The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1878-04-04
The Shaping of a Ship.

ICharles Barnard, in Harper's Magazine for April.
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 COM
mercia1 highways OF the world, she must
be built to sail in every sea; must be
ready to encounter the dangers of every
climate, hot monsoons of Indian seas or
the freezing storms of the North Attain
tic. If she is to visit our Southern ports
and rivers, she must be hat-bottomed
and of light draught, that she may
creep over the shallow bars in safety.
If she is to ascend swift and narrow riv-
ers, she must be short and light that she
may be turned about quickly. If she is
to visit the Gulf ports, she must be pro-
vided 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 furious
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 a
screw, quite another.
Having decided all this, having set
tied 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 of choice wood of exactly equal
thickness-say, from four to six inches
wide, and from yard to one and a 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 a 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 designer shapes a
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 a half
model is made, as the two sides of the
ship will be simply duplicates of the
model.
Every thing depends upon the skill OF
the designer. The ships speed, capacity
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 i'm
agination that can see the future ship in
the block of wood, the sure eye that car
draw the exquisite lines of bow and stern
the delicate hand that can realize these
lines of beauty, come not by observation
They are gifts.
The architect making plans of houses
and temples has comparatively an easy
task. The drawing gives clear idea o.
the appearance of the future building
and his work is perfectly plain and sim
pie. The marine architect must combine
science with beauty of form, or, rather
his science must be expressed in beau
tiful form. The model must be an exac
copy of the ship in little. He must b,
able to point out how deep the ship viii
sink in the water, how the bows will
part the water in front, how the dis
placed water may sweep past the side
= and under the stern. The model mus
show how deep the screw will be sub
merged, how far the ship may heel owe
under the influence of her sails or tn
: waves in safety, and how she will be up
borne from moment to moment on tn
ever-shifting waves. His art is the care
full adjustment of forces one against tn
other, the weight against the fotatio
or buoyancy, the resistance of the waite
J against the power of her screw and Ell
, gines, the force of the waves and win
9 against her own stability. The finishe
y model is full of grace and beauty; bu
!, it comes not from the mere blending c
T sweeping curves and swelling lines, bu
! from the balance of these forces. 1t
= beautiful because the repose of forces
+ equilibrium is always beautiful. Ce
o tainly, if the architect is called an artis
q the model-maker is fully his equal.