The Return of the Wooden Ship

Progress, Volume XII, Issue 12, 1 August 1917, Page 1041

The Return of the Wooden Ship

That American has made up its mind for war is quite obvious to any reader of an American neAvspaper. A little time back we had cable advice that America intended to build a fleet of a thousand ships with auxiliary power for the Atlantic merchant service. This original intention has been changed, and now only a few hundred ships are projected—the rest are to be built of steel.

On this page we illustrate the launching of the “City of Portland” the first of a new type of wooden ship being built on th ePacific Coast of America. She is equipped with internal combustion oil engines, and a schooner rig to take advantage of the winds. This ship may be termed the mother of motor ships on the Pacific, having been launched on April 8,1916, after six months actual construction time, and put into the service of Charles McCormick and Company, of San Francisco and Portland. A five-masted auxiliary schooner 278 feet over all, with a beam of 48

feet and hold of 19 feet, she is equipped with twin four-cylinder Bolinder semi-Diesel engines, steamwinches, anchor-hoist, and capstan. A feature of her construction is a steel truss running fore and aft, from keel to deck-beams, designed to give stiffness. Loaded with something over 2,000,000 feet of lumber, she made a very successful maiden voyage to Port Pirie, Australia, showing herself capable of doing better than ten knots, although for the first part her engines were held down to seven or eight knots. With this speed her average fuel consumption was