Shipbuilding

“ Our ship was a perfectly new vessel, built according to the design of a very ingenious gentleman, who, though not a professional shipbuilder, had, by his very original writings and researches, inspired a belief in many quarters that the ordinary modes of constructing ships were all wrong, that the system of shipbuilding he advocated was the only one based on sound principles, and that ships constructed on his plan would excel vessels of the ordinary build both in speed and in safety. ”

“ A new material of construction has been introduced into shipbuilding, with entirely new methods of propulsion. Old things have been displaced by new; and the magnitude of the results has been extraordinary. The most important changes have been in the use of iron and steel instead of wood, and in the employment of the steam-engine in impelling ships by the paddle or the screw.
So long as timber was used for the construction of ships, the number of vessels built annually, especially in so small an island as Britain, must necessarily have continued very limited. ”

“ Another triumph in the domain of technical shipbuilding, viz., the introduction and successful development of the iron-screw merchant steamer, eventually secured for the people of this country that dominion of the seas which remains with them to this day.
Among the great means of advancing technical improvements, none takes higher rank than a good educational museum ”

“ The extraordinary progress in American mercantile shipbuilding was due, in part, to special circumstances connected with their navigation laws, and in part to the abundance and cheapness of excellent timber; but, even with these advantages, the Americans would never have been able to run such a close race with us for the carrying trade of the world, had it not been for the great technical skill and intelligence of their shipbuilders, who produced vessels which were the envy and admiration of our own constructors. ”

“ Some of the arts and sciences may and do exhibit great progress in excellence, but shipbuilding is not among them. We build bigger but not better vessels. This ancient galley of oak, in the [Pg 66] beauty of its lines, its adaptability for speed, and its general sea-worthiness, cannot be surpassed by our best naval constructors to-day. ”

“ Not only was she built to the requirements of the Board of Trade and the insurance companies, but, as we have noted, she was constructed by the leading shipbuilding company of the world, under conditions which would inspire them to put into the world's greatest steamship the very best that the long experience and ample facilities of the yard could produce. ”

“ It will of course be understood that the science of naval architecture is a field in which many besides shipbuilders, and indeed many besides professional naval architects, have laboured with signal success. The fund of knowledge has been enriched, and the practice of [87] shipbuilding improved, by men whose association with the shipyard has been of an indirect and amateur kind, and—it must be added—whose valuable labours the shipyard has often but scantily recognised. ”

“ It may be imagined that the change from wood to iron in construction did not find us—in our dock yards, at least—with a body of men accustomed to work with the new material, and when it was decided to build an iron ship of the 'Warrior' type at Chatham it had to be carried out by shipwrights whose previous experience had been limited to wooden shipbuilding. ”

“ Progress in the pure science of naval architecture, as distinguished from the practical application of scientific rules and principles to shipbuilding, is a great and complex subject, and one which it would be impossible to do full justice to here. ”

“ The problem of rendering ships absolutely unsinkable has, from very early times, received attention from many concerned in shipbuilding and navigation. Propositions and trials have been made from time to time, without as yet any very marked success attending any of them. ”

“ If we look at the magnitude of the operations of building, launching, engining, and completing a modern passenger ship of the first rank, and regard the multiplicity of the arrangements and beauty of finish now expected, and then think this structure has to brave the elements, make regular passages, convey thousands of human souls, and tens of thousands of tons of merchandise every year across the ocean, in storm or calm, we cannot but feel that they are occupied in useful human labour. ”

“ They fully recognized the importance of the home ship-building industry, and did everything possible to encourage it, but they also perceived that ship-owning is of vastly more importance to a nation than shipbuilding, and that fleets of ships are not commerce but only the instruments with which commerce performs its work; likewise, that the nation owning the best and cheapest ships, no matter where or by whom built, must and will, other things being equal, do not only most of its own carrying trade, but also a considerable portion of that of other nations. ”

“ The intention is that it shall be capable of turning out every description of vessel up to the largest iron-clad, and the construction of war vessels of all kinds will be made a speciality, seeing that the Company can send them to sea completely armed and equipped ready for service. Looking to the magnitude of the establishment, it can be regarded as nothing less than an arsenal, which in time of war would be invaluable to the country. ”

“ Through the recent improvements, these berths are capable of receiving vessels of dimensions and tonnage such as the present race for big ships has not even approached. The arrangement permits of eight vessels being built of lengths ranging gradually from a maximum of 750 feet downwards. Besides these principal berths, there are spaces near the south end of the yard, where light-draught paddle-steamers and the smaller class of screw vessels are constructed and launched, or taken to pieces and shipped abroad. ”

“ The urgent demands of our broader civilisation, improvements in navigation, the spread of population in new colonies and over wider continents, and, above all, the fresh accessions of experience and invention, are forces which now impel shipowners to increase the dimensions of their vessels, and shipbuilders to carry out the work. ”

“ Teak, at one time, like iron, objected to, as a material for shipbuilding, as it will not float, p. 84, note Telica, The, first steamer actually employed on the Pacific Coast, in 1825, p. 315 Thames, early traffic on, before the invention of steam-boats, chiefly by rowing-boats, barges, hogs, &c., p. 75 Tobin, Sir John, warmly takes up the cause of Ocean Steam Navigation, October 1838, p. 177 Tod and MacGregor, Messrs., of Glasgow, build the Princess Royal, for line between Glasgow and Liverpool, in 1840, p. ”

“ She was freighted with coal, and carried a crew of twenty hands, being indeed a ship of 1360 tons register. A vessel of that size, unless maimed by short fore and mizzen topgallant-masts, is sure to make a handsome picture on the water under full sail. The Americans rarely mutilate their ships, but, on the contrary, with sky-scrapers and moon sails, pile their canvas to the heavens, and, mixing plenty of cotton with their sail-cloth, carry a yacht-like whiteness aloft that will shine upon the horizon like a peak of ice brilliant with snow. ”

“ He can trace, for instance, the effects of the change from wood to iron, and from iron to steel, in the carrying capacity of ships, and he can note the effects of successive improvements in the propelling machinery in saving weight and space occupied by engines, boilers, and bunkers; and in conferring upon a ship of a given size the power of making longer voyages. Here, too, he can learn how it was that the American clipper supplanted the old English sailing merchantman, and how the screw iron ship, fitted with highly economical engines, has practically driven the clipper from the seas. ”

“ I beg to inform you that for some years I have been engaged in iron ship-building, and I am prepared to take a partner, active or otherwise. The business in which I am at present engaged is connected with an extensive graving dock, now in formation; attached to which will be marine engine and boiler works, so that we may be able to attend, not only to the lengthening and requisite repairs of the hulls, but be able to uphold and renovate their engines, boilers, &c. &c., a combination which is now specially demanded by the greatly increased employment of steam vessels. ”

“ Among the advantages which experience has proved iron and steel to possess over wood for the purposes of ship construction are: (1) the structure of the ship has less weight; (2) it has greater durability; (3) the requisite general and local strengths are much more easily obtained.
The importance of the first of these advantages can scarcely be overstated. The primary object of a particular ship is to carry cargo or passengers, or both, from place to place, at a given speed (in the case of a warship, the armament, ammunition, armour, &c., constitute the weight to be carried) ”

“ Course, Topsail, and Topgallant Sail of an Early Nineteenth-Century Ship.
After the end of the eighteenth century, the salutary practice of building ships under cover became general. Nowadays, of course, most ships are constructed in the open air. But in the time we are speaking of the ship—men built with wood and not steel. And when the weather was not allowed to get inside and rot the wood, it was found that the vessels lasted much longer than before. Furthermore, the method of uniting two pieces of timber together by “scarfing” was introduced. ”

“ No new ships have been built during the past twenty-five years, and the construction of these strong oak vessels, sheathed with greenheart or ironbark, is fast becoming a lost art in these days of steel and iron ships. ”

“ So, suddenly, one of the sleepiest little towns in New England, Groton, opposite New London, was turned into a ship-building port. The two great Northern Pacific ships will be launched about the time this book is published, but the yard by that time will have become a permanent addition to the ship-building enterprises of the United States. So, too, all along the Atlantic coast, we find ancient shipyards where, in the very earliest colonial days, wooden vessels were built, adapting themselves to the construction of the new steel steamships. ”

“ Few steamers of less than five or six hundred tons make voyages across the Atlantic, for instance. Time was, and not so long ago, when a five-hundred-ton clipper sailed halfway round the world, but steam and steel have made deep-sea cargo ships much larger than they were, and the smaller fry are kept in the coasting trades or busy themselves in the Mediterranean or other more or less landlocked waters. These “coasters” seem to be as diverse in design as naval architects are capable of producing. ”

“ Is it possible to build a ship of the kind he requires? Quite so; and the ship-builder knows he can accomplish it by swelling out the vessel at the bows, and bellying her out at the sides, and broadening her at the stern, and altogether making her of such a ridiculous shape, that she will move slowly, and become the grave of many a hapless mariner. The ship-builder not only knows that this can be done ”

“ Build his ships as he may, man them as he will, map out the ocean highways never so precisely, and mark as he may with flaring beacons each danger point, yet in some moment of wrath the winds and the waves will rise unconquerable and sweep all the barriers, and all the edifices erected by man out of their path. To-day all civilized governments join in devices and expedients for the protection and safeguard of the mariner. Steel vessels are made unsinkable with water-tight compartments, and officially marked with a Plimsoll load line beneath which they must not be submerged. ”

“ For all of this giant mechanism is to perform just one thing—and that is to whirl and whirl and whirl an insignificant-looking steel rod, which is called a shaft, and at the end of which, in the sea behind the ship, is the screw—a thing so small that one stands in148 amazement, half doubting that this is the instrument which sends a ten-thousand-ton ship and ten thousand tons of cargo through the sea at twelve miles an hour!
After this first day of exploration, the real joyous life of the ship comes to one. Every hour of every day is one of pleasure. ”

“ And yet in my time the royal yards of an average profitable ship were a good way up above her decks.
No doubt a fair amount of climbing up iron ladders can be achieved by an active man in a ship’s engine-room, but I remember moments when even to my supple limbs and pride of nimbleness the sailing-ship’s machinery seemed to reach up to the very stars. ”

“ In all the modern French ships, as well as in the Admiral class, a light steel superstructure of considerable height is built above the level of the belt-deck; the living quarters of the crew and the stations of the auxiliary armament are contained within this light erection, which also surrounds the armored communications from the barbette towers to the magazines. In this manner a ship with a small height of armored freeboard is converted into a high-sided ship for all purposes of ordinary navigation, sea-worthiness, and habitability ”

“ For the present, however, I shall pass by the smaller ships, more important though they are, as a race, and describe, in some detail the marvellous ships that voyage between the English Channel on the East and New York on the West, for it is in this service that all the greatest ships are to be found.
Modern marine engineering is quite up to designing, constructing, and operating ships greater than any that now exist, but should much larger ships be built little would be gained. ”