Word: cramp
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...nearly a century Philadelphians proudly pointed to Cramp's, the shipyards that made the slow-moving Delaware the "Clyde of America." When William Cramp founded the shipyard in 1830, he built fleet wooden clippers, helped make the U. S. one of the world's greatest seafaring nations. In the Civil War, Cramp's helped turn the tide for the Union with ironclads and monitors...
...Spanish-American War, Cramp's built most of the famous White Squadron, including Admiral Sampson's flagship, the New York. U. S. men-of-war (many were of original Cramp design) made Cramp's world-famous. One day bearded Tsar Alexander II of Russia summoned equally bearded Charles Cramp to his palace, abruptly asked: "Mr. Cramp, at what school of naval architecture were you educated?" Said Cramp: "Your highness, I was educated in my father's shipyard, and he was educated in his father's shipyard. We founded our own school of naval architecture...
Prosperous in war, the Cramps could not thrive in peace. In 1903 they lost control of their yards to the Morgan-Drexel banks, which later passed it on to the Harrimans. During World War I, Cramp's reached its all-time peak with 11,000 workers, built 46 destroyers and five transports in two years. But in an age of disarmament there was no place for Cramp's. Bidding too desperately for Navy business, it lost $5,741,000 in 1926. The next spring the huge 62-acre yards closed their gates...
...looked at all the facts, calmly demanded more speed, were Franklin Roosevelt and his Republican Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox. Publisher Knox set to work to advance the Navy's deadlines, by last week had done nobly. In negotiation were arrangements to reopen the abandoned, rotting Cramp shipyards at Philadelphia (which turned out many a World War I emergency vessel). Lined up were other private yards at Chester, Pa., Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Beaumont, Tex., Tampa, Fla., Birmingham, Ala., Oakland, Calif., Wilmington, Del. In collaboration with Labor's Defense Commissioner Sidney Hillman, Secretary Knox announced...
Last week, Adolf Hitler corrected George Marshall's estimates. Military arithmetic, which a month ago was too much for the U. S. to add up without getting taxpayers' cramp, suddenly became kindergarten stuff. Along with the arithmetic went the military thinking which produced such piffling ciphers as $279,000,000. Overnight, the pleasant doings in Louisiana became old-fashioned non sense. Against Europe's total war, the U. S. Army looked like a few nice boys with BB guns...