BATTLESHIP BUILDING.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 687, 25 November 1921, Page 6

BATTLESHIP BUILDING.

WHAT IT MEANS. The old Scots saying “Ijt’s ili wind that blows naebody guid,” find-, appropriate exemplification in the new programme of warships which Great Britain deems it advisable to undertake. The construction of four superDreadnoughts, ,to cost in all 160,000,000 dollars, signifies to the unfortunate taxpayer further burdens and more grevious cause for complaint. And if, as has been suggested, we shall require to build four more in each of the next three years, in order to restore our national security on the seas, the cynical taxpayer, seeing ahead a retutn to the old roar of armaments, may be pardoned for adapting the famous phrase “living Jay taking in each other’s washing,” into ; “living by building battleships to beat the other nations.” That’s ( thd ill-wind blowing on the taxpayers as they feel its draught coming to them through the income good to be blown by this ill wind is not difficult to understand. The four warships will come as a boon and a blessing to armies of workers in the steel centres and shipyards, now in very .doleful mood. The four ships will signify to them deliverance from the gaunt spectre of unemployment and the restoration of .the brighter and happier days that were th. it's. Nothing provides so much work to armies of artisans as battleships.One of the si per Hood type, to oe ordered under! the new programme ix the biggest work-giving creation on earth —or sea. Of the 160,000,000 dollar expendi- ■ ture their construction will entail, 60 pe, cent, will go in wages to the workmen. The new programme will accordingly mean the distribution among the steel workers, gun and armour-plaite workers, and' shipyaid workers, of no less than 95,001,000 dollars. , , Each of the battleships will cost as much as 500 of the largest locomotives on our railways. The construction of the quartette will be equivalent accordingly, to the building of 2000 locomotives.

HOW WORKMEN WILL BENEFIT.

On pre-war prices, sixteen Lusitanias would have been built for the price of the four new vessels. Their aggregate cost represents three times the tojtal valuation of the property in the second city of the Empire— Glasgow. The wages drawn by the workers who will prepare the steel and assemble the parts at the shipyards would furnish 15 dollars to every inhabitant in the City of London ; and

approximately 100 dollars to every person, children included, in either of Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, or Birmingham cities. , Exactly the hours that ough,t *0 be spent in the construction of each ship is known beforehand to the Admiralty. This finds expression in technical phrase called “manhours/ The Queen Elizabeth type df battleship required; over 8,000,000 manhours for their completion ready for sea. Each of the new ships, inucn larger and speedier, will, it is believed, require about 12,000,000 manhours. This signifies that 12,000,000 men, or 50 per cent, more than aLI the artisans in Great Britain, would get one hour’s work on each of the new ships : or, vice versa, that one man would have to be given 12,000,000 hours wherein to finish the job. To be more practical, 3000 men engaged in the construction of one of these projected ships would lie al lowed 16,000 hours to finish the ship from the laying of its keel until it was able to steam oujt ready for action. , . Accordingly, the four ships will furnish 12,000 men with ,two years’ steady work in the shipyard's ; while in the steel works, gun establishments, and armour-plate shops, thousands more will be found work for a like period. Probably the new contracts will furnish work for two years to over 25,000 men all told. One can understand, therefore, the scramble there will be at the great rival constructive centres to procure the order for one of these giganjtic sugar-plums. The shipyard centres involved l in this problem are Portsmouth, Devonport, the Tyne, the Clydte, and Bar-row-in-Furness.

It has been the habit of the Admi’raljty, when four ships are given out, to place one. at each of the two Government dockyards in Portsmouth and Devonport. At the same time, in periods of severe industrial depression, as at present, the Admiralty attempts, as far as oossible, to distribute its work so as to give each centre a share. Portsmouth and Devonport, however, have never Built a ship (battlecruiser) of the type now to be ordered The Tyne, Clyde, and Barrow bililt all the great ships >f the class that figured in the war. The Scottish centre, as a master of fact, built more than all the yards in England put together, while the last of this class, the Hood, together with the Renown, in which the Prince of Wales toured to Australia, were constructed at the Scottish centre.

The Clyde, it is known, is certain to receive one of the ships ; the Tyne a second ; and probably Barrow-in-Eurness and one of the Government yards a third and a fourth; while the great steelworks at Sheffield, Newcastle, and Glasgow will be awarded plenty of profitable work on the construction of the steel plates, forgings, castings, guns, armour and engines. And so, if the taxpayer grumbles, he should console himself with the thought, “This ill wind is blowing some other chaps a lot of good.”