40 More Tin Cans

By any standard--speed, range, comfort, power--the U. S. Navy's new destroyers (1,500-1,650 tons) are as much superior to the 50 "tin cans" given to Great Britain in the bases deal as a 1941 Cadillac limousine is to a 1908 Maxwell roadster. Yet the Navy was sorry to see its 50 old four-pipers go. They were pesky, hard-sledding, pitched and rolled in any kind of sea with the unpredictable ill humor of a sunfishing mustang. But they were ships. They were reasonably fast (around 35 knots) and they could still make it hot for submarines. Also they were invaluable for training. Each one was a ship where a young lieutenant commander could learn the unforgettable lessons of his first command. On each one of these pitching, rocking sea horses, bluejackets could learn the strange, good-humored, hell-for-leather technique and attitude of the destroyerman; young officers, at duties on deck and below, or hanging to the overhead in wardroom bull sessions, could become Navy--the good, hard way.

But destroyermen did not grieve long for the lost 50; they went discreetly, quietly after more. Last week--as Washington's bars began to buzz with the rumor that Britain might get more old destroyers --Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox announced that contracts had been let for 40 more "tin cans," to cost an average of $6,300,000 each. They will be paid for out of authorizations already made for the two-ocean programs. After previous contracts were awarded, there was still some tonnage left over. Navy men passed the word that the new building would slow up the two-ocean fleet program, scheduled for completion in 1946-47, little or not at all.

This apparent contradiction was based on the fact that U. S. private shipbuilders and Navy Yards, working three shifts a day, six-seven days a week, were getting along faster than all but the most hopeful had expected. Fourteen destroyers were commissioned or launched between July 1 and Dec. 1. and 17 keels were laid. Construction time of a 1,650-ton destroyer has been cut from 28 to 18 months; by 1943 shipbuilders hope to whittle it to six. Work on battleships, carriers and cruisers is generally ahead of schedule.

Navy men are still making no public promise that the two-ocean fleet, in its overwhelming entirety, will be in the water before 1947. But last week, the rambling, white-walled Navy Building on Washington's Constitution Avenue was full of the expectation that most of the great fleet would be in commission by the end of 1945. Unofficially, Navy officers said that this chart of deliveries was, if anything, on the conservative side:

Year Battleships Carriers Cruisers Submarines Destroyers

1940 0 14

1941 1 0 8

1942 2 0 0 12 32

1943 5 0 6 30 50

1944 2 1 12 39 62

1945 5 4 12 40

1946 2 3 14

1947 2 10 __ __ __ __ __ Building or on order 17 12 54 81 206

Now in Comission 15 6 37 104 159 __ __ __ __ __

Two-Ocean 32 18 91 185 365 Fleet

Meanwhile, with the heavy end of the deliveries not beginning till 1943, the Navy, like the rest of the U. S. public, had its fingers crossed. The two-ocean Navy is the U. S.'s $7,000,000,000 insurance policy against the dread possibility that Adolf Hitler may defeat Britain and get the British fleet. But that insurance policy will not be fully in force until the last new ship has had its shakedown run.

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