Numerous articles have been published on the. expansion of the army and navy during the Great War, but it is believed that details of the increased pressure brought on one naval unit will be of interest, and a brief account is given of the work of the industrial department of the Norfolk Navy Yard during the war.
Prior to April, 1917, the industrial department employed approximately 4000 men and this number could be brought to only approximately 9000 during the war (although 10,000 more could have been profitably employed), due partly to general scarcity of labor and partly to lack of housing accommodations. The latter defect was in the process of correction by the U. S. Housing Corporation when the armistice was signed, the two industrial villages of Craddock and Truxton being then half built; but slight immediate relief was obtained by building labor camps in the navy yard and vicinity. The productivity of the labor that was obtained was increased by lengthening the regular working hours from 8 to 10 a day. Although the working force of the yard was thus increased, the existing supervisory force was actually reduced; several experienced officers were detached and many of the ablest draftsmen, assistant superintendents and highest rated mechanics resigned to take positions in shipbuilding and munition plants, also many employees left to join the army and navy. For the first time at this yard girls were employed to fill clerical positions.
Upon entering the war the United States made all preparations to fight to a finish even if it took several years to win and to that end millions were appropriated to increase the facilities of the yard plant. A fourth dry dock was already in the process of construction, but two more were soon started, a new shipfitters’ shop erected, a new power plant, machine shop, foundry, etc., provided for; and this plant extension demanded a great deal of the time of the manager, public works officer, shop superintendent, and several other members of the industrial department personnel.
During the war the following dockings were made at the yard: Destroyers, 60; battleships, 43 ; cruisers and gunboats, 24; transports, colliers and N. O. T. S., 35 ; hospital ships, 4; tugs and mine sweepers, 45; towing targets, 31; barges, dredges and miscellaneous vessels, 86. Submarine chasers and smaller craft were not dry-docked, but were lifted out by the 150-ton floating crane, 167 of the no-foot chasers being so bandied.
The fleet based only 40 miles from the yard during the greater part of the war, and numerous working parties were sent to the fleet from the yard to carry on repairs, alterations and prepare new designs. Among the items so undertaken were the modification of fire control installations on 10 battleships, designs made for alterations in the bridges of several dreadnoughts, designs for paravane installation, etc. Three battleships were fitted out to join the Grand Fleet.
Three German vessels, the Bulgaria, Rhein and Neckar, had been lying at Baltimore since 1914. When the United States entered the war in 1917, the crews of these ships did as much damage as possible to them before a guard could be sent down to take charge, the damage consisting principally in breaking the main engine cylinders. These vessels were towed to the Norfolk yard, the cylinders repaired by welding, and the ships thoroughly overhauled, two being converted into the transports Susquehanna and Antigone and the other going to the Shipping Board as a cargo carrier. Many other transports were repaired or altered and a heavy burden was thrown on the drafting room in preparing stability calculations to ascertain the amount of ballast necessary for the converted transports to carry to make them safe at sea. By arrangement with the commander of the Newport News Division of the Naval Transport Force all transports berthing in the Fifth District at berths other than in Baltimore and Newport News were repaired by the employees of the industrial department, a special organization being built up to take care of them. The Transport Service desired to reduce the stay of each transport on this side of the Atlantic to a week or less, and during this period the transport had to discharge cargo and passengers, take on cargo, water, coal and troops; therefore, it was impracticable to bring them to the yard for repairs. Two officers were detailed with a working gang to board the transports as soon as they arrived at any of the piers down the river—generally at Lamberts Point— to undertake necessary work, and a floating workshop was fitted to assist them. No transport ever missed her convoy due to delay for repairs.
At the beginning of the war armed guards were furnished to all United States merchant ships operating in the war zone, and in addition to quarters for the guard, life rafts and life boats were supplied, guns and magazines installed, lookout stations, voice tubes, telephones, general alarm systems, radio, signal stations, etc., fitted. Dozens of vessels were given these alterations by the Norfolk yard. During the war nearly 200 vessels in the N. O. T. S. were based in this district and on an average four to eight of these were continually under repair by the yard, every effort being made to rush them out. An example of difficult work encountered is given in the Rondo, a Dutch vessel taken over by the government; her H. P. cylinder had a bad crack and it would have taken a year to replace the casting which was the most intricate ever seen at the yard. Electric welding was tried with satisfactory results.
As an instance of the importance of quick work, the Malang stopped in on her way from Baltimore to France having on hoard two of the 14-inch naval guns for Admiral Plunkett’s battery. An ordinary week’s work was accomplished in less than three days in order to rush the guns to the front, her battery being installed and her dynamo replaced during that period.
The impossibility of bringing ships to the yard was encountered with many of the N. O. T. S. vessels as well as the transports, and was augmented in the case of those carrying mines for the North Sea barrage, all of which were sent from this port. The mine-carrying vessels were continually on the move, as during their week’s stay in port they were shifted generally to four different berths for mine charges, mine anchors, coal and cargo.
The relative importance or “priority” of work tinder way was altered as the war situation demanded. In general, vessels being fitted for service in the war zone were given priority and of these the destroyers were first given preference. Several yachts and coast guard cutters were fitted out for service abroad and 10 steam fish boats were equipped for mine sweeping around the British Isles. The yard received over a thousand visits of vessels for repair during the war and so filled its prime function of a repair yard, but coincidently a great deal of manufacturing work was completed, the following items of which may be noted:
1,000,000 gallons paint.
500,000 pounds cement and putty.
200,000 ten-gallon paint drums.
26 launch boilers.
160,000 smokeless powder packing boxes.
420,000 aluminum dishes for crews mess gear.
20,000 hammocks.
20,000 clothes bags.
1,000 target screens.
1,000 coal bags.
700 metal lockers.
2,000 gasoline boat engines.
5 large boilers (in addition to Craven’s).
986 ships boats.
When the influenza epidemic was at its height coffins could not be obtained in the vicinity so the navy yard manufactured 450 ornamental metal lined caskets with their shipping boxes, the first delivery being made three days after the receipt of the order.
To assist the army, anchor bolts and rings for gun emplacements were supplied, 500 tents manufactured, a sunken barge removed from the ship channel, and 10,000 barrels fitted with straps together with 500 steel buoys were supplied for the submarine nets in the channels in Chesapeake Bay.
In combating the submarine and the mine many new devices were perfected during the war and installed on naval vessels. Among them were listening devices, several different forms of which were developed at the New London Experimental Station and installed on destroyers, chasers, mine sweepers and yachts at the yard. As a protection against anchored mines, the Burney gear developed by the English, an underwater kite with a cutter, was installed on all vessels drawing over 12 feet operating in the war zone, 46 such installations being made at the yard. To reduce visibility camouflage painting was employed and all vessels going abroad were camouflaged first from designs invented at the yard and then from standard designs issued by the Bureau of Construction and Repair.
The idea of reducing visibility was soon abandoned and thereafter vessels were painted to distort their appearance and mislead the enemy in judging their speed and course. Another defensive device was the smoke box which was fitted on all cargo vessels, a box of chemicals which when thrown in the water gave forth a dense smoke under cover of which the vessel could escape. An offensive weapon the Bureau of Ordnance developed the depth charge and many installations of this device with its launching tracks or “Y’’ guns were made at the yard.
All radio installations in the Fifth Naval District were supervised by the industrial department and more than half of them were completed by the yard personnel; 279 complete installations were made, and radio working parties were sent not only to ships but to stations at Beaufort, N. C., Hog Island, Fisherman’s Island, Smith Island, Cape Hatteras, Virginia Beach and Cape Henry.
At the beginning of the war the Norfolk yard was the sole manufacturer of the naval defense mine, and 10,000 Mark IV mines were completed during the war. For the North Sea barrage a larger mine was contracted for by the Bureau of Ordnance and was not made at the yard, but all these mines were loaded at this port and much work was required of the industrial department at Pinners Point to prepare the mine carriers and loading apparatus.
The fleet was kept supplied with targets, screens and gear throughout their target practices during the war, ten 172-foot towing targets being built, and many docked and repaired during that period.
As an example of the war spirit evidenced by the yard may be noted the construction of twenty-one no-foot submarine chasers. By telegram of April 5, 1917, the Norfolk yard was ordered to build 21 chasers, no preparatory work having been done in advance. The boat shop at that time had but 60 odd employees and these were all engaged on an urgent boat building program. All the wood workers on the civil service employment list were therefore called, to the number of 300, and, of these, very few knew anything about boat building. Requisitions were immediately prepared for the material necessary for construction and every effort was made to expedite delivery, as upon this alone depended the completion date of the chasers. At no time were the chasers given first priority, hut at one time the only jobs given precedence over them were fitting the Neckar and Rhein as transports and preparing the Florida for duty with the Grand Fleet. Eight boats were laid down at once and space was afterwards found for seven more so that 15 were on the ways simultaneously; the first being launched August 16, 1917, first trial September 12, 1917, and commissioned the first week in October. One of the Norfolk chasers won the race from Bermuda to New York on their return from Europe in August, 1919. The chasers built at the Norfolk yard cost less than half the price paid to some of the contractors for similar boats.
The destroyer Craven was built complete during the war, although she could not be given priority due to urgent work on transports and vessels going to the war zone. Her boilers, condensers, and turbines were built at the yard in addition to the hull. Her keel was laid November 20, 1917, vessel launched June 29, 1918, and commissioned October 19, 1918.
The armistice in November, 1918, reduced the pressure on the yard to such an extent that working hours were cut from 10 to 8 per day, and practically the only rush jobs that remained were repairs to transports.