Show warships to protect ocean shipping aerman WAR ZONE I 1 ari COO 00 z ta sa 10 1 I 1 7 iff W FORK lop por ate STATES 2 ea arlio C r W Z Z 4 4 aa pik ro CA al 4 A Z f j JOA ma C via i f 1 CHIU DEFENE craic 1 ZO HE WHERE IF f ON saw f Z in a recent radio address president roosevelt failed to specifically define the limits of americas defense waters the dotted line on the chart shown above is generally regarded as the chief defense zone lone of the U S and in accordance with the chief executives utterance constitutes the main danger section for the axis powers in reporting his orders to the navy to shoot on sight he emphasized that he meant the pacific as well as the atlantic in tact fact all oceans and seas were included in his command money could not be borrowed to build ships as it seemed impossible to operate them at a profit foreign owned bottoms carried two thirds of our commerce with U boats and planes now sinking between and tons of shipping each 12 months enough boats cannot be built on short notice to fulfill requirements of the U S to say nothing about requests from england russia and china for more and more boats the one bright light in this situation is the merchant marine act of 1936 passed by congress under stimulation of president roosevelt then the united states maritime commission was created and charged with the job of reestablishing establishing re the once S trong strong american merchant marine and building efficient auxiliary ships without which the expanding navy would be nearly useless recruiting and training the proper personnel also came within their jurisdiction the ten year program abolished by this same 1936 act was mail subsidies instead they substituted a policy of making grants to cover the difference between building and operating the boats under the flag of the U S as between this same procedure under other flags with low cost labor and material today one of our fastest growing defense agencies the maritime commission began with a staff of less than men its first task was to survey the count rys need in ships and to plan and carry out the stupendous program now in force the foundation for the present large scale operations was a 10 year program of building 50 ships per year or a total of this was known as the long range program and vessels vessel had been delivered by september 19 then in line with its second duty the commission had turned over to the navy in august ships totaling nearly 2 tons among the craft was the united states liner america a ton vessel which is now the naval transport west point it was the largest built under their program and the largest ever built in an american yard the war caused two ton vessels planned for the pacific trade to be held up until the present war ends navy takes over ship it was in the fall fail of 1937 that the commission awarded the contract for the america later they contracted with the standard oil company and shipyards for a dozen speedy tankers that could be quickly changed over to navy auxiliaries in case of need the vessels were paid for by the oil company but the commission provided for each vessel to equip them with secret defense devices and additional speed the navy has since taken over all of the ships the commissions own technical personnel was meanwhile designing fast freighters and passenger carry ing liners for the long range program with an average speed of 15 knots from to tons they were of three types the cl C l 1 C 2 and C 3 with low fuel consumption they were economically operated twenty additional ones oi of pattern C 2 were ordered early in in I 1 1938 other contracts followed and by november 1939 over craft had been ordered due of course to the outbreak of the wa warin r january president roosevelt put out a call for more and more ships and more and more speed within 30 days the commission alz ilz had planned and put into operation an ai emergency program for ships ol of a special design from a 4 british model who ordered an additional 60 for themselves the american vessels were dubbed by the president ugly ducklings duc klings as in comparison with other graceful long range craft these appeared to be not much more than floating boxes with pointed ends but veteran boat builders insist these cargo carriers will do the job and recent events seem to prove their worth the liberty ships have shear the decks slope from bow to amidships and rise again to the stern they have camber the decks curve a little between sides the stern falls away with as much grace as almost any other craft on the seas F D B R asks more ships soon after the liberty ship program had been started the chief executive under the lend lease program asked for ships of the liberty type of the standard type first conceived by the maritime commission then in july congress at the request of the president passed a bill authorizing more vessels of which 25 were to be seagoing sea going tugs no one can predict how far america will go with her ship building plans but the original ships in 10 years has expanded into almost 1400 for 1943 delivery and shows no signs of slackening the outcome of the present conflict will probably be the deciding factor in the continuance or discontinuance of the program |