Long before this the Cunard Company had embarked upon yet another subsidiary enterprise in the establishment of a factory for the manufacture of shells. This factory, which came to be known as the Cunard National Shell Factory, was established at Bootle, the building having before been used as a store for the fittings and furniture taken from such of the Cunard Company’s vessels as had been used as armed cruisers and in various other capacities. A new floor was built and the roof trusses were strengthened in order to carry shafting. Most of the lathes and other machine tools installed in the factory were of the type suitable for marine work, and therefore, special fittings were necessary in order to convert them into lathes suitable for the production of 4 in., 5 in., 6 in. and 8 in. shells; and these special fittings were designed and made by the Cunard’s Staff Engineers. The boring bars used for the 8 in. shells were made from the piston rods of the old Cunard liner _Lucania_, sister ship to the _Campania_, the vessel, as we have seen, on which Signor Marconi carried out some of his most important wireless experiments. The ingenuity displayed in this won a tribute of admiration from all the engineering experts who were brought in touch with it; and the proof of their success is to be found in the fact that the shells, ranging up to 6 in. and 8 in. diameter, were entirely completed by female labour. The Cunard National Shell Factory was, indeed, the first factory in Great Britain to produce 6 in. and 8 in. shells with female labour, and was thus the pioneer in the employment of women on shells of large calibre. In order that the women might be able to handle these heavy shells great attention had, of course, to be paid to the lifting appliances; and it may, perhaps, here be mentioned that one of the women operators worked throughout the whole period from October, 1915, to November, 1918, without the loss of a single minute of time, probably creating a record. To this factory also several of the retired engineering officers of the Cunard Company’s ships returned to work in order to assist their country in increasing the output of shells, while the factory was self-contained in that it manufactured all its own tools, jigs, and other necessary appliances. In this factory work was continuous, being carried out in three shifts, one working from seven in the morning till three in the afternoon, the next from three in the afternoon till ten at night, and the third from ten p.m. until seven next morning; while on Saturdays one shift worked from seven a.m. till noon, and another from noon till five p.m.