St. Landry democrat., 1878-04-06
The Shaping of a Ship.

In preparing to build an iron vessel
it must be first decided what she is to do,
where she is to go, and how she is to be
moved The character of the coast a
ship is to visit determines her shape and
capacity. If she is always to keep in
deep waters, and to follow the great
commercial highways of the werld, she
must be built to sail in every sea must
be ready TO encounter the dangers OF
every climate, hot monsooDs of Indian
seas or the freezing storms of the north
Atlantic. If she is to visit our southern
ports and rivers, she must be fat-bot-
toned and of light draught, that she
may creep over the shallow bars in
safety. If she is to ascend swift and
narrow rivers, she must be provided
with ample means of ventilation and
shaded decks. If her way leads to
northern ports, she must be ready to
ride the tremendous seas and the furi-
GUS gales of the North Atlantic. If her
cargo is to be coal, she will assume one
shape; if cotton, quite another. If she is
to have paddles, she takes one form; if q
screw, quite another.
Having decided all this, having settled
upon her length, depth, width, and
capacity, and fixed the cost, the next
step is to make the model. A cabinet
maker carefully prepares number of
pieces o! choice wood of exactly equal
thickness, say, from four to six inches
wide, and from yard to one and half
yards long. At the same time he selects
an equal number of pieces of veneer of
the same size, choosing veneer of a
dark color or color contrasting with
the other wood. These boards are care
fully laid one over the other, with the
veneer between each, and the whole is
then glued together to make solid
block. Out of this block the desi gner
shapes model of one-half of the hull of
the ship. He gives this block the exact
shape the future ship is to assume when
seen from the side. Only half model
is made, as the two sides Of the ship will
be simply duplicates of the model.
Everything depends upon the skill of
the designer. The ships speed, capac-
ity, draught, and safety depend upon the
shape he gives this wooden model. Men
are not taught to make models; the good
designer is born, not made. The imagi-
nation that can see the future ship in the
block on wood, the sure eye that can
draw the exquisite lines of bow and
stern, the delicate hand that can realize
these lines Of beauty, come not by observ-
alton. They are gifts.
The architect making plans of houses
and temples has comparatively an easy
task. The drawing gives clear idea of
the appearance of the future building,
and his work is perfectly plain and sim.
pie. The marine architect must COM
bine science with beauty of form, or,
rather, his science must be expressed in
a beautiful form. The model must be
an exact copy of the ship in little. He
must be able to point out how deep the
ship will sink in the water, how the
bows will part the water in front,
how the displaced water may sweep past
the sides and under the stern. The model
must show how deep the screw will be
submerged, how far the ship may heel
over under the influence of her sails or
the waves in safety, and how she will be
upborne from moment to moment on the
shifting waves His art is the careful
adjustment of forces one against the
other, the weight against the fotation
or buoyancy, the resistance of the water
against the power of her screw and engines,
the force of the waves and wind against
her own stability. The finished model
is full of grace and beauty; but it comes
not from the mere blending of sweeping
curves and swelling lines, but from the
balance of these forces It is beautiful
because the repose of forces in equilibrium
is always beautiful. Certainly, if the
architect is called an artist, the model~
maker is fully his equal Charles
Barnard, in Harper's Magazine