CLYDE SHIPBUILDING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 651, 14 March 1914, Page 6

CLYDE SHIPBUILDING.

Shipbuilding may be said to be the main industry o£ Great Britain, and when the shipyards are husy a great number of subsidiary industries are maintained in activity The Clyde isi the centre of shipbuilding, and the returns from the Clyde for 1913 show that all previous iveords were broken. The output spread over 277 vessels, reached the enormous total of 767,000 tons, which is 117,000 tons above the total of 1912, and nearly double that recorded just three yesrs ago. The feature of the year has been the large output of warships and big liners, and this has kept the engine shops very busy. In the case of ordinary single-screw steamers, the figures for horse-power and tonnage show no great difference, but with warships especially the horsepower mounts up, and in the race to reach the million level fihe engineers have easily beaten the shipbuilders. The total output last year amounted to 1,118,000 horse-power, exceeidng the output of 1912 by 240,000 i.h.D. The new year waß begun with a volume of work con--iderably below that of 1913, and although the yards will be kept busy for several months to come, it is doubtful if the present conditions will extend beyond the first half of the year. It is estimated that 933 war and merchant ships of 2,186.6U7 tons gro3S were launched from private yards in the United Kingdom during the year 1913. This is the highest aggregate ever known It makes a high-water mark in the history of British shipbuilding industry and one which is not likely to be exceeded in the year 1914.