COASTWISE WAREHOUSES, INCORPORATED
COASTWISE WAREHOUSES, INCORPORATED
THE development of ocean traffic which has come within recent years has advanced the port of New York to first place among the world's greatest. This means the great increase of facilities for the loading, unloading, handling, and storage of merchandise.
That last item of storage is of vast importance and warehouses for the free and bonded storage of merchandise now engage the energies of important firms, foremost among which is the corporation known as Coastwise Warehouses, Inc., having its principal offices at 534 Washington Street, New York, which with its numerous warehouses is now unquestionably the largest in the business.
Coastwise Warehouses was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York in July, 1915, beginning with the Jane Street Stores at 142-132 Jane Street. This is a six-story warehouse with 65,000 square feet of floor-space with three elevators and a ioo-foot loading platform. Its capacity was soon taken up and the large patronage called for expansion of facilities, the first completed addition being the Washington Street Stores, 466-470 Washington Street (No. 2) containing 75,000 square feet, with two elevators and a 6o-foot loading platform.
On April 1, 1917, the Beach Street Stores, 48-60 Beach Street (No. 3) were added, with 106,000 square feet of floor storage space. It is a large and well-equipped plant with four large elevators and X 51-foot loading platform. The automatic sprinkler system is installed throughout the building.
The next addition was made on May 1, 1917, with the Greenwich Street Stores, 387-391 Greenwich Street and 69 North Moore Street (No. 4). It contains 60,000 square feet, with two elevators and a ioo-foot loading platform.
On July 25, 1917, the company added the Thompson Street Stores, 91-93 Thompson Street Xo. 5), where they have 40,000 square feet and an elevator with 40 feet loading space. By this time the business offered the company took up the full capacity of the stores then owned, and on October 1, 1917, the company added the Washington Street and Charlton Street Stores occupy-ing the premises at 532-540 Washington Street and at 121-127 Charlton Street (Nos. 7 and 8), where the company has both free and bonded stores. This is the finest equipped warehouse in New York, with storage space of 125,000 square feet, three fast elevators, a 200-foot loading platform, and steel awnings twenty feet wide. The general offices of the company are in the building at 534-540 Washington Street, and the office floor is most effectively and conveniently arranged with offices for the heads of departments and the large clerical and accounting forces required for the conducting of this great business, and in the arrangements and surroundings there is ample evidence of the fact that this firm is one which is in sympathy and fellowship with its employes.
Great as are the accommodations already enumerated, they have been largely increased during the year 1918 by notable accessions, including three new warehouses, of which the Thirtieth Street Stores (No. 9) are located at 656-632 West Thirtieth Street and have storage space of 40,000 square feet; the Perry Street Stores have storage space of 60,000 square feet; and the Forty-Eighth Street Stores (No. 11), located at 533-537 West Forty-eighth Street, have storage space of 56,000 feet. The company thus has its ample space evenly distributed all along the west- side water front, affording points of convenient storage within short distances from all the most important piers and freight terminals along the North River front. The management of these warehouses has tirelessly labored to furnish to the mercantile public the best storage accommodations, and it is this high quality of service that has brought to this enterprising company its wonderful development that has put it in the forefront of the storage business in the metropolis.
Not only does the company offer to its patrons the best that can be procured, but it is especially solicitous for and helpful to the welfare of its employes. All those employed by the company are protected under the company's group life insurance, and all employes are required to undergo regularly monthly physical examinations and receive free treatment from the company's physician.
THERE has never been in any country at any time in the world's history a more rapid and remarkable development of shipbuilding activities than that experienced in the United States during the past three years. The fact that a very large amount of tonnage was being destroyed, at the very time when there was a larger demand for the use of sea-going vessels than there had ever been before, created a demand for shipbuilding expansion, which called into action the resources and energies of every man and institution that could be enlisted in the problem of building ships to meet the world's needs.
As the United States excelled in resources of raw materials and manufacturing facilities, and was the only one of the great powers so situated that it could increase its shipbuilding capacity, there started up such a rapid development of shipbuilding as to create wonder and interest in all parts of the world. The demand for ships seemed to be insatiable. Shipyards sprang up at every available point on the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Coasts, and the demand for tonnage was so great that the building of ships of wood, which had almost become an extinct department of the shipbuilding art, was revived in many places, with the most satisfactory results.
New enterprises in shipbuilding to meet these urgent demands were started at various points on the coast, and of those devoted to the building of wooden ships one of great prominence and unsurpassed completeness is that of the Coastwise Ship Building Company, of Baltimore, Maryland.
The business was established by T. M. Whed- bee, R. S. Scott, and Frank A. Brandy, who organized the business and incorporated their company in May, 1916, Mr. Whedbee becoming president, Mr. Scott vice-president, and Mr. Brandy secretary and treasurer of the company. The company operates a very complete plant at Balti-more, which has been characterized as the most modern wood shipbuilding plant in the United States, and which has every modern facility and convenience for the economical and expeditious construction of wooden hull ships. The yard has a capacity for the simultaneous construction of six vessels with 320 feet keel, and nothing has been left undone that could contribute in any way to the satisfactory working and the efficient prosecution of the shipbuilding business.
The company was one of the first to attract the attention of the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, its plant having been planned and partly constructed during the year previous to the declaration of war, and it therefore was designated by the Shipping Board to build a considerable number of ships for the Emergency Fleet Corporation.
The operations are conducted under skillful supervision and the company have built to date eleven sea-going barges, six of which were of 1,700 tons deadweight capacity, four were of 1,500 tons deadweight capacity, and one was 1,750 tons deadweight capacity.
The excellent quality and thorough serviceability of the wooden vessels which they construct has attracted wide attention and the company is kept busy in the filling of orders not only for the Emergency Fleet Corporation but also for other ship- owning organizations, including the Reading Company of Philadelphia, for which it is now building a schooner barge, and it also has in hand the construction of a number of wooden freight steamers.
Baltimore is most favorably situated as a shipbuilding center, and particularly as one for the building of wooden ships, being accessible to large supplies of raw material for the construction of these vessels and being within easy access for the receipt of shipments from the Southern forests. The officers of the company are men that combine practical experience with business ability, in whose hands the industry is conducted in a most orderly and efficient manner, with a resulting product that gives the highest satisfaction to those for whom they are being built.
COASTWISE SHIP BUILDING COMPANY
The usefulness of the wooden ship for certain classes of freight has been amply demonstrated by recent experience, and while the rebirth of the wooden shipbuilding industry was brought about by the country's emergency, the result has been to create a permanent and increasing demand for wooden tonnage.
