e greatest was the famous Hog Island
yard. On what was once a swamp on the Delaware River, just below
Philadelphia, the United States built this yard which is the largest in
the world. The demand for speed in building resulted in the plan of
fabricating the steel before sending it to the yards. By this method
the steel is cut and punched before going to the yard where it is then
assembled. Thus steel mills at long distances from the shipyards could
be doing a very considerable part of building the ships. Perhaps the
great increase in shipping can be best stated by a few figures. In the
month of January, 1918, America produced 88,507 tons. Six months later
in July she produced 631,944 tons. Before the war the official
estimate of America's annual shipping production was 200,000 tons. The
estimated production for 1919 was 7,500,000 tons.

The United States navy at the time of the declaration of war was
unprepared for the task ahead of it. It was efficient but not nearly
large enough for the tremendous amount of work it was called upon to
perform. The troop and supply transports needed convoys. There were
hundreds of miles of coast to be patrolled. Merchant ships must be
armed with men and guns. All this had to be done, besides the work of
aiding the Allied fleets in European waters. The government was not
long in seeing the need of a great increase in the naval force and was
soon making plans to bring this about. New yards were constructed
immediately for the building of warships, and the capacity of the old
yards was increased. These yards were soon busy turning out destroyers
and battleships at a remarkable speed. The special work of patrolling
the coasts for submarines called for a great many small and speedy
submarine chasers. Motor boat manufacturers all over the country
immediately began to make these swift little craft which were popularly
called the "mosquito fleet." Even the great factories of Henry Ford,
although already busy turning out thousands of motor cars, found room
to build these chasers at their inland factories. They were built on
specially constructed flat cars, which were then drawn to the coast,
where the ships were launched.

As the number of ships increased, the man power was accordingly
increased. The navy established a new record by placing a unit of five
14-inch naval guns mounted on specially built railway cars for land
duty in France. These guns were the longest range