Building to Parity

To make its fleet "second to none" the Navy Department last week awarded construction contracts for the biggest batch of fighting ships ever ordered in a single day. Twenty-one craft were parceled out among seven of the country's most potent private shipbuilders. The face value of their Navy contracts totaled $129,777,600, although in some instances final costs were to be adjusted to meet shifting price levels. To build this new fleet would require the services of 18,400 shipwrights. When completed, it would bring the U. S. Navy close to the limit set by the London Naval Treaty. Of the 21 ships contracted for, 16 would be constructed out of the $238,000,000 cash allotment to the Navy from the Public Works Fund, five out of regular annual appropriations. Total expenditures for fiscal 1934 were estimated at $86,000,000. Contracts awarded: To Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.--two 20,000-ton aircraft carriers at $19,000,000 each. To Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp.--one 10,000-ton cruiser with 8-in. guns at $11,720,000; four 1,850-ton destroyers at $3,896,000 each. To New York Shipbuilding Co. of which Errett Lobban Cord last week bought control (see p. 41)--two 10,000-ton cruisers with 6-in. guns, at $11,677,000 each; four 1,850-ton destroyers at $3,775,000 each. To Electric Boat Co.--two 1,400-ton submarines, minus main propelling machinery, at $2,770,000 each. To Bath Iron Works Corp.--two 1,500-ton destroyers at $3,429,000 each. To Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.--two 1,500-ton destroyers at $3,410,800 each. To United Dry Docks, Inc.--two 1,500-ton destroyers at $3,400,000 each. The contract prices did not include armament or special fittings. After bids were opened fortnight ago, Florida's bumbling Senator Trammell, chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee, thought he smelled a rat. In a letter to President Roosevelt recommending rejection of all cruiser bids, he charged the shipbuilders with collusion, accused them of protecting one another so that each would certainly be low bidder on at least one type of vessel. The Navy investigated, could find no substantiation of Mr. Trammell's charges. But to play safe three ranking admirals flew to Hyde Park, laid all the bids before President Roosevelt, got that onetime Assistant Secretary of the Navy's approval for each & every contract. Also announced last week was the Navy's 16-ship building program in its own yards. Brooklyn and Philadelphia each got a light cruiser order. Two destroyers each were to be built at Boston. Philadelphia, Norfolk, Puget Sound and Mare Island. Two gunboats and two submarines completed the construction list.

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