Brewster 'A Glimpse of War through a Private's Eyes', a retrospective account of experiences in World War I, 1915-1917 / John James Brewster - Page 270
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[Page 270]
another yard's record for a similar vessel, was fourteen months.
A Patrol boat could be built in six weeks and a Destroyer in three or four months. Just as soon as one vessel is launched from the slip, men are immediately at work putting down the blocks for the keel of the next ship.
If the hull of a vessel, is moored in the river alongside, in the place she occupied, can be seen the keel plate or frames of the next vessel, & so the work of keeping Britains Navy up to concert pitch is going on without a stop.
After leaving the River proper the steamer lands its passengers at a pleasure resort near the entrance, inside a huge protecting boom, or takes them for a run into the Loch District visiting three or four well known ones, Lochs Long, Goyle, etc. The return journey was made late in the afternoon, during which, two outward bound Destroyers passed silently by, making three new vessels in commission for that one day.
The enormous amount of work being done on the Clyde, makes known to even a lay man, the immensity of the task that Britain had to undertake to become anything like ready to withstand the Hun War preparations which had been quietly & secretly pushed on for the past forty years.
Even apart from the deep interest created by the building of ships, the historic land marks, and places of Old time association, are sufficient to make this River Trip most enjoyable but so that one can form an idea as to the strides made in recent years one ship building yard on the Clyde can build a Dreadnought with all its gear guns Machinery wireless etc from keel to truck without going even for a single little nut or bolt out of its own work shops.
An Aeroplane factory, with flying ground has since the outbreak of the War, been added.
To a man with an engineering turn