A few days later, John received an unexpected phone call from his office. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

"Hello, John, I'm Henry Kaiser." On the phone, a slightly hoarse male voice came.

"Mr. Kaiser?" John was a little surprised at first, and then said in the most enthusiastic tone: "Hello, Kaiser. What can I do for you? ”

A few months ago, in order to establish his authority in the battle planning department, John had asked Kaiser to help him with the show, and withdrew the application to export scrap steel to the Yawata Iron and Steel Works in Japan. As the saying goes, a favor is as big as a debt, and the pot is sold on the head. Although John and Kaiser are both "brothers" of Freemasonry, after all, they owe each other favors, and of course he should be more enthusiastic.

"I have a small problem right now, Knox said you can help me, do you have time for the night? I'm in Washington, D.C. Kaiser was very simple, did not talk about the previous "friendship", and went straight to the point for help.

"No problem, I have time in the evening...... Okay, I'll see you at the Washington Hotel at eight o'clock in the evening. Hanging up, John began to wonder what would happen to Kaiser when he looked for him.

This building materials tycoon from a contractor was investigated for exporting raw materials to Japan? John's first thought was that President Roosevelt had just signed a decree banning the export of minerals, chemicals, and aircraft parts to Japan. Could it be that Kaiser hit the muzzle of the gun? Then he should also go to the material committee for public relations, what's the use of finding himself.

However, John soon dismissed this speculation. Kaiser mentioned Knox on the phone, and there was probably only one thing that could connect him to Knox, the Secretary of the Navy—shipbuilding.

Last month, the British lost 880,000 tons of capacity in the Atlantic, and in desperation, they had to come to their "good friends" for help, asking American shipyards to build 60 10,000-ton freighters for them.

Embarrassingly, the U.S. Congress has just passed President Roosevelt's plan to build a "two-ocean" navy. The large military orders for hundreds of warships have already filled the slipways of major US shipyards. There are orders for warships that cost tens of millions of dollars at every turn, and who cares about a cargo ship of just $2 million. The Brit ran around with the check, stunned that no shipyard would take the order.

John knew that historically, it was Kaiser who stepped in to take over the business. His Kaiser-Todd-Bath consortium, which was formed by his Keizer company along with Bath Steel Company and Todd Shipbuilding, created the "Freedom Wheel Myth" during World War II. Some historians even commented: without the Freedom Wheel, there would have been no victory for the Allies. As a result, Kaiser is regarded by Americans as a legend who changed the course of the war.

Let's be honest. John hadn't been unaware of meddling in the business before. Two days ago, when he went to the Maritime Commission to negotiate the transportation of arms aid, he also asked someone about the "EC2-S-C1" plan (E stands for emergency, C stands for freighter, 2 stands for vessel length between 400 and 450 feet, S stands for steam-powered, and C1 is the design version of the vessel).

But the heart was moved, and John finally gave up. After all, shipbuilding is different from building airplanes, and the upfront investment requires too much money. The Brits, who were slammed, were only willing to pay a deposit of $280,000 per ship and a $9 million shipyard construction cost in advance. John roughly calculated that even if he could get some loans from the bank, he would have to put at least another three or four million dollars into it. With his net worth, he still has to engage in landing craft, and he really can't eat this big cake.

However, this time Kaiser suddenly came to the door by himself, which made John have a glimmer of hope in his heart. Although he didn't know why Kaiser was looking for him, he believed that at least it was not a bad thing. I just gave the idea of escorting the aircraft carrier to Knox in vain, and the other party will not want to pit him.

By the time John arrived at the Washington Hotel in the evening, Kaiser was already waiting for him, accompanied by a middle-aged man with a big beard.

"John, my brother, it's a pleasure to see you." Kaiser greeted John with Masonic courtesy, and then introduced: "This is Cyril Thompson, an excellent naval architect, who is appointed by the Lord to assist in the work of the Associate-Steward (in addition to the chief and second officers of each Masonic house, and a number of assistant officers appointed by His Holiness). ”

John knew that the famous "Liberty Wheel" in history and the subsequent improved "Victory Wheel" were modeled after Thompson's design. Unexpectedly, he was also a Freemason, and he was still an assistant secretary of no low status.

But since John joined the Freemasonry, he has been familiar with this kind of thing. There was a long list of historical celebrities he had met in the New York clubhouse alone, and no matter how many master ship designers there were, it was nothing remarkable.

It can be seen that Kaiser has a close relationship with Thompson, and it is no wonder that he is doing well in the building materials business, and suddenly set foot in the shipbuilding industry, which is completely unfamiliar. Thompson certainly played a key role in this.

Henry Kaiser is a very bold German, and after a brief pleasantry, he gets straight to the point.

"John, Thompson and I took a big deal to help the Anglo-Saxons build 60 10,000-ton freighters. The price offered by the other party was fair, 2 million US dollars, that is, it was more urgent, and all of them had to be delivered by the end of 1941. Kaiser waved his fat palm with a cigar in his hands domineeringly, "I told them, it won't take so long, I can build 60 ships in a year." ”

People who don't know the history will definitely think that this fat man is bragging. Even for an experienced large shipyard, it takes at least more than 200 days to build a 10,000-ton freighter, let alone a newcomer who has never built even a small sampan. Even the British officials who signed the contract with Kaiser thought that this American fat paper, who looked a little like their prime minister, was a silly white sweet.

Only John believed that Kaiser did not brag. Historically, Kaiser has built thousands of Liberty ships, with an average build time of only 40 days per ship. In the latter part of the war, a new 10,000-ton freighter was launched every day in his shipyard, and an escort aircraft carrier was launched every week. This dumpling-like production speed was faster than the maximum sinking rate of German U-boats, helping the allies win the "tonnage war" in the Atlantic.

The most amazing thing is that one of them, "Robert Pirry", began to lay the first keel at 12:01 noon on November 8, 1942, and more than 500,000 parts were assembled in 100 hours, and the ship was completed and launched on November 12, and the whole construction time was only 4 days, 15 hours and 29 minutes! When launched, even the paint on the superstructure had not dried. No one was able to break this construction record until the next century.

Thompson had already started working on the design. The British were pleased with one of his previous freighters, but they were short of fuel and demanded a switch to a Welsh anthracite-burning tri-expansion steam engine. Kaiser explained his plans to John: "I've already acquired a number of small shipyards and I'm planning to build one or two new shipyards in Portland and Richmond. The required land has also been obtained several times, and a new slipway is being built. By the end of the year, I'll be able to start construction with 20 ships together. ”

"Are there enough shipbuilders?" John knew that for a tycoon like Kaiser, who was not bad for money, none of the problems that could be solved with money were not a problem. The difficulty lies in the things that cannot be solved with money, such as the shortage of skilled shipbuilders. Now all major shipyards are working overtime to catch up, and skilled workers are hard to find. There are many types of skilled jobs in the shipbuilding industry, and not everyone can do it by the way.

John's question hit Kaiser's heart. He smirked and said, "Skilled workers are hard to find, but I have my own unique skills!" ”