AN AMERICAN SHIPBUILDER AND HIS WORKMEN.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1723, 11 February 1874, Page 2

AN AMERICAN SHIPBUILDER AND HIS WORKMEN.

•.r/jfh^.progr^ssipf American shipbnading at 'the present moment is regarded with sjlcial anxiety., Althoughior a.time^e:^ interest" was ' under a cloud, more' 'thoughtful men held aloof from the jubilee over the decline and fall of :th6,toatitiihe success 1 of the States, satisfied that the restless enterprise of the ■; Yankee would again ' assert : itself; ■ It has .(itlqneisp/ :and: from aiiiEriglish - journal we .iselect. the following; in. regard to one ship■a building yard i^-V The most favorable specid??nens, of i American^ isHipbuilding to be seen „,^6 (turned; put.,- pear,, Philadelphia 'by the t .ghester ship yard, a 'remarkable establishment in every .WAy.irjlt- is , but- two ! years ~»> §i?,ce one .jof. those i exceptional'; geniuses, whose administrative talent and indomitable „,;ener.ay bend men and material to^their will, :( > on,e iJohn- Roche, fixed upon'a certaih swamp <;'').adjoiningithe;de9peßt and broadest i portibii of "j the .Dejaware river,; andlying at the 1 foot Of .chills, rich, an mines ;of iron! and. coalj as the jo b r eas place.fpr therapid and satisfactory 'construction of Americanshipsi T^Thdt swamp is ship yardj: furnishing empldymeht for 1300 men, and paying out to them 38l000ddl > per week;/; These) workmen have all been* educated in shipbuilding by Mr Roche himself, who takes pains to secure their perma- I — nent- co-operation-by giving-theur facilities for becoming the owners Qf the yjery complete •ifgOetelraP bUfli on the premises'. 'and of a certain amount of stock. In order to give . -.these, employes a (thorptagh /insight ihtbitlife business of shipbuilding, they are setLto .difierent b?anche.S/.pf. thoiworkt from day to day. A .dozen ships have been built in the I yard aqd 7 nine. more are now on the stocks', including Jt\yp sloops of war 1 , •.,,iai}d, : two,Bhips,for the Bacific Mail Line, 435 ft , :; long, 4^ft:.bewn, ,33ft,deepV with a capacity j^^O^pnsA-^^-i'.:; :-:ui-.r.i- M .-■: f=..> j