gained through the statement of Secretary Daniels, June 2, that his
department had established a new world's record for rapid ship
construction by the launching of the torpedo-boat destroyer _Ward_, at
the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, seventeen and a half days after
the keel was laid. The previous record was established shortly before
that date at Camden, New Jersey, where the freighter _Tuckahoe_ was
launched twenty-seven days and three hours after the laying of the keel.

In 1898, twenty years ago, the first sixteen destroyers were authorized
for the United States Navy. These were less than half the size of our
present destroyers, and yet their average time from the laying of the
keels to launching was almost exactly two years. During the ten years
prior to our entrance into the present war Congress authorized an
average of five or six destroyers a year. The records show that in the
construction of these the average time on the ways was almost exactly
eleven months, the total time of construction being about two years.

[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL LEIGH C. PALMER.]

[Illustration: VICE-ADMIRAL WILLIAM S. SIMS.]

[Illustration: JOSEPHUS DANIELS, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.]

[Illustration: ADMIRAL HENRY T. MAYO.]

[Illustration: ADMIRAL WILLIAM S. BENSON.]

[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL ALBERT GLEAVES.]

The average time on the ways of the numerous destroyers launched in