headed by five commissioners appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. That board had complete control over American ships and shipping. Most importantly with respect to the Emergency Fleet Corporation was its power to form corporations for acquiring, maintaining and operating merchant vessels under certain conditions. Ten days after declaration of war, on 16 April 1917, the Board created the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) in the District of Columbia with a capital stock of $50,000,000. Implementation The Shipping Act was a peacetime act not fully anticipating wartime conditions. On 11 July 1917 the President by Executive Order delegated to the EFC all his wartime power and authority to acquire existing vessels and to construct and operate all vessels acquired or to be acquired by the United States. The EFC operated largely under these powers rather than the basic peacetime act for the duration of the war. While the Act had envisioned the corporations with the United States as simply the majority stockholder, the wartime reality was that it was the sole stockholder. Legally the EFC could not actually operate the ships unless no private companies could be found to do so. In reality wartime conditions made tighter government control imperative. As a corporation, even with total government ownership, the EFC did not have the powers of the Board, thus the Shipping Board usually assumed and then transferred ships and facilities to the EFC which was subject to federal and state laws governing corporations. Early controversy A fundamental flaw led to early controversy. The Chairman of the United States Shipping Board, William Denman (a lawyer and campaign contributor to Woodrow Wilson), was also head of the EFC with only nominal powers over the EFC with the critical exception of the power to sign contracts. The EFC General Manager, General George Washington Goethals, had all other effective powers without that one crucial power necessary to implement the Corporation's policies. Popular conception of what became the Denman-Goethals controversy involved William Denman's support of wooden ship construction and General Goethals' opposition. That Goethals could not sign contracts while expected to build ships and Denman as President of the Fleet Corporation who could sign contracts had no control over the actual operation of the EFC resulted in the highly public resignation of both men. After the war, the wooden ship program in particular resulted in a large number of hulls with no useful