A Place Called YORKSHIP S.S. Tuckahoe and Woodrow Wilson
	Last revised: 26 Dec 2007

The Accomplishment

On April 8, 1918, the shipwrights working in Shipway O of New York Shipbuilding laid the keel of S.S. Tuckahoe, a 331-foot, 5,500-dwt collier ordered by the U.S. Shipping Board. Remarkably, just 27 days later, the S.S. Tuckahoe was ready to slide down those ways and be moved to an outfitting pier. It was fitted out in just ten days, and delivered to the Shipping Board on May 15, 1918.

"In the record of the Tuckahoe, familiar to shipping world as the collier which was delivered in thirty-seven days from the laying of the keel, one senses the enthusiasm, the spirit of team-play and loyalty to the organization that went into her record-breaking speed of construction under imperative war-time demands. Against the doubts of those who could not conceive of good construction at such a speed of construction, S.S. Tuckahoe on the fortieth day following keel-laying, leaped into an unceasing round of grueling day-in and day-out service that itself established records for quick turn-around in coastwise and transatlantic coal transportation."

--New York Shipbuilding Corporation: A Record of Ships Built (1921)

The Letter

THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON 3 May, 1918 To the Workmen and Executive Staff of the New York Shipbuilding Company Camden, New Jersey: My dear Friends, I want to congratulate you on the extraordinary record you have made in your work on the steamship TUCKAHOE. I wish I could be present in person to express to you the feeling that I have that we are all comrades in a great enterprise and that you have played your part with extraordinary devotion and skill, eliciting not only my admiration but I am sure the admiration of all who will learn of what you have accomplished. I congratulate you and bid you Godspeed. Cordially and sincerely yours, Woodrow Wilson

The Medal

Obverse: United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation Given In Recognition of Extra- Ordinary Effort In Ship Construction In Time of the Nation's Need Reverse: Camden May 15, 1918 World's Record "S.S. Tuckahoe" Launched in 27 Days Completed in 37 Days At The Yard Of New York Shipbuilding Corporation

Special thanks to Stephen McGurl and Matt Paul for their assistance with this page.

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