stemmed from the demands imposed on the armed services by the Korean
‘war. As the war situation became acute, greater logistic support was
required of MSTS by all military services.
This resulted in withdrawal
of ships from the normal trans-Pacific schedule, repeated cancellations
or delays in sailings and imposition of shipping priorities. All of
these measures seriously impaired the scheduled rate of shipment of
cargo to Eniwetok. The period during which shipping difficulties became most acute was the summer of 1950 when procurement of material and
prefabricated installations for the Military Structures Program and for
the Scientific Structures Program had generated a particularly heavy
shipping volume of critical items urgently needed by the Jobsite. Con-
struction progress on these structures could not be delayed if campletion
was to be effected by the scheduled date.
A review of changes in cargo ship sailing schedules which took
place at this time is of interest. The schedule with revisions for
July and August 1950, follows:
Type
Original
Schedule
Revised
Schedule
Arrival
Date
Yancey
Cargo
10 June
17 June
1 July
Thuban
Cargo
25 June
Cancelled
Warrick
Cargo
25 June
29 June
Achenor
Cargo
20 July
Cancelled
(Trnamed)
Cargo
27 July
Cancelled
Unnamed)
Cargo
10 August
Cancelled
Albert M, Cole
Cargo
15 August
Cancelled
Cargo
19 August
Ship
Merril
l4 July
6 Sept.
a
On July 20, 1950, a verbal statement was received from Los Alamos
thet all MSTS ships were tied up in the Far East and that nothing would
be available for JIF.3, including Holmes & Narver, until August 15, but
that a cargo ship would be obtained earlier if possible,
This parti-
cular series of changes in schedule resulted in a gap of fifty-four days
cetween successive arrivals of cargo ships, and the uncertainty of cargo
movement under these circumstances created a situation which appeared
to threaten the planned completion of the entire program. Therefore,
an investigation was made as to the availability of commercial charter
stips which might be utilized as an emergency means of logistic support.
Tt was found that a British, Norwegian, or Panamanian ship could be
obtained with owner's guarantee of availability of 9,000 long tons dead
weight and 12,000 measurement tons cargo capacity from San Francisco
or Les Angeles to Eniwetok at about $77,000, with all stevedoring
snd cargo handling to be performed by the charterer, It was ascertained
14-8