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Show America Bn Action I UNSUNG HI .nOF.8 Every day In this war of production produc-tion and transportation some amazing amaz-ing achievement Is made which escapes es-capes public attention. The exploits of the men who build ships, the men who load ships, and the men who sail ships, are generally lost In the vastness of our war. Onjy at rare Interludes do stories of magnificent team work come out of the obscurity whfca hides them. Just recently there passed by in the news the story of the SS Robert E. Peary. Few people were interested, inter-ested, apparently. In the fact that a group of stevedores loaded this ship with 10.500 tons of war supplies In the record breaking time of 34 hours and 50 minutes. From empty cargo i holds to deck piled high was a matter mat-ter of only two days and one night All this was achieved by team work. The record in itself is not significant but the spirit which prompted the men to make this record is. Matching the srevedorcs blow with blow ore the men who built the SS Anne Hutchinson. This Liberty ship took two torpedoes and didn't sink Some of the power of these American Amer-ican workers who build our merchant fleet kept her afloat. The first torpedo tor-pedo broke the ship in two and ripped out the bottom. After a great struggle the after part sank, but the bulkhead held and the engine room and forward part of the ship re mained afloat The second torpedo struck in the starboard engine room in the way of the boiler. This explosion ex-plosion completely destroyed the starboard boiler and shifted the main engine from its foundation ten feet to port. Still she refused to yield. Keeping her buoyancy in the face of such odds, the stout vessel ves-sel was towed into port, as fine a bit of gallantry as ever came out of an Oregon shipyard. American workers are building five ships a day and American seamen sea-men are sailing them across the oceans almost as fast as they are built. In May of this year, 175 new ships, totaling 1,782,000 deadweight tons were launched. In Houston, Texas, a group of laborers not only built their ship in record time, but they paid for it, too. These workers subscribed $1,600,000 in war bonds so that their ship might be theirs in reality. Other workers are giving up their comforts, security, and safe jobs ashore to go back to the sea. These nameless men who never count the cost have Carl Max Lindheimer as their symbol. Lindheimer, age 58. was released from his job as a senior electrical inspector in Washington, Wash-ington, D. C, after the President signed HR-131 granting re-employment rights to all men who leave their shore positions to fight in the Merchant marine. For days Lindheimer Lind-heimer haunted the offices of the Recruitment Re-cruitment and Manning organization in Washington. He got his assignment assign-ment the day he got his release. Lindheimer is now a chief mate on a new Liberty ship. Released by Western Newspaper Union. |