William Cox Redfield to Woodrow Wilson

In connection with a Senate Resolution asking the Shipping Board to furnish to the Senate information respecting vessels now in process of construction in American shipyards, the Bureau of Navigation of this Department has prepared a summary of the facts for the use of the Shipping Board which I have transmitted to the latter body today.
It may interest you to learn that on May 1st there were 537 steel ships either building or contracted for to an aggregate of 2,039,261 gross tons, and there were also building or contracted for 167 wooden ships to an aggregate of 214,753 gross tons –– a total of 704 ships of 2,254,014 gross tons. These ships were all building or ordered for corporate or private owners save 2 tank steamers for the Argentine Navy.
During the month of April new contracts were entered into for 102 steel cargo steamers aggregating 417,830 gross tons, which is probably the largest tonnage of merchant shipping ever contracted for in any month in any country.