United States Shipbuilding

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 39, 30 January 1946, Page 5

United States Shipbuilding

America, with 57 per cent of the world’s total, has now more mercantile shipping tonnage than «wy other nation. The world’s tonnage is 20 per cent greater than it was before the war but the British merchant fleet instead of constituting some 30 per cent of the total, as it did at its lowest ebb, is under 20 per cent. Before the war, Ame-i rica owned only 17 per cent of the total. The total wartime tonnage put out by the United States shipbuilders was nearly 60,000,000 tons deadweight, a remarkable achievement by an industry which 10 or 12 years ago constructed only live or six big ships a year.

Bought a Vineyard When an Auckland soldier returned from the Middle East recently, he produced documentary evidence that he was the legal owner of a five-acre vineyard in a suburb of Rome. He bought if from an Italian farmer for a small case of bully beef. The vineyard was in full production when the soldier left, and though he had not received any monetary benefit from his transaction, he spent some pleasant hours working on his property and supervising his six “kogs.” “Maybe I shall go back to tlic farm, but l certainly wish I could have my house there transferred to Auckland,” added the soldier.