Mr. TABER. Have you taken any off the Great Lakes? Captain VICKERY. I think there were two small cargo-carrying vessels. Mr. TABER. You could not get most of them through the canals? Captain VICKERY. No, sir. One of the troubles with the lake vessels is the fact that they are built for lake service. Their structural strength is different, and their engineering is entirely different. The vessels which run in the lake trade have only a limited condenser capacity. On the Lakes you use fresh water circulation, but at sea you cannot do that. Mr. WOODRUM. What about the tugs? Captain VICKERY. Those are tugs that are replacements for tugs taken out from other services and turned over to the British under the Lease-Lend Act. There are 25 of those tugs. PURCHASES OF SHIPS CONTEMPLATED Mr. WOODRUM. In addition to the 561 vessels under this program, what do you contemplate in the way of purchases of ships? Captain VICKERY. We are going as far as we can. Mr. WOODRUM. How much tonnage do you figure you will get for the $310,000,000 on the ship-purchase program? Captain VICKERY. Approximately 3,500,000 tons are available for purchase with that amount. GROSS TONNAGE UNDER PROPOSED SHIP-CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM Mr. WOODRUM. What is the gross tonnage running on the 541 ship program? Captain VICKERY. I gave you the dead-weight tonnage; the gross will be about two-thirds of the dead-weight tonnage. Mr. WOODRUM. What is the dead-weight tonnage? Captain VICKERY. That is 5,580,000 tons. That is additional construction over what we have under construction at the present time. SUMMARY OF SHIP-CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM Mr. WOODRUM. Can this tabular statement showing a summary of the ship construction program go into the record? Captain VICKERY. Yes, sir. This is the present program. It does not show the additional ships under the appropriation asked for. (The statement above referred to is as follows:) 4 of vessels Construction costs Number of vessels United States Maritime Commission—Summary of ship-construction program as at June 23, 1941 Ships completed Number Under construction 1 Under contract (including awards) Construction costs Number of vessels Construction costs Number of vessels 1 Based on progress reported by Technical Division as of May 31, 1941. 2 Includes $66,800,000 construction cost of 23 tankers, the Commission, wners. (Report No. 41.) committed to the amount of $15,154,122, for national defense features only, the balance assumed by the TONNAGES Under construction Under contract (including awards) 292 562, 124, 947 320 780, 160, 600 705 1,593, 687, 835. 32 Ship completed Total of all ships 2 Includes 1 seaplane tender, 1 destroyer tender, and 2 transports building for the Navy; and 2 transports building for the Army. United States Maritime Commission, ship construction program as at June 23, 1941 EAST COAST YARDS South Portland Shipbuilding Bath Iron Works. Corporation. Bethlehem Steel Co. Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Chester, Pa. Co. Total, Sun Shipbuild- Bethlehem |