Congress was asked to appropriate $350,000,000 more for destroyers, to build new plants required, as well as for ship construction. When the bill was passed, October 6, 1917, the plans were ready, contracts were signed, and the enlarged program was under way. Ground was broken at Squantum the next day, October 7. Thousands of laborers were at work, dredging, draining, making roads, driving piles, erecting buildings, transforming that marsh into a fit habitation and working-place for 10,000 men. Buildings sprang up like magic. One concrete, steel and glass structure three stories high and 200 feet long was finished in two weeks. When winter came on, the laborers had to use picks and shovels to dig through the frozen clay to lay foundations, and all the workmen were handicapped by the bitter cold. Concrete poured hot—and thousands of tons were used—had to be protected by masses of hay and sheets of canvas, with heated air circulating inside to keep it from freezing. But the work never halted, and in spite of all handicaps, was completed in record time.
There were eighteen acres of shipyards covered by one continuous roof; the arrangements being so complete that raw material went in at one end and destroyers slid out at the other. There were hundreds of buildings, not a few of them covering one to three acres. There were enough ways for ten destroyers, and a score could have been under construction at the same time.
Six months after ground was broken I had the privilege of witnessing there the laying of the keels of five destroyers in one day.
The building of Squantum was rivaled by the erection of the big plants at Erie, Pa., to make forgings for destroyer shafts and turbines; the plant at Buffalo and by other feats of construction that would be difficult to excel. All were erected and in operation in half the time they could have been completed under ordinary conditions.
Our construction program embraced practically a thousand vessels—275 destroyers, 447 submarine-chasers, 99 submarines, 100 eagle boats, 54 mine-sweepers, and a number of gunboats and ships of other types. All these in addition to the capital ships and scout cruisers authorized in the three-year program. Though some contracts were cancelled after the armistice, all but 100 or so of these vessels were built, nearly 500 completed before the end of hostilities. In addition 1,597 privately-owned vessels, ranging from small patrol craft to huge transports, were converted by the Navy for war purposes.
Over 2,000 vessels were in naval service before hostilities ended—six times as many as were on the Navy list when war was declared. How was it possible, in a country where shipbuilding had declined until it was "a craft and not a trade," to build and alter and repair all these ships, and also to provide munitions and build great establishments ashore on both sides of the sea?
It was made possible by the foresight of Admirals Griffin and Taylor and their associates, who before the war had made designs for building various types of ships and for converting the ex-German vessels and privately-owned craft suitable for war service. I wish the whole country could know the true value of the work of these able officers and their naval and civilian assistants. But for their forehandedness and ability, our Navy would not have been able to have rendered such prompt and valuable service. Great credit is due, alike, to the shipbuilders who carried their plans into effect, devoting their talents and untiring efforts to further warship construction.
It was also because the 100,000 mechanics and workers in navy yards and naval plants, and the many more in private plants, who, with patriotic naval and civilian experts, worked as never before. Many of these "patriots in overalls" sacrificed their desire to enlist when told that they could do more to win the war by driving rivets, fashioning guns or making munitions. Labor was whole-heartedly in the war, and would not tolerate slackers in production or in service. In the heat of summer and the cold of winter, they rushed construction and astonished the world by the celerity with which American skill and industry turned out ships, weapons and supplies. On every war board labor had its representative—in the Cabinet as well—and its patriotism and unity made for a united and efficient America. The Navy and other war agencies found the militant spirit and wise counsel of Samuel Gompers worth a regiment of fighting men.
The Navy did not wait for war to begin building ships. When the program for 156 vessels was proposed in 1915, without awaiting congressional action, work was begun on plans so that on the very day that the bill became a law the plans and specifications were issued for 20 destroyers, 27 submarines, 4 dreadnaughts and 4 scout-cruisers. Contracts were placed for their construction as soon as the bids were received. "Such speed," said Admiral Taylor, "was without precedent in the history of the Navy Department. It was the result of the persistent insistence by the Secretary of the Navy that work should be pushed and his loyal support in this respect by bureaus concerned. There was no procrastination or dilatoriness in the largest undertaking ever entered into by the United States Navy, and the most important from the point of view of preparation for any eventuality. While the large vessels of the program had to be suspended during the war, the destroyers were pressed."
Completion of the destroyer program gives the United States Navy 267 destroyers of the latest pattern, in addition to those of older type, which, in the emergency of war, rendered such good service. These destroyers have an aggregate of 7,400,000 horse-power, and they cost approximately $600,000,000, counting $40,000,000 spent for new plants and building ways. This sum is greater than the cost of all the ships of the Navy available for service when we entered the war. The record of our destroyers overseas won the admiration of Allied navies, and reflected credit upon Congress, the naval administration and the country.