It was on September 7, 1916, that Congress passed a law creating the United States Shipping Board, the original aim of which was to develop more effectively the American Mercantile Marine. A very few months later, on April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, and on May 4 the first American warships to reach Europe, consisting of six destroyers, steamed into Queenstown harbour. It is a day firmly fixed in my own memory, as the vessel I was then commanding was the first to go alongside them, north of Daunt’s Rock lightship. Now with America a participant in the war, and about to send armies to Europe together with necessary military supplies, the need for American merchant tonnage became positively acute. In the whole of the United States there were not more than sixty-one shipyards, of which only thirty-seven were building steel craft. But America realised that ships must be built at once, regardless of cost, both very quickly and in large numbers. Thus in a strange and romantic manner there came unexpectedly a revival of the wooden ship. An American writer has pointed out that of the entire transportation of American troops about 48¼ per cent. were carried in British ships, and 43 per cent. in American Navy transports. But, with a fine patriotic effort, shipbuilding of all kinds now went ahead, and soon there were 341 shipyards building sea-going craft. Actually 1284 launching ways were now occupied. It was a remarkable lesson which war had taught in respect of the Mercantile Marine. There is no room to go into details, but it is sufficient to call attention to this exceptional effort, which showed what could be done. Fabricated ships, that is, vessels constructed by assembling the standardised plates made in the engineering shops, rendered possible only through the existence of numerous steel rolling mills, began to take the water; and if some of these craft were not always well built, we must remember that they were a temporary measure, and not intended to last.