Emergency Fleet Corporation
729) to acquire, maintain, and operate merchant ships to meet national defense, foreign and domestic commerce during World War I.
Congress had rejected previous attempts to create a shipping board to manage U.S. maritime affairs, beginning with bills introduced as early in the war as 4 September 1914.
That act established the United States Shipping Board headed by five commissioners appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
Ten days after declaration of war, on 16 April 1917, the Board created the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) in the District of Columbia with a capital stock of $50,000,000.
[4] Popular conception of what became the Denman-Goethals controversy involved William Denman's support of wooden ship construction and General Goethals' opposition.
[5] The impractical plan to mass-produce a thousand small wooden steamers was developed by the lawyer William Denman and an amateur yachtsman from Massachusetts (Frederic A. Eustis).
Goethals reluctantly agreed —because his quick resignation would lead to a public relations disaster for the president—, but he soon realized that the plan for building wooden ships was flawed (they were small, slow and could not efficiently be mass-produced).
Goethals encouraged ship builders to look into the mass production of steel vessels by fabricating standardized parts across the country, a plan that would eventually be adopted.
[6] The President accepted the resignations of both Denman and Goethals and appointed Edward N. Hurley Chairman of the Shipping Board 27 July 1917.
Schwab was thus able to give total attention to EFC matters, whereas Piez had held both posts of Vice-President and General Manager.
[7] On entry into the war there were fewer than 50,000 shipyard workers in U.S. yards and production could not possibly meet wartime demands and attrition.
There were international consequences, one being the fact that Great Britain had a large number of those ships also planned for war service.
The early concept of managing the building of ships in existing yards was quickly shown to be inadequate as they were completing the hulls commandeered as contracted or in progress or with Navy orders.
The armistice took effect before the yards, Hog Island being by far the largest and most publicized, reached full production and the expense was very large.
William Denman had been an early proponent of these ships, as the nation had abundant lumber supplies, and there was doubt whether domestic steel production could cope with the demands of shipbuilding in conjunction with other wartime pressures.
One design, 1001, was for wooden 3,500 ton steam freighters with dimensions of approximately 281 X 46 X 23.5 feet (7.2 m) built largely of precut, numbered components of pine or Douglas fir.
That activity brought protests from watermen and the operation was moved in 1924 to 566 acres (2.29 km2) of company owned farmland surrounding Mallows Bay in Maryland.
The Board and Corporation were subsequently abolished on 26 October 1936, and their functions transferred to the U.S. Maritime Commission by the Merchant Marine Act (49 Stat.
