Any new job seems complicated at first, and the building of a wooden steamship is no exception. A ship in process of construction, with all the scaffolding around it, looks exceptionally complicated, but it appears much simpler when one becomes acquainted with the names of the various parts. One of the most confusing things about shipbuilding to the new hand is the fact that so many new terms are used. I find I have used one already when I said "new hand." On a ship a man is referred to as a "hand." If an officer says, "All hands lay forward," he does not mean that all the men are to go and lie down. He means that all the men are to walk toward the front end of the ship.

A ship is built to float and propel itself through the water. If it were built square like a house it would make very little progress. Therefore, it is made long and narrow with the ends pointed. The front or forward end is called the how; the back or after end is called the stem, and the middle portion is called amidships. If you stand at the stern of the ship and walk forward, the side of the ship on your right is called the starboard side, and that on your left the port side. In walking from the after end of the ship to the bow you are going forward, and in walking from the bow to the stem you are going aft, but if you walk across the ship from side to side sailors say you are going athwart ships.

The various floors in a ship are known as decks. The space between the bottom of the ship and the lower floor or deck is called the hold, and is used for storing the cargo or freight which the ship is to carry. The spaces between the lower deck and the upper deck are called the tween-decks - an abbreviation of between decks - and are also used to store cargo. The holes in these decks, through which the cargo is loweted, are called hatches or hatchways. The walls or partitions which divide the inside of the ship into rooms or compartments are known as bulkheads. The boilers, engines and other machinery are always separated from the holds, where the cargo is stored, by bulkheads.


DESIGNS AND PLANS

The building of wooden ships varies in details according to the shape, just as in the building of houses. A flat-roofed house has its timbers cut differently from a peaked-roofed house, and ships vary in a similar manner. The design of a ship, as shown by its plans, governs in a great measure the method to be followed in its construction. We will take as an illustration the Ferris design of wooden steamship of 3500 tons D. W. C. (dead-weight capacity) of which so many are now in course of construction. These plans were first drawn by the naval architect, who figured out that after deducting the space which the propelling and other machinery would take, there would be room to stow inside of her holds 3500 tons of cargo. This is her tonnage, or D. W, C, as it is called. Her displacement, also expressed in tons, is something entirely different and means the weight of the water displaced by the ship. Since a cubic foot of salt water weighs about 65 pounds, the number of cubic feet of water the hull displaces multiplied by 65 and divided by 2240 gives the displacement in gross tons. This is the same as the weight of the ship stores and cargo and varies with every pound put aboard or taken off.

The measurements of each of the lines representing the shape of the ship, as it would be if sawed into layers from end to end horizontally and vertically, and also as it would be if sawed across at intervals along her length, are taken off and tabulated by the naval architect into what is called a table of offsets.


THE MOLD LOFT

With this set of measurements, the man who is called the loftsman or mold loftsman and who is going to lay down the ship, reproduces in full size the lines of the ship on a clean, smooth, board floor and fairs up, or corrects, any errors due to enlarging so small a drawing. The room where the plans are reproduced is called the mold loft, as it is here that the molds or patterns are made from which the shape of each piece of wood may be marked out on the timber from which it is to be cut. The molds are made of white pine, seasoned stock preferred, 5/8 or 3/4 inch thick. They were formerly made solid in wide boards called solid molds, but nowadays skeleton molds are made of narrow slats with cross braces, which give them strength and lightness so that they can be more easily handled and make them less likely to warp.

As the pieces of wood are needed at the ship the mold loftsman takes each mold and marks out the timber for the sawyers to cut. In marking or scribing the timbers, a race knife or scrieve knife is used. This knife has a narrow U-shaped blade that cuts out a groove about 1/8 inch wide. This cut-out line may be readily seen though the timber may have been marked out a week or more before it is used.


ERECTION ON THE WAYS

While the shape of the ship is being drawn out or laid down and the molds axe being picked up off the mold loft floor, other men are preparing the place on the water’s edge where the ship is to be built. In some places the ships are built parallel to the water’s edge and slid or launched sideways into the water. The advantage of this method is that the ship may be built level just as she is to float in the water, but the disadvantage is that it takes up a great deal of room along the valuable water front and is considered more dangerous. In most cases the ships are built stem foremost at right angles to the water's edge.


ARRANGEMENT OF KEEL BLOCKS

If the ground is sufficiently solid no foundation will be required other than
to bed down the cross timbers thwarts or caps on which the keel blocks are to be laid level with the top soil. If the ground is soft or if it has been recently filled, piles must be driven to support the weight of the ship under construction. The piles are sawed off to a carefully surveyed grade and are capped with cross timbers.


THE KEEL

The keel is the backbone of the ship and supports the frames as the backbone of a fish supports its ribs. As it is impossible to get a wood timber long enough to make a keel in one piece, several pieces are joined together lengthwise by scarfing or tapering the ends and lapping them and then fastening or riveting the two together. When all of the various pieces necessary to make the keel the proper length have been scarfed and carefully fitted they are hoisted or rolled on inclined timbers to the keel blocks. The surfaces of the scarfs are then painted and fitted together.

Scarfing timbers together is one of the most important processes in wooden shipbuilding and deserves detailed explanation. The length of the scarf is shown in the plans or specifications and is usually given to the workmen by the foreman who lays out the work. The foreman also tells the workmen the depth to make the pointed end or nib, as it is called, but if he does not, 23 per cent., or about one-fifth the depth of the timber, is a safe rule to cut to. Care must be taken not to run the saw out any deeper so as to make a weak spot where the timber may split when bent. The scarf is first marked out on the timber and is then sawed out on a band saw or circular saw. If neither is available h 5-foot or 6-foot cross-cut saw may be used and several saw cuts made and the chunks of wood spilt, chopped, or dubbed out with a broad axe.


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