Perfect Hedge

When the Liberty ship James Otis made her trial run off San Francisco's Golden Gate last February, broad-shouldered, 6-ft.-5 Charles E. Moore was in her engine room. His newly acquired Joshua Hendy Iron Works had built the two-story-high, 271,000-lb. reciprocating engine, and Moore was aboard to see how it performed. At the end of the trip he beamed, said: "When it's neither too tight to smell nor too loose to hear, then you can bet a ball of wax it's a damn fine engine."

Moore had reason to beam for he had orders for over 100 such engines. But last...