of a Baltimore shipyard At that time the sea lifeline to Britain was the most critical war front We had to have ha ships lots Jots of them and in a hurry to get the materials of war across the seas to the lighting fronts America wasn't in the war then but it was committed through its lend lease program to aid those nations which were fighting lighting the axis aggressors It was wu a crisis in the war war and and Americas America's management and man power its brains and brawn bra proved pro equal to the task of meeting that crisis The Patrick Henr Henry the first Liberty ship was wu only the beginning of a steadily increasing increasing ing stream of cargo vessels which were turned out with constantly improved efficiency and speed by American shipyards In the two years ears since the Patrick Henry was launched more than 2100 merchant vessels totaling over deadweight tons tOn have been turned out That is twice the tonnage of the entire American merchant marine the day the Patrick Henry was completed Think of that In two years we have produced produced pro pro- DOUBLE the tonnage of ships we had at the start of our ship construction effort It is almost unbelievable But that isn't the whole story We are scheduled in the next year to turn out more than additional tons of ships All AU together by the end of 1944 according according- to the present program the United States will have produced tons of ships in a little littlemore littlemore littlemore more than three years ears That's more tonnage tonnage tonnage ton ton- nage than the combined prewar merchant fleets of the United States Great Britain Germany Japan and Norway the five leading ship-owning ship countries in the world It is an amazing demonstration of American Ameri Ameri- can productive capacity and mass production genius It must seem like black magic to our foes in Berlin BerHn who had so counted on clr ship destruction campaign to bring them victory And that American ship construction con con- miracle must be given a large Jarge share of the credit for present successes in the war on the European fronts Without the ships to carry the supplies and the men overseas the great offensives in north Africa across the Mediterranean and even the summer offensive offensive offensive of of- in Russia would not have been pos pos- I sible ible We take off our hats to the brains and the brawn which built one of the greatest merchant fleets the world has ever seen in two years ears to assure victory in this war