Yard (shipbuilding)

“ For the other half of the yard there is a large building 200 feet long, and of an average width of about 150 feet, which contains furnace, with bending blocks, &c., several heavy punching machines, planing machines, drilling and other machines; one portion about 80 feet by 60 feet being used as a fitting shop, containing powerful lathes, radial, and other drilling machines on the ground floor, and on the upper floor a lighter class of shaping, drilling, and other machines. ”

“ But in modern times the jackstays are made of wood or iron. However they are made, the sail is secured to the yard by them. You perceive that the yard is held to the fore-topmast by a band of iron over the mast, so that the cross-spar may slip easily up and down. The halyards are forward of the mast, and pass over a sheave in the head of a topmast. The yard is hoisted by men standing on the deck. The two ropes which run from the mast to the ends of the yard are the lifts by which one end may be raised and the other lowered, which is termed cock-billing the yard. ”

“ Until World War I, jobs connected with supply would remain more stable than those related to construction and repair. In the late 1880s and ’90s, managers found ways to transfer men in the latter trades to other divisions within the yard in order to keep their services on call. But in the early ’80s the yard could find virtually no work for men skilled in the craft of wooden shipbuilding—formerly the elite of the workforce. After Virginia and the other vessels had been turned into stacks of wood, those who had done the work were sent home. ”

“ There are numerous steam cranes of 10 tons and under on the quays for landing such portion of the material as comes by water, and also to lift articles on board the vessels fitting out.
The sawmills, joiners’ shops, mould loft, &c., are situated at the lower end of the yard, and the appliances for handling and converting timber are most complete. The wood-cutting machinery is very [176] extensive, and embraces most of the newest labour-saving machines. ”

“ The yard embraces the various shops and sheds usually pertaining to building operations in iron, such as iron-working sheds, smiths’ shop, joiners’ shop, upholsterers’ shop, bookmakers’ shop, &c., all well equipped with machine-tools and appliances, needful in producing vessels for the most important shipping companies. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To send down a royal yard—a topgallant yard—a topgallant mast. To house a topgallant mast. To send down a topmast. To rig in a jib boom.
To send down a Royal Yard.—If the sail is bent to the yard, furl it, making the gaskets fast to the tye. Cast off the sheets and clewlines, and make them fast to the jack. Be careful to unreeve the clewlines through the quarter-blocks. Cast off the parral-lashing. Overhaul the tye a little, and stop it to the yard, just outside of the quarter-block. If stopped too far out, the yard will not hoist high enough to get the lower lift off. ”

“ Her decks, encumbered with harbour gear and tackle, are given over to the rude hands of the longshoreman; a lumber yard for harbour refuse, a dumping ground for the ashes of the bustling dock tugs. On the hatch covers of her empty holds planks and stages are thrown aside, left as when the last of the cargo was dragged from her; hoist ropes, frayed and chafed to feather edges, swing from the yardarms; broken cargo slings lie rotting in a mess of grain refuse. The work is done. There is not a labourer's pay in her; the stevedores are gone ashore. ”

“ There can be seen the introduction of a yard to which the upper edge of the sail is laced, as to the ordinary gaff. No halyards are used, and the yard is lashed to the mast, and held at the proper angle to keep the sail flat by a rope fastening its lower extremity to the mast. The only objection to this rig is that the yard has a tendency to give and to permit the sail to bag. This rig is frequently seen on duck-boats. There is no method of reefing except dropping the yard, unless reef points are introduced. ”

“ The flying jib-boom should be rigged fully out before the fore topgallant mast is swayed on end.
To cross a Topgallant Yard.—Seize on the parral and quarter-blocks; reeve the yard-rope through the sheave-hole of the topgallant mast, make it fast to the slings of the yard, and stop it out to the upper end. Sway away, and when the upper yard-arm has reached the topmast-head, put on the upper lift and brace; sway away again, put on the lower lift and brace, cast off all the stops, settle the yard down square by lifts and braces, and pass the parral lashing. ”

“ The reef-cleats on the topsail-yards are beyond the lifts and braces.
YARD-ARM PIECE. An octagonal piece of timber supplied to replace a yard-arm if shot away. It is one-third the length of the main-yard.
YARD-ROPE. Is only used for temporary purposes; the most usual application of the term is that by which a yard is hoisted for crossing, or sent down. Also, rove for execution. The yard-rope of the lighter yards is the halliards, which, when the yard is crossed, is made into tie and halliards by a peculiar mode of toggling on the halliard purchase, as in the order, "Toggle the halliards!" ”

“ Occasionally 147 the engineers have allowed the ditch to swerve in graceful lines and to hug closely the firmer soil in the lower benches of the knolls, where the banks of red and yellow clay attain a height of ten or a dozen feet, crowned with oaks and elms or pleasant glades. A modest farm-house now and then appears upon such a shore, with the front yard running down to the water's edge.
The afternoon shadows are lengthening, and farmers' boys are leading their horses down to drink, after the day's labor in the fields. ”

“ The after yards are then braced up and belayed, the main sheet hauled aft, the spanker eased over to leeward, and the men from the braces stand by the head yards. ``Let go and haul!'' says the captain; the second mate lets go the weather fore braces, and the men haul in to leeward. The mate, on the forecastle, looks out for the head yards. ``Well the fore topsail yard!'' ``Top-gallant yard's well!'' ``Royal yard too much! Haul in to windward! ”

“ To avoid this waste of our resources it is proposed to add to our navy-yard here a dock within which our present vessels may be laid up dry and under cover from the sun. Under these circumstances experience proves that works of wood will remain scarcely at all affected by time. The great abundance of running water which this situation possesses, at heights far above the level of the tide, if employed as is practiced for lock navigation, furnishes the means for raising and laying up our vessels on a dry and sheltered bed. ”

“ Being unwilling to call up the watch who had been on deck all night, he roused out the carpenter, sailmaker, cook, and steward, and with their help we manned the fore yard, and, after nearly half an hour's struggle, mastered the sail, and got it well furled round the yard. The force of the wind had never been greater than at this moment. ”

“ To say that I saw fine boats and spars here, would be like a traveller remarking he saw a great many coals at Newcastle. All waste wood not used in the yard is given away every Saturday to any old woman who will come and take it; and no searching of people employed in the dockyard is ever thought of. The cattle employed in and for the dockyard have a most splendid airy stable, and are kept as neat and clean as if in a drawing-room. Materials are abundant; but naturally there is little bustle and activity when compared to that which exists in a British yard. ”

“ The reef-tackles of the topsails reeve up through blocks on the lower rigging, or futtock shrouds, down through the block on the yard, down the leech of the sail and through the block on the leech, and are made fast to the yard on their own parts, with a clinch, outside of everything. ”

“ The chief function of a dockyard is the building and maintaining of ships in efficiency. The constructive work is carried out under the care of the chief constructor of the yard, in accordance with plans sent down from the admiralty. The calculations for displacement, involving the draught of water forward and aft, have already been made, and, in order to ensure accuracy in the carrying out of the design, an admirable system has been devised for weighing everything that is built into the new ships or that goes on board ”

“ If you are to lie in port for a long time, cast off the pennant, stow the clew on the boom, snugly under the cloth, which will be stopped as before with rope-yarns.
To reef a Topsail.—Round in on the weather brace, ease off the halyards, and clew the yard down by the clewlines and reef-tackles. Brace the yard in nearly to the wind, and haul taut both braces. Haul out the reef-tackles, make fast, and haul taut the buntlines. Before going upon the yard, see that it is well down by the lifts. Let the best men go to the yard-arms, and the light hands remain in the slings. ”

“ Proceeding with the necessary repairs. Some thousand workmen, many of them convicts, are employed in this yard. They have in dock, receiving her copper, a heavy steam frigate constructed here, and another still larger on the stocks. Immense quantities of timber are in the docks, and though the water is salt it is not attacked by the worm, the ebb and flow of the tide preventing it. Timber which has been forty years in these docks is perfectly sound. Five of my seamen deserted yesterday—all foreigners, I am glad to say. ”

“ As soon as the men are off the yard, let go the reef-tackles, clewlines, buntlines, and topgallant sheets; man the halyards, let go the lee brace, slack off the weather one, and hoist away. When well up, trim the yard by the braces, and haul out the bowlines. A reefed sail should never be braced quite sharp up, and if there is a heavy sea and the vessel pitches badly, ease the braces a little, that the yard may play freely, and do not haul the leech too taut. ”

“ Yard by yard, with patient under-sea sweeping, all that waste of sand brought down by the Buffalo is being cleared away; yard by yard, two massive arms of solidest masonry are stretching themselves out beyond those cruel breakers: the river is being forced into so narrow a channel that the rush of the water must needs carry the sand far out to sea in future, and scatter it in soundings where it cannot accumulate into such a barrier as that which now exists. ”

“ When the wind is on the quarter, the fore-tack is brought to the cat-head, and, the main-tack being cast off, the weather-clue of the main-sail is hoisted up to the yard, and the yards are so disposed as to make an angle of twenty-two degrees with the keel. ”

“ A square yard of solid ground is worth miles of the pitching, turbulent stuff. Its inability to stand still for one second is the plague of it. To lie on deck when the sun shines, and swing up and down, while the waves run hither and thither and toss their white caps, is all well enough to lie in your narrow berth and roll from side to side all night long; to walk uphill to your state-room door, and, when you get there, find you have got to the bottom of the hill, and opening the door is like lifting up a trap-door in the floor ”

“ If you have a pretty stiff breeze, brace the topsail yard in about half a point more than the lower yard, and the topgallant yard half a point more than the topsail yard, and so on. If you have a strong breeze and a topping sea, and especially if reduced to short sail, brace in your lower yards a little, and the others proportionally. This will prevent the vessel going off bodily to leeward; and if she labors heavily, the play of the mast would otherwise carry away the braces and sheets, or spring the yards. ”

“ Captain Stowel tells us, sir, that the yards ought not to be braced in exactly alike; but that we ought to check the weather-braces, a little, as we go aloft, so that the top-sail yard should point a little less forward than the lower yard, and the topgallant than the top-sail. ”

“ Owing to the large amount of stores and repairs, etc., connected with the maintenance of a fleet of steam trawlers, most large owners maintain fairly elaborate premises in the neighbourhood of the fish dock. These premises generally consist of a net-making hall in which nets are made by women working with shuttles, a large bath of tar or tanning material below in which the net is soaked, also a wood yard and blacksmith’s shop, containing a steam hammer, a plumber’s shop, a boat-builder’s shop, a large store-room fitted with the necessary stores and spares. ”

“ The immediate cause of the trouble was the carrying away of the foretop-gallant-yard, due to rotten halyards, and braces and lifts, when we were scudding before a gale off Hatteras. The yard came down on the whirl, but when it hit the deck it hit like a pile-driver—a straight, perpendicular blow—directly over the partners that held the upper end of the stanchion to which that crazy elephant was moored. ”

“ I think we can manage it. We have two oars left besides the boat's yard; we will nail them along the side of the cabin, about a foot or more from it, and then we will cut some of the boat's sail, and nail the canvas from the side of the cabin to the oars, and that will make a sort of shelf which will hold our things. ”