Cinderellas of the fleet . with an excellent de-sign and the brains to organize the work of production, few of the boatswould have been completed on time had it not been for the untiringelTorts of the corps of inspectors drawn from the motor boat industry,who directed the work where direction was needed, smoothing outapparently insurmountable difficulties with their admirable the Chief Constructor to the thousands of workmen engaged onthe job. this organization functioned with an enthusiasm, a lack ofself-interest, an esprit dc corps that was nothing short of a
Cinderellas of the fleet . with an excellent de-sign and the brains to organize the work of production, few of the boatswould have been completed on time had it not been for the untiringelTorts of the corps of inspectors drawn from the motor boat industry,who directed the work where direction was needed, smoothing outapparently insurmountable difficulties with their admirable the Chief Constructor to the thousands of workmen engaged onthe job. this organization functioned with an enthusiasm, a lack ofself-interest, an esprit dc corps that was nothing short of after tale might be written of the difficulties encountered andovercome in the building and delivering the boats on time—stories thatprove that the fighting of the war was not all on the other side of theAtlantic. Here is one: Eight of the boats built at Kingston, ahundred miles or so up the Hudson River from New York, werecaught by the early freeze-up of 1917 that locked the river tighter 66 THE CINDERELLAS OF THE FLEET. A completed Chaser waiting her turn at the hiunching ways. than it had been locked within the memory of the oldest ice paralyzed navigation—but the boats were needed. It looked like a big delay, but at the command of the New Yorkoffice an utterly unprecedented thing was done. Fiye of the boats wereplaced on a floating drydock with the remaining three made fast astern,protected from the ice by a barge on either side, and a fleet of ten tugswas commandeered to tow the outfit down the river. The start wasmade one Thursday night with the thermometer at 24 degrees belowzero. The progress was slow and the work was heart-breaking. Oneday the little fleet was driven back fifteen miles by the tide and on Monday morning it arrived in New York. The crews hadbeen on the job continuously for four days and nights in the bittercold and with but little food. Many a man has won the Croix deGuerre for a less heroic job. CllAITEK V EQUIPMENT OF
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookidcinderellaso, bookyear1920
