Fig. 1. The War Shipping Board
THE
BRIDGE TO FRANCE
BY
EDWARD N. HURLEY
WARTIME CHAIRMAN OF
THE UNITED STATES SHIPPING BOARD
AUTHOR OF "THE NEW MERCHANT MARINE," "THE AWAKENING OF BUSINESS,"
"BANKING AND CREDITS IN ARGENTINE, BRAZIL, CHILE AND PERU," ETC.
26 ILLUSTRATIONS
PHILADELPHIA & LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1927
Fig. 1. The War Shipping Board
DEDICATED TO
MY ASSOCIATES
IN THE WORLD WAR
.
GERMANY never would have begun her ruthless submarine warfare on February 1, 1917, if the United States had possessed a substantial merchant marine. She knew that even if we had possessed two million well-trained men equipped and ready to embark at the time we declared war, we might have transported them with the help of the British; but our War Department would have refused to send them to France unless the Shipping Board could guarantee sufficient cargo-ships to keep them supplied with food and munitions of war.
During the first three months of Germany's merciless campaign, 470 ocean-going cargo-ships were sunk; and during the entire month of April the losses were 1,250,000 deadweight tons. One hundred and twenty-two ocean-going cargo-ships were sunk the first two weeks in April, after the United States declared war. The rate of the British loss in ocean-going tonnage during those two weeks was equivalent to an average round-voyage loss of 25 per cent.---one out of every four ships leaving the United Kingdom for overseas. In the first half of 1917, one British ship in ten that passed the Straits of Gilbraltar never returned.
Germany was well aware of our lack of ships; and in view of these enormous Allied losses, figured that it would be impossible for us to provide the cargo-ships needed to feed and maintain overseas an army large enough to prevent the execution of her plans to crush her enemies. The Allies, too, recognized our great need of cargo-ships; but they were helpless to give us any tonnage, for they had lost 6,000,000 deadweight tons to December, 1916, and then were losing 650,000 tons a month, making their total losses 8,000,000 deadweight tons for 1917. Hence, their urgent appeal to us for "ships, ships and more ships!" if the war were to be won, was warranted by the acute necessity.
It was under these trying conditions that the United States Shipping Board and the Emergency Fleet Corporation assumed the task of acquiring, building and operating sufficient cargo-ships to maintain an army in France.
The men associated with me in this task were of the type that has made our country a great industrial nation. These men had only one objective---to help win the war. No other group of executives gathered together in such a short time could have accomplished more than they did.
When the United States declared war against Germany we had less than 50,000 shipyard workers. By the end of 1918 we were employing 350,000 and an additional 180,000 were employed in the 553 mills and factories that supplied the engines, boilers, materials, etc. Moreover, during this period we trained 42,000 men to man the ships at sea, which we acquired and built, 14,000 of whom were deck and engineer officers.
A summary of the achievements of the Shipping Board and Emergency Fleet Corporation is contained in the following excerpt from the report of a Select Committee of the House of Representatives appointed after the war to investigate the War Shipping Board:
"Considering the program as a whole, the accomplishments in the number of ships constructed, the tonnage secured and the time within which the ships were completed and delivered, constitute the most remarkable achievement in ship building that the world has ever seen."
I have felt that I should tell the story of the manner in which we provided and operated the oft-referred-to "Bridge of Ships." Therefore, as a business man and not as an author, I present this volume.
EDWARD N. HURLEY
Chicago
.
| FOREWORD | |
| LAUNCHING WOODROW WILSON | |
| APPOINTED CHAIRMAN | |
| PROVIDING A WAR FLEET | |
| SHIPPING BOARD IS CREATED | |
| EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION IS CREATED | |
| THE SHIPPING BOARD AND THE EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION | |
| THE DENMAN-GOETHALS CONTROVERSY | |
| THE BOARD RECONSTITUTED | |
| ASSUMING MY DUTIES ON THE SHIPPING BOARD | |
| WE COMMANDEER THE SHIPYARDS AND THEIR HULLS | |
| WE SEIZE THE INTERNED GERMAN SHIPS | |
| HOW WE ACQUIRED ENEMY SHIPS INTERNED IN NEUTRAL PORTS | |
| SEIZING AMERICAN SHIPS IN SERVICE | |
| IMPRESSING LAKE STEAMERS INTO OCEAN SERVICE | |
| THE EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION BEGINS ITS WORK | |
| WHAT TYPES OF SHIPS SHOULD WE BUILD? | |
| THE FABRICATED STEEL SHIP-HOW CONCEIVED AND HOW BUILT | |
| WOOD SHIPS WERE NECESSARY | |
| COMPOSITE SHIP | |
| CONCRETE SHIP | |
| "WAGGING TONGUES" | |
| CONCENTRATING THE RESPONSIBILITIES | |
| SENATE COMMITTEE INVESTIGATES THE SHIPPING BOARD | |
| PIEZ IS MADE VICE-PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER OF THE EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION | |
| THE SUBMARINE ALMOST WON | |
| MAN-POWER AND SHIPPING---THE FIRST TWO DEMANDS | |
| HOG ISLAND | |
| LAUNCHING OF THE "Costigan" | |
| PROTECTING THE SHIPYARDS | |
| OPERATING THE FLEET | |
| SHIPPING CONTROL COMMITTEE | |
| FRANKLIN-SHIPPING CONTROL DICTATOR | |
| THE DIVISION OF PLANNING AND STATISTICS GETS THE FACTS | |
| TRADING FOOD FOR SHIPS | |
| JAPAN | |
| EXERCISING "RIGHT OF ANGARY" TO SEIZE DUTCH SHIPS | |
| "HURLEY, WE MUST GO THE LIMIT" | |
| WHAT THE GERMANS THOUGHT OF AMERICAN EFFORT. | |
| IF WAR HAD LASTED UNTIL AUGUST, 1919 | |
| SCHWAB APPOINTED DIRECTOR- GENERAL | |
| HANDLING FINANCES OF SHIPPING BOARD AND EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION | |
| DECENTRALIZATION OF CONTROL | |
| APPEALING TO WORKERS AND THE PUBLIC | |
| SUPPLY OF MATERIALS | |
| THE WAR TRADE BOARD | |
| WILSON AND BAKER AS PACIFISTS | |
| "WORK OR FIGHT" | |
| RECRUITING AN ARMY OF SHIPYARD WORKERS | |
| SHOULD INDUSTRIAL DRAFT BE EXTENDED TO INDUSTRY? | |
| SHIPYARD VOLUNTEERS | |
| HOUSING AND TRANSPORTING SHIPYARD WORKERS | |
| OUR LABOR TROUBLES | |
| SHIPBUILDING LABOR ADJUSTMENT BOARD CREATED | |
| THE GOVERNMENT PAID THE TOLL | |
____ |
HOW THE DELAWARE STRIKES WERE HANDLED |
| CONSEQUENCES OF THE MACY BOARD'S POLICY | |
| ALLIED SHIPPING PROBLEMS | |
| REGULATION BY CHARTERING COMMITTEES | |
| ALLIED MARITIME TRANSPORT COUNCIL | |
| FORCED TO BORROW BRITISH SHIPS | |
| MAKING SEAMEN OUT OF LANDLUBBERS | |
| HOW SEAMEN BECAME DECK OFFICERS | |
| OILERS AND TENDERS BECOME ENGINEER OFFICERS | |
| TRAINING THE SEAMEN WHO MANNED OUR SHIPS | |
| PORT CONGESTION | |
| NATIONAL ADJUSTMENT COMMISSION | |
| PROTECTING SHIPS FROM SUBMARINES | |
| PROTECTIVE METHODS FINALLY ADOPTED | |
| EDISON, FORD AND OTHERS | |
| CONVOYING SHIPS ACROSS THE ATLANTIC | |
| EXPERIMENTAL CONVOYS | |
| THE CRUISER AND TRANSPORT FORCES | |
| ESCORT BASIS ESTABLISHED IN EUROPE | |
| NAVAL OVERSEAS TRANSPORTATION SERVICE | |
| ASSEMBLING CONVOYS | |
| CONVOYS AT SEA | |
| THE SUBMARINE BEATEN AT LAST | |
| MEN ! | |
| WAR RISK INSURANCE AT A PROFIT | |
| OUR LEGAL STATUS | |
| SHIPPING BOARD'S LAW DIVISION | |
| LEGAL DIVISION OF THE FLEET CORPORATION | |
| CANCELLATION OF SHIP CONTRACTS | |
| NORTHCLIFFE'S SUGGESTION TO WILSON; DISCUSSIONS IN EUROPE | |
| "FREEDOM OF THE SEAS" | |
| KERENSKY | |
| HOUSE AND HOOVER | |
| REPATRIATING OUR SOLDIERS | |
| PRESIDENT WILSON AND FOOD RELIEF FOR GERMANY | |
| WITH FOCH AND THE GERMANS AT TREVES | |
| THE SPA AND BRUSSELS CONFERENCES | |
| AUSTRIAN SHIPS IN SPANISH WATERS | |
| INTELLIGENCE SERVICE | |
| AMERICAN BUSINESS PROFITED BY OUR WAR FLEET | |
| SHIPPING IMPORTANCE AT THE PEACE CONFERENCE | |
| EUROPEAN VIEWS ON OUR MARITIME ASCENDENCY | |
| THE PEACE CONFERENCE CONVENES | |
| THE SUPREME ECONOMIC COUNCIL IS FORMED | |
| GERMANY SURRENDERS HER MERCHANT FLEET | |
| OUR WISE COUNSELLOR---WOODROW WILSON | |
| APPENDIX A: LETTER FROM BALFOUR, 21 AUG 1917 | |
| APPENDIX B: HURLEY'S RESPONSE TO STATE DEPARTMENT | |
| APPENDIX C: HURLEY TO WILSON, 23 OCT 1918. | |
| INDEX OF PROPER NAMES |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| The War Shipping Board | |
| Red Cross War Council | |
| Fabricated Ship | |
| Great Lakes Steel Ship | |
| Wood Ship | |
| Charles Piez | |
| War Cartoon, " The Bridge to France," by J. N. Darling | |
| Mrs. Wilson Christening the Quistconck | |
| Edward F. Carry | |
| P. A. S. Franklin | |
| The American Peril | |
| Charles M. Schwab | |
| Sir Joseph Maclay | |
| "By-gone Days" | |
| Pavelich, Champion Riveter, and His Crew | |
| War Poster, "The Tidal Wave," by J. C. Coll | |
| Division of Pictorial Publicity, Charles Dana Gibson, Chairman | |
| "The Big Parade," War Poster, by James Montgomery Flagg | |
| International Labor Board | |
| Hurley, Burroughs, Edison, Ford, Firestone, DeLooch | |
| War Poster by Mr. Gerrit A. Beneker | |
| Admiral William Sheppard Benson | |
| Large Type Pacific Coast Steel Ship | |
| Henry M. Robinson | |
| American Commissioners' Letter | |
| The War Cabinet |
