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144-512: SS Yorktown was launched February 10, 1894, by Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works , Chester , Pennsylvania for the Old Dominion Steamship Company for the company's overnight New York City / Norfolk, Virginia service. The United States Navy purchased Yorktown on April 21, 1898, to be commissioned as the second USS Resolute , an auxiliary cruiser and transport that saw naval service during

288-505: A lazaret and prisoner camp for around 6,000 POWs who lived in the burial vaults and used the coffins for firewood. Food was scarce and prisoners resorted to eating horses, cats, dogs or even human flesh. The bad conditions inside the graveyard contributed to a city-wide epidemic after the battle. The extensive period of conflict during the American Revolutionary War and Napoleonic Wars (1793–1815), followed by

432-594: A vertically integrated shipbuilding empire stretching from control of the raw materials to the finished ships. Accordingly, he established his own iron mill , the Chester Rolling Mill , for the production of iron plates, beams and other parts for his ships. The Mill, located on a 30-acre (120,000 m ) lot upriver from the shipyard, began production in July 1875, and had an annual output of 700 tons of pig iron and 300 tons of ship plate. Roach also founded

576-418: A war of aggression , murder , ill treatment, and deportation of individuals, and genocide during World War II. Most were executed or sentenced to life in prison for their crimes. The United States Military Code of Conduct was promulgated in 1955 via Executive Order 10631 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower to serve as a moral code for United States service members who have been taken prisoner. It

720-491: A captured officer surrendered his sword and gave his word as a gentleman in exchange for privileges. If he swore not to escape, he could gain better accommodations and the freedom of the prison. If he swore to cease hostilities against the nation who hold him captive, he could be repatriated or exchanged but could not serve against his former captors in a military capacity. Early historical narratives of captured European settlers, including perspectives of literate women captured by

864-481: A death rate of 25% (2,963), nearly equalled that of Andersonville. During the 19th century , there were increased efforts to improve the treatment and processing of prisoners. As a result of these emerging conventions, a number of international conferences were held, starting with the Brussels Conference of 1874, with nations agreeing that it was necessary to prevent inhumane treatment of prisoners and

1008-442: A gasoline engine on the upper deck. Capstans and winches were all-electric, including the windlass for the two bower anchors of 5,110 pounds (2,317.9 kg) each. Steering gear, not electric, was steam driven, as were various engineering pumps; main boiler feed pump, auxiliary feed, circulating and air pumps. Two eight ton refrigeration plants were installed forward. Passenger staterooms, with double berths and private baths, were in

1152-644: A large part of human history, prisoners of war would most often be either slaughtered or enslaved . Early Roman gladiators could be prisoners of war, categorised according to their ethnic roots as Samnites , Thracians , and Gauls ( Galli ). Homer's Iliad describes Trojan and Greek soldiers offering rewards of wealth to opposing forces who have defeated them on the battlefield in exchange for mercy, but their offers are not always accepted; see Lycaon for example. Typically, victors made little distinction between enemy combatants and enemy civilians, although they were more likely to spare women and children. Sometimes

1296-458: A large reception camp was established at Dover capable of housing 40,000 men, which could later be used for demobilisation . On 13 December 1918, the armistice was extended and the Allies reported that by 9 December 264,000 prisoners had been repatriated. A very large number of these had been released en masse and sent across Allied lines without any food or shelter. This created difficulties for

1440-431: A large sum of money after the scheme fell through. To make matters worse, stock speculator Jay Gould , in an attempt to gain control of the company by driving down its share price, subsequently persuaded the U.S. Congress to rescind Pacific Mail's $ 500,000 subsidy. Roach was put in a difficult position since he had several Pacific Mail steamships still on the slipways, but he managed to delay his own creditors and renegotiate

1584-544: A large unit surrendered all its men. At Tannenberg 92,000 Russians surrendered during the battle. When the besieged garrison of Kaunas surrendered in 1915, 20,000 Russians became prisoners. Over half the Russian losses were prisoners as a proportion of those captured, wounded or killed. About 3.3 million men became prisoners. The German Empire held 2.5 million prisoners; Russia held 2.9 million, and Britain and France held about 720,000, mostly gained in

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1728-525: A line between the U.S. and Brazil, through which he expected to foster America's export trade by the use of fast and reliable modern steamships. Roach hoped that the Brazil Line would be the first step in the creation of a vast global transportation network with John Roach & Sons at the center. Accordingly, he constructed two new 3,000-ton ships for the line, City of Rio de Janeiro and City of Para . Roach invited President Rutherford B. Hayes and

1872-527: A line between the United States and Cuba , also supplied a steady trickle of contracts. The Roach yard completed the 2,265-ton sister ships Niagara and Saratoga for the Ward Line in 1877. The following year, the yard completed the 2,426-ton Sarataga II for the same company, and in 1879 completed the 2,300-ton Santiago . Another passenger-freighter, the 2,300-ton Cienfuegos , was completed for

2016-684: A luxurious yacht rather than a passenger steamship". The rebuilding into Cuba was sponsored by Charles L. Dimon, grandson of John Dimon, partner in the firm Smith & Dimon that had designed and built 1845 clipper Rainbow and the 1846 clipper Sea Witch , backed by the General Electric Company which Dimon had selected to furnish electrical equipment including the main propulsion. Initial references are for first-class-only service between to Florida ports and Havana, Cuba but later advertisements are for "New York direct to Miami" service leaving New York every Saturday. Electric power

2160-478: A major customer. Ocean Steamship ordered the 2,000-ton passenger freighter City of Birmingham in 1888. In the early 1900s the company ordered a number of new passenger freighters of about 5,000 tons, including City of Memphis , delivered in 1902, City of Macon (1903), and the sister ships City of Columbus and City of Atlanta (1904). The last ship built by the Delaware River Works was fittingly

2304-508: A million dollars on the first Brazil Line alone, and the failed venture was to leave his shipyard chronically short of operating capital. The shortage of cash would eventually become a critical problem for the yard. For the first dozen years of its operations, the Roach shipyard was by far the U.S. Navy's biggest contractor. Between 1873 and 1885, the yard received almost $ 4 million in contracts from just one Navy department, four times as much as

2448-599: A number of other firms to meet the material needs of his shipyard. He established the nearby Chester Pipe and Tube Company , from which he could source the large amount of iron piping and quality boiler tubes required for his ships. With the purchase of a patent for an asbestos compound, he founded the Chalmers-Spence Company to provide pipe insulation. He also secured exclusive patent rights in Pennsylvania, New York , New Jersey and Delaware for

2592-437: A private telegraph network to accelerate communications between his various plants, and he also installed an Edison electric lighting system at the yard which allowed longer working hours in winter and a second shift when required. The Garfield administration , which came to power in 1881, proved more sympathetic to the idea of revamping the dilapidated Navy than the previous administration. After many months of indecision,

2736-580: A protracted dispute over a U.S. Navy contract for the USS ; Dolphin in the early 1880s, the company's founder John Roach placed John Roach & Sons into receivership in 1885. After settlement of the parent company's debts, the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works was reopened by Roach's sons and continued in operation until shortly after the death of Roach's eldest son John Baker Roach in 1908, at which point

2880-571: A public backlash from the bankruptcy of the nation's biggest shipyard, Secretary of the Navy William Whitney moved quickly to limit the political damage. All four ABCD ship contracts were declared "valid but forfeit" since the shipbuilder had failed to complete the work in the allotted time. Navy officials subsequently took charge of the Roach shipyard and its workforce, and the remaining three vessels, USS  Atlanta , USS  Boston and USS  Chicago , were completed over

3024-440: A quality at least equal to that available to locals. The senior officer from each quadrangle was permitted to inspect the food as it was delivered to the prison to ensure it was of sufficient quality. Despite the generous supply and quality of food, some prisoners died of starvation after gambling away their rations. Most of the men held in the prison were low-ranking soldiers and sailors, including midshipmen and junior officers, with

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3168-530: A quarter of the over 2 million POWs held there died. Nearly 375,000 of the 500,000 Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war taken by Russians perished in Siberia from smallpox and typhus . In Germany, food was short, but only 5 per cent died. The Ottoman Empire often treated prisoners of war poorly . Some 11,800 British soldiers, most from the British Indian Army , became prisoners after

3312-505: A range of legitimate and illegitimate reasons, such as isolating them from the enemy combatants still in the field (releasing and repatriating them in an orderly manner after hostilities), demonstrating military victory, punishing them, prosecuting them for war crimes , exploiting them for their labour , recruiting or even conscripting them as their own combatants, collecting military and political intelligence from them, or indoctrinating them in new political or religious beliefs. For

3456-457: A ransom. During his lifetime ( c.  570 – 632), Muhammad made it the responsibility of the Islamic government to provide food and clothing, on a reasonable basis, to captives, regardless of their religion; however, if the prisoners were in the custody of a person, then the responsibility was on the individual. On certain occasions where Muhammad felt the enemy had broken a treaty with

3600-458: A readily available labor force. Accordingly, he purchased a substantial property in early 1871 on the banks of the Delaware, but around the same time, the shipyard of Reaney, Son & Archbold in the same locality entered receivership, and Roach decided to purchase that shipyard instead of starting his own from scratch. In June 1871, he bought the former Reaney shipyard from the receivers for

3744-457: A rebuilding program. As part of this program, the Roach yard secured contracts for the repair of four Civil War monitors : USS  Wyandotte , USS  Nahant , USS  Jason and USS  Passaic . The same year, the yard launched two Alert -class gunboats for the Navy, USS  Alert and USS  Huron , and supplied the engine for the third, USS  Ranger . Apart from

3888-425: A report on the circumstances of their capture and to ensure that they had done all they could to avoid capture. Each returning officer and man was given a message from King George V , written in his own hand and reproduced on a lithograph. The Queen joins me in welcoming you on your release from the miseries & hardships, which you have endured with so much patience and courage. During these many months of trial,

4032-401: A set of criteria Roach himself deemed important. A worker who met all the criteria would receive the top rate, while those who did not would have their wages progressively reduced, depending on the number of criteria they failed. Criteria for payment included not only a worker's skill level, but his punctuality, dependability, eagerness and quality of work, in addition to which his moral character

4176-488: A ship" that "shipping men" described as "the most hopeless" after two years on mud flats, was "yanked" off the mud and towed to New York by Morse tugs escorted as far as Barnegat, New Jersey by osprey 's with two eggs in a nest in the masthead lamp. At the Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company 's Brooklyn yard damaged and corroded plates and frames were removed along with all machinery and there "was scarcely

4320-592: A similar trend in the United States. Since the iron shipbuilding capacity of the U.S. was still modest, he saw an opportunity to fill the anticipated demand with the establishment of an iron shipyard of his own. Roach carefully selected Chester, Pennsylvania as the site for his new shipyard. The locality had a number of advantages, including cheap and plentiful land along the banks of the Delaware River , proximity to Pennsylvania's iron and coal mining industries, an established river and rail transport network, and

4464-578: A small number of privateers . About 100 senior officers and some civilians "of good social standing", mainly passengers on captured ships and the wives of some officers, were given parole outside the prison, mainly in Peterborough although some further afield. They were afforded the courtesy of their rank within English society. During the Battle of Leipzig both sides used the city's cemetery as

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4608-529: A steel-plated hull, Alaskan . The yard played a key role in the so-called "Birth of the New Navy" when it built the four "ABCD ships"—the U.S. Navy's first steel ships. It also established a reputation for itself as a builder of lavishly outfitted "night boats" for the Long Island Sound trade, and in its last years, built the first three American ships to be powered by steam turbines . In total,

4752-463: A vessel for Ocean Steamship, the 5,600-ton passenger freighter City of Savannah , delivered in August 1907. Prisoners-of-war A prisoner of war ( POW ) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict . The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war in custody for

4896-422: A whole shell" by the time the rebuild that converted the ship into the world's first electric drive passenger ship, SS Cuba , began. The rebuilt Powhatan , renamed Cuba , underwent trials and began operation in late 1920 as the world's first passenger ship with turbo-electric drive and all lighting and auxiliary machinery also being electric. On trials with the propulsion motor delivering full 3,000 horsepower,

5040-652: Is guided by Additional Protocol II , but insurgents are often treated as traitors , terrorists or criminals by government forces and are sometimes executed on spot or tortured. However, in the American Civil War , both sides treated captured troops as POWs presumably out of reciprocity , although the Union regarded Confederate personnel as separatist rebels. However, guerrillas and other irregular combatants generally cannot expect to receive benefits from both civilian and military status simultaneously. Under

5184-705: The American Civil War to transform the Etna Iron Works into a major manufacturer of marine steam engines , and after the war, with the purchase in 1867 of the Morgan Iron Works , secured a near-monopoly on marine engine building in New York City . Roach had observed that the British were in the process of replacing their merchant fleet of dated wooden-hulled paddle steamers with modern iron-hulled, screw-propelled vessels, and he anticipated

5328-485: The Anglo-American War of 1812 , led to the emergence of a cartel system for the exchange of prisoners , even while the belligerents were at war. A cartel was usually arranged by the respective armed service for the exchange of like-ranked personnel. The aim was to achieve a reduction in the number of prisoners held, while at the same time alleviating shortages of skilled personnel in the home country. At

5472-862: The Czechoslovak Legion of Czechoslovak prisoners (from the Austro-Hungarian army) who were released and armed to fight on the side of the Entente, who briefly served as a military and diplomatic force during the Russian Civil War . At the end of the war in 1918 there were believed to be 140,000 British prisoners of war in Germany, including thousands of internees held in neutral Switzerland. The first British prisoners were released and reached Calais on 15 November. Plans were made for them to be sent via Dunkirk to Dover and

5616-588: The Dix–Hill Cartel was suspended, Confederate officials approached Union General Benjamin Butler, Union Commissioner of Exchange, about resuming the cartel and including the black prisoners. Butler contacted Grant for guidance on the issue, and Grant responded to Butler on 18 August 1864 with his now famous statement. He rejected the offer, stating in essence, that the Union could afford to leave their men in captivity,

5760-471: The Evacuation Commission at Nuevitas , Cuba, for transportation to Havana , Cuba, and Key West, and again to Havana. Then she returned American troops home to the U.S. Resolute was out of service until December, while being fumigated following an outbreak of yellow fever on board. She then steamed between Havana and Key West on transport missions through March 1899. Her final service

5904-467: The Roman Empire , who were held in his town under appalling conditions and destined for a life of slavery, took the initiative in ransoming them by selling his church's precious gold and silver vessels and letting them return to their country. For this he was eventually canonised . According to legend, during Childeric 's siege and blockade of Paris in 464 the nun Geneviève (later canonised as

SS Yorktown - Misplaced Pages Continue

6048-722: The Spanish–American War 1898–1899. The United States Department of War acquired the ship on January 22, 1900, for service as the United States Army Transport (USAT) Rawlins . The ship was sold to the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company of Baltimore, Maryland on July 27, 1901, and renamed Powhatan . Powhatan was wrecked in 1916 and in 1919 rebuilt as the world's first turbo-electric propelled passenger ship Cuba for luxury passenger and express freight service between Florida and Cuba with

6192-486: The Standard Steel Casting Company , which began production early in 1884. All these new facilities would soon be utilized for supplying steel to his shipyard. The facilities of the shipyard itself were also expanded in this period. In 1881, Roach added a number of hydraulic and pneumatic riveting machines to the yard—amongst the first such machines in the country. In the same year, he installed

6336-494: The Third Geneva Convention , a combatant must be part of a chain of command , wear a "fixed distinctive marking, visible from a distance", bear arms openly, and have conducted military operations according to the laws and customs of war . (The Convention recognises a few other groups as well, such as "[i]nhabitants of a non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist

6480-651: The Third Geneva Convention , prisoners of war (POW) must be: In addition, if wounded or sick on the battlefield, the prisoner will receive help from the International Committee of the Red Cross. When a country is responsible for breaches of prisoner of war rights, those accountable will be punished accordingly. An example of this is the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials . German and Japanese military commanders were prosecuted for preparing and initiating

6624-572: The U.S. Congress awarded the Pacific Mail Steamship Company a $ 500,000 annual subsidy to operate a steam packet service between the United States and the Far East . Pacific Mail thereupon decided to upgrade its entire fleet of aging, wood-hulled sidewheel steamers by replacing them with modern iron-hulled screw steamships. The Roach yard received a major boost when it won contracts to build nine of these new vessels for

6768-648: The United States Army Transport (USAT) Rawlins . The ship was aground on a coral reef at Santiago, Cuba when on the way to embark the troops of the Tenth United States Infantry destined for New York. Then, on April 10, 1901, Rawlins was to have sailed from New York to Havana, Cuba with miscellaneous cargo, largely horse feed, but caught fire in the engine room with the result of a two alarm fire bringing six engines, two trucks and three fireboats and so much water pumped aboard by 9:30 a.m. that she rolled over, flooded and sank with deck awash at

6912-403: The indigenous peoples of North America , exist in some number. The writings of Mary Rowlandson , captured in the chaotic fighting of King Philip's War , are an example. Such narratives enjoyed some popularity, spawning a genre of the captivity narrative , and had lasting influence on the body of early American literature, most notably through the legacy of James Fenimore Cooper 's The Last of

7056-486: The 1,486-ton City of Waco , built in 1873, to the 3,367-ton Nueces , completed in 1887, the others being State of Texas (completed 1874), Rio Grande (1876), Colorado (1879), Guadalupe and San Marcos (1881), Lampasus and Alamo (1883), and Comal (1885). Roach owned shares in almost all these ships. In 1877, the Roach yard built a sectional dry dock for the Pensacola Navy Yard . Roach won

7200-432: The 11th and 12th centuries. Noblemen could hope to be ransomed ; their families would have to send to their captors large sums of wealth commensurate with the social status of the captive. Feudal Japan had no custom of ransoming prisoners of war, who could expect for the most part summary execution. In the 13th century the expanding Mongol Empire famously distinguished between cities or towns that surrendered (where

7344-704: The 13th-century Albigensian Crusade in Languedoc and the Northern Crusades in the Baltic region . When asked by a Crusader how to distinguish between the Catholics and Cathars following the projected capture (1209) of the city of Béziers , the papal legate Arnaud Amalric allegedly replied, " Kill them all, God will know His own ". Likewise, the inhabitants of conquered cities were frequently massacred during Christians' Crusades against Muslims in

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7488-693: The 1949 Geneva Conventions , POWs acquires the status of protected persons , meaning it is a war crime by the detaining power to deprive the rights afforded to them by the Third Convention's provisions. Article 17 of the Third Geneva Convention states that POWs can only be required to give their name , date of birth , rank and service number (if applicable). The ICRC has a special role to play, with regards to international humanitarian law , in restoring and maintaining family contact in times of war , in particular concerning

7632-554: The Army's pier at Pacific Street, Brooklyn. There was no loss of life but four men were overcome by smoke and damage was estimated at $ 20,000 to refloat and $ 50,000 to repair. Rawlins was sold to the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company of Baltimore, Maryland on July 27, 1901, for $ 200,000. The ship was returned to mercantile service in 1902 and operated under the names SS Powhatan , SS Cuba , and SS Seneca . Renamed Powatan

7776-682: The Confederacy could not. After that about 56,000 of the 409,000 POWs died in prisons during the American Civil War , accounting for nearly 10% of the conflict's fatalities. Of the 45,000 Union prisoners of war confined in Camp Sumter , located near Andersonville, Georgia , 13,000 (28%) died. At Camp Douglas in Chicago, Illinois, 10% of its Confederate prisoners died during one cold winter month; and Elmira Prison in New York state, with

7920-629: The Cuban war zone late in July engaging Spanish shore batteries at Manzanillo , Cuba, on August 13, but sailed for the United States carrying returning Marines from the First Battalion who had made the first assault landing at Guantánamo Bay . The ship reached New York on August 23 and after inspection continued to Portsmouth Harbor the next day, where the First Marine Battalion was disembarked. In October, Resolute embarked

8064-496: The Delaware River Works built 179 ships between 1871 and 1908, including 10 warships for the U.S. Navy. Following the retirement of the Roach family in 1908, the shipyard remained idle for some years until being reopened as the Chester Shipbuilding Co. by a naval officer, C. P. M. Jack, in 1913. It was subsequently purchased in 1917 by W. Averell Harriman for building merchant ships during World War I , when it

8208-416: The Delaware shipyard in anticipation of a boom in iron shipbuilding in the United States. He was soon to discover that he had seriously underestimated the conservatism of American shipping lines, most of whom were content to continue ordering the familiar wooden-hulled paddle steamers in spite of the proven advantages of iron hulls and screw propulsion . In order to attract more business, Roach tried reducing

8352-568: The Hirsch propeller, a European design which lessened vibration, and he founded the Hirsch Propeller Company to manufacture it. The result of these efforts was a network of companies that made the Roach shipyard largely independent of third-party suppliers, enabling Roach to minimize costs and undercut his competitors. Roach was also a keen proponent of labor-saving devices and continually looked for ways to cut down on costs by

8496-741: The Houstons and Crozers. He made Charles B. Houston general manager of the Chester Rolling Mill and Charles' brother David paymaster, while a third brother, Thomas, was also given a management position. The Houstons had investments in Pennsylvania's iron and coal mines, and they also controlled Chester's only newspaper, the Chester Times . The Houstons in turn shared business interests with Samuel A. Crozer, son of John Price Crozer , whose extended family—the wealthiest in Chester—owned

8640-857: The Jordan Valley. Australian Flying Corps pilots and observers were captured in the Sinai Peninsula, Palestine and the Levant. One third of all Australian prisoners were captured on Gallipoli including the crew of the submarine AE2 which made a passage through the Dardanelles in 1915. Forced marches and crowded railway journeys preceded years in camps where disease, poor diet and inadequate medical facilities prevailed. About 25 per cent of other ranks died, many from malnutrition, while only one officer died. The most curious case came in Russia where

8784-511: The Mallory Line in 1888 and 1891 respectively. After the death of Charles Mallory in 1890 however, the yard received no more Mallory Line orders until 1903, when it built the 6,069-ton passenger freighter San Jacinto . This latter vessel was the largest ship ever built at the yard under Roach management. In 1898, the Ward Line also ordered three new ships, the 3,500 ton passenger freighters Yumuri , Orizaba and Yucatán , but these were

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8928-650: The Miami Steamship Company beginning service in 1920. Renamed Seneca , the ship burned and sank December 30, 1927, at Hoboken, New Jersey then refloated September 2, 1928, and scrapped. Over the ship's career she went aground at Santiago, Cuba, then two months later burned and sank at Brooklyn in 1901, collided and sank in 1916 in Chesapeake Bay and finally burned and sank in Hoboken, in 1927. Yorktown , an iron - hulled passenger ship ,

9072-686: The Mohicans . Some Native Americans continued to capture Europeans and use them both as labourers and bargaining chips into the 19th century; see for example John R. Jewitt , a sailor who wrote a memoir about his years as a captive of the Nootka people on the Pacific Northwest coast from 1802 to 1805. The earliest known purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp was established at Norman Cross in Huntingdonshire, England in 1797 to house

9216-547: The Morgan Iron Works in New York, and they decided to continue in the shipbuilding business. John Baker Roach became President of the Chester shipyard, and the Morgan Iron Works was incorporated, with George E. Weed and John Baker Roach and his younger brothers Garrett and Stephen becoming president, vice-president, Secretary and Treasurer respectively. From this point however, the Roach shipyard, which had lost both

9360-542: The Muslims he endorsed the mass execution of male prisoners who participated in battles, as in the case of the Banu Qurayza in 627. The Muslims divided up the females and children of those executed as ghanima (spoils of war). In Europe, the treatment of prisoners of war became increasingly centralised, in the time period between the 16th and late 18th century. Whereas prisoners of war had previously been regarded as

9504-643: The Ocean Steamship Company, the Ward Line and the Mallory Line. For Ocean Steamship, which ran a line between San Francisco and Portland, Oregon , Roach built four passenger freighters of about 2,000 tons between 1877 and 1878: City of Macon , City of Savannah , City of Columbus and Gate City . Roach completed another three ships for the company between August and November 1882—the 2,670-ton passenger freighters Tallahassee , Chattahoochee and Nacoochie . The Ward Line, which operated

9648-452: The Pacific Mail contract, reducing the latter's monthly obligations from $ 75,000 to $ 35,000. In 1874, the Roach shipyard launched the Pacific Mail passenger-cargo steamers City of Peking and City of Tokio . At 5,033 gross tons each, these were by far the largest iron merchant steamships built to that date in the United States and almost twice the gross tonnage of the previous largest, the Cramp-built Pennsylvania class . In fact they were

9792-430: The Pentagon which has a "POW/Missing Personnel Office" and awards the Prisoner of War Medal . During World War I, about eight million men surrendered and were held in POW camps until the war ended. All nations pledged to follow the Hague rules on fair treatment of prisoners of war, and in general the POWs had a much higher survival rate than their peers who were not captured. Individual surrenders were uncommon; usually

9936-449: The Roach family retired from the shipbuilding business. Over the course of its 37-year history, the Roach shipyard had many notable achievements to its credit. In 1874 it built City of Peking and City of Tokio , the two largest gross-tonnage ships ever built in the United States to that date and the second largest in the world after the experimental British behemoth Great Eastern . In 1883 it constructed America's first steamer with

10080-441: The Roach yard built three— Signus , Cepheus , and Sirius . A notable vessel built by the yard in this period was the "night boat" Pilgrim for the Fall River Line , which was fitted with the largest simple walking beam engine ever installed in a steamboat. Roach also built ships for a shipping line of his own. In 1879, with Mallory as a minor partner, he established the United States and Brazil Mail Steamship Company to operate

10224-554: The Soviet Union's refusal to sign the Geneva Convention as a reason for not providing the necessities of life to Soviet POWs; and the Soviets also used Axis prisoners as forced labour. The Germans also routinely executed Allied commandos captured behind German lines per the Commando Order . To be entitled to prisoner-of-war status, captured persons must be lawful combatants entitled to combatant's privilege—which gives them immunity from punishment for crimes constituting lawful acts of war such as killing enemy combatants . To qualify under

10368-519: The Ward Line in 1883. Roach owned shares in some of these vessels, and he eventually became a director on the company's board. Roach's best commercial customer in these early years was Charles Mallory, owner of the Mallory Line, which operated steamships between New York and various ports in the Gulf of Mexico . The Roach shipyard built a dozen ships for Mallory between 1872 and Roach's retirement in 1887. They included ten passenger freighters, ranging from

10512-576: The baggage and equipment of the army, and because the French were attacking again and Henry was afraid that they would break through and free the prisoners who would rejoin the fight against the English. In the later Middle Ages a number of religious wars aimed to not only defeat but also to eliminate enemies. Authorities in Christian Europe often considered the extermination of heretics and heathens desirable. Examples of such wars include

10656-500: The business, including their Morgan Ironworks, on the London Stock Exchange . Roach's Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd. was registered. Of its proposed capital of £550,000 (about $ 2,750,000 at historic exchange rates), of which £400,000 ($ 2mn) was to purchased the business - it was alleged that the remainder would go to the promoters. The flotation failed, partly over this allegation, but also due to doubts over

10800-506: The card room and the Verandah Café aft of the smoking room. The Verandah Café was designed to imitate a typical verandah with running vines and trellis work, furniture in ivory and green and large windows opening to the sea breeze. On December 30, 1927, Seneca burned and sank at Hoboken, New Jersey. She was refloated on September 2, 1928, and subsequently scrapped. Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works Following

10944-453: The case and found it "unnecessary to add anything to the full and fair discussion" of the case in the lower court. Powhatan was declared a total loss by both owners and underwriters and remained unsalvaged for months until World War I demands for shipping and skyrocketing ship values resulted in the hulk being raised and taken into Norfolk, Virginia until a rehabilitation plan was established. Powatan , described as "rusted, wasted hulk of

11088-477: The city's largest textile mills . Collectively, the Roach, Houston and Crozer families employed 25% of Chester's working population and accounted for 35% of its payroll, their partnership virtually ensuring dominance of the city's politics. After taking over the Reaney yard, Roach initially attempted to retain its former managers William B. Reaney and Henry Steers by selling each of them $ 40,000 worth of shares in

11232-489: The city's patron saint) pleaded with the Frankish king for the welfare of prisoners of war and met with a favourable response. Later, Clovis I ( r.  481–511 ) liberated captives after Genevieve urged him to do so. King Henry V 's English army killed many French prisoners of war after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. This was done in retaliation for the French killing of the boys and other non-combatants handling

11376-404: The company a net worth of approximately $ 2 million. The receivers then began selling assets to pay off the creditors, a process that took approximately eighteen months. During this period, John Roach Sr. died aged 71, on January 10, 1887. After all the creditors had been paid, the Roach family found itself still in possession of the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works in Chester and

11520-610: The company as the most comfortable way to travel from New York, sailing at 3 p.m. on March 22 and arriving the next morning for a $ 13 fare that included berth and meals, to see the "Launching of the Great Twin Battleships Kearsarge and Kentucky " on March 24, 1898, at Newport News . The U.S. Navy purchased Yorktown from the Old Dominion Steamship Company on April 21, 1898, for Spanish–American War service commissioning

11664-422: The company for $ 10,000 apiece, with the difference to be made up over time by payment of dividends. Roach hoped that by giving the men a stake in the business he would cement their loyalty, but in the yard's second year of operations, both resold their shares to Roach and resigned, fearing the yard was about to become bankrupt. After their departure, Roach elevated his eldest son, John Baker Roach, to management of

11808-410: The company. Like most industrialists of his era, Roach was staunchly anti- union , and insisted his employees negotiate on an individual basis for their wages. Roach however, took the concept of individual negotiation much further than most of his contemporaries. Instead of paying a set wage to workers based on their qualifications or skill, he organized a sliding scale of wages for each group, based on

11952-494: The company. The first two of these ships, the passenger-cargo vessels Colon (2,686 tons) and Colima (2,906 tons), were delivered in November 1872 and April 1873 respectively, but in the spring of 1873, Pacific Mail informed Roach that it was unable to meet its obligations. Pacific Mail's president and another company director had depleted the company's cash reserves with a stock manipulation scheme, and then absconded with

12096-431: The completion of the four ABCD ships—the Navy's first steel vessels—was later hailed as the "Birth of the New Navy", and all four vessels were to provide many years of reliable service. By August 1885, the receivers of John Roach & Sons, George E. Weed and George W. Quintard, had determined the company's total assets at approximately $ 4.6 million after writedowns, while its liabilities totaled about $ 2.6 million, leaving

12240-663: The complexity of Edison's new lighting systems, the final installations of the Edison equipment on board Columbia were completed by Edison's personnel in New York City . In 1881, Roach partnered with a business rival, William Cramp & Sons , to form the Iron Steamboat Company , which built a number of iron ferries of around 900 tons gross each to replace the wooden ferries still operating in New York Harbor. The Cramp yard built four of these ferries and

12384-494: The contract with a $ 219,000 bid, $ 60,000 lower than the next lowest bid, and completed the dock the same year. In 1880, Roach finished construction of the coastal passenger steamer Columbia for the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company . Columbia was the first ship to utilize a dynamo and the first structure other than Thomas Edison 's Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory to use the incandescent light bulb . Due to

12528-520: The criteria of Additional Protocol I. Therefore, they fall under the category of unlawful combatants , or more properly they are not combatants. Captured soldiers who do not get prisoner of war status are still protected like civilians under the Fourth Geneva Convention . The criteria are applied primarily to international armed conflicts. The application of prisoner of war status in non-international armed conflicts like civil wars

12672-474: The deep channel of the lower Chesapeake Bay . Both ships were damaged with Powatan beached with ship and cargo a total loss. Court findings were that Powatan , in confused signals, had cut across Telena ' s course rather than pass port to port with the responsibility for the collision resting entirely with Powatan . On appeal of that decision the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed

12816-417: The designation "Prisoner of War" for captured American personnel with "Missing-Captured". A January 2008 directive states that the reasoning behind this is since "Prisoner of War" is the international legal recognised status for such people there is no need for any individual country to follow suit. This change remains relatively unknown even among experts in the field and "Prisoner of War" remains widely used in

12960-469: The dynamic leadership of John Roach Sr., and the network of companies previously supporting its operations, was to forfeit its position of pre-eminence in the American shipbuilding industry and never regain it. The shipyard of William Cramp & Sons, and later on, other shipyards, would soon supplant the Roach yard in terms of facilities and annual output. In 1890 Roach and Weed twice attempted to float

13104-457: The early rescue of our gallant Officers & Men from the cruelties of their captivity has been uppermost in our thoughts. We are thankful that this longed for day has arrived, & that back in the old Country you will be able once more to enjoy the happiness of a home & to see good days among those who anxiously look for your return. While the Allied prisoners were sent home at the end of

13248-470: The enemy (beyond identifying themselves, that is, "name, rank, serial number"), receiving special favours or parole, or otherwise providing their enemy captors aid and comfort. Since the Vietnam War , the official U.S. military term for enemy POWs is EPW (Enemy Prisoner of War). This name change was introduced in order to distinguish between enemy and U.S. captives. In 2000, the U.S. military replaced

13392-418: The entire U.S. Congress to the launch of City of Para in 1878, but to his consternation, his attempts to secure subsidies from the U.S. and Brazilian governments were both to meet with failure. Meanwhile, Mallory's misgivings that the ships were too big for the available trade proved correct, and Roach was faced with cutthroat competition from a British shipping line. After several years of increasing losses, he

13536-437: The entry cost of purchase by offering to buy shares in the ships he sold, taking a corresponding ratio of their future earnings as part payment for their construction. In this way he found himself gradually accumulating substantial interests in a number of different shipping lines. Three shipping lines whose owners understood the advantages of iron ships and who became repeat customers of the Roach shipyard in its early years were

13680-481: The exchange of prisoners would be carried out between warring states. Another such treaty was the 1648 Peace of Westphalia , which ended the Thirty Years' War . This treaty established the rule that prisoners of war should be released without ransom at the end of hostilities and that they should be allowed to return to their homelands. There also evolved the right of parole , French for "discourse", in which

13824-445: The fact that Roach still operated his old New York shipyard, the Morgan Iron Works, so that when there was a strike at one plant he could readily defeat it by simply transferring his operations to the other. Roach was also not above reducing the overall wages of his workforce in lean times, by as much as 15%, but when doing so would also reduce the rents by a corresponding degree for those workers living in housing provided by him. Roach

13968-641: The five-month Siege of Kut , in Mesopotamia , in April 1916. Many were weak and starved when they surrendered and 4,250 died in captivity. During the Sinai and Palestine campaign 217 Australian and unknown numbers of British, New Zealand and Indian soldiers were captured by Ottoman forces. About 50 per cent of the Australian prisoners were light horsemen including 48 missing believed captured on 1 May 1918 in

14112-432: The forward superstructure with the dining room furnished with tables seating four. To aid in handling passenger's automobiles the vessel's side auto port was designed to allow the largest limousines then built to be driven, rather than hoisted, aboard. Among the passenger spaces were a card room on the boat deck aft of the officer's quarters and radio room; a smoking room with a large mahogany bar and end-to-end skylight aft of

14256-573: The fourteen ageing Civil War monitors still in service, the three Alert -class gunboats were the Navy's only iron-hulled vessels at this time. The Virginius affair also prodded the Navy into construction of a new and more modern class of monitors, the Amphitrite class . Since existing naval appropriations were not sufficient for the construction of this class, the Navy used funds set aside for repair and maintenance instead, by scrapping five old monitors and building five almost entirely new ones with

14400-469: The government decided to go ahead with the completion of the earlier Amphitrite class, and additionally approved the construction of a new group of four all-steel warships, consisting of one 4,300-ton protected cruiser, two 3,000-ton cruisers and one dispatch vessel. These four ships would eventually become known as the "ABCD ships" after their names— Atlanta , Boston , Chicago and Dolphin . The government issued public tenders for construction of

14544-674: The increasing number of prisoners from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars . The average prison population was about 5,500 men. The lowest number recorded was 3,300 in October 1804 and 6,272 on 10 April 1810 was the highest number of prisoners recorded in any official document. Norman Cross Prison was intended to be a model depot providing the most humane treatment of prisoners of war. The British government went to great lengths to provide food of

14688-454: The invading forces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units".) Thus, uniforms and badges are important in determining prisoner-of-war status under the Third Geneva Convention. Under Additional Protocol I , the requirement of a distinctive marking is no longer included. Francs-tireurs , militias , insurgents , terrorists , saboteurs , mercenaries , and spies generally do not qualify because they do not fulfill

14832-597: The largest gross-tonnage steamships in the world behind the experimental British ship Great Eastern (which was a commercial failure) and they remained the largest American-built steamships for a number of years. Between 1873 and 1875, Roach also completed the contracts for the remaining five Pacific Mail ships, City of Panama , City of Guatemala , City of San Francisco , City of New York and City of Sydney . He eventually built more ships for Pacific Mail, however, this early negative experience led him to reject future shipbuilding contracts sought on terms. Roach had founded

14976-437: The largest vessels. The riverfront property was extensive enough to allow the construction of up to ten building slipways , as well as three piers capable of docking an additional six ships. The Reaney firm itself had already ploughed more than a million dollars into plant and equipment since opening the yard in 1859. Roach was not content with the existing plant however. Like his early mentor James P. Allaire , Roach envisaged

15120-464: The last ships ordered by the company, possibly because its fleet was requisitioned by the U.S. Navy during the Spanish–American War . The following year, the yard completed another two passenger freighters for the struggling U.S. and Brazil Mail Company, the 4,000-ton passenger freighters Seguranca and Vigilancia . These new vessels did not improve the Brazil Line's fortunes and it went bankrupt in 1893. The Ocean Steamship Company also continued to be

15264-436: The least valued. Even Roach's best paid workers, however, were usually paid little better, and sometimes worse, than comparable tradesmen at other yards, and Roach's overall wage rates were on average lower than his competitors. His business though did not suffer more industrial action, which Roach, who had spent many years as a tradesman himself, attributed to his rapport with his employees. A more concrete reason may have been

15408-425: The next 22 months, during which time all other work at the shipyard was prohibited. The Roach family would later initiate a $ 330,151 lawsuit against the government for losses incurred by John Roach & Sons during this period. The case was finally settled in 1898 when the government made a special appropriation to pay the claim. In spite of the heavy criticism initially levelled at them from many different quarters,

15552-508: The next largest contractor. Unfortunately, Naval contracts in this era often turned out to be liabilities for shipyards, and this would also prove to be the case for John Roach & Sons. The Delaware River Works completed its first job for the Navy—an engine for USS  Mistletoe —in 1873. In 1874, a war scare over the Virginius incident with Spain prompted the Navy to hastily initiate

15696-600: The period just before the Armistice in 1918. The US held 48,000. The most dangerous moment for POWs was the act of surrender, when helpless soldiers were sometimes killed or mistakenly shot down. Once prisoners reached a POW camp conditions were better (and often much better than in World War II), thanks in part to the efforts of the International Red Cross and inspections by neutral nations. There

15840-541: The population was spared but required to support the conquering Mongol army) and those that resisted (in which case the city was ransacked and destroyed , and all the population killed). In Termez , on the Oxus : "all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain, and divided in accordance with their usual custom, then they were all slain". The Aztecs warred constantly with neighbouring tribes and groups, aiming to collect live prisoners for sacrifice . For

15984-497: The previous Republican administration, found a pretext to declare the Dolphin contract void. Roach, by now a terminally ill old man, placed his company into receivership a short time later. He later explained that the voiding of the Dolphin contract made it impossible for him to secure a loan to continue his business since he still had another three Navy vessels on his slipways whose contracts might also be declared void. Fearing

16128-411: The private property of the captor, captured enemy soldiers became increasingly regarded as the property of the state. The European states strove to exert increasing control over all stages of captivity, from the question of who would be attributed the status of prisoner of war to their eventual release. The act of surrender was regulated so that it, ideally, should be legitimised by officers, who negotiated

16272-713: The production of 300 tons of steel weekly, in addition to the 700 tons of pig iron and 300 tons of iron plate the mill was already producing. Roach also added machinery to the mill for the rolling of steel plates. Roach had recognized the growing demand for steel products in the U.S. economy, and in 1880 he established the Combination Steel and Iron Company downriver from his Chester shipyard, which began production in January 1881. He soon discovered however that U.S. steelmakers could not keep up with national demand, so he also established his own steel manufacturing company,

16416-507: The purpose of a battle, if not of a war, was to capture women, a practice known as raptio ; the Rape of the Sabines involved, according to tradition, a large mass-abduction by the founders of Rome. Typically women had no rights , and were held legally as chattels . In the fourth century AD, Bishop Acacius of Amida , touched by the plight of Persian prisoners captured in a recent war with

16560-457: The re-consecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, "between 10,000 and 80,400 persons" were sacrificed. During the early Muslim conquests of 622–750, Muslims routinely captured large numbers of prisoners. Aside from those who converted, most were ransomed or enslaved . Christians captured during the Crusades were usually either killed or sold into slavery if they could not pay

16704-475: The receiving Allies and many ex-prisoners died from exhaustion. The released POWs were met by cavalry troops and sent back through the lines in lorries to reception centres where they were refitted with boots and clothing and dispatched to the ports in trains. Upon arrival at the receiving camp the POWs were registered and "boarded" before being dispatched to their own homes. All commissioned officers had to write

16848-457: The right of prisoners of war and internees to send and receive letters and cards (Geneva Convention (GC) III, art. 71 and GC IV, art. 107). However, nations vary in their dedication to following these laws, and historically the treatment of POWs has varied greatly. During World War II, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany (towards Soviet POWs and Western Allied commandos) were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war. The German military used

16992-528: The same names on the pretext of "repairing" the old ones. Roach received contracts for two of these ships— USS  Miantonomoh  (BM-5) and USS  Puritan  (BM-1) , but when the Hayes administration came to power in 1877, it quickly canceled all the Amphitrite contracts except that for Miantonomoh which was already almost completed. Roach was left with an unpaid $ 200,000 bill on Puritan , and

17136-533: The shaft and 15-foot (4.6 m), four-bladed propeller with pitch of 8 feet 9 inches (2.7 m) of the built-up type with cast-iron hub and manganese bronze blades. Motor control was by two levers, one for motor speed and another for forward or reverse. Two 150-kilowatt General Electric turbo-generator sets provided lighting and power for auxiliary machinery with a half-kilowatt Holtzer-Cabot Electric Company generator providing power for wireless communication with an emergency lighting generator set driven by

17280-526: The ship as USS Resolute on May 11, 1898. Resolute departed New York City on May 25, 1898, assigned to cruise between Môle-Saint-Nicolas , Haiti , and Santiago de Cuba , Cuba , in search of the Spanish Navy squadron commanded by Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete . After calling at Key West , Florida , on June 8, Resolute returned to the southeast Cuban coast to assist the U.S. fleet in scouting, relying on her high speed for protection. She

17424-443: The ship attained a speed of 17.28 knots. Cuba was a relatively small ship of 3,580 tons displacement at 17 feet (5.2 m) draft, 320 feet 6 inches (97.7 m) length overall and was not intended by the owners, Miami Steamship Company, to carry any cargo other than automobiles on deck, express freight and some refrigerated fruit with emphasis put of passenger accommodations and spaces—so that Cuba could "well be called

17568-436: The ship began Norfolk, Virginia—Boston, Massachusetts service with the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company. The company is shown in a 1908 railway guide with twenty-four ships and routes extending from Boston to Savannah, Georgia . At about 8:14 p.m. December 15, 1916, outbound Powatan collided with the 375 feet 6 inches (114.5 m) inbound British ship Telena southeast of Thimble Shoal Light in

17712-474: The ships in June 1883, and on 3 July it was announced that John Roach & Sons had won all four contracts. Roach immediately went to work on construction of the ships, but continual design changes submitted by the Navy, in addition to shortages of the high quality steel demanded by Navy inspectors, soon had construction falling well behind schedule. Roach found himself faced with mounting financial losses. A fire in

17856-416: The shipyard and the loss of two steamers in which Roach had part ownership depleted cash reserves still further. By the time the first ship to be completed, Dolphin , was ready for her final sea trials in early 1885, a new Democratic administration under Grover Cleveland had come to power. In spite of Dolphin passing her sea trials, the new administration, which suspected Roach of receiving favors from

18000-469: The start of the American Civil War a system of paroles operated. Captives agreed not to fight until they were officially exchanged. Meanwhile, they were held in camps run by their own army where they were paid but not allowed to perform any military duties. The system of exchanges collapsed in 1863 when the Confederacy refused to exchange black prisoners. In the late summer of 1864, a year after

18144-425: The sum of $ 450,000, and renamed it the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works. With the purchase of the Reaney property, Roach found himself in possession of a first-class shipyard. The spacious 23-acre (93,000 m ) yard was ideally situated along a 1,200-foot (370 m) stretch of the Delaware where the river was over a mile wide and 18 feet (5.5 m) deep at the shore, allowing for launching of

18288-423: The surrender of their whole unit. Soldiers whose style of fighting did not conform to the battle line tactics of regular European armies, such as Cossacks and Croats , were often denied the status of prisoners of war. In line with this development the treatment of prisoners of war became increasingly regulated in international treaties, particularly in the form of the so-called cartel system, which regulated how

18432-402: The town of Chester. The company served ports in the Chesapeake Bay with weekday, overnight freight and passenger service between New York, pier 26, North River , and Norfolk ( Old Point Comfort ) with routes extending to Richmond, Virginia , and Washington, D.C. Service by Yorktown and sister ship Jamestown was planned to begin April 10, 1894. On March 19, 1898, Yorktown was advertised by

18576-496: The treatment of prisoners of war in detail. These provisions were further expanded in the 1929 Geneva Convention on the Prisoners of War and were largely revised in the Third Geneva Convention in 1949. Article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention protects captured military personnel , some guerrilla fighters, and certain civilians . It applies from the moment a prisoner is captured until his or her release or repatriation. Under

18720-478: The use of machinery. He installed steam cranes , power punches , and a small railroad network to move materials within his plant—enough power equipment in total to require a dozen steam engines with a collective output of 700 horsepower (520 kW). By such means he ensured that his shipyard remained one of the most modern and efficient in the country. Roach helped secure his business position in Chester by going into partnership with two prominent Chester families,

18864-475: The use of weapons causing unnecessary harm. Although no agreements were immediately ratified by the participating nations, work was continued that resulted in new conventions being adopted and becoming recognised as international law that specified that prisoners of war be treated humanely and diplomatically. Chapter II of the Annex to the 1907 Hague Convention IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land covered

19008-553: The value of the business; the Secretary of the Navy was also reported to have boycotted the company due to its foreign capital. In the first years of John Baker Roach's presidency of the Delaware Works, the yard continued to enjoy the patronage of a number of former customers, including both the Ward Line and the Mallory Line. The shipyard completed the passenger freighters Leona (3,300 tons) and Concho (3,700 tons) for

19152-426: The yard. Because John B.'s management experience was mostly in farming rather than shipbuilding however, Roach senior made a point of traveling from New York to Chester every Saturday, where he would conduct a thorough tour of every department, checking the workmanship, and ordering modifications and adjustments where required. This management arrangement persisted for almost the whole of John Roach senior's presidency of

19296-578: Was as a marker vessel for the steam trials of the new battleship Kearsarge at Portsmouth , New Hampshire , from May–September 1899. The ship arrived at Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, on October 2 for decommissioning effective on December 15, 1899, at League Island Navy Yard . Resolute was transferred to the United States Department of War on January 22, 1900, for service with the Army Transport Service as

19440-611: Was created primarily in response to the breakdown of leadership and organisation, specifically when U.S. forces were POWs during the Korean War . When a military member is taken prisoner, the Code of Conduct reminds them that the chain of command is still in effect (the highest ranking service member eligible for command, regardless of service branch, is in command), and requires them to support their leadership. The Code of Conduct also requires service members to resist giving information to

19584-509: Was forced in 1881 to sell the ships and wind up the Line. Roach was not quite ready to concede defeat however. The following year, he organized a new Brazil Line with another investor, and built three new passenger freighters for it - Advance and Finance , both of 2,600 tons, and the 2,985-ton Allianca . The new Brazil Line would struggle on for a number of years without ever making a profit, before finally failing in 1893. Roach lost almost

19728-441: Was forced to keep the unfinished vessel in his shipyard at his own expense until 1882 when the government finally appropriated funds for its completion. A U.S. shipbuilding boom beginning in 1880 encouraged many American shipyards to upgrade their facilities, and John Roach & Sons was no exception. In 1880, Roach expanded the facilities of the Chester Rolling Mill by adding a new blast furnace. The new furnace eventually allowed

19872-416: Was launched on February 10, 1894, by Delaware River Shipbuilding and Engine Works at Chester , Pennsylvania for the Old Dominion Steamship Company. Yorktown was the last ship on order, and when completed the company warned it would be forced to close for the first time in its history unless new orders were placed, putting the 100 men, down from 1,500 a few years before, out of work with depressive impact on

20016-479: Was much harsh treatment of POWs in Germany, as recorded by the American ambassador (prior to America's entry into the war), James W. Gerard, who published his findings in "My Four Years in Germany". Even worse conditions are reported in the book "Escape of a Princess Pat" by the Canadian George Pearson. It was particularly bad in Russia, where starvation was common for prisoners and civilians alike;

20160-436: Was never able to supply housing for his entire workforce, but he did own about 100 houses in Chester, which were mostly rented by his foremen and other key personnel. The first ship built by the Delaware Works was a 1,605-ton cargo ship, City of San Antonio —fittingly built for C. H. Mallory and Co., whose proprietor Charles Mallory would eventually become a business partner of Roach and one of his major customers. In 1872,

20304-573: Was present on July 3 at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba , steaming eastward to warn United States Army transports of the Spanish squadron ' s emergence from the harbor of Santiago de Cuba. Subsequently, Resolute transported Spanish prisoners-of-war to the United States , departing the Cuban coast on July 8 for Charleston , South Carolina ; Newport News , Virginia ; Tompkinsville , New York ; and New York City. Resolute returned to

20448-474: Was provided by a steam plant of four Scotch boilers, each with three oil-fired furnaces, driving a General Electric eight-stage turbo-generator set which in turn provided power at 1,100 volts, 1,234 amperes rated at 2,350 kilowatts delivering 50-cycle alternating current to the General Electric synchronous-type electric motor with a rated 3,000 horsepower running at 1,150 volts and 1,180 amperes driving

20592-649: Was renamed the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation . The yard closed permanently in 1923, and the location repurposed as the Ford Motor Company Chester Assembly factory until 1961. John Roach began his career in the United States in 1832 as a semi-literate Irish immigrant laborer, eventually establishing his own small business with the purchase of the Etna Iron Works . Roach took advantage of

20736-404: Was subject to assessment. Workers who spent too much on alcohol, who paid their rent erratically, whose families were poorly clothed, or whose children did not attend church or school, could expect to have their wages reduced still further. There could thus be spectacular differences in pay within a particular group, with the most valued workers sometimes receiving as much as fives times more than

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