He arched his arm against the sky as if envisioning what that might even look like.

Twenty miles. That was like going from Brooklyn to Yonkers.

Though she’d thought herself prepared for it after his description, Margaret was astonished as the first shell casings lay in front of her. They were enormous. Brass behemoths that would be slipped into guns that were sixty-six feet long and weighed nearly four hundred thousand pounds! The USS Missouri would be capable of carrying nine of them.

She couldn’t imagine that any ship would be able to withstand one of these falling atop of them.

Holding the casings evoked conflicting emotions—that of pride in the might of the United States military. And regret that mankind felt the need to fight one another with them.

George was a patient teacher, so much so that Margaret thought he may have missed his calling. He showed them how to first write on the metal with a pencil what needed to be engraved. Currently, the words were USS MISSOURI, 406MM, BROOKLYN.

After that, they would take their graver—a chisel-like tool with a diamond-shaped head—and trace the block letters from the pencil marking with a light touch that scratched the surface of the shell. Once they were confident in that step, they would retrace it and go deeper until the work was complete.

By the end of the first day, small piles of metal shavings lay around their feet. They were instructed to collect them and put them in a bin at the end of the room. They would then be taken to the ordnance center to be melted down and remolded into more shells.

Nothing was wasted.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard had only a small ordnance department. Around the country, eighty-five thousand women were putting themselves in danger’s way by constructing the munitions that would be placed in battle. The two most significant being at Springfield and Harper’s Ferry. But Brooklyn boasted its own little version, tucked away at the farthest corner of the Yard in case of explosion.

In that section, George explained, not a speck of dust could be tolerated, as it could set off the gunpowder. Women had to wear uniform shoes that contained no metal, nor could jewelry be worn lest it set off an electric spark. The few married women who refused to take off their rings bound them in tape so as not to expose them to their work.