New Fahey

Mr. James Charles Fahey is a burly cheerful, 38-year-old New Yorker who has worked out a nice, peaceful existence for himself, characterized by plenty of leisure.

Last week he began to wonder whether the pursuit of his business-and-hobby the composition of the U.S. Navy, wasn't getting to be too much of a good thing. He had little peace and less leisure. His phone rang all day. His little office was busy as an anthill. And he had to hire a secretary.

Fahey had published a revised, wartime edition of his Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, a compendium on the U.S. Navy more complete even than Jane's famed Fighting Ships.* The public grabbed copies for a first look at many heretofore unheard-of-ships. The Navy, whose own information is strewn about in mimeographed charts, blueprints and cumbersome data sheets, ordered copies by the gross to instruct boot and admiral alike on what's in the Navy. Navy men tell Fahey that he saves them a lot of fuss, filing and paper shuffling.

Between the Ears. Getting the book out is much less trouble to Fahey than it would be to the Navy. He has been on only a few naval vessels since the Navy rejected him on account of a bad eye back in 1919. He thinks visiting ships would ruin his perspective. Some of his material comes from seagoing friends, but most comes from sources available to anyone--the Congressional Record, appropriations bills, newspapers, releases from the Navy Department.

So accurate is Fahey's mental picture of Navy equipment that in reading an appropriations bill he may spot not merely additions to the Fleet, but small changes in ships in service. From a sheet of figures, where an ordinary layman detects only digits, he comes up with funnels, torpedo tubes, extra speed, six new submarines, degaussing gear, winches. But this strange genius takes no notes. His filing system is all between the ears.

Navy Buffs. Putting the information into print is another simple Fahey process, involving no manuscripts or copy. As new statistical data comes in, he has the printer make the changes right in the type, which is still set up from the last printing (first of two previous editions was in 1939) a method long used by telephone companies Worry furrows the Fahey brow only when a new edition nears press time, because not so much as a postage stamp of space must go bare, and he must fill in from memory all the spaces under the pictures and around the figures. The assorted facts tailored to fit these spaces spellbind Navy buffs and pros. And Mr. Fahey has profitably found out that Navy fanciers are legion.

> The readied 1942 work went to the Navy Department for approval. Some of the ship information popped Navy eyes: Fahey was asked to explain carefully where he got it. When he showed that nearly all was readily available, nearly all got by. (Naturally, the more the Navy left in, the more useful the book is to the Navy itself.) Much new information on aircraft carriers was cut out. And the aviation section was slashed down so sharply that no Axis spy could get much out of it.

Some Fahey ship items:

> All four battleships of the South Dakota class (35,000 tons) will be in service before the end of this year, shorter, beamier, slicker, and better protected than the two new North Carolinas.

> Also building (for commissioning in 1943-44) are six more battleships, the Iowas. Monsters of 45,000 tons, they reportedly will have more than 35 knots of speed, heavier protection than the 27-knot Carolinas.

> The U.S. Navy has eleven 25,000-ton carriers (Essex class) building, can expect all in service between 1943 and 1945.

> Last year the keels of the new heavy cruisers (Baltimore, Boston, Pittsburgh, St. Paul) were laid. Before Fahey, few laymen realized that the Baltimores were probably enlargements of the Wichita, a heavily armored, heavily protected 10,00-tonner.

> Before Pearl Harbor, the U.S. had 19 light cruisers, soon commissioned four more, now has 38 more building.

> Rich in destroyers (171) when the Jap attacked, the Navy is now building more, of the Fletcher class. Their secret design is the answer to the Jap's 2,000-ton Kageros, and his secretly built "cruiser-destroyers."

Federal Shipbuilding is busy on two mystery destroyers of 2,100 tons. One is reported to have super-high-pressure steam boilers; the other diesel-electric drive, new wrinkles for DDs.

The Navy has already spawned 337 new mine sweepers.

*Fahey's Ships is published at 1265 Broadway Manhattan. Price $1. A new edition of Jane's' just out in England, will soon be published by Macmillan in the U.S.

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