were requisitioned and the British were satisfied that they would be used in the war effort. Ships of enemy states interned in the U.S. were seized and some overseas were acquired. U.S. ships in service were then commandeered with their owners becoming operators for the EFC. Even Great Lakes shipping was pressed into oceanic service. With available ships and yards commandeered the EFC began its expansion of shipbuilding capacity. The early concept of managing the building of ships in existing yards was quickly shown to be inadequate as they were completing the hulls commandeered as contracted or in progress or with Navy orders. Entirely new shipyards had to be established with the EFC as sponsor. Four government-financed yards accounted for 25% of the new steel fabricated ships built with 94 ways. Bristol yard: Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation Hog Island: American International Shipbuilding Corporation. The Hog Island project was subject of some controversy but ended up being a prototype for mass-produced ships that was capable of handling up to 78 ships at a time on the ways or fitting out. Newark: Submarine Boat Corporation Wilmington-Carolina Shipbuilding Company: This was a minor yard in World War I and apparently not directly the predecessor of the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company prominent in World War II. In testimony Mr. Piez noted: "The Carolina Shipbuilding Company is constructing a yard with four ways at Wilmington, N.C. Our agents there are the Carolina Shipbuilding Company, which in reality is the Fuller Construction Company of New York, who are large builders." In full operation these yards had more annual tonnage capacity than found in any country before 1918. The shipbuilding program was concluded with the 9 May 1922 delivery of the ship completed and delivered as Western World, launched as Nutmeg State 17 September 1921, by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation at Sparrows Point, Maryland. Ships built under the EFC were common in commerce after the war even while many were laid up. Twenty years later in the crisis of shipping before the U.S. began wartime production, to some extent using the USSB/EFC model again, the British need for hulls brought many of the old laid up ships now under Maritime Commission control into that war. Controversies The EFC was a subject of controversy. The armistice took effect before the yards, Hog Island being by far the largest and most publicized, reached full production and the expense was very large.